You're Never Alone With A Biro: Street Line MA 120

This 'Ace Spotter' in the 90' certainly picked a good spot outside Victoria Station to catch all the frantic bus activity but what makes people want to spot numbers as an adult. When I did it as a youngster most of the pleasure came from the unknown, the mystery of it and getting a pleasant surprise or two on a good day like a prospector looking for rare gems or or panning for gold. When as a family we first started taking breaks in London, Victoria seemed to be it's heart for buses at least especially with the coach station nearby and I always ended up there. The buses going north went up Tottenham Court Road and passed where we stayed at The Ivanhoe on Gower Street heading south. To tell you how long ago it was only one route with Routemasters came past and that was the 29 with Wood Green RM400's and 600's I think.  I knew very little about the bus network yet armed with a Junior Red Rover and  ignorant of how far it might be just hopped on a bus heading back to a garage sometimes even as far away as South Croydon if I was lucky or just my luck to to Camberwell.  Despite my ignorance I was 'street-wise' enough to spot about 1500 of the 8300 buses in just five days. As it is today there have always been enthusiasts who know everything but in a way I'm slowly going back to my early days as an enthusiast for I'm not really that interested and when I take a bus photo of Arriva in St Helens I get a kind of satisfaction as I don't know how many buses they have there or if it is rare or about to be withdrawn. The fact that it is a bus is good enough for me and it's making the photo that counts. Indeed the fact that I chose to take minibuses too like this instead of the good stuff means I have things that others missed too so it isn't that stupid really.