A spring in the air

We are fast approaching the end of March and the weather is becoming steadily more clement. I've stopped bothering to take a scarf and my goose down coat is feeling a little too warm for comfort - when the sun is bearing down on me, I cook. Must be a bit like being stuck in a microwave.

The speed of the transitions between seasons here never ceases to amaze me. It's almost as though someone somewhere has decided that we've all had rather too much of winter and so it really ought to start heating up a bit. You could say spring arrives with a bang here.

I'm certainly not complaining though - at least whoever that weather controlling somebody is seems to be decisive, which is more than can be said for whoever is charged with the UK's seasonal change procedure.

Hi Tech buses?!

Yes, that's right, the humble buses here in Milan are becoming packed with technology. Some examples: there are the little cameras that the driver uses to ensure that the bus doors don't crush some OAP, then there is the digital dashboard that the driver stares at and the oversize LEDs which display the number and destination, not to mention the little green touch sensitive buttons which are supposed to let you open the bus doors and we must not forget the air conditioning and the announcements from bus control over the speaker system. The things also have special self-adjusting suspension for allowing wheelchair bound persons to get on and off. The list is almost endless.

Now, though, the buses have started talking to their passengers. Female voices (two different ones so far) announce the next stop, which also happens to be displayed on a nice LED display.

I am finding the announcements a little irritating, but I suppose I will get used to them after a while. However, if I were blind, I would be over the moon about this application of high-tech. Without such a system, it must be all but impossible for a blind person to know where a bus will stop without asking someone.

One of these fine days I shall hop on a bus and find that its driver has disappeared. It's only a matter of time.