The driver on the bus says...

'A-up, me Duck.' That one I'm sure going to miss. As you, my cultured following, probably know, people from the Nottinghamshire and nearby area like to refer to each other as 'Duck', or 'Ducky'. Bus drivers most notoriously so, but maybe that's just because the majority of their speech every day is made up of greetings or goodbyes. Anyhow, there is one Number 4 Notts-to-Derby bus driver in particular who is always enjoying a morning cigarette at the stop just in front of my office, just when I walk by it in the morning. In about his mid- to late-fifties, wearing sunglasses and having combed, wavy 50's- dad style hair, he is just such a character in my everyday walking to work life. I'm always greeted with a 'Good mornin, me Duck.' I return it, and then there's usually a comment about the weather as I walk on by, and that's that. But its just one of those nice, familiar anytown English Midlands things. Always makes me smile.