By: Blonde Two

It has been a while since we Blondes have had a truly ‘Blonde’ moment. We used to have them all of the time, indeed they were the reason that we choose our name. I hope we aren’t getting too old!

We had a couple on Exmoor during our recent Gold DofE trip, here is my favourite.

We had just left our team at their second campsite, and parked the bus near to a tap so that we could fill up the water-carriers, in preparation for the next (very hot) day. We completed the task in efficient manner and both got back into the bus, B1 in the driver seat, me next to her. I didn’t close my door straight away because of the heat.

Our minibus is very helpful and likes to give messages as often as possible. When B1 turned the key in the ignition a little panel lit up saying ‘Passenger Door Open’. I immediately got out of the bus (through the open door) and went to check the sliding, back door, which of course was tightly shut.

“It’s shut,” I said to B1, as I climbed back in (through the still open door) “Must be the windows again.”

By now she was laughing at me, “It’s your door that’s open.”

She was right, I closed it, the light went off and we collapsed into giggles.

I can explain! You see, my problem was the word ‘passenger’. To my mind the young people (and sometimes staff) in the back of the bus are the passengers and I am not. I have lots of important roles in the front seat. I watch B1’s ‘left’, I deliver sweets, I hold water bottles, I navigate, I control the music system and, according to the bus manual, I am the ‘reversing assistant’.

Definitely not a ‘passenger’!