The bus took a ludicrous route. Even though most of the passengers wanted to get off at Princes Street, they were forced to endure an hour’s diversion to Heriot-Watt University first. This was because the bus did not have an official stop when heading west along the main street of Scotland’s capital city.

The more rebellious passengers were not going to put up with this. Instead they leapt out of the bus when it was stationery at the traffic lights outside St John’s church. TPR and I were amongst this group. However, it was a difficult manoeuvre, and everyone who escaped accidentally ended up taking part of the bus with them.  We threw these bits of metal over the railings into Princes Street garden, hoping that our crime would not be captured on CCTV.

Once free of Lothian buses, TPR and I headed home with our new companions: a pair of small, young but house-trained, border collies.