Tuesday, August 28, 2007

I had 8 drops around Devon ending up in Cornwall and all to farms,they were roads that I did'nt know and every drop had a surprise,you could of got a check list of things that HGV don't need and crossed them off one by one - heres the list in drop order :

1. No access for HGV - CHECK
2. Low bridge,lower than marked in my bridge book - CHECK
3. Incorrect delivery address by 70 miles - CHECK
4. Customers wont accept delivery until after 09:00 - CHECK
5. No access for HGV , tip goods in village center - CHECK
6. A39 at a standstill due to tourist traffic - CHECK
7. Weight restriction surrounding drop in middle of nowhere - CHECK

I did'nt get stressed out once,the last one was a pig however,once I had managed to locate the farm and get passed the crumbling bridges I struggled to get out of the farmyard as the slurry was wet and slippy and my traction control kept kicking in.It was then off to Wales to pick up some steel from the docks.Surely nothing can go wrong now?........

FOUR AND A BLOODY HALF HOURS WAIT - no big drama I hear you say,well I opted to be paid a flat 40 hours and then get 8% of what ever the wagon earns,so if the wheels arnt turning Iam not earning.Typical.Not to worry it's swings and roundabouts but the thing I like best about it is that nobody can say I am just wasting time blah blah blah.My grandfather on my dads side used to be a Customs officer on the docks at Newport,so my Dad was interested in the fact that I was there.

Newquay after that,again I had never been down there,but my cloud of bad luck was still hovering over my head.I fell for the oldest trick in the book,I had to collect a frame from my drop after being unloaded.The drop took 3 odd hours as it involved a crane and a building site.That was'nt a problem,the problem came when I loaded the frame and drove off - phone goes and the office asks if I had also picked up the slings that go with the frame?Now clues to the question are 'IF' and 'SLINGS'.Nobody had mentioned slings only 'FRAME' .So it was a long trek back to Newquay to retreive the slings,bugger me they were still using them.The sneeky devils had tried to pull the wool over my eyes by giving me the old 'RIGHT DRIVER OFF YOU GO' as the frame was loaded.So all in all a wanky week

Guess what though as I had just come back from the Wales Safari,not one little bit of it got me down,and I am off the Ireland on Sunday and taking the laptop with me.So already things are getting better.

Its 'BACK TO SCHOOL' rip off parents time of year again,and yes we are skint in the extreme and yes the High School has introduced a whole new uniform and yes you can only buy it at Mikes Sports World - £80 pounds so far and thats without shoes and socks.Emily needed some some new gegs aswell so I may well have to sell my arse this week to make ends meet.Still its nice to come home to a mega DUPLO tower made by Rebecca.As with all her constructions it has taken all day,and she even covered it in a blanket for a grand unvieling when I got home.We also made some homemade PLAYDOH and Rebecca had loads of fun with it all.