Author: Buck

Fun weekend off, after a fashion. Actually, not so much fun. Fulfilling, maybe.   Last week at work was something of a nightmare. They closed the M6 in two places on one night, two different sections the next night, and it was just miserable. The main lesson I have learned is; whatever the circumstances *NEVER* divert through Stafford. It took me about two hours to get through the 8 or so miles of diversion one afternoon, and an hour and a half to get back then next day at gone midnight. It takes you straight through a poxy town centre, replete with traffic lights, single lane streets and road works. The first night I ran out of driving hours (maximum of ten driving hours a shift, three times a week. Normally your maximum is nine hours.) The second night I just scraped in at ten hours. As I say, you can only do that three times in a week, after that you have to just do nine hours, so I was a bit worried for the rest of the week. The godawful reverse is still godawful, but I’m getting the hang of it. I’ve noticed my reversing in our yard is improving vastly due to the practice I’m getting at Cowley. That was a 60+ hour week. The bum thing being the start time is 1400 so twice I finished at 0400, not in bed until 0530 then you start stirring when it gets light. Up at 1030 first day, can’t remember the second but it wasn’t great. By the end of the week I was shagged. I got in Friday, well, Saturday at about 0230 and thought I’d get my race pack and kit sorted for the Rivington half marathon at 1000, it was gone. I spent an hour or so going through all the draws, the bins, all the draws again, under the draws, in  my sports bags, through the draws, I woke Wendy (not pleased) and finally gave up. One of us must have thrown the envelope out.  When I say ‘one of us’ I mean ‘Wendy’. Not best chuffed. Possibly it will turn up in a month or two and we will laugh about it. Or not. Either way, no race on Saturday.   Last week I was feeling a bit off colour, possibly just psychosomatically as Wendy was ill as buggery, but I put off my training and cycling to work. That and the being shagged every day. The odd thing is; the more exercise you do the more you want to do, the less you do the less you want to do. So it was a struggle to put my trainers on Saturday and go for a run. I forced myself into it as I’d missed out on the half. I ran my flat 10 miles course, which it turns out was 10.24 miles. I was right the first time, my Map My Run app on my ‘phone said it was too short because […]

After my last entry, saying how I’d banged that reverse in without breaking a sweat, the rest of the week I made a meal of it. I couldn’t understand why it wasn’t working. On Friday I watched as another driver set to it. I was reversing the trailer down the middle of the road, swinging the arse end up to the posts and trying to wriggle it in from there. He drove from the far side of the road and swung the back as wide as possible. He was more or less lined up whilst still eight feet from the posts. Loads of room to straighten up and correct without worrying about hitting anything. I’ll try that tomorrow. I’ve got the directions in my head for both drops now. All I have to do is crack that reverse. When I’m confident about that I think I’ll be applying for a new job. I’ll be competent in all respects of the job then. I mean, I can get it done now, but I want to be able to bang it in first go, knowing that the side I can’t see is not going to hit anything. That’s still my biggest problem, having the confidence to back in at an angle. This is brilliant practise for that. I have warehouse lads to shout if I’m going to hit something. Ideal. That is the game plan, then; crack this reverse, apply for new job. I want one because the hours on this one are shite. I ended up finishing at 3am twice last week. That’s not good if you can’t sleep so well in the daytime. And there’s the problem with it being a ‘self-employed sub-contractor’ job. I’ve still not paid any taxes and have no idea where I stand. I fear next April is going to be horrific.   In other news Wendy has caught a vile bug. She was off sick on Friday, spent all yesterday throwing up and has moped about the place, ghastly ill, all day today. Now I think I’m coming down with it. This is far from ideal as it’s my trails half marathon (up the stupidly steep hills around Rivington) next Saturday. Bugger.   I am all kitted out for Winter cycling now but I’ll not be riding in until I feel better. Not even feeling properly bad yet, just weak and hot/cold. They had a special in Aldi on Thursday. All cycling gear. I got a shedload. I turned up at 8am, on a workday, (having got up especially after little sleep) and by 8.02 (when they finally opened the doors) there was a queue outside. I was caught out last time when Lidl had a special on. By the time I got there, two hours after opening, it was mostly all gone. This time I was prepared. My mate on Twitter tipped me off that it was coming in. Just look at the goodies! Winter cycling tights, waterproof jacket and trousers, socks, gloves, winter […]

Just a quick one. I had my first crack at my new run yesterday. I went to some hideous one horse town on Friday, end of the M65, Barnoldswick, Lancashire. Tight as buggery getting in, stupidly tight crossroads to turn down, scary tight bays. It seems that is going to be a regular feature on my new run. I didn’t do it yesterday, (Monday) but I heard them saying that I was to take returns there today. Ace. My truck driving instructor gave me a tip, he said if you see a railing on the pavement on the corner of a turn it’s a visual clue. It’s been put there to protect pedestrian. ie, it is so tight there is a good chance your trailer will mount the pavement. The crossroads going into Barnoldswick has railings on all four corners. And re-enforcing stumps before them. It is tight. You have to drive in to the oncoming lane, take all of it, and then swing in. That *just* gets you around the corner. To add to the fun there is a cop shop on one of the corners, so there’s no getting away with a hit. So that’s fun.   The run I was told I was doing, and that I did yesterday, was set off from Irlam, run down to Crewe, pick up a trailer and take it to Cowley, Oxfordshire, then come back. I was thinking it wasn’t going to last long as a job. I couldn’t understand why you would pay someone to start in Irlam, run down solo (without a trailer) to Crewe (an hour’s wages and diesel) before starting the run. Why not just get someone from Crewe to do it? If I have to take returns up to Barnoldswick first that makes sense.   My first run yesterday, then. I drove into Crewe, (I went there on Friday as well, so that was easy enough to find) and was told to shunt a trailer onto a bay as they were going to put my load onto a different trailer. OK, fair enough. I picked up the trailer, drove around to a bay and was just about to start to back on when I saw the main transport manager had come out to watch me. As it was my first run for him I thought he’d come out to assess me. The skill in artic driving is 95% in the reverse. No pressure then. I reversed it on in one, then took a little shunt to straighten it up a bit. Not too shabby. It turns out they have a H&S system in place there, whereby someone from the office has to physically unlock the bays when the trailer had been made safe. ie, when the driver’s keys have been handed in, or in this case, when I’d dropped it and pulled away from it. He wasn’t there to judge me. D’oh! That went about as well as can be expected. Which is to say; it […]

Strange things are afoot at the circle K, to quote the philosophers Bill and Ted. It had got to Friday morning and I thought I’d better start looking for other jobs. I rang one at Asda, early starts and good money but not ideal as the hours were “8 – 48” per week. If you got one shift  in a week you’d be broke, then there’s the hanging by the telephone… less than perfect but I rang anyway as they were desperate for drivers, shifts and times to suit you. No-one answered the ‘phone. *sigh*   Still not too arsed, loads of jobs about. One would take me on, however poor the pay and conditions. Some advertising “meets minimum wage.” Not exceeds, meets. For a class 1 driver. Cheeky bastards. I went in Friday for my last shift and the guy who was in charge of HDS (Home Delivery Service, not that that’s important) before they moved it to another site, (taking my job with them, bastards!) asked me if I was available next week. I said I was. Would I like to do a different run, starting in Irlam at 1400, pick up in Crewe, down to Kent, get tipped and reloaded, back to Crewe, trailer swap then back to Irlam. Shit hours, 1400 till probably 0100 –0200 ish, but it pays the bills. I said I’d do it. I asked if it was just for the week and he said, “No, it’s ongoing”. Hmmm.   In several respects this is fantastic news. I don’t have to worry about money, or dicking about with agencies calling day and night wanting you to start at an hour’s notice, and, most importantly, if I’m doing the same run each time I only have to find it once. They sent me to two different places on Friday. I really don’t like it. It’s the only way I’m going to learn, but it is nerve racking for me. One of the new places was Crewe, so I only have to find one place and I’m set up for as long as this contract lasts.   The down sides are not inconsiderable though; for one I’ll not see Wendy from Monday morning until Saturday morning. Sorry, apart from a few hours on Wednesday, her day off. If I’m cycling in and back I’ll need a shower before bed, noisy at that time in the morning with Wendy trying to sleep. It is not much fun for me, either. I’d much prefer an early start, early finish. Then there’s the training. I can’t do swimming lessons in the evening as I’ll be working them all.   Needs must.   There is a local swimming baths that opens at dinner time. If I re-join Warrington tri club (and actually attend this time) they run a Saturday swim with a qualified swimming instructor, perhaps he could train me. So I could get lessons at the weekend, apply stuff learned during the week. I’ve sussed a nice course for […]

I’ve got my passport back, all brand new and funky with a less serial-killer/-yak-molester photo’ in. Which is always a bonus if you want to try and get through customs without a cavity search. At the very least I expect flowers before that. The French is progressing. Slower now, but I am understanding it. Instead of giving you lists of words and all their different endings he’s explaining the logic behind the endings. Whilst building your vocabulary and giving you practice in structuring the sentences. Negations are tricky. Adding an N, flipping the order if it’s a question, changing the ending of the verb, and then working out where you are going to stick the ‘not’.  He says he’s teaching us how to use the verbs, “if you can use the verbs you can use the language.” Anyway, I do half a C.D.’s worth (about an hour and a half/ two hours) then my brain melts out of my ears and I have to call it a day. The next day I go back over the last half of what I did (quarter C.D.), understand it this time around, then do another quarter. This way each day is half revision/ consolidation, half challenging and moving forward. The speed of progression has slowed, but it’s solid learning. I’m not skimming and moving on without understanding. I’m halfway through C.D. 4. The whole of the Basic French course is 8 C.D.’s. I have to say, even though it’s only French, the first choice of UK second languages, I am quite thrilled about the thought of having another tongue. Hopefully German will come a bit easier after picking up one language. Who knows, maybe finally learn Russian properly?   All is going swimmingly, I’ve got my passport and am learning French, Wendy has sent off for her passport, I’ve sent off for that police criminal record thing… and that’s where we hit the wall. That was a formality. I’ve only got a driving offence and (apart from 3 points for speeding- that now stay on four years, grrrr- off next year) it is ‘spent’ and history. Not so. Apparently if you’ve had any brushes with law if you are applying for a foreign visa you HAVE to declare them. Ace. So I can’t waltz into the states and test my passport that way, I have to apply for a visa and go through an interview process. With Canada, they respect other country’s ‘spent/ clean slate’ policies but you still have to apply for a rehabilitation of offenders form and be judged. So stupid drunken 30’s me may have just shafted TT, upright-citizen me good and proper. Bollocks.   Not over till the fat trucker sings. I will apply for both visas and carry on with the plan. If it’s a ‘no’, …, well, karma’s a bitch.   I got my race results. Official time was 1:39.41 About what I thought. I broke the 1:40 barrier, which wasn’t a bad effort considering I ran […]