Well, guess what? I failed. Again. 🙁 I had to get up at ungodly o’clock on my days holiday to get to the training place for 7am, and could not get to sleep last night through thinking about my test and worrying. I made a few mistakes on the way to the test centre, nothing major, but not what you want to be doing on the way to a test. When we pulled up at the centre an instructor from a different school shouted to my instructor to tell him some hot news, the content of which I missed by going to the loo. Then when another instructor from my place pulled in my instructor was straight up to him to tell him the gossip. Apparently someone called M*** B****** was there at the test centre. I wasn’t really paying attention as they discussed it amongst themselves, saying he was a menace, that they had no regard for him, that he was here now because they had got rid of him somewhere else, etc. Then some chap walked in and shouted my name, shook my hand and said he’d be examining me, pleased to meet me, his name was M*** B*****! Oh the delicious irony. How I laughed. So I set off thinking I was going to fail no matter what. I did my first exercise, a very simple manoeuvre, just a reverse into a coned area with the arse end snug at the simulated dock. To do this they have fitted a bulldog clip to one of the mudguards, you just line that up with a pre-selected spot on the pre-dock area and you know you are spot-on. I can do this every time. I was out in one truck on Saturday, a different one today, and the bulldog clip is in a different place! Lined it up spot-on, inches short. Failed (though I didn’t know it) on the first exercise, before I’d even got on the road for my test! If that had of been all I’d have failed on I would have been having very serious words with my trainers. A frank exchange of views, and possibly feet. However, I managed to fail on my own (de) merit. The valuable and unforgettable lesson I learnt today is traffic lights come in two kinds. Round red, orange, green, and round red and orange but arrowed green. This I was previously aware of, on some level. What I am fully horrifically conscious of now is the fact that if it is the latter, arrowed green, it means there is more than one set of lights in play. I was travelling along a road, he said take the next turn on the right, I indicated, changed lane, saw the light was green (arrow) and proceeded. He said "Stop! It’s a red light" I said "where?" Looking straight at a green light, and then he pointed out the other set of lights next to it, which were indeed on red! FAIL! […]
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Driving
This really is going to be a quick one, 6-2 tomorrow. However, have to say after me getting all nervous in the interlude, my four hour session today was the most productive to date. I had the older chap, who’s company it appears to be, taking me. If only I’d have had him from the start! He was, until he retired from the game three years ago, a driving test examiner. So he was telling me what to do as a driver, why I’m doing it (such as having to brake down before a corner to accelerate through it, this transfers the weight of your load backwards onto the rear wheels and you drag it through the corner under control. As opposed to going in too fast, trying to brake, the weight shifting forward and pushing you across the road.) When you understand why you’re doing something you can apply it to every situation that needs it. You don’t have to guess when to apply rules. Also there are set drills for every situation, pull in to a stop, it’s mirrors, indicate, allow a count of five for following traffic to register and react, brake, stop, handbrake, neutral, (range selector) button down, cancel indicator. If you do that every time you can’t go wrong. You have come to a safe stop and you are in a start position. You can’t roll back because your handbrake is on, you can’t set off in the wrong gear as you are in neutral in low range (so you have to select the appropriate gear. If you don’t, you can easily forget and select ‘3rd’, but because you didn’t click the button down to the low range gear box, you are in fact trying to set off in 7th. Then you stall. And feel very foolish. And panic, and let the truck roll back as you are fighting with the gears. Only done it once, but it was on a test!) Also you have cancelled your indicator so can’t move off with the wrong signal. That was a long-winded way off demonstrating that if you have a procedure to follow you can drill it in so you can’t do it wrong. One less thing to fail on. Also being with him he showed me some basics, how do you check for air leaks? On the Q&A sheet it just says ‘check the gauges are reading the right pressure, audio warnings are off, walk around the vehicle and listen for obvious leaks.’ Fine as far as it goes, but he said ‘turn on your engine, watch the gauges are at 9 or 10 bars, then turn it off one click and check that the dials don’t drop when the engine isn’t charging them.’ That is what you need to know not just to pass a test, but to survive having a fault. If you have no air, you have no brakes. That could prove entertaining, briefly, on a hill descent with a full load. Anyway, […]
Continue readingFree at last, free at last…
Huzzah! I am free from the freezer! I have been permanently transferred to de-kit. There are, as always caveats and addendums. Every silver lining has a cloud, but I’m free from the freezer, my worst ever civvy job! Deep and sincere joy. The pea (s) under the twenty one mattresses, are that I was on 2-10, went in yesterday and the manager said I was supposed to be on 6-2 this week (so I had to double back -finish at 10pm, back in for 6am-) which has left me a tad tired. I’ll be off to bed as soon as I post this. Also he told me “and it was your day off yesterday” (which, inevitably, I’d just worked). This means I’m not off this weekend as I was on the freezer rota and have to work through to next Friday before I get a day off. Which has the knock-on effect that I won’t be able to take my TKD grading on Sunday, and that’s that for another three months. Ho hum. Niggly irritations. Still, I’m in an OK job, that I can do, without threat of disciplinary action leading to being sacked, and I’M OUT OF THE FREEZER! Oh, and it was my sinus’s. No longer done in with that. Happy Bucky!
Continue readingJust is
Hi again. Things are moving at break-neck speed. I said I was working in another department (De-kit) for a few days last week, and that I suspected the manager was sounding me out about a possible transfer over there. Well, I had one day back in the freezer (and remembered just how much I hate it), then half way through my shift yesterday the freezer manager told me he’d received an email from the de-kit manager, asking if I would like to transfer over there permanently! I immediately said "YES!" This prompted my manager to ask if I’d already been approached over it, as normally people would ask what their shifts were and such-like. I said it was the first I’d heard of it, but whatever the shifts "it’s better than this. Death’s better than this." He didn’t have any details, but he had already sent a return email asking for them, assuming I’d want to know before deciding. I’ve been off today, so hopefully tomorrow I’ll have all the details. The only ones that really concern me are how soon I can start, and at what time. There are a few things I’ll need to sort out, that I’m still on 2-10 (or day off) on the day I take my driving test (again) in the morning, and if at all possible that I’m still off this Sunday. Sah bum nim hasn’t contacted me, and I am working every club night this week so I’ll not see her, but I think it’s the Taekwondo grading this Sunday. I feel a bit cheeky asking to take it after letting the club down by not competing last Sunday. I’ll leave it until Friday, if she’s not contacted me, I suppose I should send an email. If she is going to be petty she can always ignore it until it’s too late. I might not even be off, if it’s an immediate start in de-kit, with a different rota. Also hanging on any potential new rota are repairs to the Micra. I thought it was going to fail it’s MOT, so have been refraining from spending any money on it until I knew how much it would cost to set right. I put it through today, and really the main damage is a ton of welding on the front cross member. There were big lumps of rust flaking away in my hand when I got round to changing the bumper, that’s when I thought it would fail. Anyway, a brake pads, welding, a tyre and two new gaiters, and two bulbs. They quoted me £200 for the lot. They didn’t pick up on a knocking sound at full lock on the steering, but when I questioned them they said it was probably the CV joints (the things the gaiters would have been protecting if they weren’t split). Possibly another £90, with labour. It looks like I’m stuck with the mighty Micra for another year. I’m not going to get a reliable car […]
Continue readingBreaking News
Just a quick update on breaking news; I have been in a different department for the last two days at work, it’s graft and apparently everyone hates it over there, but compared to the freezer, I love it! The manager there told me what a good job I was doing, so I replied "gizza job!". Then today he was questioning me on whether I liked it, what shifts I worked, whether I liked it in the freezer. ( To prove that every cloud has a silver lining, I was able to convince him of my loathing for the freezer using that nasty incident last week as an example. He asked whether I liked it on that department, I said "it’s better than the freezer. Last week at Tae Kwon Do I was kicked in the bollocks twice in three minutes, and that was better than the freezer!") Anyway I think he was sounding me out for a possible transfer. It’s boring, hard work, but so much better than the freezer. The other potentially good news is that I have found out that Eddie Stobbarts will take you on if you have a class 2 HGV license (old money. Rigid big truck, the license for which I’m currently trying) and train you to class 1 (articulated) and give you a job upon passing your test. You have to stay with them for at least a year, but on the face of it that would seem ideal. Paid to train for a whole week, further training afterwards, and a driving job (the majority of the HGV jobs I’ve seen advertised demand a minimum of experience). I’m not sure what the catch is yet, whether it’s poor wages or what, but it’s definitely worth looking into (assuming I ever pass this current license!). Oh, and I may be on my way out. I seem to have contracted a potentially terminal dose of man-flu! Poor Bucky! *Sniffs disconsolately*
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