The Curse of the Smoke

I had the worst day today.
I left London a t 5.40 pm and I just got to Toddington a minute ago. I woke up and went to Asda to buy some supplies because I knew Id be on red routes all day,
Got to my first drop at 8am ,

It was inside a really tricky to get to arcade. I had to call them because the gate was locked but when I went to speak my voice wouldn't work I have been struggling all week and today it just packed in all together !! I had no pain or anything,it just came out as a whoosh of air but no sound.The girl on the phone must of been terrified !!! , I barked in to the phone "Delivery" and "round the back" a few times at her, she must of got the message because she eventually came to the gate but she didn't look too eager to open it.
They had to go up here


That set the tone of the day , things got worse , but Ill be back in my own bed at least , Ive got 2 hours driving left for a ten hour day and I'm at one and a half hours away at most.
I'm back to finish my post with pictures .


After learning I had no voice I set off to Hemel Hempstead hoping it was easy to find because all the drops we do for this customer are hard to find shopping centres and pedestrianised areas , they are all in service yards mainly built to accommodate humans and sprinters not humans driving 18 tonne Lorry's with no way of communicating.

I usually have to ring and tell them I'm outside but that wasn't going to work that way today.

Here is the door near the bins , the sat nav took me straight to the service yard, lucky me.
what you cant see is the massive flight of stairs behind the door where my pallets needed to be.


I was trying to tell the manager at the store I was going to take them up because that is the service this customer pays for but she couldn't understand me , she got a few of the shop staff to help and I was finished in good time. I managed a 15 break to help me in London where I was going to next.

The first part of my London adventure was Finchly , another of our special delivery's for our main customer.
I had trouble finding the address and when I came upon the shop I pulled over to look for a space to unload, yeah right, I had no chance I had been here before and had the same problem then as well.
I cant say to much yet but I think I saw a car move outside the shop when I pulled away, I'm not sure how it moved but it sort of wobbled!!

I rang the boss and explained .
Ill keep you posted.

My next drop was Camben high street and all went OK after I got into my loading bay.
It was on a red route so I was allowed 20 minute's to unload.
I finished in 28 minutes so not to bad

This is a picture of London for those of you who have never ventured down .


That's the good parts of London taken care of.
Now here are the bad parts .Traffic and building work


My drop in Kensington.
Two pallets to handball off the back of the truck.
A nightmare to get to with all the traffic and the weight limits and the small streets , it was on a main road, Queens gate, but with roadworks and traffic and all those tiny mews and places and gardens everywhere I couldn't turn around and get on route to my next drop in the City.


Tower 42 was looming and I was dreading it , just off thread needle street in an underground service yard

The truck took up most of the underground service area and I couldn't get it onto one of the bays.
The guard came out of his office and asked me where I was going.
I showed him the POD (proof of delivery) note and he laughed. 24th floor he said and pointed to the lift , "They shut the lift off at 5 mate" he said "and you wont fit those pallets in either, you will have to break them down and load it onto these trolleys"


Fair play to him though he helped me load up the trolleys and took the first two up himself because it was 4. 30 pm and we only had 30 minutes left.
I was looking forward to getting to the top and seeing the view , I had even taken my camera with me so I could post the pictures here.
Well the help isn't allowed into the viewing area , we are only allowed to sweat blood to drag their crap up to them in stinking, dark and cramped conditions.
God forbid we might want a tiny but of pleasure in our busy and long, hard day by admiring a view.
This is a shot I took through the open door, the service lift is behind me and the London skyline is behind the smoked glass but us low life's are not allowed through.
I was finished the delivery at 5.30 pm, just in time for the London Rush hour.

I tried to follow sat nav out to the A12 to get the M25 but I couldn't get a decent signal because of all the tower blocks. not knowing The Smoke like some people I took the turn toward the cenrte again and ended up on the Thames embankment heading toward Parliament.
I struggled through the traffic and, after getting sick and tired of the radio , people going on and on about trivial things or trying to make a whole story out of a slip of the tongue or a word uttered out of context,I plugged in the Ipod for a two hour Dub fest all the way "UP North" and finally got to Todington services by 7 pm where I had to take a 45 .
I was home by 10pm.
Day off today so lets see what tomorrow brings