Lorry Day

Out with the old and in with the new

2011-07-03T15:57:00.000+02:00

I have been driving under restrictions for a few months but only self imposed restrictions.

After getting into trouble about a post I put up I decided that the old adage silence is golden made perfect sense and so stopped taking pictures and having opinions. I actually stopped having opinions.
I was like a robot, going from A to B to C and sometimes as much as Z without even a thought about the people I met or the scenery I was driving through.
Then it dawned on me, I wasn't happy driving anymore.
I did it for the money.
Well the money doesn't matter as much as it used to anymore thanks to a brilliantly talented wife, so Ive took the plunge and stopped lorry driving.

I have a friend that collects cars and I have offered to help him when hes stuck so I'm sort of self employed again and my own boss.
Its already a great feeling and I cant wait for the weeks ahead looking after the kids and also keeping busy with the car collecting.

Ill miss Lorry's and I will drop back into driving them after the summer I'm sure but for now I'm happy doing this and that's what its all about eventually. Happiness.what I'm doing now
and where I'm blogging about it

A new year and a new start ?

2011-01-11T09:23:00.000+01:00

This blog had stalled lately,partly because of me letting the Job wear me down and partly because the places I were going to were not interesting enough to blog about.
This year I want to make the blog more than a photo album and also a place that's useful to drivers.
I've been trying to get some technology into the blog and report on thing that could help drivers do the job better.
Technology isn't easy to get your hands on unless you buy it yourself of course so thanks to Truck & Driver and my host RT.com for getting me some gadgets to report on. I'll post my reveiws from last year here in the next few days.

I'll still put up pictures and I'll not be able to resist having a moan and a rant but I'll also try and highlight a few issues and reveiw any technology I can get my hands on as well.

Another post from Lorryday.

Lost blog.

2010-11-25T09:32:00.000+01:00

After a few years writing this blog I'm finding it more and more difficult keeping up with it.

I still post pictures I take of things that interest me out on the road but less things interest me or excite me these day.

This was a ford escort Mexico and still had mud over the arches and was being used for rallying still.

Now you see him.

Now you don't. Unloading wag and drags.

Missed this sign the first time and couldn't find the bell.

The amazon gate looks busy.

So does the holding cage at Doncaster Amazon.

It's emptied out but I'm still not going anywhere.

Iconic livery on show

Halloween

2010-11-06T14:37:00.000+01:00

As it was Halloween on Sunday I put my pumpkin near the window to show my solidarity to the trick or treaters and to let them now that my household was partaking in the American custom of demanding money with menaces that has swept the UK in the last few years, but for some reason no one arrived.

I sat for the next few hours stuffing all the treats that my kids and wife had left out to tempt the tricksters away.

This left no time to write a blog about the past week .

You should know that it was much like the last week and the one before that, but with different scenery.

The people were very much the same and the people I work with lived up to expectations.

I did get one small crumb of comfort with Newcastle 5-1 thrashing of Sunderland.

I have been doing a regular run up to Washington and they were a very awkward bunch of lads at a particular site last Friday were the red and white was rather prevalent, but come Monday morning when I was back up at 8 am, the atmosphere had somewhat changed.

I did find a part of the south that I like though. It was full of orchards and the roads had names like Pipin lane and Breaburn drive Cox corner was a good one as well.

I wasn't delivering apples though i was delivering wood and although not always easy to find, you will always get a warm welcome of a joiner. They seem a cheery bunch, happy with the world and their surroundings.

A lorry drivers delight

2010-10-27T16:20:00.031+02:00

Night driving is a delightful experience.No traffic, no TM ringing every few minutes and a simple A -B route.

I had a great drive down from the lakes last week after a night out at the number one truckers choice truck stop on the M6 at Junction 38 . It wasn't as good as the write up in the magazine and I witnessed one if the strangest practices I have ever seen inb a cafe. As I was eating , I was glancing up at a TV in the corner of the room showing the weakest link when one of the waitress started putting chairs on the empty tables, right in front of mine and other diners view. It was a really strange situation because, being early evening and with the room filling up, it sent out a strange, unwelcome message, as if they didn't really want you there.

The food wasn't great either and at £6.99 just for a meal (drinks extra) a £2 discount voucher was very welcome. I chose a curry but they couldn't provide a full portion of rice and offered a 50/50 mix of rice and chips instead. The waitress made sure I wasn't getting more than I was allowed and actually shook a few chips off the scoop when she gathered up to much.

Anyway here's the pictures and sorry for taking so long between posts. Its been emotional !

These pictures were taken at the new BAE bullet factory in Washington, but don't worry , they only make the shell casings here, the explosives are added later.

As usual I was messed about by the security on site but I was eventually proved right. It was for your site and its OK no need to apologise!

After my day in the North East it was time to follow that Roman Emperor wall and travel over to Whitehaven.

OK , you don't get to see any of the wall but us trucks cant get near it.Sorry.

One thing that Cumbria is good for is wind farming, it doesn't look very pretty and I'm told it doesn't make that much electricity but apparently it shows that we care about the environment, so that's OK then !

This all lead to my night out at the Services mentioned at the top of the post.

Belgium on my day off !

2010-10-11T15:22:00.010+02:00

The TM rings on a wednesay morning and mummbles down my cheap nokia cab phone asking if I have a passport. Yes I answer back thinking back to last week when I had to give the passport number out to gain access to the US airforce base for a collection. Good came back the reply I'll get back to you.

The next call was from the office. " I'm making you up a Europe pack for your trip on Sunday" she said." and just checking you know the initial for Belgium on your digi tacho"
What! ? So i ring the TM back. Yeah, set off at six am straight over to Belgium. Collect two machines for walkers and back before your hours run out. Then bring your Load up to skelmerdale. Home Tuesday. Great. One day at home this week then and that's not nice.

I'm here in the bar, no it just happened to be the only place with a spare sofa honest. No Internet signal and no phone signal so i'm getting all creative and decided to start this weeks blog.

After picking up these machines I was straight back to the ferry and heading for home

All the better quality pictures.

These are taken at the Drop off point in Skelmersdale.

Open House at The Beeb.

2010-10-09T19:51:00.001+02:00

These are the pictures I have taken this week.

These are the wind turbines at Nissan in Sunderland.

Another Industry moving out of the North East. This low loader was taking cast moulds away.

A famous Leicester name. Walkers in Leicester.

On my way through London to a delivery at a BT building, just past Bow street magistrates, opposite the London Opera house

Getting out was trickier than getting in I went past Covent Garden and this theatre.

Not a very popular scheme this biker lending lark of bosis then?

Into BBC land and a sneak peak of Studio One with the doors open.

A mini renovation garage in Birmingham.

A fast approaching light machine on a foggy morning in Yorkshire M1.

Waiting for nothing !

2010-10-06T09:03:00.002+02:00

I don't have any pictures today, partly because there is very little worth photographing and partly because sometimes, you need words to sum up how you feel.

Being a driver we are used to
Being igored by knuckle draggers that struggle to string syllables together but today has really pushed me over the edge.

I was in a lovely warm bed at 5 am this morning when I dragged myself out of it and climbed into a lorry to deliver 5 plts of plumbing supplies to a major retailer. I arrived in Birmingham at 7 am, well in time for the listed 8.30 am time on the delivery note.

The gatehouse had signs plasterd all over it saying drivers dont leave your vehicles. Stay inside and wait for the forklift driver to direct you.

Well I waited, and waited and waited. I made calls to my office and was told to wait some more.
One brave driver attempted to leave the cab and was rounded on by jobsworths.
Stay in the cab they shouted.

9. 30 I rang the office for the 5 th time and told them that nothing was happening and no one had even approached me.
A few minutes later I was told by my office to pull out and head to my next delivery.

Two and a half hours that was complety wasted and probably cost my company a few hundred pounds by making me late for my next drop and missing a collection. That will probably be the same for every truck waiting with me.

My next drop was a famous printer maker where tankers of ink are worth more than fuel tankers.

I was now faced with a problem.
As big as this company is, it has no forklift available at this particular bay so my previous delivery was in the way of this one. I had to unload the 5 plts with my tailift before I could even get to the printers. More hassle and more wasted time all because of earlier.

After the printers were finally unloaded it was back to the plumbers and surprised to be unloaded straight away.

I had missed my next job so I was sent out to collect all the scraps around Leicester and that meant more morons with my life in their hands.

Boxes of shoes go on easily with a conveyor belt but seem to take an age to come of at the other end with a grunting lacky in the warehouse.

Surprise I didn't get to post this when I wrote it yesterday because I arrived home late after being made to wait for a load to Argos.

Well, i've got plenty of time to post it now while I wait at the aforementioned Argos to be unloaded. Just like the circle of life, the haulage waiting game goes around and around.

Another post from Lorryday.

A long break

2010-09-25T11:17:00.001+02:00

After so long writing this blog, from time to time I get fed up with the monotony of the places I visit and the people I meet.. There is only so many rude clerks or nasty forklift drivers to write about so I took a break from posting for a few weeks hoping to find my spark again. Well no spark but I did find an appetite to report what an awful industry I work in again. Long hours, terrible conditions and very little reward,unless you count £300-£400 a week a reward.So why do we do it? well quite frankly some do it because they are otherwise unemployable, bad hygiene, terrible people skills, very little literacy skills, but enough about the managers, this description could apply to some drivers as well.

I do it because I lost a small business a few years ago and had no qualifications and no working history except self employment which on most cv's counts for zero.
As the current drivers age, there is going to be a serious shortage of people stupid enough to want to drive a HGV's around UK roads with certificate's, licences plastic cards and legislation coming out of there ears but being treating like the proverbial by morons and jobsworths at every factory gate and supermarket RDC. I wish I had of done a lot better at school but at 42 I guess that's a regret to far now. OK Rant over now its time for the pictures.

I was being loaded in Ipswich for a run down to the NEC next door to this DVLA test center when we heard the car crash into the fence on the Bay parking exercises. FAIL. the pictures don't really do the poor students situation justice as it was a restricted view but we can all imagine how they must of felt.

These are the cars being driven by the warehouse staff in Suffolk these days.

Kew Gardens in London. I was expecting to see a lot of the gardens but only got as far as the service entrance.

This is the smart car dealership and Mercedes franchise on the M4, only a few that are allowed the tower displays that they have in Germany, The UK denied most of them Planning permission.

These are taken in Brighton, the new stadium , which isn't actually in Brighton !

This construction site is in Peacehaven and had holes being drilled hundreds of feet down.

As ever they always look better original.

This is a well known electrical supplier ,"trusting" their workforce by having them searched out in the open before they are allowed to take their break.

These were the slowest "Joy riders" I have ever seen, their ridiculous cars were so low that they couldn't even reach 20 mph in the mean streets of Nuneaton! they were passing a suspicious looking roll up back and forth at traffic lights as well.

The usual mess on the A 14. Two lanes means its a gamble taking this route if you want to get back in your allowed time each day but thousands of us have to take that gamble every day.

My favourite breakfast cereal lives in Manchester. Cool.

Random pictures from the iPhone

2010-09-13T17:44:00.000+02:00

It was once my most important possession. The first thing I put in my bag, and the last thing I looked at at night when I set my alarm but I haven't used it for uploading pictures for a while.

I'm
Talking about my iPhone

I've taken lots but the iPhone won't talk to my computer anymore. They've fallen out over certain protocols or something. It means that unless I email every picture to myself or write the blog on it, no one will get to see them. So here is the blog.

Energy food

The worst tip in Norwich

A lovely old foden in Kent

What's wrong in this picture ?

And here is another one of my characters

The kids made me my own truckfest

This was the sign post for a delivery in Wales

I just love these buses. Biggest regret was never buying one when I could.

Found this in our fuel yard yesterday I have no idea what it is.

I was in Kew gardens yesterday, looking forward to getting a good look at the place but all I saw was the service entrance.

This is a picture from a new iPhone game i'm playing were you throw a figure down the stairs. You score for multiple breaks. You can even add a face of your choice. I'm looking for pictures of George Osbourne as I type.

After a week away (someone in the cab will play !)

2010-09-03T21:15:00.000+02:00

I was met after my glorious week away, with a week full of long days, long runs and long waits.

My first day back was a nice long run to Norwich, Great Yarmouth and then Lowestoft before an afternoon collection that was going to have to be at the NEC in Birmingham before 8 am the next day.

I was supposed to leave at 5 am but seeing as some (un printable word inserted) had taken all my bedding and other possessions out of my regular truck, I was left searching around our yard for 40 minutes asking everyone in sight.
I eventually found my pillow and quilts under the sink in the drivers kitchen ! yeah that where they must keep them , silly me.

After the NEC was off I did the usual boring collections around the mids and finished at a sensible time for once. Next day was going to be a long one though and I was told to take my night gear. Good job I looked under the sink.

My first job was crossing the Dartford Bridge before it closed because of a lorry fire early on Thursday morning. I didn't make it. First long wait.

I eventually crossed the bridge and arrived in Kent in search of joiners workshops along the Kent coast and surrounding areas.

It was actually a really beautiful part of the country , a part I had never really thought about before. This sea wall actually reminded me of the sea wall in Pueto Banus in Marbella , minus the Astons and Ferrari's of course.

I was walking along this wall, taking these pictures and all I could was gunfire. slightly un nerving I know but I thought "Well I'm not that far from London" but then I saw a firing range and relaxed a little.

Stopping at the services on the way back up I found this unfortunate trucker explaining to his boss that it wasn't his fault and how was he supposed to know it was a coach bay? Well, it says "Coaches Only" on every bay and that's why we all walk a mile to and from the toilets!

I hate this truck but others might love it!

The pictures all stop now but I was still only half way through my day.

I had a collection in south London that looked like a lock up out of the bill. It was a container of Acid that needed the orange plates down. Reading the notes I noticed it was going to Israel, I thought they had started Peace talks >?.

I spent the night at a services on the other side of the Dartford Tunnel and was back in home territory by 6 am.

I was loaded and straight back to Milton Keynes for 8 .30 and then back again and up to Letchworth and an Asda drop for 3 pm..

I was still in Asda at 6pm and getting very close to a 15 hour day and being parked up for the night.

But the weekends gods shined down on me and out came the forklift, up came the glass screen and out came my gate pass along with a smile and a Have a good Weekend mate ! Cheers!

A place called Wales

2010-08-22T11:09:00.000+02:00

I was out early every day last week but escaped with only one night out which I spent parked up on the M5.
After a few days in Norfolk were I saw these American Strong box vans I was asked to deliver 5 pallets of cash registers.

The delivery notes looked like a foreign language and I found out that apparently there is a place in England called Wales. They have their own language and everything. Motorways, A roads , even MacDonald's.
One thing they don't have though is reception. Not when I got to where the sat nav said this delivery should be anyway. I looked everywhere for this strange address I had been given, asked locals (scary) and even drove up to higher ground to try and get a signal on the work phone, the iPhone and even the MDT unit in the cab but it was like I had left the planet. Nothing could get through. I would have to use my common sense and survive on my wits. (I was Doomed).

I arrived at this tractor graveyard and decided to try my luck with another local. As I approached their land my stomach knotted as I heard the ferocious barking of some wild thing they had roaming around behind the gate.

I wisely waited on the other side of the gate as I tried to explain that the address I was looking for was around here somewhere and that this was the postcode I had. I showed her the postcode and she snorted in disgust.

"Cheeky Buggers" she said "that's our postcode" We've been here over a 1000 years, how dare they steal it ? I wasn't aware of the postcode directory dated back to the doomsday book but I didn't think that now was the time to argue. "Tony" she shouted , "these people have been using our postcode" "Cheeky buggers" he shouted back

I decided to smile , nod my head and agree while they discussed a new building up a lane on the left that may be the post code thieves address.I said my thanks and left. Phew that was hard work.

This was the lane so I was looking for a new building, well one built in the last 1000 years anyway.

I found the place in the end and it was at the end of this lane, it was a hundred year old cottage. with a shed at the end of a turning circle the size of a farthing. Great.

I did eventually escape that place called Wales though and managed to get back where the phone reception works and took a few more pictures of things on the road.

It always amazes me the things people leave rotting in yards across the country, somebody should write a book about them !

Red's Yard A new story.

2010-08-17T20:08:00.000+02:00

This is a childrens story about Red and Speedy who work together at Reds Yard. I Hope you like it.

The New Adventure Park

Red started up his engine.

He was making an early start because, today was the day the equipment for the new Adventure Park was being collected.

The Village had decided to build an Adventure Park on the village green for the children of Saxondale and Red was collecting it.

Speedy was coming along as usual to load up.

Doug was going to bring a crane on his trailer to lift the large pieces into place and meet them at the village green later.

Over in the next yard, Lex and Reg had heard about Reds job and were determined to ruin it.

They had always wanted to work for the village and were jealous of all the trucks in Reds Yard.

Red and Speedy hadn’t been to this factory before and were planning a safe route that avoided low bridges and country lanes and didn’t notice Reg and Lex slip out of the yard next door and off down the road.

Speedy jumped up onto the back of Reds flat bed trailer and off they went.

It was a long way to the factory and Red and speedy had to stop on the way for a rest.

“Not long now Speedy” said Red “and we will soon have an adventure park to be proud off in Saxondale”

“I hope all the other trucks are ok in the yard without us Red” said speedy.

“I’m sure they will be fine Speedy” said Red. As he settled at a steady speed on the motorway and moved into the left lane.

When they arrived at the factory they were met by a huge pile of logs, swings, slides, chutes and other fun looking play equipment.

“Hop to it speedy” shouted Red with a blast of his horn,

“The sooner it’s on, the sooner were gone!”

Speedy started to load the trailer with all the equipment and soon they were ready to go.

“Let’s roll” said Red as Speedy hauled himself on to the trailer and settled down for a long earned rest as Red drove them safely back to Saxondale.

With Speedy sound asleep on the back it was a long slow drive back and Red was glad when he saw a sign saying Saxondale next left.

He took the left but the road began to get narrower and narrower and bumpier and bumpier and Red realised he had gone the wrong way.

How had that happened he thought? He had followed the signs perfectly.

Speedy woke with all the bumping and decided to go ahead and see where they were.

Speedy jumped down and set off up the bumpy road. He soon found a place in the road large enough for Red to turn around and he called for Red to come up to him slowly.

After a while they saw another sign for Saxondale, at last thought Red, who was feeling rather tired and was close to needing another rest.

Red turned off and thought he saw something familiar out of the corner of his eye as he turned right at the road sign.

The road he took was signposted, Saxondale, but straight ahead was a railway bridge that was much too low for Red, “However could this of happened”? He shouted as he came to a stop just in front of the low bridge.

“We checked our route and followed every sign, didn’t we Speedy?” fumed Red “somebody’s playing tricks on us and I think I know who it is”

Red thought back to when he took the turn and realised that what he thought he saw out of the corner of his eye was a tipper truck, hiding behind the sign post as they sped past.

“I think we have a couple of naughty tippers following us Speedy” said Red, “let’s give them a taste of their own medicine.”

“Great idea” said Speedy “but first we have to get you turned around, we’ll never fit under this bridge”

After a lot of to- ing and fro- ing, Red was eventually facing the other way and speedy raced ahead to see if he could find the two troublesome tippers.

He saw Reg first, trying to hide his rather ample self behind a rather small post, the post was a sign post that said Saxondale, but it was turned to point the wrong way. Speedy noted the right way and called Red down to meet him.

They set off again, but this time they went the opposite way to every sign they saw and soon caught up with the naughty tipper trucks.

By turning all the signs around, before Lex and Reg got to them, Red and Speedy managed to completely muddle the two naughty tipper trucks up and they went around and around in circles trying to get themselves back to Saxondale.

By now other the trucks’ in Reds Yard had become worried and misty had been sent out to find Red and Speedy.

“Hey” shouted misty as she caught sight of her friends, “We been looking for you two for ages”

“We had a couple of problems Misty” Speedy said “but we seem to have navigated our way around them.”

Red laughed as they set off to the Saxondale village green where Doug was waiting with a Crane and a worried looking Mayor Mo who welcomed them back home.

North East pictures and more

2010-08-11T20:24:00.002+02:00

This is London in the 21st Century, a stones throw away from the financial district.

I was here on Monday in a hire truck while mine was having her MOT. She passed with flying colours but the last two days in the replacement were terrible. Ive been spoilt having a sleeper because trying to get a few minutes shut eye in a 7.5 t Iveco day cab made me feel like I was strung up on a rack.

After Houndsditch I was required in Wembley for a delivery here, usually this place is total mayhem.The delivery drivers are law to themselves in their effort to get loaded at any cost, but I was pleasantly surprised. When I arrived, I was met by a security guard who directed me to a waiting forklift driver. He unloaded me,signed my paperwork and sent me on my way with a smile.

I hope this stadium is the start of a turnaround for the England team tonight.

This is a Taxi repair center in Wembley.

I was in the North East today, Nissan first for 8 am and then over to Middlesborough to deliver a load of valves to a manufacturer of oil rigs. As well as lots of wind farms ,they seem to love their steel bridges in this part of the world.

This is one of the biggest fork lift trucks I have ever seen and he made it look like hard work when he tried to turn it around.

As well as being slap bang in the middle of Middlesborough it was also in the docks as this ship testifies.

My last drop was over another bridge in Stockton and then I was back down theA1 and home in time the the football tonight. Some drivers would take the night out money but I'd rather be home, in my own bed any day.

I did have to take a 2nd 45 minute Tacho break though, right next to one of the Danger Girls, not to bad.

Carnival Time

2010-08-08T21:21:00.000+02:00

I was still missing the calm, relaxing atmoshpere of my holiday hotel while driving around Norfolk and Bournemouth last week and seeing the sea and the holiday makers all taking it easy while I was busy delivering tat, was really getting to me so I decided to do a little bit of truck spotting of my own.
But this wasn't just any old truck spotting, this was Lorryday truck spotting.

This is Carlsburgers , probably the best burger van in the world, according to Carl.

Looks like somone overcooked it heading up the All.

This is a crap picture of Salisbury Cathedral.

Now my truck spotting didn't start out to well. Maybe its not to every body's taste but I know a few people that will think this old girl is a beauty, abandoned in a tiny called called Blandford, I could of wept for her

Then I found a real beauty , waiting for me in a Morrison's time capsule, I mean RDC.

Then,the trucks just get coming.

Then when the buses got involved it all went down hill . Typically.

This was the fifth snowplough I had seen this day , and it was just off the M40 at the Cherwell services, newly rebuilt temporarily after a fire a few months ago.

My latest job was on Saturday , a carnival in Leicester. Four hours around the town centre at a snails pace and with crowds a medium sized dictator would of been proud off ( I suppose an even a taller dictator would of been proud as well.)

The Soca police were on top form and adding their own sort of crowd harassment.

Planes, trains and pizza boxes

2010-07-28T14:07:00.001+02:00

I've been away all week and seeing as I only saw one lorry the whole time I thought i'd post a quick message with a few iPhone pics of the last week.

These first pictures were taken on my flight home.
I was horrified to find out I was on Ryanair, booked through the travel company we used.
We were pleasantly surprised with the service because unless you pay extra there isn't any service.Just a seat on a plane.

Parked secretly away is a rather large peice of scrap.

I was sent out to collect a load from Manchester and quickly realised that the orange boards had to come down.

The office hadnt mentioned any hazardous goods but The 7 trem cards ( now called a dangerous good description notice) were a giveaway.

A worse job than lorry driving has to be dressing up as a pizza box and standing next to traffic lights. This was the third one I saw in Birmingham.

Tuesday morning and the office are up to their old tricks again.

This was found in the back of the truck after my last drop but not a scrap of paperwork for it.

It was meant for a freight forwarder.

My first job after getting back was a 7 am drop in Acrington. It's a 3 hour drive and I was looking forward to a 1 hour kip on the bay while they tipped me.

I was given bay 4 but a Dutch wag and drag was on it. Instead of getting off the bay, he was walking round the yard shouting "Golden Vagina ,Golden Vagina" over and over again at any one who came near him. Most people ran a mile or looked at him like he was mad but lucky me, he came over and gave me his life story only stopping to shout "

Golden Vagina" at passers by. It was only when he told me he buys his tobacco from Luxemburg to make a liitle coffee money and pulled a pouch out of his jacket that I realised he was trying to sell us all Golden Virginia !!

Newsweek

2010-07-17T07:35:00.000+02:00

My lorryday this week took me to a lot of the Newspapers.

The Guardian in Manchester and the Liverpool Echo were a few of the bigger ones.

In Liverpool huge presses were abandoned, gathering dust in a huge warehouse where all they do now is wash the vans.

I was delivering that crap that falls out onto the floor when you open them and then ends up straight in the bin.

Liverpool is a funny town, It looks great when you arrive at one end, but huge areas are being knocked down, Whole streets are in ruins.

I saw a fantastic car outside a shop, a true fan, Gerard’s face was on the other side, and maybe he’ll have to paint it white when they sell him to Real Madrid!

This trucker was in a rush, he went thundering past me pinning me in with the friendly tipper on my left as I was joining the M4

I’m having a lorryday away all this week and I’m leaving the IPhone and the lappy at home so Ill be back with some Spanish truck pics hopefully and maybe a new job If I’m lucky !

A Testing Week

2010-07-10T12:48:00.000+02:00

This week was testing for a few reasons, The heat in London was pretty bad when you spend a lot of the day just sitting in traffic.

It was also testing because I was testing a new sat nav, This isn't just any sat nav, Its a Snooper Truckmate S7000 satnav, The Daddy of all satnavs.I haven't come to a conclusion yet, I need a lot more testing.........

These pictures were taken in Portsmouth. Its where they make the Sea King helicopter, among others.

I don't know if this boat was so big for the Landrover but it was going very very slow.

Into London and the standard of the homeless is at last improving, they don't have homes still but they do have access to broadband and furniture.

Some classic cars.

This is one of the largest tourist attractions in London, Madame Tussuad's.

This character was sitting on a bench in St Albans next to a man with just an eye for a head.

This car was smoking, but in a bad way.

When things go wrong, they really go wrong.

This is a car palace somewhere in London.

Behind this red truck is a classic Tipper like the ones used in Hell drivers the movie but they bloke wouldn't let me take a closer picture.

These are the friendly signs meeting you at Grays Enterprise park.

Duxford Museum.

This Jet fighter looked lost.

This is just a taster of things to come soon.

Scorchio !

2010-07-03T15:15:00.002+02:00

Scorchio !

The blog has been playing up and not allowing me to enter my pictures in easily anymore so I'm having to cut and paste them in at weekends.

This makes the blogging a lot slower so apologies if any one follows these.

These are just pictures I took a few weeks ago in London and then in Suffolk on the way back home, It was heating up even back then.

This was week one in Wimbledon. I didn't see any stars but plenty of relaxed Londoners soaking up the sun.

I caught up with this Virgin Truck, He's not getting into trucking is he, will all his Lorry's have silly little goatees instead of girls names ?

The marmite truck was either being pulled or being stalked I don't which

This is a cut up Land rover making its last journey Id imagine

I wasn't in Cuba I was in London just around the corner from these squatters.

I wrote a blog about the bankers enjoying a cold beer on the grass outside a pub in the city last year here when the credit crunch first hit, well it looks like Cam and Clegg are having it back, these guys are taking it all up.

I imagine these guys have a view.

I always love looking at St Pancras.

This looked bent.

The hottest day of the year, but I had one of these. look out for my review in Truck & Driver soon.

On one of the hottest days of the year, you don't want to be in a Landfill site.

The Legend of Greystoke

2010-06-21T22:11:00.000+02:00

This is my 20th attempt to post this , I think its worked!

I was feeling pretty disillusioned by my job and "The Job" in general and after weeks and weeks and weeks of mundane delivery's, I was finally given something to get my teeth into.

After days and days without even looking at my camera, I used it until the battery died yesterday and it saw some wonderful and interesting things.

The cyclists have priority in the Lake district, have you seen the size of this cycle lane?

First to Greystoke, but I wasn't returning a lost boy, raised by apes deep in the jungle, No I was bringing drainage pipes to the owner of Barclow Hall, a magnificent looking building in its own right.

After my brief dip into Legend, I made my way to The lakes.

I have never seen such beauty through the windows of this truck. The mountains looked so bright and the water was just stunning. So flat and crisp , it was like watching HD.!

It was a little hazardous though because it was also teeming with civilians, obviously on their holidays and lots of them look like they have lost their skis and are walking around with just the poles.

It made my job a little harder because they have stand in the middle of the road,usually on a bend,in groups and just stare at the trucks, an innate grin on their faces as if we shouldn't be there.

The lakes delivery was a complex , made up of holiday cottages all scattered around Lake Windemere and I have to say it was magnificent.

The actual cottage I was delivering too was at the bottom of a tiny shingle track and the door of the cottage actually opened up onto the lake.

I was taking whole heating system down to it and had to travel very carefully.
When you looked through the building you could see the lake on the other side,lapping at the patio.
It reminded me of The boat house in Godfather, I didn't want to go swimming with the fishes like Frank so I set off to another part of the lake district,Heysham, near Morcambe.

I had collections and delivery to make still and I knew I wasn't going to get back home so I worked on getting to the M6 and finding somewhere to stop , as near to home as possible.

I thought Lymm would be good as I had an hour left after my lost drop in Preston but the office wanted me a little nearer.

I filled up at Knutsford and that's where the first annoyance of the day occurred and started to tinge,what had been a brilliant day.

I have a small fuel tank on the Iveco and it needs filling twice a day on a long run so I decided to nip in to the BP at knutsford.

There was a long queue as usual so I had to pull up behind what I thought was next in line, I waited and waited and no one in the three trucks in front appeared.

Ten minutes passed and with a long line of trucks behind me and the exit being blocked, patience was running thin.

I hadn't seen any one fill the trucks or even appear so when one moved along it was a great relief to pull up to a pump.
Disaster. the pump is a key fuels , so even though its a BP station , I cant use that particular pump with my card, out of all those pumps I drew the blank.

With my exit blocked by an army of irate truckers I was forced to squeeze back through and join another queue at another pump.

This pump had an empty lorry parked at it for over twenty minutes and it was obvious he was taking a break while he ate BP donuts and drank BP coffee.

I was finally parked at a pump and then had to join another queue, a human one this time, just to hand my fuel card in before I could even fill up.

The new garages are now coffee shops that also provide fuel, so while your trying pay for the fuel and get on your way, the cashier will ask the person in front, "Fancy a Coffee? and before you know it, they are stood at a cappuccino machine for another ten minutes asking them if they want chocolate sprinkles..

I had been to the garage and filled up ,but were still not finished, the office reckon I can make Sandbach services, a very poor services on the M6 just outside Stoke.

I made it with 3 minutes of driving time left and pulled onto my 25 foot by 10 foot of concrete and took out the digi card.

I went in to pay for the parking and was horrified to find out they wanted £25 with a £10 food voucher or £21 without a voucher.

I opted for the one with a voucher, thinking a free meal was a bargain.

How wrong could I have been, I would of rather of not eaten than experienced what Roadcheff had to offer that night.

First impressions of the restaurant were, it was closed because I couldn't see any food. They had nothing out on show in the front and didn't even have a picture of any items they offered.

My first two choices were not available and when I say choices I use the term very lightly, I didn't even want to order anything but the lady that sold me the coupon said It would run out tomorrow and I was leaving at 4 am and wouldn't have time for breakfast so I felt compelled to at least get my moneys worth.

I finally settled on bangers and mash and was told it would be ten minutes.

It actually took 15 minutes and when it arrived, it took me all my self control to not send it back.

It actually looked like a dogs dinner, the sausages were dry and split and shriveled at the ends and the mash looked grey and flat, the gravy was swirling around it like a river of grease that looked more like pollution than food and the actual portion size wouldn't of filled a child, if it had of been edible.
Add to this the fact that this meal should of cost £9.10 with the flat sprite that accompanied ,and its no wonder that nobody else was in there.

I have been to some great service stations and some great canteens, where the food on show looks and smells incredible and people queue up to buy it, I think Roadchef need a field of dreams mentality,

Build it and they will come. Well cook it and charge a fair price and the people will buy it, but don't even bother, and why should we?

These are some of my neighbours on the M6.

This is how I spent the night in the truck.

Another week on General Haulage (in World Cup Week)

2010-06-12T16:28:00.000+02:00

This job is varied in as much as the things you deliver, I took a Land rover, destined for Poland, to Hinkley in boxes and I took car parts to Newmarket this week, but apart from the items, this job is the same every day.

It might be different destinations and different loads but the monotony is the same.

Its not driving trucks that most truck drivers hate, that's a perk of the job for most of us, its dealing with the people at the other end that's the problem.

A boring advert and a hectic week in pictures

2010-06-08T20:15:00.012+02:00

I have included this picture purely for the fact that I think its a very valid and useful description of a furniture centre in the North West of England.

This is the joke job. 5 Pallets to London Bridge.

I usually pull them down the tailift and onto this dock.

This is both sides of the loading bay with the truck inside, there is no room to even open the sides and lift stuff out.

They usually come straight off and into this lift but as you can see, this one has been hurriedly re stacked to a very un professional standard.

The night loaders had been told to get them on at any cost and sadly , that cost was to be my day. I had to break down every pallet on top of this 5 tonne of wood flooring and then scramble around in the roof of the truck, unloading TVs and other audio equipment while a shop worker complained to his manager about the inconvenience.

The terrible pictures are taken with the iPhone, sorry about the quality.

This is a place we deliver to in Manchester, I wasn't impressed when he asked me to back down here with 5 pallets of Givenchy perfume on board for the cash and carry.

I was OK, although I did have to tailift it all off myself because, after arriving for work at 9 am and opening the delivery doors at 9.30, the bloke said he was going on his break until 10!! work that out !

this picture is a Drag Cortina, with its own parachute. I bet its bloody fast.

I wont pretend this post is brilliant, but I can only post what I see, you should see the out takes !

Ill try and find some good stuff for later in the week. I Have been in Newmarket today so you are guaranteed at least a horse and some jockey's.

Two new loves of my life

2010-06-02T20:52:00.002+02:00

After the death of my beloved Tom Tom ,I am faced with a new dilemma, what or who to replace her with.

I have tested the latest truck sat Navs for Truck & Driver lately and I thought I knew what I wanted but Since then I have had my head turned by a young pretender from the Tom Tom Family, but a younger , newer and dare I say it prettier model. The Tom Tom Go 540 HD no less.

I know the letters H and D when placed together like that infer amazing resolution and millions of high quality colours along with super clear sound but the letters H and D in Tom Tom land mean something else completely.

I didn't actually care about HD live on the Tom Tom until today so let me explain.

I was looking for the new Mrs Tom Tom on line and found my way into the GPS forums where I was looking into getting a Tom Tom Truck system sorted for an old Go720.

I found all the information I thought I needed and it eventually directed me to a link for an Argos eBay site that sells end of line stock for Argos.

It recommended a Go 540 HD live Brand new for £125 and I thought it was worth it so I clicked and bought.

I thought I'd then purchase the Truck software separately on an SD card.( I had reviewed for Truck & Driver and resented sending back) thus saving me the £450 price tag of the Tom Tom 7200.

I searched eBay and soon found truck software for sale but I also found lots of units for sale as well.

The standalone SD card is around £150, so when I found a Tom Tom 720, complete with unit and truck software for only £169, I thought Ill buy it, then use the Tom Tom truck in the both units, and after a long and vigorous road testing I'll keep the best one.

Sounds like a perfect plan, except that I have since found out that the Go 540 HD live only has a Micro SD slot and the Tom Tom Truck card wont even go in the slot!.

No problem you say, just keep the 720 and send the 540 HD Live back!,

Well that's another problem because 540HD live is also brilliant.

When I got back from work yesterday, the 540 HD live had arrived and I have spent 12 hours with it, we have taken in the country lanes of surrey and the congested motorways of the M1 and the M23, all handled with blissful ease. We have encountered traffic jams and overturned Lorry's and all have been avoided with the simple click of an indicator stalk.

The saying, forewarned is to be forearmed could of been written for the 540 live because it suddenly started talking to me as I entered the M1 and informed me that traffic ahead had worsened and suggested a faster route to my destination of Hemel Hempstead.

I had just turned the traffic reports up on 5 Live and it was saying a lorry had tipped over on the M1 between junction 6 and 8 and traffic was being stopped for about an hour, with the Go540 I didn't even see a brake light , never mind the tortuous stop start I usually have to endure on the M1.

It also has a Google search that gives you POI's , a weather report and fuel price guides, its all free for the next 3 months as well.

Whats more , I'm going to Manchester tomorrow and , Ive never said this before, I cant wait.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

The sat nav dies for good

2010-05-30T18:50:00.001+02:00

As the sat nav dies for the 100th time in the truck on Friday I have had to finally give in and admit its gone.

Ive been keeping it alive with regular bulletins from Tom Tom help and lots and lots of luck.

As soon as I approach a junction or a roundabout , the old boy seems to feel the need to reboot or just flash me a wink that it needs recharging and then drops out.

I have a small One, that's not an embarrassing admission on my part, it means I also have a Tom Tom One.
I carry it for emergency's because I have relied on Sat nav so heavily ever since I have driven lorries and it will be out on Tuesday morning.

The old Tom Tom will be offered up as a sacrifice to the vultures on eBay and then hopefully on Wednesday my new improved model will arrive and wel'l spend the next few weeks getting used to each other.

The last week has been very slow regarding work for our yard and even though I spent a few long days out, as a company we had on average ten units sitting idle every day last week and the week before last as well.

With the Con Dem alliance telling us how hard it is going to be for us poor working people and then paying their "boyfriends" mortgage off to the sum of £40,000 with our money, I don't see it getting any better any time soon either.

I had a long day on Friday starting with a 7 am in Tunbridge Wells and a simple collection just next to the Dartford crossing for 12 am.

Simple is not a word I should use in the haulage industry though because nothing is ever simple.

It should be simple, because all we are actually doing is picking things up and dropping things off, but simple, No.
I had a go to a freight haulage firm and collect 5 tonnes of wrapping paper, I turned up on time but the customer hadn't even paid for the goods so A two hour wait was in order.

I was eventua lly given a bay number between 1 and 5 ! , you pick the one you want and then wait around your back doors until a forkie finds you and decides to bring your goods, then you load your self and if your lucky , your free to go.

I was unlucky, because it took them four hours to sort out , what I was having , where it was going , and who was going to bring it to me. I was eventually presented with 8 pallets of cellophane wrap weighing 5 tonnes.

I tried to get it down the ramp and onto the truck without a mishap but it was pretty difficult stopping it running away down the loading dock.

I got it all on in the end and I finally left Dartford Industrial Park at around 4 pm.

I arrived back at the customer at 8 pm and I was itching for them to make just one tiny comment about the time, just one, about but thankfully they had been pre warned and it was there non payment that had slowed down the whole process in the first place.

Was it left or right ? both seemed impossible to pass but the builder was waiting at the end of one of these lanes.

This is what you call dining out!

Ive got a long weekend ahead of me and I plan on doing absolutely nothing.

Mount pleasant erupts

2010-05-21T20:07:00.005+02:00

Trucking is nothing like Marmite because you either hate or you really hate it and thats as good as it gets.

Ive had a pretty slow couple of weeks at work, and even though we have been busy, the work has been boring and the destinations nothing to write home about.

My camera has stayed in my bag, I haven't even fixed it to the windscreen lately.

My driving Mojo is on the wain again. The last time I lost it, I wrote this post here

Re reading that post has made me laugh because things haven't changed at all, I'm still moaning about the same things.

As I near the first anniversary of my new job and remember what it was like being made redundant a year ago this May I have become bored with general haulage.

I look enviously at the Hiabs, the tankers, the horse boxes and the Specialist vehicles on the motorway, all going about their, close to home work, while Im messing about a few hundred miles from home with more delivery's than Tesco and Asda on board and struggling to make impossible deadlines and deal with impossible people.

With fuel prices at an all time high and the roads constantly jammed up because of pointless looking roadworks I can find very little pleasure by being on the road.

My redundancy posts are here and here and here

If anyone wants anymore there is a pattern, they all follow after one another.

I went into Epson today and couldn't help getting excited about seeing George.

This was sitting were my tuck should of been the other day, I'm thinking of getting my licence and add a bit of variety to my day.

A clever advert reads "Just about the only thing we don't deliver at Andy Freight"

And the typical duel on the motorway with Mr Sainsbury speeding up every time anyone got close to overtaking him.

The title for today's post was Mount Pleasant Erupts so let me explain.

I have been in the West midlands for the past few weeks and have gotten used to navigating my way around their awful road network and was feeling pretty confident when I pulled into the road named "Mount Pleasant" as written on my french paperwork from Norbert's, possibly by an illiterate Frenchman in a rush, on a ferry, in a storm, in the dark.

I was met by a grinning middle aged man with a midlife crisis pony tail at the back of his otherwise bald and shiny head who was waving his arms around in , what I thought was a crude attempt to warn me that his car was in the way of my truck and to careful. I navigated this obstacle and carried on to my destination.

Oh! It was a dead end. The grinning fool had apparently been trying to warn me that it was not the entrance to the industrial estate but in fact a dead end, and that me and hundreds of other"fools" like me had made the same mistake on a daily basis.

As I slipped the truck into reverse and switched off the reverse beeper so as not to make matters worse for my enviroment ,I was met with what can only be described as a volley, nae, a torrent of vile abuse.

Not from grinning man, he was still grinning, but from Mad cow who seemed to live with him and had appeared out of the house like it was on fire.

She came running out from behind the truck, screaming and swearing and insisting I was going to hit her "effing car", she screamed that I was so close I wouldn't miss it. I tried to be calm and explain that due to turning the steering wheel I would in fact move away from the car and back out of the street without any damage, or even come close to her precious piece of tin, but she was beyond reason, She frothed, shook and carried on spouting bile as she jumped up and down and insisted I shouldn't be here.

"You've been told" she shouted , "your not allowed here! "
I was completely shocked and looked to grinning man for guidance, a fat lot of help he was as he continued grinning and looking sheepish , he actually, sheepishly grinned!

I showed grinning man the french paperwork and he acknowledged we were in Mount Pleasant and explained that it happened a lot, he showed me the Industrial estate I needed and I was preparing to move off again, when I saw the frothing freak on the phone.
She was ringing my boss and telling them I was hitting her car !.

I was furious at this maddening turn of events and was about to get out of the truck and argue my point when I noticed a twitch at the curtains and saw a neighbour peeking out and give me the crazy woman sign with his fingers and a smile.

I laughed with him and pressed my horn to say goodbye to my new crazy friend and laughed and laughed as I drove away papping the horn and watching her run up the street after me.

I got to the delivery and while I was out of the cab I had three missed calls from work.
They were checking to see if I was OK and to find out what had happened because a mad woman had rung up and insulted all the office girls and given the receptionist both barrels.

I was so annoyed that she thought she could do that sort of thing just because her rust bucket takes up a particular piece of concrete in that particular part of the country that it ruined my day.

Lets hope this week gets a bit better, but then again Im still in Birmingham.

Ground hog day

2010-05-18T22:21:00.000+02:00

Ten Asda's in one day was allways going to be challenging. I was taking world cup fridges to ten stores and they were proving pretty poular.

I eventually got them off, even though I was thrown a curve ball with a collection midway round.

First one off was Cambridge.

Then Ipswich.

Then another Ipswich.

Then ....................
another asda , they were all looking a bit samey after a while.

Colchester

And then another Colchester

This was chelmsford.

They were easy to find and surprisingly easy to tip at.

This is Basildon.

And another Basildon.

And finally Harlow.

A rare inside snap.

And then just to rub it in I spent most of the journey home behind this.

Truckfest Part two

2010-05-15T10:42:00.002+02:00

Ive been a bit slow putting these up I know but I had so many to post that it took a while getting the time to upload them.

Truckfest HQ for all Drivers.

These guys are based near my company In Lutterworth, but if you need them, you know your in trouble and your truck cant be fixed.

They also starred on a front cover, famous for a great little article about Iphones!

This was a mountain bike world champion, mid air on the Mercedes Stand.

Oops his wheel just fell off, what are the chances of that happening?

This was on display at the Clarion stand but strangely they didn't have any information on what it was or why it was there, neither did they have any copies of a particularly good review of there truck sat nav to encourage people to purchase the ones they had for sale on their stand.
Me thinks they missed a trick.

Cilla the gorilla made an impression on the whole crowd watching the stunt team riders, in fact they were so busy watching Cilla, they forgot to get excited by the young men jumping the three cars (yawn).

This engine is supposed to propel this super car to 1000 MPH!

Ill be back to normal next week assuming something exciting happens.

The One Ronnie and other pictures from Truckfest

2010-05-03T21:49:00.007+02:00

Truckfest was last week and I went along to deliver a "drivers" version of the event, but as most readers of Truck & Drivers "shobba" cartoon will agree , there are many , many forms a driver takes and mine is definitely not the truck curtain hanging,wheel polishing,light fixing and spend all your night out and overtime and days off polishing the boss truck driver!

That said I did enjoy looking at all those other drivers hard work and I was really impressed with all the fleet trucks.

The best fleet I saw was by far the Countrywide fleet.

The work on the trucks was stunning and when you think that some of them were over five or six years old and you couldn't find a spot of dirt, it is really incredible they have ever even been out on a road, let alone pulled anything behind them.

The most bizarre,but beautifully finished for me, was the One Ronnie , (until we found the other one around the back)

This is ICE Road Trucker Alex Debogorski , out of his comfort Zone in windy Peterborough.

These guys are paid by the Government to tell us how to save money, they do this by wasting money, mainly by giving away hats, water bottles , foam lorries and pens to drivers who have absolutely no say in how there company's work or are run.

Its all very admirable but they need to make more of an effort to contact the hauliers themselves and take the paperwork and packs with them like reps maybe.
I spoke to my General manager and showed him the pack they gave me, he had never seen anything like it. He is a member of the RTA and they had never had anything from Freight Best Practice.
If I was in charge Id be hitting the Yellow pages and the Internet.
The trade associations seem to be rather slow on the uptake of this service.

To the last part of this post and Ill leave you with the unfinished Truck & Driver, pimped project.

Will and his team have grand ideas for this project and it will look fantastic when its finished but with everything in Transport. It takes time.

Bit like this blog posting, unfinished !..................

Breathless in Stafford

2010-05-02T09:39:00.001+02:00

I have been a bit quiet this week because Ive been feeling rough.
After a visit to the emergency GP on Saturday it turns out Ive had bronchitis for a few weeks and that's whats been making me feel out of sorts and breathless.

That's the trouble with this sort of work pattern , there is no pattern. I couldn't get in to see a doctor until next Saturday and that was after ringing for an appointment last week.

As lorry drivers, we either have to take a holiday to seek medical help or else risk a day off for no pay. in the chance you might be seen at the surgery if you turn up on spec. Its the same with dentists, I used up my annual holiday last year, just having treatments.

Anyway the good news is that the antibiotics should get me up and about in time for my Truckfest visit on Monday.

I haven't posted this week as not a lot happened and I was to busy feeling sorry for myself to bother keeping track of where I went, but I did have a nice surprise when I was sent into Stan Robinson's of Stafford for a collection.

They have a shed set aside in the yard with a massive window on one side where some of their older and more interesting vehicles are kept.

And out in the yard around the back they keep some of their not so good vehicles.

I was on the M1 going back home on Friday when I saw that the opposite lane had stopped moving.

Somebody was obviously in trouble and It certainly makes you think when you see this sort of thing up close.

I hope that whoever needed this makes a fast recovery and I hope is will serve as a reminder for us all to take our time.

Ill see you from Truckfest with some great pictures and live tweeting as well. lorryday@twitter

Monday blues lasts all week.

2010-04-23T21:41:00.025+02:00

Monday and I'm not at my best.
My tooth has refused to settle down and to make matters worse I'm suffering terribly with hay fever.

I'm waking up at 4 and my eyes are streaming and I was having trouble breathing. I was thinking of blaming a volcano in Iceland, but that would be crazy wouldn't it?

Anyway I go to work and with the help of some antihistamine's, some locally sourced honey and some eye drops, I'm on my way to Bristol.

The first thing I see worth talking about was this old Route master.

A very rare and very expensive London Double Decker Bus.

Not so rare was this old road sweeper and this range rover. It always amazes me what people let rot on their land. There was an old Volvo next to these as well.

Cherwel services was closed last week because of a fire but opened up the next day to sell fuel and overpriced snacks again.

Another day and another runny eyes day. This time I'm local and just love this sign.

I found a Hino truck that wasn't a tipper.

Also love this lorry. It seems to make every one that passes it smile.

Tiny mistake I made on a delivery of Bic pens. They are meant to be thrown away, but not before they've been sold.

The lad was great though and helped me pick them all up and took them as they were.

This is an optical table and cost over £30000 ! It was sent to Coventry Uni and the only problem, was nobody knew who had ordered it. It also weighed 485 kg and was meant to be on the 4th floor. It eventually went into the stores until they could find someone to own up.

A brilliant first delivery to Basildon and then a nice two hour wait to head into west London soon paid me back by being the worst job I had done in months.

Right in the middle of Soho just next to this bar was an office on the first floor were 157 packs of real oak flooring was going.
There was also 50 packs of real oak flooring waiting on the first floor to be taken back home with me.

It was very hot and to make matters worse the customer was on his own and it took the two of us over three hours to get his stuff off and my return load on.
The pub opposite got busier and busier and the sun got hotter and hotter and I got more and more exhausted and the pile of wood didn't seem to get any smaller.

We got it off the truck, but it still had to get up the tiny stairs and into the first floor office.

Just as I was about to leave, London's finest decided I had been blocking the road for long enough and put a ticket on the truck.

As I drove down the road I wished I was part of the chattering , laughing crowds in the Soho streets and not driving a great lumbering truck down them.

I passed through Camden and up to the M1 without so much as a rest as the load was needed back in Leicester straight away.

Halifax this morning and a reptile center was the place I was dreading. It wasn't so bad in the end because I only had sand and shelving on board.

A massive fish and chip drive through in Leeds and another high value load in a RSPB bird sanctuary in Yorkshire. These boilers cost over £10,000 each and are used in most new builds nowadays.

I was passed by a trio of camper vans on the way back down the M1 but only managed to snap one of them.

These are some of the other pictures taken during the week.

I'm still feeling rough as but hope the rest, over the weekend will sort me out.
Here's to an easier week next week.

No wood, but plenty of organic bread !

2010-04-16T21:11:00.001+02:00

When I got back to the lorry I expected to find it stuffed to the roof with wood for Kent, but I was surprised , and releaved to find it had been replaced by organic bread and mushrooms for Manchester. It was an organic food store run as a cooperative.

When I got to the store there was a great smell coming from inside and being mid morning, it made me feel really hungary so I went in for a look.

I was amazed that in a shop as big as the average supermarket I couldn't find anything I even recognised , let alone faced eating.

I could smell the deli as it was seving hot food, but tofu wraps and squash soup wasn't doing it for me.

I saw a somosa that looked edible and decided to buy one.

When I bit into it, it was so hard I was worried that I'd crack my tooth again. It went straight back into it's bag.

Another thing that was very disconcerting was that all the staff and customers looked so ill. Pasty complexion, lank hair and really all rather grumpy looking.

I know I bang on about healthy eating but after this visit I had to rush into a fast food restuarant, just to cheer myself up a bit.

After the fun in Manchester I was to be found scavenging around the back of the fair looking for a roofers yard in Bolton.

And then after a boring run down to Oxford today , another visit to wood hell. Coventry and Leicester.

I took a 15 minute break on the motorway and noticed this run down building at Leicester.

The scariest moment of the day came when driving home in my car and this herd of cows came charging around the corner, straight at me, followed by farmers on qaud bikes. Weird end to a friday but it's not like a volcano has been spouting hot ash all over Europe and stopped air travel or anything has it.

Moooooooo!!!!!!!

The wood run

2010-04-14T19:00:00.001+02:00

I'm sitting here in my "Tatty Tosser Top" or Hi Viz to thehealth and safety sqaud, waiting for the loaders to get to me and load me up.

They have to unload my European cousin first though and it's taking ages.

Maybe it's because wood is a slow growing resource, I don't know, but all the wood yards I've visited are very relaxed.

They also seem to have customers in far flung corners of the forest, so why are they buying wood? Just cut some down.
We have movement.
But it's short lived and no sooner had they put a long plank on me they were gone.

We are getting there though, slowly. I've only been here for an hour.

Some far flung places.

These are the types of places you visit when on the wood run.

My day turned full circle when I was sent back to were I started to collect more wood for tommorrow. This time it's going to Kent.

This is my veiw

And still it keeps coming.

Some off my load didn't fit and had to be split between two other trucks but I bet it's already been shoved into my truck for the morning.

Let's see if I get round tommorrow.