Goodbye to the normals

Numa Numa Song

A classic

Why the dinosaurs became extinct

New Weather Predictor

I will proberbly get fired for this

Anyone know where they sell these

Bored Bored Bored

Its saturday morning and one of the first days for a long time that i am not busy doing something, now i have no idea what to do. House is sold, the trip organised, wifes gone out, Lukes still in bed and the dogs asleep. Canada isnt awake yet, ive had breakfast (sausage, bacon, bean and egg burrito), i dont even have any decorating to do, damn im bored.

Okay, im going to show you what the inside of a domestic water boiler looks like and why you should never drink out of the hot tap. There you can see my old boiler and in the top of it is a hole where the thermostat screws in. i got a camera and poked it thru the hole with the flash on. inside is lots of coils that heat the water but scale forms on these coils and as it builds up it peels away and falls to the bottom, thats what you can see in the top picture, disgusting eh?

okay i feel a little happier now we are all bored.

The black and magnolia dog

As you can see Gizmo decided to help with the painting again except this time it was 10 minutes before a viewing. Good news though, we had an offer on the house and accepted it so thats another job. More good news, they were cash buyers so we might be over there by July to start work in August. Treated myself to a laptop as we are selling the desk top and hopefully this is what i will be using for the blog as i travel round the States.

This week (a potted History)

Sunday - Doncaster Tesco and Bradford Princes

Monday - Doncaster Tesco and Bradford Princes

Tuesday - Didcot Tesco, Oxford CO-OP and Morissons Northampton

Wednesday - Morrisons Kettering and Morrisons Rushden

Thursday - Changeover at Hilton Park sevices then delivered to Bristol Asda

All in all not a bad week, i've got one more week to go and im off for three weeks. We fly out to Canada for 2 weeks on the 10th May and i can hardly wait.

Monday and a long shift again

Went into the transport office to get my paperwork and guess what, Doncaster and Bradford again, oh well here we go.....

Wasnt a bad shift as far as shifts go, had a nap on the way up and another nap just before Bradford, i feel quite refreshed today after my post lunch sleep yesterday. i got a few photo oportunities and one good one of a cravan which flipped over.

One of the other drivers had a blow out and he sent me a good pic of that too.

Sunday and a long shift

Did Tesco Doncaster and Princes Bradford today so it was another 14 hr day. Got back mid afternoon and i was dead on my feet. Phoned Jan before i left the depot so the lunch would be ready as i walked through the door. Jan did a great job, roast pork, cabbage, beans, roast potatoes, roast parsips, stuffing, mash potato, apple sauce and spicey gravy. Aperitif was Jaeger meister(straight from the freezer) and all washed down with a nice fruity Californian red. After lunch i lasted about half an hour then staggered (tired not drunk) off to bed and the next thing i knew it was time to get up for work, i need an easy shift today.

More decorating

Saturday we had 2 couples come and look at the house, its now Monday evening and no feed back, Im not happy with this estate agent at all, i can feel another stroppy fit coming on, ah well we will see what tomorrow brings, i will give them till Wednesday then i think i will have a little chat with them.

We got quite a bit of painting done today, Jan did the woodwork in the porch and i managed to recolour the kitchen and the rear lobby, at last we can see light at the end of the tunnel. I painted right up until 11 pm (notice no sleep for me today) then got showered and changed and its off to work, please let it be an easy shift tonight.

Don't push me

Woke up this morning ready and keen to decorate and it sort of went downhill from there, i checked the websites to see how the house sale was going on. Nothing had been updated so i blew my top at the estate agent who dug his heels in. Rather than arguing i went straight to the Office Of Fair Trading and the Ombudsman Of Estate Agents and got thier advice and told them of my plight. After following their advice and a couple of well worded emails later i recieved a very polite phone call from the estate agent who put everything right and agreed to my demands, i will just say one more thing on that matter.

"HeeeHaaa, the customer wins again"

I am an absolute nightmare when people cross me, i have never lost yet against a company, i never complain without a good reason but when i do i pull out all the stops.

A couple of months ago i broke a stepping machine that was 2 years old (its a long story involving about 6 replacements plus free shipping that i wont bore you with) but the result was spectacular even if i say so myself. It involved a very angry and embarrassed Director, a branch manager being fired and a company losing a major contract. Oh yes and i got my £97.95 refunded with a nice letter of appology.

I almost forgot, went to the Doctors this morning and this nice nurse stabbed me in the arm, i was a brave little soldier and i even got a plaster.

Crappy Crappy Crappy Day

Went into work this morning at the usual time (00:30) and felt lousy, i spent too much time decorating, i didnt get to bed till gone 10. Anyway i was really tired so i was hoping for a short run and early finish.

I was sent to Highbridge to collect from a factory, i was so fed up i didnt even look to see what i was carrying, got loaded in about 30 mins, signed off the paperwork and headed back to base, i was only gone about 3 hours so i was sent driving round Gloucester dropping off trucks for service and bringing back the ones that were good to go, what a boring shift. I got finished about 8 am but had to sit in the crew room till 10:30 coz they wouldnt let me go home until i had clocked up 10 hours.

Oh well im back home now and i got 2 1/2 days off, heehaaa more decorating, i cant wait to start swinging that paint brush again (not) ...........

Here is a couple of pics form our yard including one of a poorly tug (small shunting vehicle) hes got to go on the truck ambulance to go to the truck hospital (bottom pic) to make him all better again....... or we could just buy a new one!!!!!

Blind Date, old but great

Found a great song

The man and the shark

This is what happens when your son gets hold of your webcam.

Hope you like it.

Here's how to manoever in a side street

The biggest nut sack

Monday went to Asda Lutterworth, Lidl Lutterworth and Tesco Hinckley and came back via the nut-house, all in all a busy day, i took a few pics inside the the nut-house just for something to do. Pretty boring really unless you are a nutter but now you know what a giant nut sack looks like and also a nut packing line. I saw someone in there and i asked him what he was doing.
"Nuttin'" he replied. I think he must have been doing something though???

Tuesday went to Asda Europort (Wakefield) then over to Heron Foods in Hull. Heron Foods is in a side street and its a bit awlward to swing the trailer on to the bays, i had to wait ages in the queue to be unloaded so i knew i was not going to make it back to the depot. Looks like im sleeping in the cab tonight, i make it back to junction 2 of the M42 (Hopwood Services) and retire for the evening. Half past midnight and im good to go again so its a swift drive down the M5 and back into the yard.

Wednesday took my paperwork into the office and got sent back up the M5 again. My mission should i wish to accept it was to take an empty trailer up to Hilton Park Services which is just West of Birmingham and to rendevous with another agent (oops i mean driver) from our Trafford Park (Manchester) yard, swap trailers then come back to Gloucester, easy peasy.
Got there a little after 4 am, had a little wander round in case he was already there, he wasnt so i got back in the cab, switched on the night heater, climbed on the bunk and went to sleep.

2 hours later he turned up, we switched trailers and went our separate ways. I took the trailer back to Gloucester, backed it onto a bay and was told i could go home, what a result.

Well that was my week, how was yours. Yesterday our Police Criminal Records Checks came back and were totally clean ( its a good job too as i had paid £10 each for them, if they were dirty i would have sent them back) Thats all the paperwork sorted now, all we have to do is sell the house and we are ready to go. In the meantime we got our 2 week trip in May which we are all looking forward to and a load more decorating which we are not looking forward to.

First day back at work

Decoratings going well, house is being advertised and we had 2 viewings already, i wont be able to get so much done this week as im back to work. This morning i had the long run to Tesco Doncaster and collection from Princes in Bradford, it wasnt too bad, i was back in the yard for 13:45 and was tucking into Sunday lunch by 15:00.

I mentioned in earlier posts about the dollies we collect from Bradford, i managed to get a couple of pics so now you can see what im talking about. The yellow contraption in the background is an automatic loading system for pallets, all clever stuff but we dont have anything to do with it.

Gladstonbury on a cold shitty morning

Ive just figured out how to post movies on the blog so here we go, most of the movies i intend to post will be taken from my cell phone, on the ones where i am driving along i have wedged the phone in the windscreen with a pair of gloves and a screen cloth (ingenius eh?).

Anyway this was took around the middle of January when there was some serious roadworks going on in the town, i just wanted to show some of the type of roads we drive on and some of the conditions we put up with.

Tuesday night already................

The last two weeks have gone so fast, the house appeared on internet selling sites tonight and we got more painting and fixing done, the skip turned up this evening so thats a job for tomorrow morning, cars due in for MOT at 10:00 so we gonna be busy. Got another load of woodwork painted today but theres still loads to do, the afternoons work is going to be artexing i think. Right, 1/2 hour watching to tv and then bed, looking forward to tomorrow. No pics today so i thought i would throw a funny in, Happy Easter everyone.

I am the House Doctor ( I wish )

The story so far, two bits of damaged ceiling mended, 1 (unused ) bedroom completed and about 25% of the woodwork painted brilliant white and the landing and hallway almost done. We've got about a week and a half before people start coming to view ( hopefully ) Everybody is doing their bit, even Gizmo occaisionally rubs against the wet paint just to remind me that its not quite dry yet.

Jan bought him a prezzie the other day, a hoodie, it was a nightmare trying to get a pic of him, its the best i could do by bribing him with a packet of scratchings.

Oh well, back to the old grindstone i suppose

Holidays & Decorating

The week seems to be going so quick, its Wednesday already. My medical done, Gizmos had his rabies jab and hes now microchipped, looks like we should get the amount we want for the house which incidently will be going on the market at the end of the week. I hate decorating, i am looking forward to getting back to work. Thats because i work for 2 weeks then its off to Canada for 2 weeks.

Recieved an email from the Lethbridge education board yesterday and we have got a meeting aranged with them so we can get Lukes Schooling sorted out.

Immigration medical

Went for a medical this morning and everything was fine, the letter is being draughted up and I'll collect it later in the week, well thats one less job to do.

We are cleaning and decorating for the next two weeks and also we got 3 estate agents (realtors) coming round on Wednesday to value the house. Loads of painting and filling to do, think we'll rent a Rug Doctor at the end of the fortnight.

Gizmo starts his immigration process this afternoon, he's got a Rabies jab to come and also he's being microchipped, poor little mite, i'm sure he'll be okay though.

2 Weeks Off

Yesterday was my last day for 2 weeks. I delivered to ASDA and LIDL in Lutterworth which is near to Liecester then off to Thrapston in Northamptonshire to collect a load of spuds for Morrisons. Ive included a couple of pics of the Thrapston Depot, what a fantastic yard, tons of room to manoever. It would be nice if someone painted guide lines on the bays it makes it so much easier to reverse on and get the trailer straight. One safety feature which almost all depots use is the traffic light system, look at the pic from the front of my truck, notice it is sat on a bay and there is a light showing on the wall on the drivers side. Normally all these lights are on green but when a lumper goes on the back he/she switches it to red. The rule is simple, dont move on or off a bay when a red light is showing on your drivers side.

Took a quick pic down at Strensham Services, notice the caravans are multiplying!!!!!