Hi Guys…some of you may remember I posted a picture blogg on here for when I took a friend of mine, Stewart (DAF95XF), on a trip with me when I was working for Initial Washrooms. Anyway, on another agency, I’ve recently been working for Vitacress in Andover. So I decided to take some pictures of my days activities on the friday just gone…
…so, the day started with me walking into the transport office, I had a little chat with the TM Bob. Bob Looked at me and gave me a tray of muffins and asked me to give them to another lady in the office next door. He played a similar joke the day before so this time I knew how to handle it.
As I walked up to her I calmly said “Being a lady, I know you already have your own muffin…but here’s three more for you, courtesy of Bob”. She smiled at me and I went to see Bob again, where he then gave me some paper work and keys to the vehicle I was to drive. So with that I walked out into the yard and found my truck…
I thought to myself “Not bad, atleast it’s a manual!”. As I was doing my walk around the TM Bob dragged this girl out and shoved her beside me and walked off. Bless her…she was really embarrassed but we had a little chat. I told her to jump in the truck as I drove around to find my trailer. It was the first time she had been in a truck 
So anyway, once I found my trailer we had a little chat before she had to go and do some more work and I hitched up. Once I had done my final walk around check I went back into the office to get the rest of my paperwork. The young lady (23) came up to me again and after a little conversation we exchanged phone numbers.
With that I decided it was time to get out onto the road and get going. I had been told I was to go to Sainsbury’s RDC in Emerald Park, then to M&S Bristol, then back to Emerald park to pick up empty trays before returning back to Andover. So I climbed into the truck and off I went onto the open road, or not open road as it was…The first obstacle you come to when leaving Vitacress is this arch bridge…height wise It’s fine, but its on a sharp corner, although the picture doesn’t make it look that bad, it is!
On my first day working for Vitacress I met another artic coming through the other way…that was an experience! But it doesn’t stop there…once you pass the bridge you come onto a single track country road with some small passing places…
As you can see from the picture looking in the mirror, there’s not much room at all, and it’s the same on both sides! But nonetheless, as I had been doing it for 2 days already I was more than comfortable with it.
Eventually you get to the end of the single track lane and you get onto the Bsomethingorother Road before joining the A34. So up the A34 I went towards the M4, Whilst on my way to Junction 18 I passed the River Avon
Lovely I thought,“not long to go now”. Sooner rather than later I got to juntion 18 and started up the slip road to the roadabout
So, at the top of the roundabout I turned Right and then took the first left onto the B4465. For those that have driven that road before, It can be tight in places, but it’s good fun! Nearly had an accident on the way back, but I’ll tell all later 
Anyway, I followed my nose and kept the lovely ERF straight and true on the road, eventually it lead me through a village and over the M4 and onto the Emerald Park estate where I then drove toward the gate.
I got out and went to see the chaps in the security office and got handed some paper work and a lecture about the site. They then sent me on my way to the chilled goods in Dept. to find out what bay I was to go on. I parked up, got told a bay and then started a reverse onto the bay, next to a gleaming white Volvo, which would have looked good if it weren’t for the stupid looking ‘Bash bars’ on the front…
After being tipped in a fairly short time I then decided to make a move for the M&S Bristol site. Upon leaving, by accident, I went the wrong way down the M32, all because I was singing my arse off to my Ipod. But after a few minutes I turned around and headed back towards the M4/M5 junction.
Shortly after this picture I arrived at the M&S site. The security guys in the office, sensing I was a Bristol M&S virgin were really nice and helpful and even arranged for me to be tipped. The standard practice at that site is for you to tip yourself. So another revserse saw me parked on the bay…The bays in here are stupidly wide, which threw me off when I lined up just off of the line, only to find 5 foot between me and the next bay. but after a shunt I was in the middle with a couple of feet either side.
Once parked I walked into the warehouse to be greeted by the worst Health and Safety I’ve see for a long time. The walkways were storage areas for pallets and all sorts. But anyway, I got tipped and then it was back to Emerald Park to pick up some empty trays from K&N next door to Sains. Being a fresher to K&N I drove into the first yard I saw. I was told to go into the next yard by another driver, and so had to fanny about reversing inbetween his truck and some pallets. When I got into the correct yard I just drove straight into it.
I was warned it was tight and that I should have reversed into it but I had forgotten that bit I was told I’d need to turn around and then reverse down a ramp, avoiding more pallets, onto dock. So a blindside reverse between pallets and a another truck soon saw me turned around and reversed onto the correct dock…
I spent 55 minutes there and that was my break done and dusted. Went to the loo, washed my hands, grabbed some water and had some lunch/dinner in the cab. I then decided to make a move back for home, going back across the B4465. Now the near miss!! As I was driving along the road, my side of the road peeled left to make room for a right turn filter lane, but as the filter lane passed and I followed the road back to the right to rejoin the normal 2 lane section, a woman in a people carrier was coming the other way. All I heard, over my music, was a huge squeel. I looked in my mirror, only to see this woman had swerved to ‘avoid’ me and almost went head first into a bollard. She clearly needs to be a lot more spacially aware!! But I just laughed it off and carried on about my journey.
As I was coming back I got to watch the sunset, which was nice as it had been a glorious day. But the next challange was to navigate those single track country roads and bridge in the dark. For the purpose of the first picture I slowed down to a crawl just so the picture wasn’t blurry, but apart from that I usually navigate those tiny roads at 40mph, which is a challenge as it gets very bouncy at times.
As I approached the yard I got to see this lovely site of an old railway bridge with the sun setting inbetween it.
Once I got back to the yard I had to fill up for the next driver. As I was doing that I noticed Lucia, the young lady from earlier whose number I got, we had been texting throughout the day and she asked me if I wanted to meet her for coffee when I got back. Of course I agreed and we got talking as I was unhithcing and I showed her how to do it.
This, the final picture shows my truck unhitched and parked in front of the trailer…This was at roughly 2230, but the coffee lasted a further 2 hours It was a great end to a really crap week, in which my Girlfriend left me for another guy. After the coffee I had to drive to Caterham, near Croydon to do my weekend hobby of being a gliding instructor.
Anyway, I hope you’ve enjoyed the read, sorry if it was a bit long winded
