Hi guys, just sat indoors watchin the rain and wind pound against the window
wondering if the baby will arrive today? seems like years since i was last down spain,even though its only been a few weeks isnt it funny how when your not doing somthing the rose tinted glasses always appear!. One of my favourite reloads from spain was always ceramic tiles unfortunately i havent had that pleasure for a while now,i know a lot of drivers hate doing tile collections but ive never minded them.Was just wondering if the lads on the tile work are still about there was many of them who ive shared a beer or two with at the simba or upstairs downstairs, would be good to hear who’s doin what these days so if anyone has info on the following it would be nice to hear. There was george who lived in castellon had his own magnum doing collections for bradship (is he still running?), from bradships there was big dave,roger clifford and a guy called mick from stoke, a guy called dave from the west country i think, had a G cab merc with the name BANNERDOWN on the viser, willie evans from gloucester area (ex ralph davies), john from bristol who had a light green F12 volvo, kevin from JEG, and finally a lad called russell who was doing tiles for a spaniard with a magnum think he lived down there also. Any info would be great. 
Upstairs/Downstairs…is that at Nules…?
Hi Harry!
Yeh upstairs downstairs is at nules, havent been in there for ages always had to wait at the simba for my loading fax to arrive.
That was a blast from Memory Lane. I used to wait at Nules to load oranges for Austria…Lived like a king. Downstairs five course meal with wine & finish with brandy. Then Upstairs for Cuba Libra & a chat with old friends… 
Retired in UK now & hating it… ( Was it the 304 ? )
It was the N340 at nules, not sure if many brits still use it last time i was there was about a year ago, had loaded car wheel drums in salzgitter and got caught in snow on way down ended up doin 80km in 9 hours driving!! tipped load just outside teruel then got sent to castellon 2 reload.Sat at simba for 2 days waitin for fax to arrive so took a spin up to upstairs/downstairs to see if anyone was about 
but no one was about, just a couple of eastern blocks waitin for reloads.
I haven’t been down that way for a few years now. What with all the Eastern Bloc trucks down there now are there many good truckstops gone out of business…?
But they are still keeping Upstairs up to standard ,I hope…?
Yeh upstairs seems to keep plodding on, so they must be offering somthing that drivers want ! 
Seems to be that every month there are less and less brits shipping out, the last time i had the pleasure of poole customs bay the customers guys told me i was the first brit actually drivin a brit truck they had spoken to in a couple of days!, makes me wonder what the future holds for all of us. Think i will eventually head down to spain for good myself soon cant face prospect of uk only work!! 
first time i stopped there it was an eye opener,having never done spain before.Tipped at the first place on the left going in…stayed the weekend and to be honest curtainly enjoyed myself that weekend in my little old fl10 tipper…
We still do a load out of Castellion every so often, maybe half a dozen a year. I always enjoy spending a day driving round doing half a dozen collections.
Yeh its makes a change from the usual routine, Remember the first time i done them, had a bit of a worry goin to do a collection up at el cid but after that met an english girl ( lucy) workin in the office at pamesa who gave me a tile map after that it was plain sailin ! If i did every get stuck always hoped to bump into george that guy knew all the collections!
Yeh, essential advice to anyone doing multi-collection, get a tile map. A lot of Hostals seem to have them.
I never did the tile collections but I used to enjoy doing the wine collections in France for the same reason. Six or seven pick ups around a nice area, it got you off the beaten track and you saw some great places, not to mention some free meals and bottles of wine. In recent years the free wine was not as readily available though. 
The only time I did that vintage wine collection around the small chateaus was when I was doing a fill in for Savill’s .There were about ten collections & I only had one blank CMR. My return load was switched when I delivered at Aerospace ( ? ) Toulouse. All was well until I got in the ferry queue in Cherbourge & the black gang opened up the back. The load was almost to the back & I spoke rapid French about the rare wines etc. They looked at the lovely labels on the back but didn’t clock the quantity or weight on the CMR. It was only for the first pick-up.
Harry, would that be saville freight from hayes? my old load planner from cranleigh freight used to work for them, on the subject of wine collections also done a few of them in the past, once had to double man down to narbonne to collect a truck whos driver had fallen down the steps at a wine collection and breaking his ankle after bein given to much of the old vino!
harry:
The only time I did that vintage wine collection around the small chateaus was when I was doing a fill in for Savill’s .There were about ten collections & I only had one blank CMR. My return load was switched when I delivered at Aerospace ( ? ) Toulouse. All was well until I got in the ferry queue in Cherbourge & the black gang opened up the back. The load was almost to the back & I spoke rapid French about the rare wines etc. They looked at the lovely labels on the back but didn’t clock the quantity or weight on the CMR. It was only for the first pick-up.
I only ever did one CMR for those loads, sod writing out 6 or 7. It was usually all for one destination anyway and I just used to call it ‘Groupage Wine’ on the CMR. 
I see. I only filled it it out for the first customer & gave him a copy. All the rest asked for a CMR but I told them CMR’s were finished for F/UK transport. ( Well they were after I had used the first one. )
tile collections are alright, we used to do anglo overseas’ wine loads - could be upto 30 collections on a dragon and wag, usually in groups like 12 in sancerre, 5 in champagne etc but it was still a pain in the arse, especially if you’re not even a wine lover
Steve Rogers Yes that was che crowd. I was a bit hard up at the time & did a couple of weeks for them. The trailer wasn’t sealed . I arrived Sotton /Pompey , cleared .But the trailer had to go back to the warehouse in the yard . My car was in the yard. It wasn’t my truck. And it was my last trip. In short ,I couldn’t get even one bottle for myself!!! 
I love wine but I found it a pain. Plus not one bottle from the boatload. 
" Think i will eventually head down to spain for good myself soon cant face prospect of uk only work!! "
Don’t leave it too late. Or worry about the salary. First of all make yourself happy & then everything else will follow.
harry:
I see. I only filled it it out for the first customer & gave him a copy. All the rest asked for a CMR but I told them CMR’s were finished for F/UK transport. ( Well they were after I had used the first one. )
I used to tell them I didn’t have any blank CMR’s and if they wanted me to sign one they would need to supply it, they very rarely did.
Thanks for the advice harry! definatley interested in workin for a spanish based outfit, a job down there doin tiles would suit me down to the ground!. When you were doing oranges to austria were you living in austria at the time?