Hope this goes through this time.
aint worked scanialady!
tried pasting the link in the address bar and it is all blurred when zoomed in
Coding looks okay. Scan it at a higher resolution if you can.
is this the 1■■ cant make it any bigger mind you
Good read 
| **Trucking still seems to be** **frustrating — but never dull** | ||
| AS a retired European lady trucker, now disabled, it was with great trepidation that I went back on the road in a truck with my new partner, Terry. In the past my former partner and I had worked as a team, driving from Kidderminster to Portugal each week until retiring nearly five years ago. This time I am getting the opportunity to see parts of Germany and surrounding countries I had not seen before. When I was seven years old my family and I spent some time in Germany, where my father was in the RAF. I do not remember much about then. My first trip back on the road felt so like going back in time, with delays on ferry crossings due to weather conditions, and problems with loading and unloading of goods to customer depots. As I learned from my Portugal days, no trip is ever the same even if the route is regular. As I get used to the routes, which are not always the same, I get the chance to check out the disabled facilities at the service areas. Most have disabled toilets on the | ground level and a key is available from the staff. Embarking on to the ferry has become second nature too when the attendants make sure the lift is handy and that I could get in and out of the cab without difficulty and be able to open the door fully. On my second trip out to Germany, a blow-out in France caused a three and a half hour delay till repairs were made at a service area. The rest of the journey was unevent- ful and we arrived home in the early evening. When I say home, I mean Terry’s apartment in Mannheim, which has become a second home to me. An early start the next day was a typical day at 4am to avoid the peak traffic, arriving at the delivery address only to find the staff had gone on strike. Expecting to tip at 8am and realising this was not going to happen, we had to manoeuvre out of a small car park in the snow and ice with cars parked so close together, and had to shunt back and forth to inch our way out again to deliver goods elsewhere. Thankfully this was done by Terry, who has become adept at getting out of difficult places in his years of trucking. | The problems then escalated when
the trailer repairs (mudguards needed
replacing) could not be done, as there
was a German carnival holiday for
three or four days.
Even though the breakdown service
is supposed to be 24 hours, we were
told they had all gone home by 4pm the
day we hoped to have the repairs done.
After sitting around for four days,
we finally had a reload back to the UK
and more problems getting a ferry
when there was a damaged linkspan at
Calais.
We managed to get a ferry, but
arriving back in the UK it was
Operation Stack at Dover. Day trippers
were stranded on the M20 and not able
to go on their weekend breaks. Most car
drivers with their families found they
were unable to travel.
Since then the port has been back-
logged with delayed traffic. It has taken
weeks of delays due to one damaged
berth at Calais.
Well, that’s the life of a trucker.
Frustrating, but never dull. Keep on
trucking.
Lizzie Hitchens, |
scanialady142, I could be wrong but I think you probably have “Always allow BBCode:” disabled in your profile, you need to turn it on in order for your images to show 
Thanks for the advice and I think I have done that ok now. Liz