Looks like I managed to catch up on the back issues just in time. Pity I can’t get to it anymore as I enjoyed reading, especially the bit about nearly getting on the scary boat things.
Tony1968:
Looks like I managed to catch up on the back issues just in time. Pity I can’t get to it anymore as I enjoyed reading, especially the bit about nearly getting on the scary boat things.
That was my favourite of the recent ones, had me laughing out loud. Looks like I’ll have to go back to looking at ■■■■ instead of reading that now. 
Tony1968:
Looks like I managed to catch up on the back issues just in time. Pity I can’t get to it anymore as I enjoyed reading, especially the bit about nearly getting on the scary boat things.
Im sure Rob will agree he knows everything :exclamation: (except his left from his right :laughing: :laughing: ) Time admin let him back on again , at least hel give us all a laugh & he seems to get every one going even though hes not here. Plus the fact we are all having a go at him and he cant answer back which is little unfair even for Rob 
greek:
…even though he`s not here.
You sure about that? 
greek:
Plus the fact we are all having a go at him and he can`t answer back which is little unfair even for Rob
I don’t think many are having a go, mostly we are expressing disappointment that we can no longer read his blog, at least that is what I am doing. He can answer back. He can do it in his blog, which he has done on a couple of occasions, we just won’t be able to read it.
Denis F:
some versions of Serif pageplus can create PDF files
How’s this for resurrecting a five year old thread?
I have been offered a new copy of Serif Web Plus 4 has anyone used it?
My contact has the full caboodle, Page Plus4 Draw Plus3 and the templates with all of them.
Just need to know if it is worth £400 against Dreamweaver for around £500. I am not paying £400 just have to work it off when I get back to work.
This entire thread needs deleting. 
RobK:
This entire thread needs deleting.
I just typed in Serif and expected some computer geek to answer
Bloody hell I used to love reading your diaries Rob! Forgot about them!
RobK:
This entire thread needs deleting.
Yes, it’s a thread-necro, it needs deleting.
not got the time to read 15 pages…could some one bullet point all 15 pages in 3 bullet points 
cheers
CC
have i missed something , has he been banned off here again?
Another week completed 
Monday 4 April saw me up at 5am 
(I don’t ‘do’ early morning starts) and away from the yard just after 0600 for a car parts place in Scunthorpe where I was tipping the empty boxes I’d brought up from Ford at Southampton on Friday.
From there I went to Krupp Woodhead Spring on Kirkstall Rd in Leeds where I tipped off the remainder of the load. Back to the yard to drop my empty off and pick up another trailer loaded with same for McKechnie’s up at Pickering.
These are ‘flat-packed’ and empty but I’d love to watch anyone try to pick one up or even try to slide 4 of them across the floor because they are unbelievably heavy, as I found out when I tried to slide 4 of them up the trailer so that the FLT driver could get to them! They probably weigh more themselves than the stuff they put in them!
Once tipped off here I was reloaded with full ones to go back to our yard.
A64 approaching the top of Barton Hill before the descent :
Top of Barton Hill :
Best start braking and retrieve the speedo needle from under the pin
The new Arla depot on the M1 J44 :
Dropped my trailer off in the yard and picked up a full one for Halo Foods on Queensway Meadows in Newport. I just had enough time to run down to Long Eaton and park on Aldi’s car park for the night and go and get a meal at Wetherspoon’s just across the road.
Got in contact with Trev (Trevor Parry) and it turned out he was doing a Magor for 1000 on Tuesday so we arranged to meet up.
Tuesday 4 March saw another early start and it wasn’t from my alarm going off, it was from my damned phone ringing at 0530 with Trev on the other end of it wanting to know where I was!
He waited for me at J25 as I weaved my way out of Long Eaton and then we ran down to Strensham MSA together where we pulled up for an hour and had a natter.
Pic of the back of Trev’s trailer pulled by his little DAF 85 :
Going along the M50 :
Arrived for my 1100 booking at 1015 and had my load off in no time thanks to a speedy FLT driver.
A call to chaos-control had me running empty over to St.Regis Paper Mill in Sudbrook, just on the outskirts of Caldicot for a full load of reels for Scandinavia, via Immingham docks. I found the place easy enough although it’s a bit tight getting in.
You don’t see many 16 litre Scania Streamline motors about so I thought this was worthy of pic, sat weighing off at the paper mill :
Sat waiting in the queue to load with one of the bridges visible :
And that was when the day rapidly went downhill. Firstly I was instantly faced with the old favourite ‘wrong load reference’ scenario which these places just love doing to you so that you have to traipse all the way back to your wagon to phone your office up which always results in them confirming you have the reference noted down correctly and then a ‘that’s the reference we’ve got here’ answer. Needless to say this is exactly what happened and I was sat there for a further 2 hours waiting for a ‘correct’ reference before I was woken up (!) and called in for loading at last.
The old Linpac trailers we’ve got can be best described as being 
and this one was no exception. It all went horribly wrong when I was in the process of the removing the R/O/S curtain pole from its seat. The pole had a very serious case of Bananaitis and so it was stubbornly refusing to be extracted. However, I am also known for being just as stubborn 
and so a good grab of the lever at the bottom and a sharp turn in the anti-clockwise direction had it free. HOWEVER, I was also ‘holding’ the upper part of the pole at the same time with my left hand to shield the pole for whacking me round my chops should it decide to jump out but before I knew it the pole had flipped round and promptly jammed 3 of my fingers behind it and the metal recess it sits in 
and no, my response was NOT ‘oh dear, my fingers appear to be trapped’ .
With a combination of being unable to pull my fingers free nor move the pole and experiencing pain identical to that of trapping your fingers in a car door I was making rather a lot of noise. There wasn’t anyone else in the warehouse apart from an Austrian driver loading at the other end. Luckily he heard my yells and came running over to help me. He could see what had happened and quickly grabbed a block of wood shaped in such a way that it could be prised behind the pole to release the pressure so that I could get my fingers out.
After much nursing and soothing under a running tap I got some blood flowing through them again and thankfully no broken bones but even now, 5 days later they’re still badly bruised and a bit achey. We couldn’t even get my glove out it because the pole was jammed that tightly and eventually it had to be cut out.
Once that was out the pole was left where it was all tensioning was done from the other end.
I was soon loaded up with 12 reels - some at nearly 2.5 tonne each :
I checked out on the weighbridge at 43,880 kgs and made my way back to the A48 after negotiating this single track road and nasty bridge :
Going along the M48 with a few views south of the other bridge :
Full zoom! :
Made it up to Long Eaton once again and off to Wetherspoon’s once again as it’s steak night tonight! 8oz sirloin with chips/baked spud and peas+mushroom+tomato/side salad, plus a pint of your choice for £5.49 - can’t go wrong.
Wednesday 6 April started at 0700 and ran over to ABP Connect at Immingham Docks to tip my reels off. Not knowing where the hell the place was I must have spent an hour driving round trying to find the correct office but eventually I made it.
Waiting in the queue to be tipped, with the ‘reel’ shed on the right hand side :
Once tipped here I returned empty to the yard to get shut of the death-trap trailer on a nice fat defect note and pick up a loaded one for Decantae Mineral Water at Kinmel Bay, just along the coast from Rhyl in North Wales, booked in at 0800 tomorrow morning.
A few pics from the A55 of the River Dee Estuary and The Wirral in the distance :
I found the estate it was on easily - Tir Llwyd Ind Est - and found a layby to park in for the night on the estate. In order to help prevent any scum slashing the trailer curtains I opened the O/S back door and pinned it back. I’d only been back in the cab for 5 minutes when I saw a car pull up behind me in the mirrors and two guys jump out. A second later I felt the distinct signs of someone in the back of the trailer. I only had glass bottles on so in my opinion it wasn’t an ‘attractive’ load like beer or spirits would be.
I jumped out and ran to the back of the trailer, grabbed the door and shut the intruders inside! . This was instantly greeted with a lot of banging on the doors and abusive language, unsurprisingly. I asked my intruders WTF they were doing and in a familiar gypo-style thick Irish accent one of them said that they couldn’t understand why the back door was open and jumped up to see what was on to which my reply was along the lines of ‘bollox’. Anyway, they uttered enough apologies for me to let them out before they slit my curtains from the inside as I knew they hadn’t (yet) nicked anything and they got in their car and off.
I must have been really tired because I fell asleep in the seat which is very unusual for me. I was awoken by the noise of a van close by. I looked at the N/S mirror (I was parked on the O/S off the road) and there was a Transit van at the side of me with the side loading door open, adjacent to my diesel tank.
I cranked the engine up on the truck and jumped out and asked them WTF they were doing. No half-plausible reply this time, just a ‘ah off’ and off they went in their van.
I decided not to park there for the night, obviously, and moved off the estate and headed for the town. 600 yards down the road I saw the root of the problem - a big gypo camp in a field. I found a nice spot at the side of the Asda superstore and parked up alongside a couple of 7.5 tonners there for the night and had no further problems.
Thursday 7 April got off to a bad start as I managed to catch both my N/S mirrors on a lamp post over the narrow bridge just as one of those ro-ro rigids was coming the other way. The glass didn’t smash fortunately, just bent them out of shape which was soon rectified, but also smashed off the rear covers for the electrics which I wasn’t able to retrieve from the road.
I was soon tipping at this Mineral Water place and free cups of tea and coffee were on offer too by Paul who runs the warehouse.
Soon had the load off and after a few more coffee’s I belled chaos-control up to find out about my backload which was to be out of Wrexham but it had been cancelled. I was now to load up all the empty Allied Glass pallets and take them back to their place at Stourton in Leeds. Paul informed me that he needed to make up an order for delivery and asked me if I’d driven a FLT before. I hadn’t but I told him I’d love to have a go! He showed me how everything worked and I soon got the hang of it and loaded my trailer myself with 120 pallets !!
To return the favour he asked me what it was like to drive an artic (he said he already had his class 2) so happy to oblige I let him get in the hot seat and have a strictly controlled drive round the new part of the Estate which wasn’t in use yet, hence no traffic about to contend with. I taught him how to do a few reverses too and he did rather well to say he’d never driven an artic before . In return for my kind favour he sorted me out with a case full of freebies!
Back to Leeds to get shut of these pallets then.
Few pics of my favourite view - the M62 looking across the Halifax valley and the long-drap up from Elland to Ainley Top J24 on the A629 :
Coming down to J25 Brighouse :
J26 Bradford, taken primarily for the rather nice colourful sky but looked much better in real life :
If any of you know where Allied Glass is, or indeed Northern Containers (NorCon) on Hague Park Rd in Stourton, Leeds then you’ll know the road quite well in that it’s a dead end. I hadn’t been to Allied Glass before and wasn’t aware it was inside the compound where NorCon is, so I carried on down to the end of the road.
This chap was sat in his FLT in front of me, where I was going to pull into to turn round :
He came over to me and asked what I wanted. I asked him if it was Allied Glass’s yard. No he says. Do you know where Allied Glass is then please? Nope. Oh. Can I come past you to turn round then please? No. Because of this ■■■■■■■■, I had a of a job trying to turn round in the yard of the place to the right of that pic where this ‘friendly’ chap said that ‘there was plenty of room to turn round up there’. He reckons he sits there all day and is employed by the gaffer of the empty beer keg place where he was to stop wagons from entering the yard to turn round. Surely installing a barrier and intercom system would be far cheaper in the long term ? Crazy.
I soon had my self-loaded pallets off at Allied Glass and then ran back to the yard empty. Alan in the office says to me, ‘I’ve got a Mamma’s and Papa’s for you for Melrose (Jock Borders region) tomorrow morning but there’s a BUT and that is that you will have to take a different unit as yours is in for service tomorrow evening’.
I declined on his offer as there is nothing I hate more than having to shift all my stuff between wagons, especially if it’s only for one day. He gave that run to someone else in the end and I got an 1100 for Kiddisave at Walsall, just at the bottom of Green Lane as you come out of the town centre - nightmare of a place to get parked for unloading at.
Friday 8 April saw me starting at 0730 in my own unit but not for long. When I went to pick in to the office my gaffer said to me that mine would have to stay here and I’d have to take one of the FM12’s. Pointing out to him that I’d declined the Melrose yesterday so that I could stay in my unit fell on deaf ears as he said I wasn’t guaranteed to pick my trailer up from Mamma’s and Papa’s, get down to Walsall, get tipped (all handball) and back again to drop the trailer off and then get up to Chatfields at Pudsey so that they could service my unit that evening as they don’t work weekends due to ‘CUSTOMERS NOT REQUESTING IT’ - can you believe that ?!!
So the bottom line was that I had to shift all my stuff into an 03 FM12 (I hate the new shape ones) and take that but I made it known that I wasn’t at all happy about it .
Down to Mamma’s and Papa’s to pick up my trailer and my mood just worsened when I saw the load - all handball flat-packed furniture - things like double chests, heavy cot beds, double wardrobe’s etc etc - just what you DON’T need on a Friday :
I got down there for noon and easily found the place but there was a 18 tonner parked on the double-yellows right on the corner and I couldn’t get the trailer round him because of it. After sitting there for a while blocking the whole of Walsall town centre access from the motorway I went to find the driver and asked him if he’d move up so I could get round. ‘No, I’m delivering here and I’m not moving’. Well cheers. So I just got back in my wagon and sat there after giving the bus driver a ‘shrugged shoulders’ look. Must have been sat there for a solid 10 minutes straddled the junction without a bean moving when the manager of Kiddisave came out and told the rigid driver to shift up else he’d keep him waiting all day. That did the trick! The manager then said that my load needed to go to his other warehouse and he’d come out in his X5 in a few minutes and for me to follow him. Hmm, fishy. Best confirm that with chaos-control first. Turned out to be kosher and then spent the next 3 hours unloading the trailer into his warehouse with the help of his son and his mate.
From there I had a backload out of Team Sped at Cradley Heath on Waterfall Lane Ind Est and was loaded with 23 reels of paper for Polestar on Dewsbury Rd for Monday morning. It was snowing heavily here but this pic doesn’t do it justice sadly :
It was just before 1800 when I got on the M5 to go M6, M42, M1 back to base and I had a clear run all the way back which I was very pleased with.
Heavy snow shower up ahead, just passing the M18 at J32 :
Finished and away for 2030.
Monday is going to be another stupid o’clock start with a Slough area for 1030. I asked if I could run down on Sunday night but sadly it won’t be loaded until around midnight.
Nioce one Rob, enjoyed that.
A few of you have asked me what camera I use.
It’s an Olympus Camedia C-5000 Zoom 5.0 mega pixel. I got it off Ebay virtually brand new for just over £100 a few months back. Think they’re about £250 to buy if you look at Kelkoo online or somewhere like that.
Unless it’s really dark I take all my pics with the flash off and on the SQ2 640x480 resolution so that they fit the screen without having to edit them and they load reasonably quickly.
To be honest, a 2 or 3 mega pixel camera would do the job just as well at the settings I use for posting the pics on the internet.
Hope that helps.
good story rob.things must have changed.when would robk do handball 
I recognised that ex Linpac trailer by the repaired cut in the curtain, nearly had my fingers a few times as well.
They weren’t maintained that well, only when something went wrong with them is when they were “maintained?”, otherwise known as Crisis maintenance.
Good set of pictures as well, Cheers.
Good story Rob, i enjoyed that. I liked the pics of Elland i was only there Friday morning, them hills are a nightmare.
Dratsabasti:
I recognised that ex Linpac trailer by the repaired cut in the curtain, nearly had my fingers a few times as well.
They weren’t maintained that well, only when something went wrong with them is when they were “maintained?”, otherwise known as Crisis maintenance.
Good set of pictures as well, Cheers.
Yeah too right. I had another one later that same day which was nearly as bad. I’m not sure what the curtains are meant to ‘run’ on, but ‘runners’ isn’t the word I would use. I think someone must have filled the runners with glue or something - they’re a nightmare. We’ve started getting some new trailers in now (Archbold’s) in the 53… series and these are much better. I had 5308 on Friday and it was clear it was nearly brand new.
They’ve started getting the older ones refurbished now. We’ve just had one come back in DS Converters colours (Louth) and it looks like a very good job.
thanks Rob ,the weeks trip report was great to read and your pictures
made the post even better to read and look at . I awaty your report from nexts week with baited breath,
Like your reg “R4 LOG”
Seems appropiate in the pic of the paper mill… 1/2 log
Mc farlands (sp?) didn’t last then ? A picture of you in that nice uniform would be summut
Good to have you back lad 