well where do i start off with this, oh yea the time before i went to meet up with my driver was fun but thats another story…
anyway get a call on my way to the hotel. yes can you make your way to hampden, sure, how long? about an hour
hop in the cab, 40 mins later im there and meet up with the driver, a mr scott massingham, who knows a few people from here. namly a mr vain type person lol.
anyway 1615ish comes and we set off and theres me thinking yea ill not be driving for a while…then he hands me the keys,smiles and walks off to the truck. we both hop in and there me sitting there looking at the gearstick and the controls etc while he deals with the digis cards (i really do hate them), mirrors sorted, seat plemped up, air con on and were off from hampden park on the way to the m74 though none of them were sure of the way to it…except me, anyway through the wee ■■■■■■■■ that is rutherglen etc which left scott thinking i had went the wrong way lol. the artic was easier to drive through town than a rhd artic and i soon got into the swing of things.
truck in glasgow, and the half leather drivers seat
anyway heading down the m6 i spot a photographer on the bridge (if thats you post the pic id love it) get all the way down to lymm for a driver changeover/munchies. lymm was stacked to the gunnels with trucks luckily we found a space.
off we go again and get to around maidstone before we have to change drivers again for me to take the truck down to dover and onto the ferry.
lovely parking by yours truely again
booked onto the 0330 ferryt o calais and i have to drive the truck onto the ferry…fun i thought but it wasnt bad, straightin and parked behind a caravan. weather was a bit nice aswell.
off the ferry and heading for reims, and i get about 2 hours off the ferry when i start feeling a bit sleepy so ask scott to take over just so i dont crash cause thats the last thing im wanting to do but there is no more pics until i get to reims lol.
arrive in reims about 1030am local time and find the hotel on some industrial estate the company had booked us,meant to be sharing rooms but luckily the guy i was sharing with left about 9 hours after us lol, anyway i try get some sleep which didnt work as the room never had air con and it was about 30 degrees by this point so its one of those crappy im sleeping oh wait no im not sleeps
i also found the manpower office in reims lol, its right behind the truck
eventually the others started turning up one by one
around 1930 local time we decide its time to head off towards barcelona, again i take the first drive and the roads start getting empty but the views are unreal, certainly beats driving down the m6 or along the m8 lol.
time goes on and i do my 4.5 hour stint and scott takes over from me, so time for some shut eye…or that was the plan, imprompteu rave at 2am in the truck hahaha. anyway i did eventually fall asleep until i woke up sweat worse than a an obese person in mcdonalds. scott told me it was 27 degrees outside at 3am lol
anyway changeover again in the morning sorta, im back in the drivers seat for the last time and were driving all the way along the coast with some even beter viewsof what i think is the med but im probably wrong lol.
were coming up close to spain now
nice view aint it?
we finally reach the spanish border and waste no time getting into spain,nother driver changover took place somewhere in spain or something, and scott got the last short drive to barcelona,i fall asleep again for a short period and wake up to see a pieter smit truck in front, so we drive upt o him and find out hwere hes going cause we wernt 100% on where we were going, he was going to the neu camp aswell so we followed him…that was an experience thats all im gonna say lol
we get close to the neu camp and the roads start getting more interesting and busier with mopeds etc, when we finally got to the neu camp all traffic got stopped so we could get in…much to the delight of the locals hahahaha
finally parked up in the neu camp, next to cookies motor, hes whiter than ■■■■ white,hes worse than a goth when the sun comes out i think lol
across from us was this, i mean look how ■■■■ dirty it is
it did get really hot though, i mean i am quite sunburnt right now but heres the only pic of me youll see on tour haha
the parking is pretty much a smit yard right now…though tht will decrease when more transam trucks are available.
then a few other transam boys eventually show up.
mat took me round to see the stage that u2 are using, its quite big,
im sure this man is wondering if he should have a beer or not
last pic in barcelona as the other drivers had finally turned up nearly 12 hours after me lol.
we all head off to our hotel, pretty sure it was a 5 star hotel, and then head along to some little bar along from thehotel to silly am.
next morning same again, i go get ciggys and then we go to the bar and sit till about 2ish before heading to the airport. flight left about 15 mins late from barcelona and i only had an hour between arriving in paris and my flight leaving to edinburgh so its gonna be tight.anyway get to p[aris and were all leaving fromt he same terminal and we get a move on across, i get to the gate as the bus to the plane is loading then all of a sudden within 20 seconds of me being there the bus gets emptied, turnes out there was a severe weather warning and all flights out of paris had been delayed, anyway they start faffing about when things do clear up about an hour or soo later and that the bus will be 20 mins…then another 20 mins…then another 20 mins, air france turned around one of their 747s quicker than it took them to get us to our plane, eventually at 1145 local time they started ferrying us to the plane…in a 9 seat minibus, 80 passengrs great this is gonna take forever. at around 1245 the plane is pretty much ready to go, you can seee alot of people are {zb}`d off, me included because my back was about 50 degrees c and i wanted to get home. at around 3am the plane finally gets into edinburgh but i had to phone the parents when i got there to come get me as they were meant to get me at 10 nto 5 hours later at 3am, anyway i get home about 4 int he morning, but i dont hate air france that much anymore hahas.
