I must have had the world's slowest forklift driver today. After getting round my route in a decent time I was looking forward to a sort of early finish. Got to my last drop at about 12:45 and was told to park up and undo the curtains as someone will be with me shortly to unload. He did turn up, half an hour later and then proceeded to unload in reverse gear, one pallet from my side then one from the other side. This 'efficient' unloading proceeded for about an hour by which time he managed to unload 9 of the 16 pallets. Amazingly the forklift driver then vanished and that was it. I got so pissed off and went to complain to a manager. Amazingly a woman forkie appeared and unloaded the rest in about half an hour. Still not the fastest but better than her counterpart. This has got to be some sort of a record, 16 pallets in almost 2 hours, you could almost do that by hand.

Lovely day driving in the New Forrest, had a few drops around Southampton and then on to Lymington. The damn satnav still shows up a wrong height of bridge and I forgot my map. Quick call to the office and a helpful route was sent to me. Not a bad drive with the exception of the Forrest where I spent more time looking out for the Ponies and Donkeys than actually concentrating on the road ahead. Beaulieu is a lovely little village but not designed for a 40ft trailer. Scenery was fantastic, must pay the place a visit in my spare time. To be honest it was good to have a decent surface under the wheels when I finally got on to the A roads and what a pleasure it was to get on the M3.

Today promised to be a usual day but how wrong could I have been. Got to a drop in Crawley and as there was another artic in the yard I parked up and went to see what was happening. Got chatting to the other driver and when he found out that I only had one pallet to deliver he kindly offered to let me jump the queue. Got into the rig and whilst waiting for a few cars to go by I spied another artic coming up the road where I needed to turn into to get a straight reverse. This boy is not hanging around, he comes up to the junction right opposite me swings out a bit to get an angle to turn and almost runs over a biker who was coming down the main drag. As he stamped on his anchors and the biker swerved to avoid being flattened all I could do was to scream a few choice words. As I was parked up across the junction the impact if it happened would have thrown the biker right under my lorry. The Eastern European chappie crossed himself a few times looked at me with despair and then drove into the morning.

Last Friday I had a sneak at today's run list and saw that there would be 2 separate runs, so when i got to my first drop today(1 run) and was told to wait i thought 'oh goody' the longer I wait here the less chance of a second run when i get back. Then on the way to Fareham what looked like a serious accident blocked 2 lanes on the M27. Looked pretty serious, one car on the roof and another blocking the 2 lanes, there were 2 lorries in front but don't know if they were involved or not, don't like to linger at other people's misfortunes. On the way back I noticed that the whole motorway was blocked and traffic backed up for  miles, looked like they were taking away the victim on a stretcher. So when i got back at about midday I thought that this is it, card out and went to have some lunch, guess what, second load was being loaded as i looked on. 44 pallets to Danish Bacon in Petersfield and then 13 pallets to a chemical company in Liphook, now that was an interesting delivery. The so called Business Park was so small and tight that a crow bar was needed to get in and out, amazing the places that you can squeeze an artic into.

Ah another week over and done with, spent most of it delivering in and around Southampton and Andover. Today after dropping the last delivery in Portway it was time for a break. Since I didn't have any sarnies made I decided to do some hunting around and I found this cracker of a cafe in a small business park. The bacon & egg baguette was bloody brilliant, crispy bacon and the egg was just the way it should be. This could be a regular stop when I'm around that area. One thing though, when are they going to finish that bloody roundabout off the A303, been a bomb site for ages.

Ah sunshine and the proverbial glare, once the sun got up it was a decent day with the exception of having my eyeballs burned out when turning into the sun. Few times it was so bad the I just couldn't see anything for a few seconds, could have been disastrous if I wasn't creeping along at a few miles an hour. Saw an unusual sight on the M3 just past the Basingstoke junction, 3 marked police cars doing a rolling roadblock, further down the road 1 unmarked and 2 marked cars went flying up the motorway. Must have been a training exercise as didn't see anything that could have caused a problem.

Planned a day off on Friday as had some family stuff to attend to, but as things would have it got a call and was asked to do a Night Shift. Been there before and it was a doddle, drove around collecting empty cages for 2 hours and then went home. however not this time, short of drivers, so had a full load to T5. So much for an easy night.

Ah the perils of thinking that you can reroute the drops and get them all done before things go pear shaped. Had a delivery to a client who normally opens up at 8am but before that thother client opens at 6am and then others in the wild hills of Hampshire. So off i go and do the 6am delivery and thing that I should do the Hampshire drops before heading to Bracknell, think again, as i complete a drop in the Basingstoke area to which a small transit van would suffice due to the road being more of a track the phone rings. Can you reroute to Bracknell and then swing by the yard to collect 2 more pallets for your Basingstoke delivery. Oh sugar, so much for my idea. Down to Bracknell and then back to the yard, on to a break and then I'm told that an 'extra' delivery has been added. That will teach me for trying to be a smart alec. Done and dusted by 3pm instead of 1:30pm.

This one drop in the wilds of Hampshire had me wondering what I was doing there, off the A339 and turned into this side road. Instantly I thought 'should I be here'. Luck was in, the delivery slot was about 200yds from the main road but there was no hope in hell of turning into the yard. Stopped alongside the road and carried the stuff to the lockup. Then the fun began, no chance of turning around or backing in so the only option left. Reverse onto the A339, slow casual reverse and after managing to press gang a driver to stop the traffic i reversed and turned around. Not something i would want to repeat again.

I really need to stop getting my hopes up when I get an easy day, kind of ruins things. Had 2 drops, one for 7am and the other for 2pm. Easy, me thinks, stop of at Fleet services on my way to Basingstoke after dropping of the stuff in Sundbury and have my 45 min rest. Then loiter with intent for the remainder of the free 2 hours that they give you. Casual drive to the 2 drop and with luck they'll tip me around 12ish. Then back home. However, things do go a bit astray here. Phone rings and I'm told that I need to be in Basingstoke by 11am and then back to reload for a second delivery. Oh clucking bell (or words to that effect). When I got back to the yard I had another 2 drops added on, one was so bloody tight to turn the wagon it almost made my eyes water.