Oh well, the holidays are over, back to work today. Now how do you drive those Artics.....

On a day trip to Belgium this week we were waiting our turn to board the ferry to Dunquerke having arrived a bit early. When the ferry arrived and began disgorging its load from France I out of curiosity started watching the lorry's as they came off. Loads of them but one major thing missing, not a single one was from the UK. No British plates on an lorry, loads of Polish, Lithuanian, German, etc. What is going on with our Gov't, all this foreign traffic coming in and I wonder how many have 'paid' to use our roads.

Olympics over, what am I going to watch now. Seriously though now can they remove those daft lanes that almost nobody used and let us continue driving like it was before.

Nice that the school.s out and some people are on their hols, makes driving on the M24 & M1 almost surreal. Having said that there are exceptions, last night coming back to the depot between J117 & J16 on the M25 I was happily minding my own business when I spied a lost tyre or what's left of it on the on ramp (j17) then in the distance a tipper artic was crawling slowly in the inside lane. when I got closer to it i noticed why, one of his near side trailer tyres wasn't there, the man was tugging a trailer on a rim with sparks flying. If he didn't see the sparks in his mirror then he's bloody blind, surely that's dangerous.

Olympic Lanes, what a stupid idea. as London is congested enough this daft idea just puts more strain on the system. On the A406 they operate between 08;00 to 20:000, on the A4 after the elevated section they end at 20:00. What gormless prat decided that on one side of the road they should be placed on the inside lane and on the other side in the outside lane. This is just as welcome as John Prescott's bus lane on the M4.

Looks like some delivery co's are seeking the better looking driver. Passed a Wisseman lorry today on the M1 and it was driven by a very nice looking blonde, looks like a few good looking women have joined the industry.

Ah the glorious Olympic Lanes, had the pleasure of driving in one last night. Now what happens when that lane is the lane I need to use to go in a specific direction. Don't fancy a fine or any other silly things, need to explore this matter a bit further.

Ah, holidays, shorts & flipflops. The only thing is that I can't have a lie-in for the next few days, getting the house redecorated and the decorators are in at 8am each morning.

Now that the roadworks have been moved up a few miles on the M1 it is almost a pleasure driving between that stretch, notice I said almost a pleasure The M1 is just that kind of a road.

What gives, the M25 was brimming with Police cars today. There was a Van on one of the bridges and had cameras pointing on to the road and a few marked card a few hundred yards up the road, ready to do their business. Looks like a ANPR thingy.

This is unreal, our main road must be the most dug up road in the UK. They just can't get things in order, two weeks ago they were digging part of it up and now they are digging up the same part again. Further down there is another set of roadworks, this is like being on the M1. Roadworks everywhere, how difficult would it be to coordinate things and dig up one hole for all.

Something different for a change, going to work on Tuesday as usual ambling along on the M25 and kind of watching out for the new Airbus as it's amazing to see it take off. I saw this giant four engined cigar coming in to land, wheels down and all that lot. then all of a sudden the wheels go up so does the nose and the plane aborts its landing. First time I saw something like that at Heathrow unless the pilot realised he was landing at the wrong airport.

Crawling along through the roadworks on the M1, I love that part of the road. Amazing thing is that there seems to be very few places that are actually being worked on and why keep closing the lanes at around 22:00 every night when no one is doing any work. Roll on when they are finished, if it ever happens.

Happily driving along the M1 last Friday, the unit was set with the cruise control at 56mph. a Scania was slowly creeping past me and all was well, or so I thought. Saw a blur in the nearside wide angle mirror and as I glanced to see what was going on a white van flew past me on the hard shoulder. I mean he flew past, must have been doing about 80+, after a few choice words were muttered I saw the van take the next exit which was about half a mile ahead. What's wrong with the outside lane I wonder and what was the hurry.

Unreal, tried to top up early this morning as I had a quarter of a tank left and couldn't find any local garages with fuel. The BP close to work had fuel but the queues were horrendous so I decided to fill up close to home. The only place that had anything was Tesco and I don't like their fuel as it doesn't last as long as it should but beggars can't be choosers. This is getting a bit silly in my opinion.

The Budget & Price of Diesel

Well, what a surprise, good old George doesn't think we all need for the Fuel Duty and VAT to be cut so he has conveniently left things as they are. This no doubt includes the proposed increase later on in the year. I used to vote Conservative but no more, this budget is absolutely useless for me and will leave me worse off. The car is something that we do need but the only time it gets used is for me to got to work and go shopping, can't afford to do anything else with the price of diesel. As I have the UK Fuel thingy on my satnav I'm constantly looking for cheaper ways to fill up, will not use supermarkets fuel. Found out that it does quicker as the additives are much more prevalent and the MPH suffered at the same time there was serious smoke coming out of the exhaust when the car was started

Highway Robbery

Had to go to London this morning to do some personal stuff. We decided to go by train as I didn't fancy coughing up for the congestion charge. Then the bombshell hit at the rail station, £7.50 for parking and £49.80 for 2 travel cards. highway robbery, no wonder people don't want to use the trains. This price was the Off Peak fare as well.

Typical, a tiny amount of fog or very low cloud and every man jack decides to put on their fog lights. Even when the is no fog they keep them on conveniently blinding everyone behind and totally oblivious to that.

Holidays over and back to work, felt weird driving a rig. Just couldn't get comfortable in the seat, suppose I got used to being at home and driving something much smaller. Now to get back into swing of things and back to the old routinf.

Ahhhh, the luxury of being on holiday, 2 glorious weeks away from work. Yeah if only, the amount of stuff I have to do around the house is unreal. Will be glad to get back to work and get some rest.

What is it with Tesco Artic drivers, do they go to a special school on how to piss off other drivers or is it part of the induction policy. On my way back to the depot I had to overtake a Tesco lorry, as I get half way up the trailer the driver decides to slap on his indicator and immediately start to move into my lane. Had two options, keep the line and let him smack into me or move out to the middle lane. As luck would have it there was no traffic and the middle lane (3rd lane on M1 past Hemel Jct) so I moved over, as I went past the unit the driver was oblivious to anything he'd just done. Kept staring ahead and didn't even notice that I went past him.

Back to reality now that the white stuff is all gone, having said that there were some interesting bits when it was snowing. On my way back to the yard I have to go over a bridge and when the car in front stops I have to do the same. He then manages to get going but me in my artic just couldn't get going. Tried everything to no avail, had to back down the hill to get a run up but as usual no car driver will give way to a lorry. Had one of our agency drivers help me but still the cars were just not bothering to help. Had no choice but to slowly blind side down a side road and then go the long way back. Going home was also fun, cars crawling at 10mph and of course a few CEVA artics going flat out down the M25, all adds to the fun and games.

Kept seeing Matrix signs on the M1 yesterday 'Salt Spreading' but didn't see a single gritter. They must have that Romulan Cloaking Device, because in 4 hours of driving up and down the M1 I didn't see a single one.

Well, that's the third module of the DCPC done and dusted. To be honest it was quite interesting and the way it was run it made the day worthwhile.

Keeping Fit

As a keen runner myself I do understand that people wish to keep fit and do run in some strange places. This however takes some beating, on my way to Jubilee MC early Tuesday morning (01:00) I noticed something very peculiar. The was someone actually jogging on the hard shoulder of the M25, just before the M4 Junction, as there were no cars on the hard shoulder before and after the junction I can only assume that this madman decided to use this road for his early morning run. There are ways to commit suicide and this has to be one of the most innovative one I've seen.

They've done it again, closed of a major entry to the M25 and not bothered to put up any matrix signs. Only on the slip road is there any information that the entry to the M25(S) is closed, yet there are loads of signs that the Hammersmith Flyover is closed, surely it would be to drivers advantage is they replaced a few of those signs with more up to date info, such like closed exits. The Highways Agency seems to be unable to their job, what;s the point of them being there.

Oh man, what a difference, no wind coming back to Heathrow last night. The trailer actually followed me instead trying to overtake.

Some serious wind last night, the trailer had a mind of its own for most of the journey. I hate those warning sounds on the DAF, the unit decided to tell me every few seconds that the EBS was not playing correctly, and the sound was driving me mad . Had the radio turned up, cotton wool in my ears and I still heard it. On the way back the wind got a bit worse, could see the spray being blown across the other carriageway on the M1 and is the open spaces it was damn hard to keep in a straight line. Roll on tonight.

Cracking trip up the M1 yesterday, all that wind howling about. At one point my trailer was almost in the middle lane. Lugging an empty trailer is definitely fun, much better when the thing has some weight in it. At least it was dry on the way back and no snow (yet)