One a day, and Sussex by the Sea!

After a week off, whether holiday (as some might have thought) or the start of phased retirement (as indeed was the case), it's always a slow build-up back to normal levels of activity, and this was no different.  The situation is complicated by the usual slow build-up of 'normal activity' after the new year anyway.  But there was at least some highlight to each day, above a background of what I call 'bread and butter', local work.

Monday found me utilising my Dart-charge account for the first time in nearly two months, as I went to Swanscombe for a customer in Ashwell, whose goods were delivered to a delightful modern office building, aptly named 'The Observatory', for it offered excellent views in every direction.

The next day was a definite 'damp squib' work-wise, because the highlight was being stuck - along with thousands of others - on the M1 for several hours owing to an accident not very far from home, at junction 13.  It was feared that there had been a fatality, but the TV news bulletin that evening suggested that there were two serious injuries only.  It seems that a lorry had crossed the central reservation and taken out a car.  I wondered later whether the lorry might have come from the Bedford direction, and perhaps the driver had been confused by the new layout of the junction.  It's certainly esoteric - I don't know of another like it - with lots of subordinate junctions on either side of the motorway, quite apart from those that actually interact with it.

Wednesday began with a straightforward collection from a distribution centre along the A14 at Thrapston.  As I approached the gate, I recalled the confusion that I had had to overcome on my one previous visit.  When the security official had booked me in, and told me where I should go to make a collection - as he'd done on that other occasion - I explained that I had then found I needed to be 'over there' ... and I pointed in the opposite direction. Adopting a welcome relaxed and co-operative attitude, the official said he wasn't really bothered where I went: it was my choice.  Since it was nearer the gate, I went where I had gone before and began my 'I hope I'm in the right place ...' script.  It worked, in within minutes I was back on the road.

The week's fourth highlight, like the second, was not to my advantage, although unlike that accident, this one was predictable.  I was called on my way back from a delivery in Reading by another depot, who suggested - quite logically - that I might like to do a pick-up in St Albans for a destination in Stevenage on the way.  Unfortunately this was a collection of samples from the renal unit at the hospital.  Not surprisingly, these require special secure carriage and, although I have received the necessary training, the little box I'm provided with for this purpose wouldn't have accommodated even one of these large containers ... and there were at least ten!  There was no alternative but to ring in and get another driver, suitably equipped, to make the collection.

Friday was more like a 'normal day'.  It started with the collection of some bespoke export packaging in Letchworth.  As I was leaving the town, bound for Berkshire, the controller rang: how much room did I have?  There was one small box to be collected in Tring, for the south coast.  This was the 'first overlap'.  I collected the box, and then made my way to a private estate - automatic gates at every entrance - near Slough to deliver the empty boxes. The men there had anticipated a much larger vehicle; I had brought them four boxes, they were expecting about fifty.  They explained that this house had been sold for £10 million (!) and that the new owners had just arrived. There seemed to be no real anxiety, however, and as I left one said to the other, "we'll have an easier day with just four boxes to fill!"

Then came the 'second overlap' for, as I drove around the M25, making for Rustington, near Littlehampton, with my box from Tring, I had a call from the Guildford office.  They had spotted me heading in their general direction, and wondered if I would be interested in a collection in Guildford going to St Leonards-on-Sea.  I told them I couldn't see why not, and after collecting a small box there I had the treat of a cross-country journey to the seaside.  The sunshine was almost summer-like (if you didn't look at the dashboard thermometer!) and I learned just how long is 'Good old Sussex by the Sea'.  It was a very pleasant journey indeed, ending with another Dartford crossing, after which I was home about 6.40pm.