its competition time

well its a competition but with no prizes - just your own satisfaction

here is the jist of it - i will list what i have done for the week and you have to work out how many miles i have done all week and how many hours i have driven

dead simple , i bet you struggle for few weeks on the workings out but it might give you an insight into driving a wagon for a living

i will list the answers a week later and you can see how close you were - as i said no prizes but it should be fun

start penrith - tip bradford - down to lound - park up
load lound - tip bilston - load castle vale - up to penrith - change trailers - park up
tip howden - load ferrybridge - tip penrith - change trailers - run time out heading south
tip littlehampton - load gosport - load more at larkhill - run north
tip longtown - tip newbridge - tip edinburgh - load blantyre run south
change trailers at penrith - tip grangemouth - load livingston - run home to penrith
i think i have had a quiet week - lets see what you think

i suppose i had better explain tachograph rules and drivers hours laws and such just to help you out a bit

we can only drive for a maximum of four and half hours at a time before needing to take a fourty-five minute break - this can be divided into fifteen miute segments as long as the second break before the 4 and a half hour point is 30 minutes

we can only drive for 9 hours per day - however this can be extended to 10 hours twice per week

this driving time and rest periods must be contained within the working day of 13 hours - however this can be extended to 15 hours twice per week

at the end of your day you must have a rest period of 11 hours - however this can be reduced to 9 hours three times per week

you are only allowed to drive for 90 hours in any two week period

as per the working time directive you must not average more than 48 working hours in a week - this is averaged out over a three month period

working time is time spent driving or doing other work - ie loading or unloading

the wagons are limited by law to 56mph

there you are - clear as mud - but thats how we have to do it

so off you go how many hours driving did i do for the week how many hours total and how many miles did i do

not so much road rage, but...

its been bugging me for a while this one

speed limit signs on the roads ie 30, 40, 50 etc

have you noticed that if the signs are saying 60 the traffic is doing 40 and if it says 50 the traffic is doing 30 ?

it is dead obvious this one and was stareing me in the face - which probably expains why it took me so long to figure out

have a look next time this happens to your traffic queue

so what are you looking for ?

look at your speedo - not the miles per hour - look at the kph

60 kph is 40 mph , 50kph is 30 mph

so why - its easy when you figure it out - not all the drivers on our roads took their licence in this country did they ?

as a lot of other countries do all their speed limits in kilometers they are used to kph instead of mph

i had to talk to a few non uk drivers to confirm my logic and they agreed - so there you are , and now you know

is it just me ?

coffee from garages and service stations

what ever happened to bog standard coffee when the only option was whether you wanted milk or sugar in it ?

me personally i like strong coffee no sugar with plenty of milk in it and proper milk at that not this watered down rubbish

so what happened - too much choice latte, cappuccino, flavoured syrup, frappe

lets get back to good old fashioned choice - i cant be the only one ?

this vehicle is limited to 50mph to save money and the environment

i bet you have seen this too mainly on wagons - what a stupid idea this has turned out to be - probably thought up by some suit in an office who knows bugger all about transport

this idea would work great in possibly Holland or the like - but here in the uk there are too many hills for it to work properly as at 50mph the lorries cannot get a run at the hills and end up losing speed and have to pull too hard up the hills thus using more fuel in the proccess

talking to other drivers who have had this done to their wagons they all say the same thing - their fuel consumption has gone up !!

another side effect of this is that it causes more overtaking manouvers for the rest of us thus causing others to lose speed - pulling harder - more fuel used again !!

to the suit in the office who thought it up - think again and try talking to people who actually know something about it before you do it - any more daft ideas like this and you will end up as a health and safety officer

The Bathroom is finished - at last!!

told you i have been busy....

this is what i have been busy with...

managed to get a week off work so with a bit of forward planning got all the bits together so i could get on with it

i will describe it from where we last left off

i got some chrome pipe and chrome fittings and connected up the big shower head to the shower unit - i had planned this as i liked the idea of exposed pipework - so if you can see it why not do it in chrome and make a feature of it




i didnt want a shower door this time and any way i doubt i could get one to fit so a shower curtain was the way to go

it took a long time to find some thing that would do the job and not look too bulky - it also needed to be in chrome - this narrowed the choices a lot and we did struggle for a bit

this is actually two sets put together with some of the left over bits put together to make a rather nice tie back for the shower curtain

the ceiling was a disaster so we had to start again so it was re-done and done with textured polystyrene and polystyrene coving and then painted with umpteen coats of white till it looked about right



had a bit of a change of plan with the toilet side

i decided to do the bottom of the wall in the left over bits of the plastic stuff

the top of the wall didnt look right just painted white - even after all the trouble of filling it and sanding it down - so our lass chose this paper and i think it really sets it off

the pattern is wicked and actually matches the shower curtain

as you can see in the pictures our lass has been busy getting all the accessories to set it off



the towel rail over the radiator was a good find as was the towel rail under the slope

the fancy net curtains go well and i made a pole up from bits in the garage and all held up with pipe clips left over from the early plumbing jobs

overall i think all the hard work we have both done has been worth it - and we both love the end result
- it might not be everyones cup of tea - but tough - its our house not yours - and we like it

and now the sounding like our gill handy tip bit

cut a peeled onion in half and put cut side down in a saucer of water - this wiil get rid of the smell of paint


gotta go now other jobs to be on with - no rest for the wicked !!!

no i'm not dead just busy

not dead, just busy doing stuff - there will be words and pics when its all done !!!!

been out to play in the snow with the dog

been out playing in the snow with the dog

- its quite hard getting a good picture of the dog in the snow as it runs round like a demented idiot

this is actually a road we are playing on and not too far from our house

we go out here often as the road is quiet and the dog can run free

this is another one of our well gritted local roads as you can see - the gritters are only gritting major routes and this is only a local road so it doesnt get any

i would think it has been sort of cleared by one of the farmers as there is a farm down in the bottom

we didnt get too much snow up here but it has struggled to get much above minus 10 for most of the week - so it isnt going anywhere for a while i think

so off we went to play me, the better half, the youngest and the daft dog

we took the sledge as well and this kept me and the better half warm dragging it about and the dog ran about chasing the sledge and the snow

the dog looks knackered doesnt it - and it is asleep behind me in its basket at present - lucky thing !!

out and about this week in the wagon the weather has caused all sorts of problems

i have been in blizzards, white outs freezing rain and bright sunshine

yes its been fun to say the least

down south it was good as the roads were quiet as they all panicked and stayed at home - which was good as earlier in the week when they first got it they were taking it in turns to crash in ever more interesting ways

the further north you got the colder it got and the roads were more up to the normal traffic level - slightly less accidents but not by much

it just shows the difference in cultures - some people will take time off at the least excuse where others will just battle in - me, if i dont go in i dont get paid - simple as that - so into work i went

the weather may have been bad but over the week i delivered every load i was asked to and collected every load too - it was hard going at times - but the job has to get done - so you just get on with it

but it is nice on the weekend to go out in the snow and play with the family - enjoy it while i can back to work again tommorrow - hey ho !!!

snow snow and more bloody snow

what a day - snow and idiots

the bad picture is me parked up for the night bottom side of oxford - yes oxford - i dont think they have ever seen this much snow - chaos

right, idiots - been around the country a bit today - cumbria, humberside, yorkshire and down into oxfordshire - the same applies to all of them

there seems to be two sections of idiots on the roads

1/ see some snow, panic brake hard and then drive along at ten miles per hour

2/ignore all snow and other traffic and drive flat out and hope for the best

both are bad and usually cause an accident which wouldnt be so bad but they usually take someone else with them

there is no hard and fast way to drive in snow but try this it seems to work for me - look around be aware of others around you,leave a good gap in front of you(imagine the car in front had an accident could you stop with that gap)

drive at a steady speed do not brake hard, accelerate hard or steer hard - try to imagine a full glass of water balanced on your lap and any sudden move will spill cold water on your bits - i was lucky and got taught how to drive in snow and ice on a skidpan years ago and thats how they did it and yes i got wet quite a bit until i learned

another thing and this is a rant - before you set off clear the snow from your car - windows, lights, bonnet and roof - i have lost count of the cars and vans i have seen today looking like mobile snow drifts

think about it and look about at other vehicles and you will see - once these mobile snow drifts get going all the snow flies off and lands on the vehicles behind causing obvious problems - think harder - what would happen if snow falling from your vehicle caused an accident and they got your registration number ?

i know i go on but driving up and down the roads all day i see too many accidents and body bags and it gets to you after a while -

if only one of you take notice and save yourselves an accident it is worth the rest of you thinking i go on too much

nick....