Well, today one of my plans came to fruition; I've spent the day driving a big truck.

After a couple of weeks of sorting out paperwork and references and wotnot, I manged to get on the books of the agency and got a call at 7.45am today asking if I'd be interested in a job, I was.

I got to the depot at 8.30am and after a bit of waiting around I drove out of the gates at around 11am.

Prior to leaving I had to get the truck and back it up to a loading bay to be filled up. I didn't get off to a flying start because at first I could find the right truck and then I struggled to get it backed on to the (very narrow) loading bay. I eventually got it sussed and I don't think I did too bad considering that it was the first time I had driven anything quite that big (a refrigerated 7.5 ton) backwards.

So, I got going after sorting out how to use a tacho (had to call my dad for a few pointers!) and I started the route. It was something of a baptism of fire because the first two drops were to central London hotels (Marble Arch and Hampstead). It was quite hard navigating a great big beast of a lorry down crowded London streets, but my good lady wife helped me out by being at home with Multimap at the ready while I was a bit stressed on the (handsfree) phone, I don't think I could have done it without her. I eventually got the hang of driving it, at one point I did a 3-point-turn in Camden High-St with out running any hippies over or anything.

The next couple of drops took me south towards Sussex, a restaurant in Crawley and an Army base.

I survived the whole thing unscathed and, if asked back, I'll do it again. The only down side is the drivers hours regulations; you have to stop for 45 minutes after 4.5 hours and you can only drive for 9 in total... Saturday traffic in London eats time up and you get to the frustrating situation of having to be stationary while at the same time running late.

Best part of the day was on the way home; I was relaxed because I had got past the stage of total fear and I was actually enjoying myself, all drops had been done and I was on my way home. The sun had just set and I caught an AA van up on the M40, I didn't have the ooomph to overtake so I sat behind it up the hill out of Wycombe. I don't know if it was the yellow and red strobe lights, or the banging tunes from Judge Jules, but I almost threw a few shapes around the cab!