Twisted Kites

There has been another accident involving a National Express coach seemingly going too fast (and driver reported to have been drink-driving), resulting in the vehicle overturning onto it’s offside, this time at Newport Pagnell services (southbound) on the M1.

Link (BBC):  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/beds/bucks/herts/6976710.stm

Breaking news on the Highways Agency website: “Highways Agency advises drivers to take care whilst driving”. No shit! lol.

Been chaotic at work the last couple of days, with normal pre-weekend traffic, rain rain and a little bit more rain, end of school traffic, inconsiderate dozy arseholes crashing their cars making our passengers late, floods…think that’s almost everything. Hopefully it will substantially quieter tomorrow, being a Saturday and all.

Where is everyone going? To the airports if they have any sense.

A friend of mine wants to set me up with a friend of his fiancee. Not sure about the whole set-up blind-date type thing but can do no harm I guess! It’s very rare that I meet nice single girls so any opportunity is good.

Back on a late shift tonight. Every shift I had since returning from holiday has been hectic. Monday the M42 was shut backing up to Coventry. Tuesday a coach I switched a load of people onto gained a burst radiator, luckily still at the services so had to put them all back on the original, plus the M6 was closed at Birmingham but luckily I managed to get onto the Toll road mere metres before the back of the queue was starting. Wednesday I was informed that my coach had broken down in Manchester so had to wait for it, not only that but the M6 was shut at Stafford so it had to divert. Thursday it was on time but a big traffic jam on the M1 at 10pm, normally empty by that time.

Yesterday I was off, and tonight the M1 is shut for bridge-smashing so hopefully the M40 will be flawless.

Also my Ireland pics are now on my Flickr page, along with a load of my other photos.

Had 20 minutes at Corley services earlier, on the way down from Manchester, as usual.

Went in, got a coffee, but didn’t get a voucher (a credit to spend on-site as mentioned in a previos post). The lady at the till said they’d ran out,as they are giving extras out generally. No big deal, that’s not the reason I stop there! She kept apologising and said I’d get one next time I’m in, I kept saying don’t worry about it, it’s fine.

I’m not fussed about receiving the voucher, I just like somewhere friendly to let my passengers off at and somewhere I can get a drink and maybe a snack without being ripped off. It’s the simple respectful treatment I received today that makes it worthwhile, and obviously encourage me to give them more business.

Some other service station operators and or locations might learn a thing or two here.

Apparently there has been some utterly terrible treatment towards our drivers at Watford Gap while I’ve been off. But I won’t discuss it yet until I found out exacly what happened and all that; I only speak out against people/companies where it’s really deserved!

Anyway, well done to Welcome Break at Corley for that bit of respect and friendly service. For that I’d encourage anybody to stop off there.

It’s bank holiday weekend. I’m I’m working it yet again! The last couple of B/Hs have had relatively good traffic, not so much this weekend. Wonder if it’ll be any better this evening.

Managed to finally find some of those really nice chocolates that I mentioned on my old blog. Good old Woolworths! I thought I’d probably have to wait til I went to Ireland (as theyre Irish) so was nice to find them. They are milk chocolate filled with caramel and a dark chocolate top. Not too sweet, just right.

Less than 2 weeks til i go away. That is plenty of time for the sunshine to return. Yesterday was raining and windy and horrible to drive in. Even more so as the cars on the motorway cannot handle it (even drizzle) and slow to 50 like idiots (if they can’t drive on the motorway, get OFF the motorway!) so have to try weave round them using whatever gaps are possible (because they sit at 50 in all lanes no matter what’s around).

Even walking down the Chinese last night it was so cold and blustery it felt like November. Horrible.