No Freedom from Tuesday!
This week my employer has decided to use me as some kind of technology whore. Selling my wares and pimping myself out to various customers across the land.. and what an annoying land it is.
I was supposed to see a large hardware manufacturer based in Bracknell.. no names named but from a reliability experience of their hardware I dont think the letter in the middle of their name is askew through choice.. sign probably collapsed and they kept it.
You'd think driving from Milton Keynes to Bracknell would be a fairly straightforward exercise, no meetings until 11:00am, large 3 lane motorways with an absence of roadworks between me and Bracknell and only seventy something miles.. figured about an hour or so to get there. Unfortunately I think the fact that I missed most problems on Tuesday that the world saved them all up for Wednesday and Thursday. About 10 minutes into my journey I joined the M1 (after cheating and sneaking into Newport Pagnell services because the barriers were down), 5 minutes later, right in front of me a large articulated 16 wheel monster jack knifes at about 80mph, crushing anothe car as it flipped around and causing all manner of carnage.. I was too far back to be caught up in it, but close enough to see it happen.. and it was NASTY. All three lanes blocked by this truck, with it's cab completely caved in. Couldnt actually see the car at all under the truck, but they closed the other side of the motorway to land one of the air ambulances so it must have been very serious. So after everybody was removed safely I found myself still sitting in traffic. Casually wandered up to one of the police officers at the scene to make enquiries and was told "at least a couple more hours". It was 3.
I spent three hours waiting for them to move that vehicle and reopen the road.. at which point I was too late for my meeting so that got cancelled.. decided to head straight back home. Turned around at the next junction and got stuck in the huge line of traffic of mindles idiots gawking at the wreckage still left on the other side.
So that was Wednesday, yesterday I had to drive aaaaaallll the way up to Liverpool, well actually Wilmslow but there's only about 15 miles in it at that point. Terribly terribly posh part of the country, and I thought "the north" was all depressing and poor... well, actually there were a large number of disused collapsing mill like structures and factory buildings, which if they were down south would have been turned into phenomenally expensive apartment buildings with names like "something place", "something mill" or even "the old something". Getting back still took me almost 4 hours, even though I managed almost 100 at some points on the M1 once the traffic had got moving..
So finally got back at about 9, signed into my MSN and chatted to missed ones in Seattle (dont worry im back on Friday!), and then went out to search for food.. shortly after leaving the house exhaust falls off friends car and has to be tied up using a belt, then limping home at 10mph. I was so hungry!!
Well. Two days of hell to make up for a relatively event free Tuesday. I say relatively.. the heating broke, the gas man didnt come out until 6pm, and I lost a load of email when outlook crashed half way through a file copy. Oh and my mobile died briefly and had to be refreshed, and my ipod decided to forget it's entire contents.
So.. pretty normal week so far.
Saturday I have to go to London, but that'll be a random photography session and touristy thing. Sunday I'm colleague sitting as my new "m' colleague 2.0" lands from Florida onto our miserable little island. Likely he'll be a bag of nerves and need a stiff drink as he has flying issues. Monday I'll be in Brussels.. most people know my thoughts on Belgium.
In the words of Silent Bob... gnurrrhhhewwww
(you know the noise I mean!)
I was supposed to see a large hardware manufacturer based in Bracknell.. no names named but from a reliability experience of their hardware I dont think the letter in the middle of their name is askew through choice.. sign probably collapsed and they kept it.
You'd think driving from Milton Keynes to Bracknell would be a fairly straightforward exercise, no meetings until 11:00am, large 3 lane motorways with an absence of roadworks between me and Bracknell and only seventy something miles.. figured about an hour or so to get there. Unfortunately I think the fact that I missed most problems on Tuesday that the world saved them all up for Wednesday and Thursday. About 10 minutes into my journey I joined the M1 (after cheating and sneaking into Newport Pagnell services because the barriers were down), 5 minutes later, right in front of me a large articulated 16 wheel monster jack knifes at about 80mph, crushing anothe car as it flipped around and causing all manner of carnage.. I was too far back to be caught up in it, but close enough to see it happen.. and it was NASTY. All three lanes blocked by this truck, with it's cab completely caved in. Couldnt actually see the car at all under the truck, but they closed the other side of the motorway to land one of the air ambulances so it must have been very serious. So after everybody was removed safely I found myself still sitting in traffic. Casually wandered up to one of the police officers at the scene to make enquiries and was told "at least a couple more hours". It was 3.
I spent three hours waiting for them to move that vehicle and reopen the road.. at which point I was too late for my meeting so that got cancelled.. decided to head straight back home. Turned around at the next junction and got stuck in the huge line of traffic of mindles idiots gawking at the wreckage still left on the other side.
So that was Wednesday, yesterday I had to drive aaaaaallll the way up to Liverpool, well actually Wilmslow but there's only about 15 miles in it at that point. Terribly terribly posh part of the country, and I thought "the north" was all depressing and poor... well, actually there were a large number of disused collapsing mill like structures and factory buildings, which if they were down south would have been turned into phenomenally expensive apartment buildings with names like "something place", "something mill" or even "the old something". Getting back still took me almost 4 hours, even though I managed almost 100 at some points on the M1 once the traffic had got moving..
So finally got back at about 9, signed into my MSN and chatted to missed ones in Seattle (dont worry im back on Friday!), and then went out to search for food.. shortly after leaving the house exhaust falls off friends car and has to be tied up using a belt, then limping home at 10mph. I was so hungry!!
Well. Two days of hell to make up for a relatively event free Tuesday. I say relatively.. the heating broke, the gas man didnt come out until 6pm, and I lost a load of email when outlook crashed half way through a file copy. Oh and my mobile died briefly and had to be refreshed, and my ipod decided to forget it's entire contents.
So.. pretty normal week so far.
Saturday I have to go to London, but that'll be a random photography session and touristy thing. Sunday I'm colleague sitting as my new "m' colleague 2.0" lands from Florida onto our miserable little island. Likely he'll be a bag of nerves and need a stiff drink as he has flying issues. Monday I'll be in Brussels.. most people know my thoughts on Belgium.
In the words of Silent Bob... gnurrrhhhewwww
(you know the noise I mean!)
posted by Nix at
3:41 AM
2 Comments:
Sounds like your move across the pond won't come soon enough for for you. The UK is a fab place to be, once you leave the comfort of your car and the motorway behind... There is spectacular countryside just a few paces from the car park, try the lakes in Cumbria for one (if you get the chance before you depart) totally breathtaking... As for customer service, yep, room for improvement at some establishments, but would we Brits really stand for the constant annoying 'have a nice day' etc. - me thinks not. Anyway, hope the move goes well for you, I believe you will fit in very well in America.
Actually I've always said I'll miss the countryside rather a lot. Not so much Cumbria but especially Cornwall, the home counties and Glocestershire. But those are places that I can pop back and visit... when it comes to actually *living* somewhere, customer service, cost of living, and a whole heap of other things.. USA unfortunately trumps UK. As for the "have a nice day" thing, the dont say it that much in Washington state, and I kind of like it... everybody's terribly polite and pleasant. Vampiric shop assistants who pounce the moment you walk in took some dealing with, you just have to treat everywhere like personal shopping!
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home