Having supposed to have started work at 00:30 this morning, I walked into work at 03:30. The reason for this is that I had spoken to the night supervisor earlier and had been informed that there were no trucks available and it was pointless coming in to wait around. So I enjoyed the extra time at home with my feet up – YAY!
Any way, as it happens, it turned out to be fortuitous! You see I dropped a good sized bo**ock! Instead of picking up trailer 4063, I picked up 4068 and took it to Westbury – DOH!!
Once I realised, I rang in to the office because I simply didn’t know what type of milk was onboard, how old it was, or if it had been rejected or anything.
Indeed my caution paid off, as the milk I was carrying was Skim, not Raw.
Also, I was directed to Westbury by mistake as the empty tank I would have had on my return, was desperately needed at a farm reload site.
Discussions were had and I was redirected to another depot to drop this trailer, pick up a clean empty tank and proceed to the reload site.
This actually took two hours off the time, so things were looking up.
I got to the reload site with 5 minutes of driving time left before needing a break and sorted everything
out and sat back for my 45 minute rest. Well, I would have done, but the Ex-Farm bulker came in and it was non other than WKNR… Hold it, stop right here!! Our lady White Knuckle Rider had indeed come up with a slightly better acronym… 
She (the cat’s mother) is now referred to as WKD – which also makes good sense. I chatted with WKD for a few minutes and went on my way, realising that half the conversation I had with her, probably made no sense at all.
Arrival at the dairy ended with me joining a long queue and this is where the next part of the fortunate lack of planning came in. If I had started at 00:30, I would have run out of hours – but I hadn’t called this in, so the day staff didn’t know. So halfway through a snooze the cab phone rings and the first words were “what the hell are you doing?”
I explain
ed that I was waiting the queue out and what time I actually started work. Also because I screwed up that morning, I wouldn’t be putting in my earlier time, the time I was sat at home with my feet up.
I think unfortunately they thought I was trying to book more hours, the reality is that I felt a little guilty for screwing up earlier and was trying to amend this by playing the team game and making sure I didn’t cause further inconvenience by requiring rescue, which means getting another driver, more time wasted and more money spent. A nice thought maybe, but human nature depicts that people normally think the worse. Looking on the bright side of this day – at least I didn’t take an empty trailer all the way to Oakthorpe, which someone did a few months ago.
So I’m sitting here trying my best to write this without falling asleep – ahhhh sleeeeeep, I remember you soooo well….
Time to go and hug this old body of lard and retire, good night all.
