My 1 day away

Hubby came home from work early on Thursday around 5pm, and said he was only home for a short time and that he had a suprise he was off to Belgium, So he came home for some clean clothes, and his trucking gear and passport and last but not least MEEEEEEEEE..




yes you saw it right I was going to Belgium, just for one night.

<<< Belgium

we had to get to Barton-upon-Trent in Derby shire first, by 9pm to pick up his delivery,(car parts)

Barton-upon-treant

and then on to Dover for 2am sailing.

All was going well till we got to Darby, the car parts were not ready and wouldn't be ready till
10.30/11, which meant we might not make the 2am sailing and we would have to wait till the 4am sailing wasn't really looking forward to have to be waiting around for hours in cold docks,but
it turned out the company in Darby were good and got truck loaded by 10pm and off we went to Dover and just made it, with about half hour to spare Phew!!! we boarded the ship and
off we sailed to .Dunkerque..

<<<Norfolk liner

It was 4am Friday morning when we got to Dunkerque and still within hubby's driving time (he has to by law drive for 4/half hrs and then have a 45 minute break) we were told the delivery was to go to a place at Brussels airport, and as we were never in Belgium/Brussels before I as co driver had to read map (hee hee ), and yes you guessed it we got lost, reading maps and looking for street names is hard, and no we hadn't a European sat nav either, but we had more or less all day to get to where we were supposed to go.

We got to centre of Brussels by following the signs for airport as you do!!!and ended up driving down this tunnel in city centre,

<<<Tunnel

which was not supposed to be for trucks and as hubby was panicking I got the giggles, I could not stop from laughing when the noise in tunnel from the truck hitting off the roof was extremely loud and took about fifteen minutes to go through, we emerged with relief, but we were still lost, so I told hubby to stop someone and ask for directions, which he did this is the conversation that took place

<<<<

Hubby " excuse me please, can you direct me to the airport

Passerby " In French/Dutch which hubby didn't understand

Hubby " shaking his head and showing the man the map and saying Sorry I don't understand,

Passerby "do you speak English"(in English)

Hubby "huh"

Passerby " In perfect English he said again" do you speak English"

Hubby " yeah"

Passerby " No sorry can't sorry"

At that hubby looked at me and I just burst out laughing, can't write the rest cos it's full of bleeps lol lol so I told hubby to find parking spot and we can go for coffee and maybe we can ask someone else, that will understand what we are looking for, to cut long story short we eventually got to airport only to discover that the place we were delivering to was not at airport but near it, so I had to ring company and be directed to where it was situated, which by the way was no-where the airport!!!

<<< Airport

All delivered and unloaded so now all we had to do was look for somewhere to stay and eat and set off in morning, cos off driving law hubby couldn't drive for 12 hrs, so we stopped up and rested in truck stop in Brussels....

Go up early to start heading back to Dunkerque and hubby received phone call, he had another pick-up to do that came in over the night and it was in Maastricht in Holland for Portsmouth in UK and pick up was for 7am their time(they are an hour ahead of UK) so off we went to Holland, and my map reading was not that bad, (thank God)

<<<<Maastrich

so we found company easily enough got loaded and off we went to Dunkerque to catch the ferry home, and this was the tricky bit because we had to travel back through Brussels,we got stuck in traffic for 2 hrs now as my map reading skills were getting better hubby wasn't really listening to where I was telling him to go, what turns to take turns etc so I said OK you look out for signs for docks and left him to it lol lol while i admired the scenery anyway he was behind this English truck for ages and decided to follow it his logic was that it was English and going to docks for ship too, but what ship and from what port ??? ah you guessed not Dunkerque, the truck was going to Calais, and I knew it was going there cos as he over took the truck at one point I noticed a sticker on window saying Dover to Calais, now do I tell him or leave it and see what happens, no I told him, I wanted to go home, just as well because we could have gone a long way away

We were queuing up for customs for ship when the women asked when we booked our passage and hubby explained that he didn't but his boss did, and she said that she could not find our names on list and with a half hour to boarding we were cutting it fine so we had to ring boss and he in turn rang the booking agent and discovered that they never booked for our return, but they would now, so we had to go through customs check and they check truck for whatever and passports, and the customs officer asked me why does Dublin, (where I'm from) have 3 names in Irish on my passport ( Bailie Atha Cliath) now I thought oh god what does he want to know that for was it a trick question etc, what if I get it wrong will he let me through etc so I told him it means home town Dublin, and he said "ah that's interesting never knew that, some of my friends are Irish and I asked them but they don't know " oh and enjoy your trip home" That was all!!!the sweat was running off me I thought I was having a hot flush, I'm useless going through customs even though I haven't done anything wrong, I always get like that just nerves!!

Another 2 hours and we would be back on home turf so from Dover to Portsmouth here we come

white cliffs of Dover

and another night away from home, so we got unloaded in Portsmouth and hubby was fiddling with his sat nav whilst trying to steer and I'm telling him to pull over and fiddle with sat nav, he gets pulled up by the police, the police officer said "sir do you know why we pulled you over??

Hubby said "No officer" well said the police officer" you were swerving back there so we have to check" so he was brutalised and truck was checked, when they were finished he got back into truck and I laughed, see I told ya!!!!! feeling smug lol lol we found a premier Inn and booked in for the night and slept (oh and I missed children in need and CSI) but got up at 7am Saturday morning and headed home to Doncaster.So my one night turned into 3 days 2 nights, and all I brought back with me was very sore and cracked lips, why???? I don't know, must have been the dry air in truck from heated I think....That was my 3 days Adventure....

<< <<Doncaster