As such, here’s my week in a nutshell:

Monday: Got back from ‘oop north – had the day off so parked up then went and got spannered (in my defence, it’s a long drive and it must have dehydrated me – I just chose alcohol to rehydrate). Bri paid up his rent so I chucked a few quid in the ticket machine – result! £300 winner to be cashed tomorrow…

Tuesday: After my first night back in my bed, my body just refused to wake up – finally got up around1ish, by the time I’d had a bath it was almost 3 so I didn’t go in to work…

Wednesday: Made it into work – boss made the comment “Good weekend then?” (and it was – apart from narrowly escaping a beating/death in Wingate, but that’s another story), finally caught up with emails etc. by about noon – arranged my trip to Gatwick for the next day – sorted.

Thursday: Had to go to the workshop to pickup the van with all the testing stuff in it – got there, loaded what I needed 😐 (don’t even let me get started on that one…), before I left I got a bunch of jacks together for Jet2.com who were picking up at 9…this made it 8.30 before I left.

This meant I caught all the rush-hour traffic going into/out of Stevenage, but still made it to Gatwick for 10.45. Parked up near the security building and called my contact at Thomas Cook to come landside and sort my pass out.

~~~~~~ time passing ~~~~~~

At almost 12, I got the paperwork and headed to the security place to get my passes done (1 for me, 1 for tools, 1 for the vehicle) – by 12.45 I was in the vehicle queue to go airside…and this is where it started to go slightly wrong…

So, mine was the first vehicle of about 5 to be checked over while the occupants go through the usual airport security check – only my pass wouldn’t scan.

“You’ll have to go back to security and get another pass.” said the (admittedly hot) woman failing to scan my card…

And so, I arranged for Gary from Thomas Cook to take the van airside, then walk back to meet me while I got my NEW pass, so I could be allowed to go do my job 😐 (and my mates think it’s easy what I do! just GETTING to do it is tough)

Second time trying, I cleared to go airside, got to Thomas Cook’s line station and had a lovely cup of tea 🙂

Worked through what I was there to do, and, as is my usual thing – rather than ‘hit and run’ – I suggested I could test/inspect anything coming up due in the next few months (the idea is to get ALL the gear at one specific place due at one time – does that not make sense? strange as it may seem, I don’t want to be flying to Prestwick, or driving to Gatwick more than once a year…). Of course, this meant it was 3.30 before I left – no chance of getting the van back to St Neots and in for it’s MOT that night, so I texted the office and let them know I was taking it home and would drop it off at the garage first thing. Just found out that the garage doesn’t open until 8.30 (I’m usually at work an hour before that) so my dilemma is:

1. Do I just wait for the garage to open and take the van in, wait for it to get the MOT and then go in?
2. Do I go in at my normal time, then take the van down?
3. Realise my office key is in my car – at Barford, so wait for a lift in at 9ish…

I’ll probably do the second one to be honest – gotta get the reports and certificates done for today’s work (2 pages! woop, woop!), and I should endear myself to the boss seeing as I had an unauthorised day off this week…

And so, there you have my week so far in a nutshell – as for last weekend…was really, really good to see everyone up there again, and I had a great time 🙂 – although driving 210 miles with Bob pissed out of his head beside you is a bit of a strain though…and service stations don’t sell straight jackets and/or gags.

Payday tomorrow (and cashing in my £300 ticket – think I may have won £5 – actually £3 – on the lotto too), my kinda plan is to have a civilised weekend – may pop down to London and see some more of the National Gallery (it blew my mind the little I have seen…)

Bath and bed for me I think…ciao