I think I'm happy

Today I got the news that I've been waiting months for. The DVLA have finally said that I can go back to driving for a living. I should be jumping up and down and punching the air; it's all I've really wanted.
But I'm not. Pleased, yes. But this isn't the way I thought I would feel.
So much frustration has taken it's toll. The endless phone calls, letters and missed deadlines has been hard to take. I'll stop moaning now.

Not sure what sort of job I've got to go back to. My old truck is with a new driver and there aren't any spares. Guess I'll be 'Holiday Cover Boy'. So this weekend it will be sorting out my crap and getting ready for Monday. It might even mean some new videos on Youtube.

'Trainee Lab Rat'

It's now over half way through January and still no good news from my dear friends at the DVLA. I had another letter from them yesterday putting the blame on the delay at the feet of my consultant.

So now I have two institutions that I have to hassle to get my HGV licence back. It's a never ending saga of phone calls and letters backwards and forwards between Swansea, me and my consultant. I'm sick of it. A classic case of one step forward and two steps back.

The company I work for; Recticel; have been really good so no complaints there. They could have kept me away as I am not able to do the job I was employed for. All credit to them for at least finding me something to do and continuing to pay me at my old rate. It's still a kick in the lower regions not being able to do the job I love.

This last week has seen me swopping the transport office for the new delights of being a 'Trainee Lab Rat'.

For the last week I have been working in our companies testing lab. Goodbye diesel and timed deliveries and hello, Tensile Stress Testing. I'm using maths that I haven't used in nearly forty years!

One good side of this is that I have learned more in a day than I have over the last five years on how our company operates. It's been an eye-opener.

Setting fire to foam to see how your sofa would behave in a fire is just one of the things that have kept me busy. Pulling, crushing, heating and weighing foam samples before they go to customers has been a real change to my daily work.

Good fun and it's got my brain working. Work out the density of a piece of foam in kg/m3. Work out the percentage stretch before reaching breaking point etc etc. It hurts your grey cells at first but soon becomes dead easy :-)

My tales of self pity are rather pathetic though compared with what others are going through. One of my fellow drivers, Paul C, is in hospital following major surgery to his brain. It makes my problems seem very small compared to what both he and his family are going through. I really must make the effort to go and see him this week.

Over and out for now.