Hope Floats...

... or in this case at least doesn't drown. ;-)


For once my prayers were answered. Maybe a bit more forcefully than I would of liked, but I am now actually back home from Norfolk. My boss actually wanted me back in the office today so he "motivated" anotehr engineer to finish on time to releave me. What that actually meant was he ask (read: ordered) me to come back after finishing cremations on the Tuesday night.

Although luck wasn't with me for the entire time I was there. I was actually in Kings Lynn (a place Dave knows well). And I quite agree with Dave, there isn't a lot there. I drove down there on the the Monday morning setting off very early about 6 ish. I also had to use my own car. As I explained on Sunday this was all hastily arranged. What I forgot to mention was that the company pool car was unavailable.

"We'll sort you a car, don't worry". Was a phrase used quite a lot that afternoon, but by the end of the afternoon/early evening (about 6:20 ish) there was just me, my boss and his boss left in the building and guess what? Yep, no car. This saga continues later. So as mentioned earlier Monday morning finds me in my little car full of tools, on the A17 getting...

... lost!!!

I have a sat nav program and to quote Top Gear's James May "It's only as good as the clot that programs it". I set it for the right street, but in the wrong part of town. Doh, doesn't even begin to cover it!

Anyway I eventually reached the crematorium, where I've actually had what could be called a fairly easy time of it. Yes, I've worked 2 12 hour days, but they were what could be really classed as "Babysitting". Hence why my boss wanted me back in the office to do some real work.

A word about the operators. I knw Norfolk can breed them 'odd' but I've yet to come across a group odder than this lot. They think they are funny, and most of the time they are, the other times they just made me cringe. The most cringe worthy of them all was actually Canadian though! Go figure!

So I finished work on the Monday evening and made all haste to the hotel. Only to find the hotel didn't have a booking for me. I have since discovered this was the hotels fault, but at the time I was contemplating crucifing the project manager at work. I tried the Travel Inn's but the nearest one with a room was a 30 miles away in Boston. I eventually was directed to a hotel in the centre of Kings Lynn that looked like it was waiting for the 80's to come back into fashion! Still it had a roof and would feed me so it would do for the evening.

Tuesday evening saw me driving back along the A17 towards home and getting stuck behind lots of slow HGV's and tractors. The A17 is a single carriageway with very few passing points especially for a car like mine.so it took me almost a 1/3 longer to get home becasue of it, finally getting back just in time for "Extra Time" in the football.

Back to the company car saga. When I got back in the office this morning I have been making big hints that I probably should have a company car with all of the last minute travelling I do. My boss has finally taken the hint, he's going to speak to his boss (eventually) although I'll probably have to keep reminding him. So watch this space...