Tuesday 26 March 2013

Cold, seriously cold.

Route: Yard - Fareham - Coventry - Yard
KM travelled: 458
Hours: 18.35-03.20
Wildlife seen: None, too dark. Not even on the way home.
Music listened to: Radio 3 Bach concert, Billy Idol 11 of the best, Janice Long on Radio 2, Broadside by Bellowhead.

It is seriously cold. Last night the thermometer in my truck did not get above 0 and that didn't take into account the windchill factor. I got out of the truck in Coventry and had to crunch over snow to take my number plate off the trailer I was dropping. Once I had turned off the A34 onto the M40 the fields either side of me were glistening in the moonlight.

It could be beautiful.

But I am not a cold weather person. I hate being cold and cold wind is my least favourite weather of all. It is a lazy wind, blowing straight through you, not bothering to go round. It goes straight through clothes too. Since I have been doing agency work I have only had the basics of clothing provided and a large coat was not included. For the last two winters I have resisted buying my own coat, I just resent spending money on workwear, but this year I succumbed.

I am pretty proud of my £12.50 ex-traffic cop coat from the local market, it is even fleecy lined. No hood, but you can't have everything.

I don't even have to spend that much time outside, not like when I worked for a builders merchant. It is basically just the time spent walking from the office to the unit followed by the time spent coupling up the trailer, and then just reversing the procedure at my destination. It is the fuelling up that gets me though. When you're coupling up, you're always on the move or having to put some effort into connecting the cables. But at the end of last night's shift, I had been sitting in a lovely toasty warm truck for nearly 3 hours, and then I had to get out and stand in the bitter wind for 5 minutes fuelling up. Our yard is very close to Southampton Water and is flat and open so whichever side of the truck you stand, you can never get out of the wind.

It is brutal at that time of the morning.

Surely this cold can't last much longer.

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