Kerry’s Blog November 2022 (Van Driving Skills)
Well November has been and gone and I’m now just reflecting what I’ve been up to. It’s a bit like where do I begin….
I’m now another year older ☹… and still thinking I’m 21, ok maybe 22. Seriously though it doesn’t matter how old you are, you can still learn something new every day. I know I do and it doesn’t matter if you’ve been doing the job for 30 years or 5 minutes.
One thing that I do think that I’m improving on is my van driving skills (though I think Tom may disagree). I have been driving the work van for 5-6 years but the first few years only infrequently and then only on main roads, which was nothing too stressful.
It wasn’t until the first lockdown that I had to start driving the van every day, due to me having too, as we had furloughed our staff due to Social Distancing. So, it was only Tom and I working.
Three days a week I had to travel into Taunton to work as a Key Worker and after my day job I was having to collect or deliver machines on the way home. Believe me when I say I was outside of my comfort zone, as a lot of these houses were down little narrow windy lanes. I do have to admit, I did wonder why people brought these properties in hard to get to places. The answer to that is quite simple when you see the location and properties, there are some really stunning places out there. However, they’re also not driving a great big van.
There were times when I got lost (I’m not a local) and when this happens, I do get frustrated but even more so in a van, which did lead to some really interesting and quite frank phone conversations to Tom who was back at base.
Nearly three years later have I got used to driving the van, I think I’m getting there however I do have to remember that I’m driving a Tom Williams Garden Machinery marked van and I’m not incognito… So I’ve learnt the art of smiling or waving at people and on the subject of waving it’s really quite amazing how many people wave to me in the morning when I’m driving to work, I do try to wave back but on the odd occasion I do miss people for which I do apologise.