I knew today was going to be a tough one as I had to travel from London last night and then pretty much was back on the road to Manchester Airport for the flight to Brussels. To make matters worse it was very foggy last night and was lucky I could keep my speed up to around 60 m.p.h. almost all the way. It was quite easy to find the airport parking which was signposted well and the bus transfer to the terminal arrived almost immediately. I was flying from Terminal 3 which is really nice, very modern and a few shops to look around and even a bar serving beer at five in the morning which seems not so appealing to me for some reason. Mind you even if I had wanted one I am driving when I get to Brussels so would have been out of the question.
Most of the people around me at the airport seem to be going on holiday which led to an air of excitement even at that time of the morning, rather than abstract misery you normally get from Heathrow when most travellers are doing it for business.
It was at this point I remembered the first thing I had forgotten, a UK plug converter which was going to be a problem as I need to keep my phone charged up as well as my laptop, so it was off to the joke shop to buy one I presume is plated with rolled gold. I presumed that as the price seem to fit the fact it was coated in some expensive material for them to charge the price they do for such a simple item. But I suppose one may say, in that case, don’t forget it in future.
The plane boarded and time but didn’t manage to get a take off slot for another 30 minutes and I say apparently as I didn’t know as I was asleep before all the passengers had even boarded. I woke up on approach to Brussels feeling nice and refreshed and once through customs it was time to find my hire car.
I thought at this point our drive across America may have cured my nervousness about driving on the wrong side of the road but after almost a year of not doing it I was as bad as ever. But my worry was more taken up by trying to figure out what the notices say on the road. In our country we have little pictures that, I agree some are a bit confusing to what they should mean but most what they say. A picture of a cow means there is a cow about etc etc etc. But over here they seem to have phrases and of course in French. I did get a few like Werkin in eelko I guessed means workmen in road as about 100 yards further on some guys were stood chatting in the road with high vis vests on. However just outside Genk there was a lot of excitement about flingdingden and wasn’t really sure. I started to think it may be the Belgium equivalent of the Samali Pirates and maybe they were warning drivers that there could be flingdingden pirates about ready to take you hostage and not allow you to go to work. I therefore slowed down but nothing happened.
I had the full address and postcode inserted into the Sat Nav and as expected was dumped right in the town centre and about 5 miles from the place I wanted to be, therefore spent the same amount of time it had taken me to drive from Brussels to Dunkirk just driving round a town looking for a steel plant that was about 5 miles by 5 miles in size. Surprising how hard that is to find, but find I did and instantly wished I hadn’t. I went into reception and tried the only French I know which is parley vouz English and told her who I was looking for. I would have got less reaction if I had just walked in and told her I had run over her daughter in my 40 tonne lorry. She started sprouting a load of French at double volume, ran to the door, waving her arms about and pointed me in what turned out to be exactly the opposite direction to where I wanted to be and then promptly went back inside making sure she shut the door behind her.
I stood outside the building looking through the glass at her as she got back behind her desk and promptly started staring back. Not sure what I did wrong.
I got back in the car and after a few phone calls and another 5 mile drive in circles I found the person I was due to meet. Another question about French traffic lights, why do they have Red, Amber and Green lights, when everyone I have seen so far only uses Red and Green and completely missed out the Amber light. Must be a French thing.
After all this faffing about i had about 8 minutes of working time left today which meant I got to go back to the hotel and after agreeing to meet the guys at 19:30 to go out for a bite to eat, I went to my room and fell asleep. Seems they have all gone without me as I am now wide awake at 23:00 and really thirsty with no water left.
Time to upload and then try and get some more sleep before my first full day of working to do in France.
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