When you\'re self employed - you have to get the job done

[johnf]

A long post â€" stop when you get fed up

I look after the graphics for a Nationwide chain of furniture stores and they wanted me to apply a graphic to the outside window of all their 62 stores in three days.
Managed to extend this to four days.
I split the Country in half right through the Midlands using another guy to go North â€" I went South


Sunday 6:30 start

Watfrod
Palmers Green
Loughton
Epping
Bromley
Croydon
Sutton
Kingston
Twickenham
Tottenham Court road

355 miles 18 hour day

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Monday 6:30 start

Worcester
Cheltenham
Bath
Bristol
Taunton
Exeter
Bournemouth

Finished Bournemouth at 8 pm with a view to doing a few more, however………
Started the car to find the water pump had packed up
AA arrived at 10pm and decided to take the car home â€" 157 miles
First truck took me to Fleet Services on the M3
Waited an hour for the second truck who took me round the M25 â€" M40
To Oxford Services where the tgird truck finished the trip.
Walked back in the house 6:30 am â€" 24 hours after leaving.

245 Miles + 157 with the AA â€" 24 hour day


Couldn’t not carry on with the contract so I either rent a car/van or use the T11
I decided that the T11’s extra fuel would be cheaper than hiring a vehicle so after 4 hours sleep set off back to what would have been the next stop.

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Tuesday 11:30 start

Salsbury
Southampton
Winchester
Guildford
Chichester

At Chichester I realize I don’t have enough kit to finish all the stores and will have to go home but must complete the South first

Brighton
Eastbourne
Tunbridge Wells

Set off for home around midnight â€" hit the M25, open clear road so open the T11 up a bit â€" overheats at Heathrow. Nothing serious just needs water.
Rang the AA again , tell them I need water.
They send flatbed truck to take me BACK to Clackett Lane Services.
They don’t carry water. He did however have eight bottles of Buxton Mineral Water so I blagged that and went on my way getting home at 4:30am

490 miles 17 hour day

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Wednesday

Made the missing graphice and set off at 11:30

Norwich
Mellis
Ipswich
Colchester
West Thurrock

415 miles 12 hour day

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1505 miles & 71 hours in four days  


I ended up doing 905 miles in the T11 in two days â€" never missed a beat, except for the slight overheating but I know my rad\'s not 100%

Don’t ask how much fuel I’ve bought

Stayed at home Thursday but did two site surveys today Kingston on Thames & Henley on Thames â€" just to finish the week off and only another 275 miles.


And yes the job was worth it………………………….

It\'s very satisfying when you finish something like this, the only problem is that if the promotion works they\'ll do it again aghhhhhhhhhhhh.

And thanks to Craig [tinker27] for getting on with the water pump replacement at very short notice.

[steve garbutt]

Damn sounds like you had a hard week John.
Like you say, when your self employed you just have to do it.

[Brett]

You\'ve been a busy boy John!

If you ever run into problems down south, give me a shout - we probabaly have enough kit to get you on the move again

[Jit]

No offence but it sounds like youve done it all a bit arse about face. Could you not have tried to turn the whole thing into a circle and stay at various different locations in the south for a couple of nights. You can pick up rooms from 30 quid if you look hard enough.

[johnf]

Staying out was the plan but the first night the car broke down, no option but to get it back home
And the second proposed stop out was my fault, didn\'t have enough graphics so had to come back to make more.

Had it gone to plan I think I would have shortened the trip by several hundred miles.

I\'ll get it right next time.

[shaunwil]

Very busy week ! Shows what a rotor can do, amazing the number of new cars at the side of the road !

Shaun