I support the truckies, I really do - let's face it, it was always going to be an inconvenience, but their increased costs affect us all because they're going to end up coming out of our back pocket one way or the other. The cost of everything will go up even further because the truckies will have to pass it on.
They were starting their protest in Auckland city at 7.30am, so since I'm usually in the vicinity of Newmarket by about 7.30, I gave myself an extra half hour head-start to get ahead of the increased traffic probably doing the same, and thought I'd be sweeeeet. I was even amused when I tried to get onto the motorway this morning and it was at a dead stop. For about 10 minutes. The protest in the city was all well and good, but no one had mentioned the rolling blocks and stops on the motorways which started at goodness knows what hour of the morning, but which caused and are still causing absolute carnage.
After an hour I rang my boss to say that I wasn't even half way to work yet, so I wouldn't be in in a hurry. I also rang a friend of mine who is a truckie, and was in the thick of it all, to yell at him because I really needed to pee and I can not do holding on these days (aside from my bladder being the size of a pea, it irritates my endo something wicked and the pain is something else entirely). He assured me that he'd put it across the radio, whilst killing himself laughing. 15 minutes later when I was still parked in exactly the same spot, I could see a block of trucks ahead of me, nothing moving in any direction and I had had to make use of my collection of sick bags (I also need to eat at regular intervals, and today of all days I was going to buy my lunch so I didn't have any supplies!), I took my chances turning around and get home. That part of the trip went really well - there was no traffic at all heading south.
So, I'm cooling my heels at home, watching TV for news, and checking various online resources (although the webcams are down) and trying to work out whether it's worth trying to get into work or not. Marvellous.
7 comments:
Apart from that post being hilarious, check out this:
http://tinyurl.com/3k9d4h
xo
P.S. Trucks do an awful lot of damage to the roads and pay around ~20% for the cost of repairing them. Cars do less damage to the roads and pay around ~60% of the cost of repairing them. ;)
ETA: Don't rely on my figures... merely regurgitating stuff that my learned workmate was saying earlier. Except my poor little brain forgot the exact figures.
Lied horribly about figures. Trucks pay for 53% of their costs on the roads. Cars seem to cover the rest (as well as their own costs... as far as I know).
Ooooooh. Eeek!
As it turned out, trying to get to work was a complete waste of time. The lunchtime news reported that motorways and roads should be cleared in about an hour. Since I live in South Auckland and I finish at 3pm I saved my poor abused petrol tank more pain for the day.
Besides, No. 9 is being a bit of a shite and twice so far today I've gone to move and my hip has argued a rather strong case against doing so, so the rest has been good. I'm not liking this hip thing.
Ah you poor thing. No. 9 should be giving you a sweet deal by now shouldn't he?
Yay for a "day off" though :D
I hear it's a shame you didn't pick up a compass on one of your recent shopping excursions.
Maybe Santa will bring you one if you're a good little ginger?
:-)
It's part of my charm that I'm half retard :-)
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