Lockdown Part 2 Onwards

    It's half way through 2021 and seven days after my sixty second birthday and what has happened to me through these six months.

    My life, like all others in the Uk has been controlled by the rules of Covid 19, although, what the Government has decided I'm classed as part of an essential workforce, I've not had the length of furlough others have had or having. 

    Going to work during the first lockdown was very eerie as there was not the background noise to listen to while walking the hour and a half to get me to the signing on point in the western docks, five point four miles. Without a motor vehicle for three years it's been interesting in walking in early in the morning to hear how, as the lockdown's progressed the amount of traffic noise has slowly increased as people have chosen to ignore the rules and travel around for no reason. It was amusing that, although I was in my orange workwear I never got stopped and challenged by the occasional police car that would pass me, even though I had my letter of authority with me all the time, I've never needed to present it for viewing.

    Cruises died a death at the start of the first lockdown, although the ships have come and gone they were running on a minimum crew and only come in for supplies and water. When they left Southampton they usually went and joined their fellow ships off Weymouth, creating quite a phenomena, as there were

Cruise Ships off Weymouth Bay 

 a large number anchoring off the Dorset resort at that time. It's only now in June 2021 that they are now coming back into operation. Even though Covid 19 is not completely over the ships coming in are starting to take passengers, only small numbers on week long cruises round the British Isles. Staffing the cruise terminals is very restricted and I'm not being offered that work yet., so I have to stick with my other work, mainly driving cars. 

It's now almost at the end of March 2022 and as you will realise, I've only just got around to posting this. 

    Covid, although still around is being left to the individual, companies and organisations to decide how the virus will effect us, with most who have had three jabs able to go about their daily life without any restrictions. Cruising is back in full flow although the numbers going out are only just starting to return to normal. Those in the industry are waiting to hear from above as to the need, or not for carrying on with the testing before shifts from the start of April. If the answer is  if "yes we do", it will become a case of who's paying?, as English people will have to start paying for self test kits themselves from this time. Anyway time will tell. It will be useful to see if the individual cruise companies will keep the testing going and make the working day longer if they do.

    After an incident, one might say "self inflicted - or not" I'm no longer doing car driving (RORO). It's one of those jobs that was becoming boring and monotonous. "Yes it was additional hours pay, but it was quite easy to make an error and bring a damaged vehicle off the ship. This I almost did, but got stopped before I left the deck. As a result I had to write a report out and was then sent home. The following day I was advised by my agency boss that I was no longer wanted on RORO operations. As a result I am only doing Cruise Ship work now, which is a lot more enjoyable and the Managers and Supervisors treat you with respect, which is not what happens when you're on RoRo. It was funny the way things have panned out as I was thinking about quitting RoRo and the situation saved me the trouble. I'm now in the situation of getting enough stress - free work and having more time to myself at home or out and about. 

It's now the third time of putting fingers to keyboard on this post and I'm now completing it during one of my many breaks at work. Today is a vehicle marshalling job at the grain terminal in the Eastern Docks. It's the only berth that's got weighbridges on it and so anything that needs a weight comes to us, so as well as having twenty one loads of grain to arrive we have many lorries arriving to get weighed for going onto various RoRo ships. As well as all this there are four tractors and trailers going in and out of the storage shed aiming to get six hundred tons of grain loaded today, (we will see)

2005 Renault Scenic awaiting repair

During the week I got a pleasant surprise, For the past four years my previous car, a 2005 Renault Scenic has been laid up with a major electrical fault. The engine has not been run for all that time and I expected it not to want to start, or if it did it would rattle really badly. Eventually I got the battery charged up and once connected, first push of the start button and it fired up and purred like it had four years previously. All I need now is to find a mobile auto electrician to sort out the electrical fault and then I can get on with my camper conversion on it. It will be interesting to see how much longer it takes before it's back on the road. Even more good fortune during this week for the mechanic who was originally going to sort this car out for me and pulled out has now come back on board to do the job. Motor vehicle repairs are now getting back in line with original plans, with the Renault becoming a two person camper.

Anyway it's time to post this as it's now into April 2022 and its going to be major "Old News" if I leave this post any longer. So here's wishing you all the best until the next post (not too long)

Alistaire …..