Highs and Lows

I had an old F10 with a 240bhp engine, but it had a splitter and air conditioning that didn't work, and was very,very rusty! One morning I jumped in after a wet weekend and looked up in the dark and realised that the roof lining was bulging. Being female I had to prod it and had at least a gallon of water cascaded on to my lap! Every year we used to do Cornish potatoes in bulkers up to Walkers crisps in Leicester from Lands End and Fraddon hill was a challenge to say the least! I would do 6 weeks of 3 loads a week and that lorry never broke down, rusty it may have been, but it was so well maintained. For me this was the high spot of the year and this job alone would have kept me on this firm forever because to me Cornwall is Gods Country. All the farms were west of Penzance and most were down to Lands End and turn left around the coastline to Bosistow, Porthgwarra and by the Merry Maidens Standing Stones to Boscawen Rose. Every one of them was on top of the cliff and I would stand in the back of the bulker loading and dreaming, watching the small fishing boats going about their days work and of course the bigger ships from Falmouth and Plymouth off to places unknown. HMS Scillonian off to the Scilly Isles every day and loaded with people that were going to discover Tresco's wonderful sub tropical gardens. I would have happily stayed down there for the rest of my life. Two very important things happened to me in my time with this firm. I eventually got an old hand me down Scania 112 and realised what 'Three Steps to Heaven' meant. To me they are a piece of precision engineering and design second to none. Without a doubt, the King of the Road, and I still drive one today, with pride. The second was that a new driver started who was to become my husband within 6 months, and we were both made redundant within 2 months of getting married due to the falling fortunes of the firm. There wasn't a lot of work around and we struggled to find jobs. We took a job moving Heston Straw bales on a low loader from all over East Anglia for a local Farmer. This was supposed to be just for the harvest season but I was asked to take my CPC and try and get a small haulage business up and running for him. As this meant we could continue to work together and I could do a home study course it seemed like a good idea and we eventually swapped the old FL10 for a Scania 142, aptly named Silver Shadow. At last I had my V8 that I had dreamed of for so long and it was the second love of my life.