One of those days

The morning quickly turned into what became ‘one of those days’. As I was cutting the rest of my firewood, I managed to nick my thumb. It immediately leaked blood profusely. I followed that by catching my finger of the opposite hand on the very sharp blade of the same bow saw. I managed to stem the bleeding quickly enough. A piece of wood dropped by the fence as I was chopping. I leant over to retrieve it and caught my nose on a thorn I hadn’t noticed. More blood.

As I was finishing up, I got chatting to an older chap. He suggested that I should try to park in Clowes Wood. I thanked him and was soon thereafter, ready to roll.

I pulled out of the car park and continued on along Hicks Forstal Lane to the end. It is a beautiful woodland drive. At the end of the road, I turned right onto the A291. A couple of miles on there is a left turn that takes one directly to Thornden Woods. As I approached it, I quickly gauged that the road didn’t look suitable. I kept going knowing that the next junction to the left would take me around to Thornden Woods via a village called Bullockstone. But lo! The road was closed and a diversion had been put in place. I followed the signs until the last sign which stated that the diversion had come to an end. However, I was still nowhere near where I wanted to be. The diversion ended at a large roundabout over the Thanet Way. I turned back on myself in the hope that I had somehow missed something. Nope. Instead I found myself practically back where I started. I decided to use the little lane I had dismissed.

But of course, it was ‘one of those days’. The lane, called New Road, is gated after half a mile. I stopped and had a wander to see if there was any way of turning around. Fortunately, there is. I got back to the truck to find a lady whose home I was stopped outside. She told me of a way that I could get to Thornden Woods. I thanked her, turned around and stopped again for the directions. It was very simple; turn left, get on Thanet Way, second junction, follow road for Chestfield. Easy. So off I went.

I turned left and joined the Thanet Way. It started raining. The rain became torrential. The wipers stopped working again! I had to continue without until I came to a layby. I pulled in. Rowan kept trying to get out as I was struggling under dashboard to refit the connecting rod. I eventually managed to get it fixed again just as it stopped raining.

On we went to the junction required. I pulled off and turned right following the sign for Chestfield, to a roundabout where the is no signpost directing one to Chestfield. I assumed that I should therefore continue on. But of course, being ‘one of those days’, that was wrong. Instead, I ended up having to negotiate my way through the town of Whitstable! Eventually, a narrow one-way system brought me back on myself and I returned to the roundabout where from the Whitstable direction, a signpost directs one to Chestfield.

A supermarket beckoned. I pulled in to top up with groceries, then continued on. The road took me past Clowes Wood. I decided that I may as well pull in there as suggested. Of course, that didn’t happen. Why? Bloody height barriers again! I continued on to the junction with Thornden Wood Road. I turned into it and followed it to my original intended park up.

But of course, it was still ‘one of those days’. There was no space to turn around. I wandered up and down, but couldn’t find a place to turn around anywhere. I had to reverse out onto the road, pull forward, then reverse back into the car park. “Finally!”, I thought. But no, of course not! Somewhere along the way, the power lead for the caravan running lights had become detached and was now mullered. It was too badly damaged to repair.

Also, the caravan was scratched and I obviously needed to sort a better fix re the wipers.

With no dogs about, Rowan took the opportunity to parade around and get plenty of fussing. Within no time I got talking to a number of people. A Scottish fella said that he would’ve helped had he not been working. He is a care worker of some sort and was out with one of his patients. (Is that the right term?) He took my number saying that if he found time, he would help. He did contact me via my Instagram page a few days later. I then discovered his name is Gordon. With everything that was going on at the time, I neglected to ask.

Then I noticed a bloke hovering around the truck. Intrigued, I went to investigate. The bloke in question said that he loved my set-up. We got talking. I explained my predicament and asked whether he was local. “Yes. he said, “I’ll get you a new plug and bring it to you in the morning.” I offered to give him some money up front. He refused the offer saying that we could sort it out in the morning.

About half an hour later, the Scottish fella, Gordon, reappeared. He said that he had spotted and asked some workmen whether any of them could help. In a moment or two, the workmen appeared. I again explained the predicament. They said that they would find a spare back at their yard and drop it off in the morning.

It couldn’t have been more than an hour later when the bloke who liked the truck reappeared and handed me a brand new plug, a metal one at that. He also handed me a bag of coal. Amazing! Lee, as he introduced himself, refused all offers of some form of payment.

Twenty minutes later, one of the workmen appeared. Tom is his name. He also handed me a plug. He said that he couldn’t find one at the yard, so nicked the one off of his boat trailer. I showed him the one I had just been given. “No worries.” he said, “Keep it as a spare, I don’t need it. The boat is on the water.” I did at least get him to stop for a cup of tea.

Unbelievable. What brilliant blokes!

While all this was going on, Michael telephoned. I told him about my day. He reminded me that I have a spare plug on the lightboard that I have in the truck! I always carry a lightboard for whenever I need to move anything that does not have its own working running lights or situations just like the one I had just had! Dope! What a pillock! In all the stress of the day, I had completely forgot!

What a day!