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Bon Voyage!!

..and then finally on to Sheerness. Unfortunately due to slippage in the schedule my real life had to take precedence and work happened instead of indulgences. Not to worry, I got as good a shot – if not better – as I could have got from across the Medway up in Killingholme.

Bon Voyage Progress Ace! Safe home! It’s been, uhm – a little weird but fun nonetheless 😉

Update from the dealer, however’s that it’s unlikely they’ll be able to detail and prepare the car before we bugger off to Portugal for a week, so looks like I may have a few more sleeps to wait… but at least I’ll be distracted 🙂

I hate Pauline!!!

So I bum around all day thinking if the Progress is still here maybe she’s not decanted her Mazda load yet.

…and even though I wait patiently…

…the biggest reward I get is a moo from the cows; and a distinctly “What sort of a nut case is this guy” look from at least half of them…

Not a decanting Mazda in sight all day. Security turns up, locks all the gates I presume for the day so I pack up and make my way home. Moderately peeved that;
1. I missed the sunrise photoshot opportunity.
2. Fat ass Pauline turned up.
3. I didn’t find a good black 3 Sport trim candidate.
4. I must have missed the decant in the very wee hours of Sunday before [the sun came up] and I arrived.

私はあなたを発見しました

Watashi wa anata o hakken shimashita… but not a 3.

MX5’s, 2’s…

Even a Mazda 6 tourer.

Nope. All 6’s.

At least she’s black, but still no 3.

Nope, CX-5, CX-3.

A 3… but not black.

Another 3… hmm 🙁

But look!!!!

That could be mine!!! All mine!!! Oh, but no. The alloys aren’t quite right and the front fog lights don’t look like they’ve got the chrome trim. Oh. 🙁 I can see another black 3 it looks like behind but a fat ass Pauline’s already proven the lens on my camera can’t make things disappear. Grr…

Mercedes Mercedes (and Vauxhall) everywhere…

…but not a Mazda in sight 🙁

Fat ass Pauline

Unfortunately, and very frustratingly fat ass Pauline plants her butt right in front of the Progress Ace before the sun has cleared from the Progress Ace so I don’t get a great shot of the big girl.

How very annoying? If only I’d arrived a half hour earlier I could have shot the most gorgeous orange sunrise I’ve seen in many a year – largely because I don’t get up this early very often… and I’m too old to be staying up all night!! If only the Pauline had arrived an hour later…

…then I’d have got a great shot. But alas, it wasn’t to be…

So from the land of the rising sun…

…to the sun rising over the east coast of Great Britain…

…arrives our long awaited visitor!!!

The Progress Ace, after a long wait finally makes it to British shores.

Done queuing for Killingholme

So, I could forgive having to queue for the Suez, but it’s a rather pathetic reflection on Great Britain that, even though we’re an island, we apparently do a really crap job of handling shipping freight. The Progress has had to queue for almost two full days; but at least now it seems like it’s getting to dock ahead of the schedule registered by Mitsui OSK – we’re on the way in to the dock. Having queued for that long I’m certain there will at least be some nightshift dock workers available to decant, wouldn’t there?

The camera doesn’t lie…

Slightly later (and longer) lunch than usual today so I could catch the Progress Ace cruising by Teneuzen on the way back from Antwerp Killingholme, UK bound 🙂

ZeeBrugge to Antwerp

No! No! You’re going the wrong way!!!

So having watched all day in anticipation that it might ship out ahead of schedule while there was still some light unfortunately it wasn’t to be and the ZeeBrugge port webcam was a useless on the way out as it had been on the way in, hence I’ll not bother even taking a screenie as I haven’t been able to do so with a reasonable degree of confidence that i’ve got the right vessel. Might have had something to do with having been out for dinner and now being a fair share worse for wear for three bottles of wine, but that’s another slightly less OCD’ish stalker story. Nonetheless we’re underway again… even if we’re going the wrong direction…. come back, over here, over here!!!