Wednesday 22nd June 2022

Day two of the three day audit, and as a bonus, I had to be up and ready to leave the hotel at half five ready for a two hour plus drive to a warehouse.

This meant missing breakfast. And the early morning kick up the backside of a coffee.

Or two.

So, I set the alarm for five and went to bed early.

And the auditee was to meet my in the hotel car park at half five. Not the kind of meeting I had in mind when I agreed to come to Holland.

But at half five with the sun just rising, Maartin was waiting, so we shook hands and got in my car. We have to fill up first, I says So began the hunt for a petrol station that was open.

Halfway across town we found one that accepted payment at the pumps, so once full, we could set course for north east Netherlands.

Now I have to say at this point, west Ntherlands, around Amsterdam and surrounding areas is an almost total man-made landscape, there is no room for nature. And having worked there for some time, and flown over many times, it was easy to believe all Holland was like that. But on our two hour drive we passed through the national forest, a journey that took half an hour at 60mph. We saw trees, trees and more trees.

Which was nice.

Our eventual destination was the city of Groningen, which I guess is Holland's Norwich, in that its not on the way to anywhere and you don't go here by accident.

It'll be lovely when its finished.

They're building a new motorway through the centre of town, never a good look, and its a long way from being completed. What I saw, the whole town is a building site.

Our destination was a warehouse on a faceless industrial estate, where I met with a service manager and his small team.

We had coffee, talked, had another coffee and talked some more.

The morning passed

Our schedule meant we had to be back in Arnham by two, so we leave the warehouse and climb into the car, which in the hot sunshine was melting.

I was directed through the roadworks in the city centre, and head back down south, past miles of protesting Dutch farmers who were hellbent on blocking roads to protest about something.

Maartin talks all the way. He had talked the two hours in the morning, and he held views on most things, but mostly football. I let him talk about Vitese, his team, and he was happy to do so.

Back in the office for more coffee, only to find that the next suditee had declined the meeting and was nowhere to be found.

And so eneded the second day at three ten hours after it started.

I should have gone into the centre of the city, but was too pooped. I'll go tomorrow once the audit's finsiehed, I said.

Back at the hotel, I go to McDonalds for a Coke as I was very thirty. Can't just have a coke, I says to myself. Have some McNuggets. Six don't sound too many, twelve too much. So I have nine.

They were shit.

It's was I expected.

But the Coke was cold and wet.

Back in my room until seven, then to the restaurant for tomato soup and burgers, and listening to the two German couples on the next table complain.

Not sure if they were complaining, it sounded like it. They might have been telling jokes, who knows.

The burger was average, but the fries and fritsaus was wonderful. As was the double glass of tripel.

Phew.

And up at seven in the morning, for another trip, this time to south west Netherlands, to actual Holland.