28th March 25. Back to life.

After our late arrival home. It was actually good to sleep in our own bed. Woke up refreshed and ready for work. OK that's a lie. But once on the move it was good to be back and earning instead of spending.

First job today was a collection from Aylesbury going to Slough. So not too early to start as they don't open until 9.00am . Well sales department's don't actually start functioning for anyone before 10am especially on a Monday.

Tip: don't buy a car on a Monday morning especially expecting to speak to anyone in sales before 10, at the earliest.

Couple of reasons for this. One is that the big groups usually PLC's want umpteen reports all rolling uphill in the chain of command so the big wigs can then report how bad things are to shareholders usually on Tuesday. Obviously once they have massaged their figures to look good and stay in their overpaid jobs.

But before this starts the sales manager has a meeting with the team. Now, when I was in management. That meeting started at 8.30. sharp. So the order was. 8.15 in the building you have 25 minutes to get a coffee and your numbers together. Sounds easy. It was. But now you have HR telling you that contracts say 9.00 start so you can't demand anything different.

So now meetings are 9.00 start. So by the time the lazy ones get their coffee, go for a smoke, chat, drop off the kids. (Go for a toilet dump) The meetings start around 9.15-20.

Nowadays it's not just the number of customers contacted and potential sales for the day. God no.

It's, conversation ratios, test drive numbers, how many phone calls, how many service customers spoken to, prospecting numbers, sales funnels, finance pen, add on insurance products sold, paint protection sold all these have percentages that need analysing, questioning. Deliveries for the month. When and why they are going, or not. Daily sales so far, weekly sales so far. Target's. Budgeting. It's been a while, so I know I've missed a lot too.

Then sales execs are asked. Nicely remember. (HR) To possibly, if it's not too much trouble, to help with the new and used car display. This is where you as a customer, might get lucky, should you want to actually buy a car.

There is always one,or more execs, who, will try and avoid, like their life depends on it. Going outside to help.

Catch one of these and you might be ok. However, he/she is always the one who sells most. Creates the most carnage while doing so. And usually the most uncaring and pushy one so beware.

After this you have a problem. That. Yes, you managed to talk to this unsavoury character. But there are no managers around to actually structure a deal or price a part exchange.

These poor souls are now stuck in a management meeting explaining away last week's performance for a few hours. If it's near the end of the month. Write the day off.

I digress.

So arrived at the dealership at 8.50 stuck my face in a salespersons desk space and asked for the car going to Slough. A dealer transfer. The main part of this job and very lucrative.

As he was drinking coffee, and chatting (remember) He had nowhere to go on this point and got me the car.

So I was on the road by 9.30 after getting an appraisal signed ( again never looked at the appraisal, or the car) and headed off down the A41 towards the M25 and round to the M4 heading west to Slough.

Being a Friday the morning traffic is not bad. It's the afternoon to avoid here. So good to get going early.

Found the dealership in Slough. Not difficult they are all on the A4.

A quick Uber to the station. £3.50 and a ticket to Guildford in Surrey.

There are a few ways to do this train journey. Grab the Elizabeth line to Tottenham court road and Northern line south to Waterloo. Or a cheaper option is via Windsor and Eaton to Clapham junction and out to Guildford. I chose the latter.

It's still a two hour trip by train. It's 50 minutes by car!

So I arrived at my next job. Which was to collect a BMW i3 going to North of Manchester tomorrow. Yes Saturday again.

The dealership was a new Chinese brand called Jaecoo. Who have obviously forced their dealer network to invest in new quite high tech showrooms.

The funny thing about this is that had these dealerships invested in the previous brands that inhabited these places then maybe there would be no places for these Chinese brands flooding the market.

I collected the I3 did my appraisal and headed home.

It didn't have much range so would need to find a rapid charger somewhere on route. But being used to driving EV's this wasn't an issue.

The car now fully charged. I headed home, avoiding the M25 Friday traffic. The route took me north from Guildford through Worplesdon. Brookwood then Bisley and Bagshot and the A30. After that heading past Windsor, avoiding Slough, again. Towards Maidenhead to pick up the A404 to avoid High Wycombe. And onwards to Princess Risborough. And home. A longer than planned day but successful and ready again for an early start tomorrow.

Jaecoo showroom