hello ex-pat trucker where ever you are,there are some subjects which can cross over from different forum,euro licences etc etc,a few ex -pats on another forum have been in touch mainly from western europe,just like to put a posting to see if there are any other ex-pat euro,s out there 
There are several Ex-Pat still in Europe guys in here, I’m not one of them, but they are here, BondiTram and several others.
Cheers
Stuart
I’m suprised there are so few ex-pats posting from Germany 
Many an ex-serviceman has stayed on in Germany after service and drive for a living
I too have been surprised at the low numbers of Euro Ex-Pats on here though I must admit that in 3 years working in France I only actually met one English driver, Andrew from Ancenis, Nantes(44) and heard of one other.
Funny thing but I met Andrew when both were tipping at the same place in a Paris back street and naturally (both being in French trucks) spoke to each other in French. After a few minutes I thought I detected an accent and about the same time he said ‘are you English?’ Nothing strange in that except that we continued to talk in French for several more minutes before laughing and saying ‘this is bloody ridiculous’ and reverting to the Mother Tongue.
If you’re out there Andrew, or anyone else this side, come on and join in.
Also met a ‘Dutchman’ in Hautevilliers who turned out to be Irish, a ‘Spaniard’ in Bordeaux (German) and a ‘Spaniard’ in Nantes who was really Dutch. Mind you he was a dead give away - 6’6", blond hair, wearing clogs!
Salut, David.
Hi Bondi. I used to live in the Haute vallee de l"Aude, after Limoux, and work for a firm in a small town called Esperaza, on the back road from Carcassone to Perpignan, the firm was called Fraisse et Fils, but I haven’t been back there for years and I dont know if they are still running. White DAF’s. Do a lot of mineral water and plywood to Italy and Alsace. Ever seen them on the road?
Pete,
Don’t recall seeing the company you mention. Know where Esperaza is but haven’t actually been there. I have a cousin who lives at Homps on the D610 between Carcassonne and Beziers so get down that way from time to time and of course before I packed it in used to roll through frequently with the truck.
You say you come to Europe every year so where is your base over here these days?
You also said in another thread that you live in NE Brasil. Whereabouts? In my seafaring days in the early 60s I used to date a girl (every 3 months) in Recife before moving on down to Santos, Rio and Rio Grande do Sul. I first arrived in 1964 or 5 I think it was the day after the military takeover. It was a weird experience walking down the street watched by a sub machine gun following my every move. Became less unusual later on in Northern Ireland.
Whilst in Santos I went with my ■■■■■■■ the bus to Sao Paolo intending to stay the night but forgot my passport so there was no room at the inn and had to return the same day. She was not amused!
BA and Rosario in Argentina hold special memories also. Corientes, the main drag in BA was great but all the life was on Vente Cinco de Mayo.
Salut, David.
Yeah I remember Homps, on that straight bit of road through the vinyards.
Desolate in winter, scenic during the vendange.
Where ar eyou in the Perigord? I love that part of France, got a an old schoolmate doing up bergeries for the expats somewhere there.
When back in Europe I’m based in a large blue Scania running out of Dover. I do 3 or 4 weeks in Europe, then have a couple of days off golfing, then another 3 or 4 weeks, then time off, then after a third stint I fly back to the tropics with my loot and wait for my tax rebate. I live in Maceio, about 4 hours drive south of Recife.
Me and the wife are off next week to Rio Grande do Sul for Carnaval. We like it down south, which is more European and organised than the north-east, which is chaotic and poor.
We like BA too, don’t know Rosario, though. Spent a month there last year. Argies are disliked by other South Americans, but we had a great time going all over the place from the Bolivian border down to Patagonia to see the whales. These days all the clubs and so on in Buenos Aires are down in Boca, near the River Plate footie stadium. Hot spot.
I’m tempted to get a job with a Brazilian firm that goes from here in in the North-East over to Chile via Argentina over the Andes. It’s about 6500kms each way.
Pete,
Yes, you’ve got Homps alright. Nice little place with a big lay by at the end of the street just at start of by-pass to park the motor 100m from the relatives.
If you draw a triangle with corners at Perigueux, Limoges, and Angouleme, we are are just about in the middle, half way from Nontron to Thiviers. The climate is mild like England, but milder. Very green, very pleasant.
How on earth do you persuade (presumably) the same firm to employ you on that basis in Dover? Sounds ideal if you can get it.
Found Maceio on the map. That’s a hell of a journey to Chile. Do they go through the Matto Grosso and Paraguay or is it necessary to turn west further south directly into Argentina? Reminds me of my outback days in northern Oz, you should do it at least once for the crack.
I loved the the Argies and was very upset in '82 when they invaded the Falklands. I knew they would get their arses kicked and that made me very sad, remembering friends. The reasons they are less than popular in that continent (and why Brasil etc helped UK quietly in '82) is that they consider themselves superior to the rest, more European. A famous saying is; ‘Argentinians are Italians who speak Spanish but think they are English’. Not entirely true but it makes the point.
Rosario is an inland port 200 miles up the Parana River from BA. We went in our 8,000 ton freighter and the journey at night is very eerie mostly through shallow marshes at very slow, and therefore silent, speed with the will o’ the wisps rising like ghosts all around!
Rio Grande do Sul was a very small port some distance from the town. We took a taxi (forties American like Cuba today) from the ship in the dark and halfway his lights all went out. Without stopping he disappeared under the dash with the silver paper from his ■■■■ and after the sparks back came the lights and on we went as if nothing had happened!
Have a great time down there. Is your wife Brasilian and what age bracket are you? If you’re younger than me is she older than you? If so what is her name, I would hate to put my foot in it and mention a girlfriend or three 
Salut, David.
Yo David
If I remember right there were some good old-style routiers restos on that bit of road from Carcasonne over to Beziers. You could park on the side of the road, have an apero, then some rabbit in wine, a hunk of local cheese, a glass of Grenache, half an hour kip over the wheel, then off to the coast. Minervois. that’s the name of the wine I’ve been trying to remember. And Fitou.
My wife is called Jaqueline, she’s 13 years younger than me, which, as she says, makes us the same age mentally. She’s a sort of lawyer.
Working like that for a UK firm is easy these days. I’ve been working like this for years. All I have to do is pick up the phone, or these days send an e-mail in advance. There aren’t many twerps willing to work as hard as a driver these days, but I love doing it, and I know how to do it by now, so it’s a pleasure not a drag. But I couldn’t do it 12 months a year, and I never do UK work as I hate the UK food, the traffic is shocking, and people are so rude when trying to load and tip. And after 4 months I’ve reached my tax threshold, so I clear off back to the beach and wait for the rebate.
I would very miuch like to do the Oz outback trip. I’ve done a lot in the States, India and back, East Africa, all of Europe and a lot of Latin America, but I’ve never managed to get to Oz and NZ. Not yet, anyway. The wife wants to go to Thailand to ride an elephant. Last year it was camels in Morocco.
Yeah Argies are OK, at least when they’re on their own. Like all South Americans, they’re individually super people, but collectively useless.
Right. Off for a giant blowout sushi lunch. All the sushi and sashimi you can eat for 3 quid a head.
Pete,
Pleased to hear of your Jaqueline, never knew one of those, not in SA anyway. Also if she is 13 years younger than you and you’re still working she would never have known me.
Yes Oz was an experience. Worked a cattle road train in the Northern Territory for a (now) very famous man in those parts. Very hard, no sleep. In the south and east, Sydney and Queensland coast found it very difficult to get truck work. Too many owner drivers, the large companies just owning trailers.
Did India too, with a coach, but didn’t come back and continued on to Darwin.
Would have liked to have tried US for while but the only time I tried about ten years ago all the initial enthusiasm (from the company concerned) dried up when they found out my age (50 at the time) never mind the experience.
That Chile trip sounds just the job. Too late for me now but if you ever do it let me know and keep in touch. I am trying to supplement my pensions these days by writing, with modest success, and could certainly use such material.
Watch that sun down there and if you come across any fair skinned forty year olds who say their daddy was an English sailor, buy 'em a beer for me!
Salut, David.
Yo Dordogne. Near Brantome? That’s the place I was thinking of. How do you supplement your income writing. I’m doing a journalism course at the moment for the same reason. Jolly interesting, learning stuff I didn’t know.
What sort of stuff do you write and sell?
There are plenty of fair-skinned 40yr olds lazing around on the beach rubbing oil and drinking cocktails.
What am I supposed to do? Go and ask them “excuse me did yo mamma shag a brit during the dictatorship?”
Interesting chat-up line, I suppose. I’m off down the beach in half an hour so I’ll give it a go.
The Chile job does sound interesting. There’s a company north of here, in the state of Natal, that goes to Bolivia and Peru, which sounds even funkier, but I rather suspect I might get into trouble if I went on that sort of run. My wife thinks truckers are horrible evil diesel demons and has kittens at the thought of me even doing a run down to Bahia, but by now she’s got used to me coming and going and having strange large male friends who drink vast quantities of beer turn up out of the blue in battered Scanias, just passing through.
Pete,
Seems a bit of an understatement about the trip to Bolivia and Peru. According to my map, admittedly a bit out of date now, there aren’t any roads across those borders. Have things changed in the last 20 odd years?
I don’t supplement my income by writing - yet - have been published a couple of times on the internet with a short fiction story based on an actual incident which happened to me in Dublin but with a fictional twist in the tail to make it more interesting and regular postings of Haiku poems to the Guardian website. Small payment for the first none for the second but each week they choose the best to win a £20 book token. Haven’t quite made that yet.
I write fiction and true life stuff and an ongoing thing for several years has been the ‘autobiography’. Will never be published as such but I find it a valuable source for other things. For instance you can extract true episodes in your own life and then let imagination and fantasy run riot to create fiction.
Good fun and just might buy a few bottles of Bordeaux from time to time
There are a few things with editors at the moment awaiting decisions. One involves a truck journey between France and Spain and because Spain is not my strong point I asked advice on Trucknet. Very useful it was too, so you see you can use other’s brains as well as your own. Thread is ‘Author Requires Spanish Info’ in the Euro forum.
'There are plenty of fair-skinned 40yr olds lazing around on the beach rubbing oil and drinking cocktails.
What am I supposed to do? Go and ask them “excuse me did yo mamma shag a brit during the dictatorship?”
Interesting chat-up line, I suppose. I’m off down the beach in half an hour so I’ll give it a go.’
Hey, Steady on, not sure I want you talking to my girls like that
Salut, David.
Crikey!!! Never heard of a trucker writing haikus before!!!
What are the rules again?
7 syllables, then 5 then 7 or something. Must include a reference to the weather or the seasons?
There ARE roads in the Andes, but not in the European sense of the word. We were up in Northern Argentina, about 60 miles from Bolivia, trying to get to the border, but there were landslides and torrential rain so me and the wife decided to go down to look at the whales and penguins in Patagonia instead. A mere 3000kms, but we stopped on the way in Mendoza and got stuck into the local vino, which is excellent, Super place. But there were Bolivian trucks heading off through the night to try and get across to get back home, so I presume the local boys know how to get round the natural obstacles. Hairy isn’t the word; hairpin passes, just enough room to squeeze and artic round, no chance of moving aside if you meet anyone coming the other way, but scenically out of this world.
Just back from 10 days on the beach for Carnaval down in the south of Brasil, where the gauchos come from. Lots of sin sun sand and cold beer.
'Crikey!!! Never heard of a trucker writing haikus before!!!
What are the rules again?
7 syllables, then 5 then 7 or something. Must include a reference to the weather or the seasons? ’
Pete,
Nearly right. 5,7,5. And yes reference to the natural world but the Guardian rules stipulate daily news topical subjects. Strictly these are ‘senryuu’ but the Guardian doesn’t care.
Bit of a laugh. Normally do one each night before shutting down and it takes about 2 or 3 minutes to compose. If stuck longer I don’t bother. Check the site Guardian Unlimited.
Salut, David.
■■■■!, reading these two’s correspondence makes me feel like I have’nt been anywhere interesting 
It makes great reading fellas, keep it up, maybe one day I can reminisce like you two! 
Hi Cliff,
Gald to see you like the stuff. I like to remember the old days when there seemed more adventure but less comfort. My last truck before retiring at the end of 02 was a Magnum and I kept pinching myself, but, the rushing about and schedules now are less attractive. I think in days gone by, as we didn’t know any better, the comfort (or lack of it) didn’t seem so important. My happiest times were in the sixties and seventies genuine tramping. That is finding my own loads from place to place and paid in part a percentage. I didn’t always go for the best payer. If I fancied a trip to Inverness and one was on offer, I took it.
Hard on the ears, and the frozen hands, and the aching back across an Atki bonnet, but hell - I loved the sheer freedom of it. Felt sorry for the old blokes of that day though, muffled up like Michelin men and flat caps jammed down over the eyes. Didn’t feel too sorry, in between laughing at them, just as I can hear countless voices laughing at this old codger now. Difference is, I’m still laughing, I don’t have a 4am RDC tomorrow! 
Salut, David.[/i]
RDC at 4.00am huh?, Yeah I bet you don’t envy that!, Unfortunately I have one at 5.00am, close enough I s’pose
Yeah, keep those stories coming I really have enjoyed reading them.
Bondi how did you get on with your Spanish article?
I’ve just done two trips to Spain for a firm running out of Heathrow, down to Valencia and loading wine up in Rioja. I"ve got another two trips on general haulage to do then I’m doing rock and roll trucking for Peter Gabriel, should be interesting. Got broken into in Nimes on the way down last week, whacked the guy as he got in the cab at 5 a.m, then drove off in my underpants with one curtain drawn back. I tired to run over the expl deleted but I dont’ think I got him. Parked up the next night in Cambrils, the Spanish driver next to me got gassed abnd robbed. Robbery is apain in the expleteive these days. I now sleep with a strap ratcheted between the doors. Makes things safe until you go for a wizz in the middle of the night and forget about the strap. That Tony Martin got banged up for 5 years for shooting a burglar. I wonder what a trucker would get if we whacked a thief like I did and accidentally killed him.
Cliff? Dont’ tell me you’re a driver without stories!!! Every driver I"ve ever met has a stock of yarns and tales.
Pete,
Haven’t had a yea or nay on the Spanish story yet. I’ll give it a bit longer and then try it somewhere else. It was written for a regular internet publisher who gives a vague theme each month and plenty of leeway to invent. This means that it wasn’t something that was already in my head but one that needed starting from scratch. The theme was ‘Child’ and I wrote about a youngster accidentally ‘kidnapped’ and then transported across France and Spain. As always, I like a twist in the tail and thought that I had managed one quite nicely. But then, we always think our own kids are great don’t we?
Did a factual piece for ‘Truck and Driver’ which hasn’t been rejected yet and, according to Craig, who boosted me up to the Editor the day after we (Craig and I) met up for a meal in Hautvillers (Abbeville) last week, the signs are quite hopeful. That one concerns a hilarious trip I did across the NI/Eire border back in the days of permits etc. Whether I managed to convey the hilarity to the page or not remains to be seen.
Also waiting on something I did for ‘The Oldie’ (yes, I know, found my metier at last!) about a barbecue disaster of mine some years back. As the first piece I did for them was rejected within a day or so the fact that I’ve heard nothing in a couple of weeks may be a good sign. Or perhaps the Ed is just on holiday!
Your Nimes experience sounds horrific but good job you didn’t run over the git. Those bony bits are hell to get out from between the duals. Moral; always run over them with super singles! And what did the Spanish bloke get gassed with? Mind you, as Cliff and Pat will probably tell you, that’s par for the course in the US, what with engines idling all night and such!
I suppose this means that you are on your routine three months in Europe? If you get down the N21 Limoges, Perigueux, Angouleme areas and stopover for a meal give me a call and I’ll run out to meet you. Will send you my numbers in a pm.
Craig seems to think you run for Michael White sometimes. Is he right? I did 6 months on his books in the early eighties.
Take it easy,
Salut, David.
I think the Spanish guy was gassed with Ether, but my Spanish is non-existent. He was alright, though, if furious. I’ve never run over anyone before, so I bow to your superior knowledge of suitable tyre configurations.
Yeah I did 4 months for Michael last year, European Freight in Dover. Well-run firm, very controlled, good money, good motors etc…but I don’t like doing the same place every week, nor do I like transiting Swiss, which is what you end up doing. I’d go back there, though. There are a lot worse firms to work for, that’s for sure. Michael drives around in a Bentley turbo, but he’s still an old trucker at heart, strolls round his yard checking on spare tyres and trailers and whatnot. The office staff quail in his presence. Were you with him when it was WhiteTrux? When I strated drivign in East Kent years ago, he was the bogeyman other hauliers used as a threat:’ If you dont’ buck your ideas up you’ll end up working for Micky White etc…" Well he’s stinking rich, still going and they’re all bust. Fair play to him is what I say. You take the risk, you keep the profit.
Passed through Angouleme last week but was in hurry and hadn’t read your message. Have stored the numbers. Cheers.