All in a Day's Work!

I sometimes wonder about the 'sayings' we use: idiomatic phrases that have no literal connection to the meanings we attach to them.  A good example is 'that's nailed it!', which has nothing to do with hammers and pointed metal fastenings but everything to do with coming to an agreement and securing it by a quayside bollard.  I thought yesterday about London buses.

What's that about London buses? I hear you ask.  Well, if you can wait for hours for one and then they all turn up at once, as is said to be the case, it would be a marvel if anyone could get around our capital city at all by public transport!  But yesterday was just that sort of a day for me.  I'm not sure about a long wait for any of them, but a number of exciting things all happened in one day.

When I started working as a volunteer at the local hospice's distribution centre, I made it clear that, after many years as a same-day courier, not knowing from one day - often one hour - to the next what I would be doing, I was looking for variety.  Hence, I normally spend a day a week at a computer screen, and half a day a week helping on a van visiting our shops to collect donations that have been handed in.  This was all arranged with the proviso that I will readily act as a relief driver if required.

So it was that, last Friday, one of the regular drivers announced that he would be taking a day off yesterday and asked me if I would mind taking his place for the day.  He had organised the work to be done and all I had to do was follow instructions.  That suited me well and, although by the end of it I felt as if I'd had a good workout in the gym, it all went smoothly according to plan.  All, that is, apart from one shop where we found our way blocked by the combination of a supermarket artic. making a prolonged delivery on one side of the road and blue-badge holders legally parked on double-yellow lines on the other.  One of my colleagues suggested that we negotiate our exchange of goods for sale and donations collected by walking them around the corner.  This we did and were on our way again before the artic. driver had finished.

This day of excitement occurred against a background of sleep-reduced nights.  Another saying comes to mind, this one corrupted by someone's lateral thinking: "One good turn deserves all the blankets!"  In my single-bed situation, the problem is not someone else making a 'good turn' of that kind, but lots of twisting and turning shedding the duvet onto the floor!  Last week I spotted an item on Freecycle that prompted thought of a possible solution.  Why not have a double duvet, so there is enough hanging over both sides of the bed that I'm not so cold in the first place?  It was worth a try, I decided.  I collected the offered quilt cover last weekend and explored the acquisition of the quilt to go inside it.  Yesterday lunchtime I found an e-mail saying that the courier had now delivered the quilt to my doorstep, so I popped home to secure it before resuming my driving duties.  The first trial last night was only partially successful, but shows promise.

"In other news ..." yesterday's post brought two more items of interest.  Each had been awaited for a while without a specific date for delivery, but hey! ... why not turn up along with all the rest?  The first tangible preparation for my holiday has now arrived.  I knew when I saw the postmark "Baile Átha Cliath" what the envelope would contain.  It's my visitor's ticket to Dublin's suburban transport system, which is now sitting in my wallet, patiently awaiting the Euros that I haven't got round to ordering yet.

And the final arrival was my postal vote for the European Parliamentary Election.  Although it's as yet by no means certain whether or not the MEPs we elect on 23rd May will actually take their seats, it's important that we exercise our civil right to identify who we would like to represent us at that level if given the chance to do so.  So do remember to vote!