Second half winner

They say football is a game of two halves - so is a courier's week.  After last Friday's expedition to south Wales, Monday was a dead loss.  I started at #11, got my wing mirror replaced during the middle of the day - Saturday's carwash visit had finalised a demolition job that began on a parking lot somewhere unknown to me - and the day finished with me getting a pre-booked job for Tuesday, which took me no further than south Oxfordshire.  What started out as two decent jobs on Wednesday morning got fouled up when I discovered that the second one was to a pedestrianised city centre, with no access until after 4.30pm.  I wasn't home until mid-evening, so another late start was in prospect for Thursday.

When I rang to get onto the list, I discovered that I should be only third, instead of at the foot of a long list, so I went straight along to the office, whence I was sent on a local 'trek' to Watford and Bedford.  I returned just before lunch and had time for half a cup of coffee before being sent to collect something for Reading.  I'd just delivered this and was in the middle of the town, when I was diverted from my homeward journey to collect a piece of machinery just down the A4 in Thatcham.  Although not too heavy, this was mounted on a fibre 'pallet', which had quite a narrow base.  I quickly found it wasn't very stable, and had to stop to strap it tightly fore and aft, to prevent damage either to it or to the sides of the van.  This was going to a research establishment on a former airfield at Cranfield, Beds, and by the time I'd found the site in the dark and completed the delivery, it was after 7.0pm when I returned to the office.  My resulting place on the scheme of things for Friday was therefore #8.  I announced my intention of staying at home until mid-morning. 

When morning came, I rose in leisurely fashion.  I bathed, prayed, breakfasted, and sat at the computer to carry on work on a particular family history project which I've been nibbling at for a couple of weeks.  To my surprise, it was not yet 9.45 when I was summoned.  Deployed to a local healthcare company, I was presented with a small box and told that the contents were wanted at a Portsmouth hospital to be 'put into a patient this afternoon'.  Given such a graphic mission, I went off without further delay, completing the task just before midday.  I returned a little more slowly than I'd gone, taking time to savour the journey through the newly-opened Hindhead Tunnel, 1.2 miles of luxury, compared to the endless queues that formerly adorned the journey past the famous 'Devil's Punchbowl'. 

Back at the depot, I found myself in another short-list-and-half-drink situation.  I was asked to collect a drinks order for Norwich, and was all too soon laden with four kegs of beer for a hotel just outside Norfolk's 'Fine City'.  The plan was that I should then wait until a further order could be collected for Newmarket and deliver that en route.  In the event this didn't work out because the combined weight of the two jobs would have been too much for my van, and anyway there wouldn't have been room for them both on board.

Despite this final setback, the week hasn't been too bad, overall.  It's a noteworthy statistic, however, that the average daily earnings for Monday to Wednesday is little more than half the average for Thursday and Friday: truly a week of two halves!  Now I've caught myself up, I can look forward to a more leisurely weekend.