Strange Places with Faraway Names ...

Yes, there's a deliberate twist to the title of this posting.  Yesterday's task had me musing about the strange places I've been to over years.  There are some customers for whom strangeness is a given.  One customer, for example, has a fleet of high security vans, necessitated by the value of their contents.  It's all too easy for the driver/engineer to leave his keys in the back of the van and, some while later, shut the door either by accident or out of habit.  At this point the security lock kicks in, and he's locked out, able to sit in the cab out of the weather and fume - but not to drive away.  We get called out to wherever the van happens to be parked to rescue him with the spare key from the depot.

Another firm is engaged in large scale electrical supplies, and we sometimes get called by them to deliver equipment to some strange places when power has broken down.  For them I have been sent to pylons in fields, to a farm gateway where a substation had been vandalised, and even to the film-set in the grounds of Blenheim Palace, where a Harry Potter film was being shot.

There are strange consignments, too.  From time to time we're called upon to shift items of furniture (although we're not trained to take proper care of antiques!)  I was once sent to collect a small kitchen dresser; when I arrived I discovered that, while it may have been small for a dresser, it definitely wouldn't fit in my van!  I'd been given dimensions in centimetres that should have been inches!  Delivering furniture? yes, occasionally; but delivering TO furniture?  The truth of yesterday's job didn't even tap the door, let alone enter my mind ...

I had collected some electrical equipment to deliver to "Dorking Cabinet, London Rd, Dorking <postcode>"  I concluded that an engineer was working at a business called "Dorking Cabinet" and that once I found the requisite postcode on London Road, I should be within sight of such a place.  SatNav found the place with ease, and indicated that I should stop in a certain lay-by.  I found myself beside a varied row of late Victorian town houses.  Abandoning the van, I explored on foot, looking up and down - in vain - for some indication of a house called 'The Cabinet', or a business plate by a door. 

A few local enquiries told me nothing, so I resorted to the phone no. of the engineer.  When I made contact with him, he said he was no longer there, but his colleague should be visible, in a dark car, parked on the pavement.  By then I had driven round the corner to get a signal, but I did recall such a car.  Once all the misunderstandings had been cleared away, I realised that I was indeed being asked to deliver to a piece of furniture: to a roadside cabinet, which housed a complex telephone installation! 

When I returned to the depot I fell into conversation with William, a fairly new colleague, who hails from South Africa.  His voice reminded me of a cultured gentleman who had worked for me some 25 years ago, when I was the accountant for a small group of local newspapers.  He'd had a high-powered financial career in South Africa, but since his retirement to rural Suffolk, he'd found time heavy on his hands.  He spotted an advert I'd placed for a part-time assistant, and applied for the post.  With his background I had no hesitation in appointing him, and we shared several months of genial and productive co-operation.  I was intrigued by his middle name, Boksburg, and one day I asked him about it.  "It's a town not far from Johannesburg," he told me, "My grandfather was its founder."

As I now chatted to William, something prompted me to ask whether he knew the place.  "Know it?" he exclaimed with both surprise and amusement, "I was born there!"  And when I'd recovered from almost falling off my chair, and explained how I came to be aware of it, he went on to tell me something of his family history.  There was no apparent connection to my late friend, but what a coincidence!

There's always something new and amusing in this business - and it's full of surprises, too!