The Early Shift

The last chapter of this on-going saga ended with me having two jobs loaded for early delivery on Monday morning.  Needing to be in Crawley by 8.0 am, I was careful to advise my friends at church that I should not be turning up for breakfast at 6.30 as their usual routine resumed after Easter.  In fact the organiser was just arriving as I drove past on my way out of town.  The journey was a smooth one, and I arrived in time to complain that the firm's van was blocking my access to the goods in door.  One this situation had been rectified, the driver helped me unload my parcels.

I was home in the late morning, and the day's work was completed by a hospital run from Stevenage to Cambridge, the highlight of which was tripping against the kerb as I entered the latter.  I was sent sprawling on the ground, but fortunately suffered far less than my immediate fears imagined.  Both hands threatened to display bruises, but by the next morning all signs of damage had disappeared.

The logistical pattern for the week was thus laid down, subject to variation in the daily detail.  Returning from throwing myself at the hospital door, I paid my weekly 'paperwork visit' to the office, and while there was asked if I would present myself at the premises of such-and-such at 5.0 am the following morning, to take something to Heathrow airport.  I cancelled my evening plans to go to bell-ringing practice, had an early night, and at 4.56 am could be seen waiting outside the required gate.  When I'd driven up to the door and saw what the proprietor and his assistant were loading into the van, I realised why I hadn't been asked to collect these goods - as would normally have been the case - the evening before.  They were eight boxes of live fish!  I ought to have guessed as much; these little beauties got added to my tales of other exploits for this customer: collecting on their behalf baby alligators on one occasion, and on another some shopping-bags containing tortoises, each one accompanied by its own 'passport' document, which I was invited to check against the number painted on its shell.

I was home again in time for breakfast, after which I enquired about further work, and was given a pleasant, but unusual cross-country assignment, collecting some roofing felt from Woodstock near Oxford, and taking it to a destination near Chichester.  I was back home and sitting at my desk by teatime, and could ponder the next day's early start, having been phoned while I was driving home, and been given a post code, and asked to be there at 8.0 am on Wednesday and ring in for further instructions.

This was at Witham, Essex, and began another cross-country trip, this time to Leicester with an electric motor to be repaired.  Like Monday, the day finished with a local job to take me away from my desk, and instructions for an early start the next morning.  This was a bit more civilised, though, as I collected four boxes before the close of the day, to be delivered between 8.0 and 9.0 at Barlborough near Chesterfield, a place I had visited before, only a short distance from the motorway.

So yesterday fitted into the now established template, the afternoon accommodating more work on the family history notes I'd gleaned at the record office on Saturday.  Then came the greatest excitement of the week (live fish apart, that is - but they weren't really exciting).  The controller phoned to ask if I were going out in the evening.  'Not unless you send me somewhere,' I replied.  He explained that one of our customers was at that moment working on an urgent project.  When it was completed, it would need to be collected in two parts for delivery in Workington and Newcastle this morning.  If I were willing I should take the one for Newcastle, and should expect a call some time during the evening, when the job was done.  It was then about 4.0 pm; I stopped what I'd been doing on the desk, and sped out to take advantage of the implied absence of any more work that afternoon, and do some shopping.  I then packed up today's lunch, prepared and ate a meal, all the while wondering when this phone call might arrive.  After a few other regular chores, I decided to go to bed with the phone alongside, knowing that I should have to leave about 4.0 this morning, and that therefore the normal hours of slumber would be curtailed.  I think I'd just got to sleep ...

As I left in the rain with my parcel for the east coast, my colleague pulled up to collect the other for the west.  We exchanged a smile and an elevated thumb, and headed for our respective beds, in my case, again.  All too soon I was awake once more, and setting out on the dark roads for my destination.  The journey was trouble-free, and the destination located right by the Tyne.  I had the privilege of seeing something more than previously of the city centre, and drove underneath some of those magnificent bridges that span the river.  From close up they are enormous!

And so, by late afternoon, a whole week of early starts had been completed.  I stopped for an essential doze halfway home and realised just how draining this is.  When it's just one or two days, the body seems to cope - I read somewhere that it never makes up more than about 30% of lost sleep - but when normal 'night hours' are shunted forward with such regularity, and foreshortened, the effect does seem more intense.  However, a nice hot bath was most relaxing, and this evening looks to be fairly normal ... Hooray!