Excitement Abounds

Yesterday morning, I was feeling pretty exhausted.  But looking back now from Sunday afternoon, I can see that it's been quite an exciting and rewarding week - in more ways than one.  Let me sketch in some detail to that bald, if positive, outline.

The week began with me missing the church breakfast, although up at about the same time as usual in order to achieve an early pick-up in Letchworth for delivery in Harlow.  Back home again, I was able to indulge in a little family history before being sent to Romsey, to a destination where I'd been before; this time, however, the nearby roadworks had been finished, and I wasn't called upon to make an annoying diversion.  A satisfying bell-ringing practice ended the day. 

Tuesday saw the first of three examples in the week of 'stretching-the-destination' (std).  I was up early again, to make a delivery to 'Chelmsford' ... only it wasn't actually Chelmsford, but to a little village - again a place I'd visited before - called Stow Maries, some miles beyond.  A job to Basingstoke followed, and again I was comfortably home for the evening.  It was then that excitement kicked in.

In Wednesday morning's beautiful sunshine, I was given two jobs, delivering in Hemel Hempstead and London Colney, before running empty down to Brighton.  Here I visited the Royal Sussex Hospital, where building works have for some while been adding to the cramped parking conditions.  Luckily, I found a security person ticketing cars parked in the ambulances-only yard outside A&E; she quickly indicated where I could freely park for my two missions.  The first of these was to transfer some empty crates to an address in nearby Shoreham.  This involved a leisurely (30-mph-limited) 'stroll' along the seafront - absolute delight - and then back again to the hospital.  I then loaded up some equipment that was brought back to our depot for a customer.

Thursday morning offered a delivery to Bishop's Stortford, and then I was off to Manchester with some boxes that the consignor admitted could have gone overnight, but 'orders are orders!'  I came home by way of the Snake Pass, only a few hundred yards from Derwent Reservoir, where earlier in the day a Lancaster bomber had performed a flypast to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Dambuster Raid, whose courageous aircrews had used the reservoir to practice their dangerous manoeuvre.

After a late night, I had scarcely started my breakfast when the controller called to announce that it looked like a day of local jobs for small vans, and to give me my first one.  I was just home from this, and along came the second - one that I'd done quite a few times recently, from Houghton Regis, near Luton, over to Cambridge.  This time, however, not only did it involve visiting two separate factories in Cambridge, but also taking a parcel to the firm's accountants in Stevenage.  On the way I was invited to collect a large box from a firm in 'Cambridge' - actually Waterbeach (std).  This was to go to central London, and after making my Stevenage delivery, I was glad to hand it over to another driver for this purpose.  By now it was mid-afternoon, and it was suggested that I might like to do a job to Coventry.  Inevitably plans change and, after collecting this in Hitchin, I was diverted some fifteen miles in the opposite direction to collect something else for 'Stafford', which later turned out to be a village called Hixon (std again!), and for the third night running it was almost midnight before I got home.

Yesterday's activity was almost entirely focussed on an indoor market being held at my local church.  It was in aid of the town's Foodbank, and I had contracted to run a bookstall.  I had seen this as an opportunity to reduce the size of my library, and to pass on some of the books I've already read.  In the event, however, I sold only eight books, to a total of just two customers!  I didn't really see this as a failure, though, because in the upheaval to fill four boxes to take there, I had managed something of a reshuffle, and the unsold volumes went back into different and less accessible places!

There was also excitement this week on the family history front.  Some years ago, to meet a particular need, I had devised a numbering system for all the people on my database of relatives, be they close or distant.  This was based on a well-known system to identify direct ancestors, and I had simply expanded it for my own purposes.  A few weeks ago I joined a newly founded on-line family history forum and last weekend I decided to outline my system for comment and/or use by other people there.  Two or three other members have picked this up and made their own (greatly improving) amendments to it, surpassing my original needs, and automating its application to others' records, in ways that are well beyond my programming capabilities.  This in turn has rewarded me with quite a degree of satisfaction.

The great excitement now is ... after this diversion, will I get my big family history project finished before my annual holiday in a few weeks' time?  Only time will tell, but the odds are not looking good!