A Good Mixture

It's been a good week - and not just because of the weather.  It's been what my dad might have called a 'rum ow mixture': a bit of this, and a bit of that, and not too much of anything.  It began on Monday with a standing start: I rang in to say I was available for work.  It wasn't long before I was sent to a customer in Houghton Regis to collect a small package for a soon-to-open shop in the centre of Swindon.  In the afternoon, after the regular weekly document exchange at the office, I went to an industrial unit on the outskirts of Northampton, but was home in time for bell-ringing practice in the evening.

Tuesday and Wednesday each began with a fairly local job pre-booked from the previous evening.  On Tuesday I collected a van-load of electronics for a high security establishment on the outskirts of Milton Keynes.  Never having been there before, I approached the gatehouse with some trepidation, but received an unexpectedly relaxed and warm welcome, clear directions where I should go, and a cheery wave as I departed.  The elation of this job was deflated somewhat by the one that followed.  I was sent to a luxury hotel near Cambridge to collect 'a grey canvas bag' on behalf of a client in Hoddesdon.  I guessed that someone had left their luggage behind - an event not without precedent.  In this case, however, I got it wrong: this grey canvas bag was large and flat, and clearly contained a display unit that had been used at a promotional gathering, but which was far too big to go into a salesperson's company car.  The day ended with a visit to a private hospital in Cheam, along with instructions for Wednesday morning.

Wednesday's local start took me only to Dunstable, and then I collected at a medical firm in Letchworth for the first of three trips this week to another private hospital, this time near to Gatwick airport.  I had returned from this delivery, and was enjoying a welcome cup of coffee after some strenuous domestic activity (see below), when a familiar question came down the phone line.  'Are you all right for ...', which is code for 'I've got a long job here, and I'd like you to do it.'  By now it was 3.15pm, and this enquiry related to a delivery that evening in Leeds.  On the way to collecting this, I did another short job from Hitchin to a factory in a nearby village, and was asked if I'd mind going on to somewhere with 24-hour access in Newcastle, after I'd delivered in Leeds.  Recalling an old saying about 'never rains but it pours', I said 'OK', and collected this job in Letchworth before making my way up the A1 to Sandy for the other one.

The Leeds delivery was to the semi-pedestrianised city centre, where a gang was working on a new shopping mall.  With the problem of one-way streets and others closed off by bollards, my final access was interesting, to say the least, and I was glad of two mobile phone nos., and someone who could meet me where I'd parked and guide me to where the goods were wanted.  At about 8.30, I headed further north, to the Team Valley Business Park, which is actually in Gateshead rather than Newcastle, but only a pedant (like me) would draw this distinction.  With this second delivery made at 10.35, I began the reverse journey.  I stopped at Boroughbridge, finding a convenient turning-that-goes-nowhere where I could park up and get some sleep, and then gently made for the same diner at Stibbington for breakfast at the same table where I'd eaten cottage pie only a few hours before.

... in some cases on top of them!

On the home front this week, the great excitement was my landlord's plan to have the interior window frames repainted.  On Sunday I began a complicated plan to re-arrange my furniture so as to allow the painter unhindered access, which necessitated rendering some items completely unusable for the week, owing to storing others close by, and in some cases on top of them.  This had been completed on Wednesday, just before the phone call that sent me to distant places far to the north.  I returned on Thursday morning with sufficient time to catch up with the washing-up, and put things away by the time the painter arrived.

Once Thursday had properly started, I was content to be given a repeat of the job I'd done the previous morning, to the hospital in Gatwick, complemented this time by a collection in Camberley afterwards for a customer in Flitwick.

I slept well on Thursday night, and was rewarded on Friday morning with a job that was very much a 'blast from the past'.  This was a delivery from a client in Royston to their customer in Harwich, a job that had been quite frequent in 2007/8, but that had not appeared, on my radar at least, since then.  The destination is right by the waterfront, and the journey there far from unpleasant, so I was quite pleased to be given the job.  My pleasure waned a little when I found myself in a traffic hold-up on the way home, but even this had its blessings.  After only a short delay, I was able to follow a small convoy of other vehicles through an industrial estate on the outskirts of Colchester to a roundabout over the blocked A12.  Here service station provided a lovely peaceful lunch location.  By the time I'd eaten a prepared salad, the road was clear again.

It seemed likely, as I rang in about 3.15pm, that the week might be over.  This was indeed a foolish thought for, almost on the dot of 4.0, came the third visit in as many days to that hospital in Gatwick.  When I arrived at 7.30, I found the delivery office closed as I'd expected, so was guided to the theatre with my consignment.  Here I felt obliged to apologise - on behalf of the M25 - for the late delivery, which amused the assistant who received the goods, and in turn put me in a good mood for the trip home.

The weekend has consisted largely in getting my home back to normal, following the retreat of the painter during my absence on Friday.  A pleasant interruption to this exercise came yesterday afternoon with the annual Striking Competition, a bell-ringing tournament in which teams from the local churches attempt to achieve the most regular striking of a set length of ringing.  Our team came fourth out of the five competing this year, which was only just below our expectations, there being one or two larger towers who have established prowess in these skills, and a history of regular success in the contest.