Health and Technology

This week started with frustration, and went downhill.  On Friday afternoon I collected an envelope to be taken on Monday to Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire.  This is quite a regular job, that often comes my way because I live opposite the sender.  However, it is some weeks since it last came up, and the layout of the premises has changed in the intervening time.  I made this discovery after queuing to find somewhere to park in order to sign in to get on the site, having arrived promptly at 9.0, and forgoing the first men's breakfast and Bible study of the new season in order to do so.

This was the only job I did on Monday, and Tuesday began quite quietly, too.  Then the week took a more profitable, and distinctly medical turn, as jobs for three hospitals came in succession.  Tuesday afternoon found me on my way to a beautiful establishment, Russell's Hall hospital in Dudley.  Wednesday's task was to the Sancta Maria hospital in Swansea, and Thursday began with a couple of local jobs, one of which was to Bedford General hospital, followed by another delivery in Bedford.

Interest came once more to the fore on Thursday afternoon as I ventured south with two jobs.  First was something to a building site in Pirbright, and as I drove through the village afterwards, passing the church as I did

Stanley's grave (Wikipedia)

so, my eye caught sight of one gravestone in the churchyard that was significantly larger than those around it.  Research after I'd returned home told me that this was the last resting place of Henry Morton Stanley (1841-1904), the explorer who (might have) uttered the now-famous words, "Dr Livingstone, I presume." The second job was to the oil refinery at Fawley, near Southampton, where I was impressed by both the intensity of the security arrangements and the courtesy of the gatehouse staff.

Today I found myself on the M3 again (that repeating Genie doesn't give up!)  After delivering a box to a company in Chertsey, I was off on the 'interesting' tack again, taking to Basingstoke what I described - to the amusement of the person who received it - as 'a naked piece of engineering'.  It was all wires and coils, and solidly mounted on a metal base and since it showed all the signs of going nowhere without a couple of people lifting it, the absence of any kind of covering or protection seemed somehow unimportant. 

It reminded me of an occasion a year or so ago, when I'd collected from a private address what I think of as being a sort of helicopter.  There was a vane on the top, and lots of delicate apparatus beneath, which had to be perched between and supported by boxes of other stuff, all very experimental and 'Heath-Robinson'.  I believe the recipient was waiting to take it overseas to a conference.  I only hope he packed it for flight much more securely than I'd delivered it to him! 

It's all part of the anything, anywhere work of a sameday courier.  As I explained to someone this week, there are three reasons why people come to us with their needs.  Value, urgency or fragility.  Sometimes more than one of these applies, but more often it's only one, and it's usually obvious which one it is.  If it's fragility, such as the samples I wrote about last week, it sometimes requires us to drive more slowly or carefully than normal; so if you see a white van demonstrating peculiar behaviour on the road ..........!

Now for a restful weekend.