Oh, for Variety!

I've written many times about the 'repeating genie', that twist of fate by which a place visited for the first time for some while will be revisited again within days . . . sometimes within hours.  I'm not the only courier driver who has borne witness to its activity, be it a real force or merely coincidence.  Looking back over the last couple of weeks, I can certainly see its hand in my movements, in varying degrees.

Take, for example, a fairly regular job for a company that occupies one of the industrial units opposite my home.  It began a couple of years ago when they moved in: a collection in the late afternoon for delivery the following morning to Pinewood Studios.  I can't say, of course, how frequently the job itself comes up, only the occasions when I have been asked to do it.  Over the last year, it has averaged about once a month.  Now, in just two weeks I've done this particular job four times, and this week on two consecutive mornings.

Then there is the general need to use that proverbial 'Car Park', the M25.  In fourteen jobs this week, seven of them have involved using it - one eastbound, the remainder (including the two to Pinewood) to the west.  It's not the only major road to have recurred on my horizon this week.  The A10 has also had more than its fair share!  On Tuesday, I made a collection for a firm in Buntingford, and after returning home I was given a job to Sawbridgeworth. On Wednesday afternoon came a delivery to a chemist in North Weald: I was told that he would be staying on beyond his normal hours to wait for this so, realising that this was now the time when the M25 would be clogged, I went cross-country . . . via the A10 and the A414.  The same roads came into play on Friday afternoon when I was sent to Chelmsford with some heavy cables for an electrical installation - and also during the course of Friday, I had two deliveries in Harlow.

In fact, the only jobs this week that were not exclusively 'south' were Monday's repeat of last Friday's delivery to Peterborough Hospital, Tuesday's collection for Buntingford, which was from a firm on the outskirts of Spalding, and a trip to a hospital in Worcester on Wednesday.  By way of contrast, my mind goes back several years to a particularly 'adventurous' week, when I claimed to have visited all three coasts of England, with jobs to Liverpool, Fareham and Ipswich on consecutive days.

It's nice sometimes to find that the goods you're collecting aren't ready.  Apart from the smug satisfaction of being there on time and finding that someone else is to blame for your delay, there can be interesting conversations, too. Like Tuesday's visit to Spalding, where I had to wait ten minutes or so while the last item of the consignment was being procured.  I sat in reception, relaxed, and enjoying the sunshine, when a young lady came and tidied the desk, explaining that the receptionist was on maternity leave.  She seemed inclined to chatter, and I learned that she was apprehensive about her n'th driving test coming up in the next few days, and how she got nervous under the pressure of traffic.  I recalled my first journeys into central London (in those not-too-far-off pre-SatNav days), and how I would yearn - pray, even - for a red traffic light, so I could look down at the map to see what road I wanted at the next junction.

Now, by contrast, SatNav is on for the most familiar of journeys, as much to know the traffic situation as the route; I often find I'm contradicting the prescribed routes, being unwilling to sacrifice a few miles for the very fastest motorway.

I wonder what familiar routes I'll be travelling next week ... watch this space!