That Holiday Feeling . . .

Although it only started with a Bank Holiday, this week has had a sort of holiday feel right through - rather like the name that goes right through the middle of seaside rock.

Tuesday started off with what has now become an 'old familiar', Pinewood Studios, settling me comfortably back into work mode.  This time, however, a new precedent was set.  As I drove round the M25 - in true car park style, as ever - came a call asking me to go up to Hemel Hempstead afterwards, to collect some air conditioning units for an address in Leicester.  A 'decent' local job completed the day, taking some paint to a furniture company Haverhill.

Wednesday began with two jobs that fitted nicely together.  First came an early collection of some veneer from Stevenage to go to a joinery company in St Ives, and then down to the little industrial estate in Little Paxton, which is easier to enter from the northern side.  Here I loaded four heavy boxes of printed matter for a direct mailing company in the West Midlands.  On the way back, I was diverted to a plastics firm in Huntingdon, where I collected a small package for Steeple Morden.  It's always good to have three jobs in a row like that because, even if they don't overlap, the 'go-to-load' mileage is eliminated, or at least reduced.

Then, after two decent and enjoyable days, the 'holiday feeling' kicked in.  On Thursday morning the repeating genie took me to the same pretty town where I'd collected Tuesday's paint, this time to deliver some items to their science park.  I'd just returned home, when I was despatched to the seaside, in particular Great Yarmouth.  "Dear old Yarmouth," the comics used to say, "you can tell that by looking in the shops!"  Well, I didn't get as far as the shops, for my collection was on the industrial site to the west of the resort. However, when I then set SatNav to find the nearest Esso station to refuel before returning with my cargo, I was sent out to the lovely broadland village of Ormesby.  I began to feel young, and on holiday again . . . almost!  But even holidays can be tiring, and I didn't really appreciate being called out in the evening to take something up to Salford.  There was apparently no one else available so, since it was a hospital, I set forth, only to be told before I'd gone a mile that they had found a source to meet their needs much nearer to them, so would I please return the goods whence I'd collected them. Willingly!

Friday started with another 'regular', from our laboratory customer in Royston to West Suffolk Hospital.  On my way back, I was re-directed to the seaside again.  This time it was to Clacton-on-Sea.  You may remember that bath of two Saturdays ago?  Just round the corner from that prestigious bathroom store is a food ingredients warehouse, where I now collected quite a lot of vinegar.  Friday had clearly been a busy day: I hadn't yet got back home to deliver the vinegar when the phone rang a second time.  On the way, would I please collect some medicine for a private hospital in Northwood, and a spare key for someone who had locked himself out of his van near Gatwick airport?

Being the last Friday of the month, it was our church's day of prayer and fasting.  I'd made the 7.0 service in the morning, but it was clear that I wouldn't be making the corresponding evening gathering.  By the time I'd withstood the M25, where the traffic was actually stationary in several places, it was almost 7.30 when I found my way to a convenient place to pull off the road in the roadworks and rang the number I'd been given for the victim of locked keys.  It turned out that the van was no further away than the roundabout in front of me, and once past the security fence, it was the work of a moment for my contact to open the door, recover the key, and I was on my way.  Strangely, I was less tired after 400 miles on Friday that I had been after 280 on Thursday.  Nevertheless, I was now happy to head for Cobham services to break my 12-hour fast: rarely has KFC been more welcome!