Looking up!

I suspect it's been that way since the stone age.  As the days pass, and the sunshine - when it happens - gets warmer, we see more and more signs of spring, and we realise that the dismal days of winter are behind us.  In my case, there have been other signs of the passage of time.  Apart from my transition into retirement, I recall a couple of years ago when our firm moved into new offices on an industrial estate about five miles away.  For those of us who live locally, this meant an additional ten unproductive miles per day, and there were a few mutterings.  Then it was realised that we could be more useful if we stayed at home, nearer to the customer-base and, happily, so it proved.  Last week saw the next move, as the office sorted itself out in another new location.  This time it's to a modern unit here in Letchworth, and the layout is very much in keeping with other CitySprint offices I've seen in the last few months, with the control room on the upper floor.  Whether the staff enjoy going up and down the stairs all day is another matter!

The week began for me with a prompt start.  Having located the new office and delivered some outstanding paperwork, I was out on a job by 8.0, on my way to collect in a nearby village for an equally rural delivery near Dunmow. The day was completed by a pair of jobs to Slough and High Wycombe, which were delayed by a motorway accident.  Tuesday was off to a slow start but eventually I was sent to Buckingham.  After my return came a collection in Cheshunt for a customer in Buntingford.  I'm always surprised how much my van will carry.  This challenge accentuated my surprise, as two trolleys were wheeled out, one with three large boxes, the other with four!  With one standing on end, these just filled the van, and also nonplussed the consignee, who had requested delivery to his home, only to find that these seven boxes filled the hallway and virtually prevented him going upstairs! As ever, I have no idea of the contents; I only hope he was able to deal with them before domestic upset ensued!

I've written here before about my suspicions concerning the balance between the recovery of work levels after the new year break and the possibility of uneven allocation of jobs.  On Tuesday afternoon, after unrewarded availability since 2.30, I gently rejected an invitation at 4.0 to collect the next morning's delivery to Pinewood Studios, and after the controller said he'd find someone else and respected my decision to wait for something better, I wondered if I'd put my foot in it.  Not so; about half-an-hour later another call brought me two 8.0 a.m. collections.  One was in Stevenage for St Albans, and the other in Welwyn Garden City for Abingdon.  Both the controller and I were aware that the Stevenage pick-up was from an office that opened at 7.30, and the staff there had three small boxes all ready for collection when I arrived.  A nice early start like that meant that I was home in time to do other work afterwards, so when I arrived at church in the evening for a Lent study gathering (admirably complemented by an optional evening meal!), I was in a good mood!

My good mood was maintained the next day, with another early duo, this time to St Albans and Aldershot, followed by a couple of local jobs.  I'd just got home from these, when the controller asked if I was able to do a hospital run from Stevenage to Cambridge.  Of course I was, and this was rather mirrored by the first job I did on Friday morning, this time between hospitals in Hitchin and Sawbridgeworth.  Along with this came another job to Billericay and, as I made my way along the A127 on the last stretch of that journey, I was spotted on the computer screen by the controller at Brentwood, who asked if I were interested in deliveries for him in Colchester and Braintree.  I was pleased to be asked, and enjoyed the trip in the sunshine.

Luckily, although it was the first of the two to be collected, I noticed that the Braintree job was 'for delivery by 16:00', while the other was more urgent. So I was in the middle of Colchester when I received another job, this time for collection in Brightlingsea.  Coincidence - or was it that Genie, since Colchester appears on my radar an average of two or three per year? - dictated that this delivery was in the next street to the one I'd just made. Even after that, the Braintree delivery was well within the time limit, and I was warmly received by the receptionist in the showroom of a new development on the outskirts of the town.  The day closed with a transfer to the office in Hemel Hempstead, and I thought this might be the end of the week, but with lots of work today, my help was sought in clearing up a very local job at 8.0 this morning, covering a distance of just two miles between one depot and another of the same customer.

This has enabled me to fit in the conclusion of an experimental re-orientation of my bedroom, aimed at making better use of the heater, which is in one corner of the room.  As in so many rooms, the distribution of electrical sockets in that room has never suited precisely where they were needed.  For years now, I have had an extension lead stretching across the floor, under the bed, and waiting to trip me up if I'm either exceptionally tired at night, or still half asleep when I get up.  Now, I've re-sourced the supply from a different socket located behind a cupboard on the other side of the room.  To do this, of course, I had to empty the cupboard to move it out - inevitably prompting incidental cobweb removal - fit the plug of the extension lead, and then replace and refill the cupboard: a classic case of a two-minute job taking an hour!

Pleased with my success, I decided to take advantage of the sunshine and walk up to the local football ground, where the reserve team were playing a side from a nearby town.  Sadly, although the team is called 'the Eagles', they played more like sciatic sparrows, rather in the schoolboy 'kick the ball anywhere' mode that I recall from my own young days.  It's wrong of me, I know, to be so cutting without making allowances for the fact that this match was four to six leagues lower than those I usually watch, but I found it less than satisfying, and so left after the interval.  I did enjoy the walk home, though, and can now look forward to another few days of fine spring weather stretching into next week.  What will it hold, I wonder? ... watch this space!