One Thing Leads to Another ... Thankfully!

Pride is a sin, they say, so I hope you'll forgive me for saying that one thing I pride myself on is that, as a former professional driver, I can settle my car into a parking space pretty well centred within the white lines.  Imagine my shock, therefore, when yesterday I did what I thought was just that on arrival at my favourite supermarket store, only to get out and find that I was only an inch or two inside the line on my driver's side.

As I walked to the store, I realised that not only the car to my left, but the next four cars along, were all parked very close to the line on their right side.  Only the one at the end of the line was in the middle of its space.  This taught me two things.  First, that my immediate reaction - to blame the car next to me - was most likely unjustified, and secondly that, as stated in my title, 'One thing leads to another'.  Of course, I don't know which car arrived at the store first.  I can only say that the circumstantial evidence points to the second car in the row being the cause of the problem, causing the next four to follow suit.

Thinking further along this track, I recalled - as I often do - the happy years I spent behind the wheel prior to my retirement.  Inevitably such memories are accompanied by thoughts of the relationship that developed between me and my boss, from the day when I first arrived in his office - as I thought, for an interview - to the day when it was announced that he'd sold the business to a national company and was heading for a few years of relaxation and family life.

I laugh as I remember that first arrival.  I had responded to an ad in the local paper for drivers.  My expectation of an interview was met by the briefest of conversations, and the invitation to 'come along on Monday and see how you get on.'  I duly turned up, not really knowing what to expect, and my first job was to collect some paper from a local firm (now long gone) and deliver it to an industrial estate in Newmarket.  I had no idea whereabouts in Newmarket this address was to be found so, on the way, I bought the first of what quickly became quite a library of street maps.  Those were the days - not all that long ago - before SatNav, of course.

There were a few 'interesting bloomers', of course.  One Friday afternoon, I went to the wrong Sandhurst, arriving about 6.0 pm, and spent quite a while looking around this Kent town for the address, before giving up and going into the local pub to ask for directions to Morrisons.  One of the customers asked to see my paperwork and quickly pointed out - to my chagrin - that I was in the wrong place to find a store with an RG postcode!  Feeling a complete failure, I made my slow way around the M25 and eventually arrived at the right place ... after the store had closed!  There was only one thing for it.  I slept in the car on their car park, and made my delivery as early as I could find someone there on Saturday morning.

It was a lesson learned, and there were many more in that steep learning curve.  But I soon realised the enjoyment of this new life and bought a van for the purpose.  I was a quick learner and the outcome was that, before long, I was recognised as a reliable driver when some of the more prestigious or demanding jobs came along: like the surprise check of my reg. no. before being assigned a London delivery, and later finding myself at the door of 10 Downing Street; like returning to the office one Friday lunchtime, to be offered a jiffy bag with the challenge, 'can you get this to Edinburgh by 8.0 tonight?'  In it was a ring that had been repaired by a local jeweller and was wanted for a wedding the following day.

The other day, I reacted to Facebook's announcement that it was my former boss's birthday, and posted a suitable greeting, expecting nothing more in return that the customary 'like'.  Not so.  In a comment, he thanked me for the greeting and enquired how my new life was going.  I was both surprised and warmed by this, and was pleased to summarise for him the last nine months, "Settling in slowly but successfully; spending much time at the computer screen. Getting to know my way around the locality."

As I look back over my working life, I can see how many of my jobs gave me new or increased skills and abilities that helped me in later situations, or now in retirement.  Even this week, I have drafted a report aimed at the reform of our local church's finance systems.  It's hard to look at my present activities and assess these links but, in general, I'm convinced that there is a fundamental truth at work now, as in the past, that one thing does lead to another - even down to the basic recognition, looking around my home, that many of the little things around me wouldn't be here had it not been for my spotting them as I worked in the charity warehouse prior to my move.

Sometimes consequences, from personal to international, are bad rather than good: such as punishment for behaviour causing harm or offence; the unconsidered outcomes of Brexit; or the terrible consequences of the Russian leaders' insecurity or greed, whichever it was that prompted the present conflict in Ukraine.

What in your life would have been different if it hadn't been for ... something specific a while previously?