This week has been interesting, but a bit of a chain. Many times one job has led on to another, but there hasn't been a proper 'double' all week, i.e. two jobs going together to the same area, which is much more profitable. I won't bore you with the details, but here's a single highlight from each day.
On Monday afternoon I rescued a gas engineer who was locked out of his van in Windsor High Street. These vans have an unforgiving security feature in that, once slammed shut, the back portion can only be opened with the key, and if the key is inside at the time, e.g. in your coat pocket ... oh dear! Tuesday found me in the depths of the massive BT establishment at Martlesham Heath in Suffolk, while Wednesday began by taking a load of bread to an Essex dairy (echoes of the breakfast of a former age here!)
After a none-too-sleepful night, Thursday's excitements included a visit to Yeovil, and I needed to stop for a snooze at Andover on the way back. I was woken by a phone call, asking me to be in Bedford at 7.0 the following morning to take a small - and very light - box to a railway engineer at Brighton station. The week ended in a haze of headache and bewilderment.
During the week, I'd volunteered along with others for a Saturday evening job in connection with the new Sunday paper, but I realised in time that I was already committed to a Church Barn Dance event last night. So while my colleagues were taking hot-off-the-press newsprint to 'specific destinations', I was enjoying being told what to do by a most proficient caller. For the most part these affairs are straightforward, even if enjoyably chaotic, but inevitably there are more women than men (as expertly articulated by Joyce Grenfell) and it does get a trifle complicated when the 'man' is sporting a large bosom and wearing a dress, while her (sorry - his!) partner is in jeans!
A good time was had by all, however, and waking to another bright spring day, all I really have to complain about is the aches and pains in muscles I'd forgotten ever existed!
Showing posts with label pastimes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pastimes. Show all posts
Sunday, 26 February 2012
Friday, 13 January 2012
Retail therapy ... and other signs of 2012
The new year has got its feet under the table, as it were. Things are slowly getting back to normal after the long festive break - although I confess that I haven't as yet got round to recycling those greeting cards that won't find their way into my 'sentimental retention' file. And work-wise, this week has been remarkably better than last: not 'good', by any means, but with income likely to be more than twice last week's, I can't be other than satisfied.
The pattern that 2012 has established so far for me is one of semi-retirement. That is, I might like for it to become semi-permanent if I were to find I could afford it (if that's not too tortuous!) With one notable exception this week I've tended to get up quite lazily, and go in to work around 10.0 or later, which has had the benefit of getting some stuff done on my desk in the morning ... and the disadvantage of allowing me the latitude of staying up later at night!
Eight jobs this week have provided an interesting mix of the known and unknown, the long and short, and the good and bad fortune - oh, and that repeating genie of which I've spoken in the past got a hand in it as well. A repeat of the Shoeburyness run I did last week was my only job on Monday, and Tuesday provided only a couple of locals. I had risen to second on the list by mid afternoon, and was offered second refusal at an anti-social job for delivery in Lancaster by 8.0 the following morning.
This entailed being woken by a phone call at around 11.30pm, to meet someone for the collection, and a long, slow, economical drive taking as long as conveniently possible for what should be a 4-hour journey. One aspect I particularly enjoyed was spending over an hour at Shardlow services on the A50, virtually the only customer - certainly the only one sitting there from 3.0 till 4.10 - sipping my coffee and reading my long-suffering book-in-the-van. It seemed a warmer way of losing some of the excess time than trying to sleep in a cold van; and anyway, after six hours' rest, if not constant sleep, before leaving home, I wasn't particularly tired - until later on.
I mentioned the repeating genie - his contribution this week was different from the usual. One of two jobs taken to Birmingham yesterday, was a box collected from our local college for delivery to a college there; this morning I collected a similar box from the same place to go to a college in Norwich.
One of the tasks to which I was able to devote - or should that be sacrifice - my time at home this morning was reinstating my podcast feeds, which I managed to lose last night when I closed a dialog box on the computer without noticing until it was too late that one of the check-boxes was ticked! At least this will prompt me to tidy up some that I downloaded long ago but have never got round to listening to!
Finally this week, a confession. I have discovered the joys of retail therapy. I blame the boredom that accompanies the present low level of work, although that's probably not justified. Last weekend I replaced my hi-fi. The old one had long since stopped playing CDs, and they all sit in the cabinet in the hall unable to be listened to. I offered the old hi-fi on freecycle, but it seems there are no handymen about who might like to attempt the challenge to get it working again. Tomorrow it goes to the tip. And with it will go my old toaster, also replaced. The excuse for this is that it was cheap and tiny, requiring the end of a standard slice of bread to be trimmed so that it would fit into the slot. I deemed this wasteful of both bread and energy!
Add to these extravagences, the normal service to the van last Tuesday, and this week's follow-up to the eye test last weekend, i.e. new reading specs, and I can see why they call one day in late January 'Black Monday'. It's when all the credit card balances, inflated by festive spending, have to be settled. In my case, it's not festive over-spending, but a simple Micawberesque case of outgoings exceeding income, but one way or another it cannot be allowed to continue!
The pattern that 2012 has established so far for me is one of semi-retirement. That is, I might like for it to become semi-permanent if I were to find I could afford it (if that's not too tortuous!) With one notable exception this week I've tended to get up quite lazily, and go in to work around 10.0 or later, which has had the benefit of getting some stuff done on my desk in the morning ... and the disadvantage of allowing me the latitude of staying up later at night!
Eight jobs this week have provided an interesting mix of the known and unknown, the long and short, and the good and bad fortune - oh, and that repeating genie of which I've spoken in the past got a hand in it as well. A repeat of the Shoeburyness run I did last week was my only job on Monday, and Tuesday provided only a couple of locals. I had risen to second on the list by mid afternoon, and was offered second refusal at an anti-social job for delivery in Lancaster by 8.0 the following morning.
This entailed being woken by a phone call at around 11.30pm, to meet someone for the collection, and a long, slow, economical drive taking as long as conveniently possible for what should be a 4-hour journey. One aspect I particularly enjoyed was spending over an hour at Shardlow services on the A50, virtually the only customer - certainly the only one sitting there from 3.0 till 4.10 - sipping my coffee and reading my long-suffering book-in-the-van. It seemed a warmer way of losing some of the excess time than trying to sleep in a cold van; and anyway, after six hours' rest, if not constant sleep, before leaving home, I wasn't particularly tired - until later on.
I mentioned the repeating genie - his contribution this week was different from the usual. One of two jobs taken to Birmingham yesterday, was a box collected from our local college for delivery to a college there; this morning I collected a similar box from the same place to go to a college in Norwich.
One of the tasks to which I was able to devote - or should that be sacrifice - my time at home this morning was reinstating my podcast feeds, which I managed to lose last night when I closed a dialog box on the computer without noticing until it was too late that one of the check-boxes was ticked! At least this will prompt me to tidy up some that I downloaded long ago but have never got round to listening to!
Finally this week, a confession. I have discovered the joys of retail therapy. I blame the boredom that accompanies the present low level of work, although that's probably not justified. Last weekend I replaced my hi-fi. The old one had long since stopped playing CDs, and they all sit in the cabinet in the hall unable to be listened to. I offered the old hi-fi on freecycle, but it seems there are no handymen about who might like to attempt the challenge to get it working again. Tomorrow it goes to the tip. And with it will go my old toaster, also replaced. The excuse for this is that it was cheap and tiny, requiring the end of a standard slice of bread to be trimmed so that it would fit into the slot. I deemed this wasteful of both bread and energy!
Add to these extravagences, the normal service to the van last Tuesday, and this week's follow-up to the eye test last weekend, i.e. new reading specs, and I can see why they call one day in late January 'Black Monday'. It's when all the credit card balances, inflated by festive spending, have to be settled. In my case, it's not festive over-spending, but a simple Micawberesque case of outgoings exceeding income, but one way or another it cannot be allowed to continue!
Sunday, 19 June 2011
Down Time
"You're a 24/7 courier - don't you ever get time off?" Well, let me correct the presumption implied in that question. I work for a 24/7 firm; that doesn't mean that the individual drivers work 24/7 ... that would be simply unsafe! No, the phones are manned around the clock by a team of controllers, and outside of 'normal' office hours a variety of drivers make themselves available - according to their own individual situations and circumstances - for whatever work comes in.
As for me - I tend to be available from waking to bedtime five days a week, and the occasional Saturday when I have nothing else written in my diary (which seems to mean less frequently these days than when I started, full of enthusiasm!) As a matter of principle, I don't work on Sundays, with a couple of exceptional categories, which are i) to collect a job locally for delivery somewhere on Monday morning, and ii) in case of medical emergency.
So the question remains, 'what do I do with my spare time?' I guess that's almost - but not quite - the same as 'what are my hobbies?' One thing I'm looking forward to at the moment is an event that takes place in a couple of weeks' time. This is the annual gathering to determine the winners of the Eddie Buck Trophy. It's what we bellringers call a 'Striking Competition.' That's not a process of hitting each other, but a test of each team's ability to ring the same bells with an even space between the dings and the dongs. It's (usually) a nice relaxing afternoon in a sunny churchyard, catching up with old acquaintances not seen since last year, or enjoying the company of the friends I see every week.
And then there's the tea! While we wait for the judges to tot up the marks and compile their report on our various performances, what else is there to do but munch and sip? A ringers' tea has to be seen to be believed. There are usually far more sandwiches, with a variety of fillings, than would supply more picnics than would fill a summer, and an equally plentiful provision of (fattening) cakes, too! And alongside these is an endless supply of tea by the gallon although, since I don't drink tea, I make a nuisance of myself and request coffee. Once we have all been refreshed, comes the official meeting of the local Ringing Association, highlight of which is the judges' report, and the all-important results.
My team is not normally lucky enough to be among the winning trio. Once we did come third - but we didn't broadcast the fact that there were only three teams taking part that year! Our tower captain has been going round with a clipboard collecting the names of those who are willing to take part. He only needs six, but it's amazing how many are going on holiday, feel they aren't good enough, or are simply unwilling to subject themselves to the ignomy of being beaten (which is virtually certain, since some teams are so good as to win, or nearly so, year after year.)
Win or lose, work will soon come round again!
As for me - I tend to be available from waking to bedtime five days a week, and the occasional Saturday when I have nothing else written in my diary (which seems to mean less frequently these days than when I started, full of enthusiasm!) As a matter of principle, I don't work on Sundays, with a couple of exceptional categories, which are i) to collect a job locally for delivery somewhere on Monday morning, and ii) in case of medical emergency.
So the question remains, 'what do I do with my spare time?' I guess that's almost - but not quite - the same as 'what are my hobbies?' One thing I'm looking forward to at the moment is an event that takes place in a couple of weeks' time. This is the annual gathering to determine the winners of the Eddie Buck Trophy. It's what we bellringers call a 'Striking Competition.' That's not a process of hitting each other, but a test of each team's ability to ring the same bells with an even space between the dings and the dongs. It's (usually) a nice relaxing afternoon in a sunny churchyard, catching up with old acquaintances not seen since last year, or enjoying the company of the friends I see every week.
And then there's the tea! While we wait for the judges to tot up the marks and compile their report on our various performances, what else is there to do but munch and sip? A ringers' tea has to be seen to be believed. There are usually far more sandwiches, with a variety of fillings, than would supply more picnics than would fill a summer, and an equally plentiful provision of (fattening) cakes, too! And alongside these is an endless supply of tea by the gallon although, since I don't drink tea, I make a nuisance of myself and request coffee. Once we have all been refreshed, comes the official meeting of the local Ringing Association, highlight of which is the judges' report, and the all-important results.
My team is not normally lucky enough to be among the winning trio. Once we did come third - but we didn't broadcast the fact that there were only three teams taking part that year! Our tower captain has been going round with a clipboard collecting the names of those who are willing to take part. He only needs six, but it's amazing how many are going on holiday, feel they aren't good enough, or are simply unwilling to subject themselves to the ignomy of being beaten (which is virtually certain, since some teams are so good as to win, or nearly so, year after year.)
Win or lose, work will soon come round again!
Wednesday, 25 May 2011
Waiting time
In order to offer a prompt service, we (almost) always have drivers 'on hand', i.e. waiting at the office for work. As you can imagine, therefore, waiting forms a significant part of our week, even if it's not every day for all of us. So it seemed a good idea to give some idea of how we fill our idle time.
The occupations fall into two broad categories - social and individual. Some people spend all of their waiting in our crew room or the office, in the company of other drivers, or the staff. Strictly speaking we're not supposed to go into the office unless with specific purpose, but we rarely get turned away if we don't disturb the running of the business, and sometimes our knowledge of the customers' affairs can prove useful.
Whilst together in this way, time can be taken up in many ways: eating and drinking, for example, is a high priority. There is always a variety of newspapers: some will read them avidly, while others simply ogle the pictures of scantily clad girls. My preference - along with one other keen anorak - is to turn to the puzzle page, where we see which of us can demolish the crosswords first. The majority of the drivers - and all of the staff, of course - have their 'own' Premier League football teams, and there is usually vigourous but amicable rivalry between the various loyalties: chafing each other, chewing over recent scores and transfers, or bemoaning the latest management gaffs.
When it comes to individual preferences, some will sit playing with their mobile phones, using the latest appications, sending texts or calls, sometimes to friends or wives, or dealing with personal business. Some who have less time to themselves at home will be catching up with their admin., and I even saw someone the other day mending a rosary! Some drivers will only be seen in the crew room to use toilet or kitchen, and pass the rest of the time in their vans. Notwithstanding that much of their time has to be there anyway, they seem to prefer this; it is 'their space'. There they can smoke, read their own papers, or a novel, or listen to music without interruption. Some have even been known to have laptops or DVD players with them, or a dog for company.
And some people even prefer to sit at home, doing their own thing ... hoping that the phone will ring ......
The occupations fall into two broad categories - social and individual. Some people spend all of their waiting in our crew room or the office, in the company of other drivers, or the staff. Strictly speaking we're not supposed to go into the office unless with specific purpose, but we rarely get turned away if we don't disturb the running of the business, and sometimes our knowledge of the customers' affairs can prove useful.
Whilst together in this way, time can be taken up in many ways: eating and drinking, for example, is a high priority. There is always a variety of newspapers: some will read them avidly, while others simply ogle the pictures of scantily clad girls. My preference - along with one other keen anorak - is to turn to the puzzle page, where we see which of us can demolish the crosswords first. The majority of the drivers - and all of the staff, of course - have their 'own' Premier League football teams, and there is usually vigourous but amicable rivalry between the various loyalties: chafing each other, chewing over recent scores and transfers, or bemoaning the latest management gaffs.
When it comes to individual preferences, some will sit playing with their mobile phones, using the latest appications, sending texts or calls, sometimes to friends or wives, or dealing with personal business. Some who have less time to themselves at home will be catching up with their admin., and I even saw someone the other day mending a rosary! Some drivers will only be seen in the crew room to use toilet or kitchen, and pass the rest of the time in their vans. Notwithstanding that much of their time has to be there anyway, they seem to prefer this; it is 'their space'. There they can smoke, read their own papers, or a novel, or listen to music without interruption. Some have even been known to have laptops or DVD players with them, or a dog for company.
And some people even prefer to sit at home, doing their own thing ... hoping that the phone will ring ......
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