The Return Of Summer

Just when you thought it was safe to bring out the jumpers and big duvets, it seems that the sun decided to make an unexpected but welcomed return, Just a week or so after the weather men forecast snow for as early as October in some places in the UK.

Whilst the sun is always a bonus, its no so much fun when you stuck in the bunker for 11 hours a day trying to maintain some kind of sanity and order in the crazy world of logistics.

Imagine the scene a basement in an office block which clearly hasnt been considered for air con and probably never will be. Although our office is a fun place to be and work it can get incredibly hot down there and whilst we do have a fan in the office it just doesnt have the same benefits of air con.

But when I did manage to venture outside to enjoy the weather and take in the sights and sounds of London town, it was enjoyable if not a little hazardous at times. The problem with the sun is that everybody seems to forget that bikes dont make noise, even more so then normal for some reason. I dont know if it is because the world is full of perverts who see a girl or guy where very little clothing and pay more attention to that or if they are just admiring the glorious blue skies and sunshine.

Add to the mixer a bunch of pissed off drivers who have been sat in traffic for god knows how long and you have a recipe for disaster.

Thankfully I managed to survive the week with only a couple of close calls and no injuries (having only just recovered from my most serious crash a week or so ago I wasnt really looking to get involved in another one)

The week was a strange one, to say the least, With Thursday being quite possibly the most stressful day I have had in a long time. It all seemed to just snow ball after about 845 in the morning.

The first thing that went wrong was when one of the drivers was given the wrong food from one of our biggest clients, he was supposed to get some food for a photo shoot but ended up taking the receptionist breakfast and lunch, which seemed to piss her off quite a lot for some strange reason :)

follow that by her saying that this food had to be over the other side of london immediately and me not having any members of staff to do the job meant that the first hour and half banging my head against a brick wall. so an hour an a half later i finally manage to get someone over to Fulham to sort out the mess and get the girl her food back.

I dont know if peoples minds had been fucked with by the crazy weather we were experiencing but no one seemed to want to work. I mean one day we are getting ready for rain and colder weather the next thing we are getting our shorts out again and sweating your preverbials off.

The weekend is supposed to be a time for the old R & R but not when X Factor is on tv. My weekend was spent waiting for tapes to be finished, and trying to enjoy the sunshine the best i could with the prospect of having to go back to work 4 hours later. Saturdays tapes were annoying, After delivering the first lot to SE1 I went up to Finsbury Park to Watch a bit of Beer Ball ( end of season softball tournament  that is driven by Alcohol) with Lucy, Holly, Paul and Pat from the wolves, after a couple of hours in the sun I had to go back to work, only to get back to the west end to find that the tapes would not be ready for another hour and a half.  Waiting time is always a bonus but when you just want to get home and relax, its not so much fun.

an hour and a half later it was finally ready and I could finally go home, but not before two crazy tourist decided they would try and see who had quicker reactions,  me on a bike going about 20 mph or them on foot, (turns out I have but only just)

Then sunday morning arrives and i go back to the west end only to discover again the tapes wont be ready for another hour.

so the weekend turned out to be more profitable then i first imagined but just as equally frustrating.

We seem to have one more day of hot weather then we can go back to Autumn  like we are supposed to have this time of year.

I personally cant wait, the trees turn that lovely orange shade, the nights draw in earlier and earlier and the commuter Pelaton reduces as it becomes to cold and wet for the fair weather cyclists to venture out.

Roll on winter when the only cyclist on the road are couriers.

Spring- a time for creation

Well its been a while since I was on here so I figured its time to get people back in the loop.
A lot of things have happened since I last posted, I have been spending more time in our office, maning the phones, and doing a bit of dispatching, I have been sent to man the post room at one of our clients for most of this week, and I have even had a chance to do a bit of dumpster diving.

Winter seems to have passed now and bar those couple of weeks it wasn't to bad, I have experienced a lot worse, and I am proud to say that I only stacked it once, whilst working that is, the others were through drunkeness.

With spring just around the corner and the potentiol of a fantastic weekend and start of next week weather wise, it makes you glad to be out on the road, sadly though as I write this I am stuck in a office with nothing to do, no cricket to listen to and rapidly going out of my mind. How people do this day in day out is beyond me.

If I had to do this all day everyday, I think I would last about 2 weeks, then I would either be on a murder charge for going on a shotgun weilding rampage through the office or found on a window ledge of the tallest building in london.

I cant wait for Monday so I can get back out on the road where I belong and enjoy the sunshine, the beautiful parks and squares London has to offer and the potential distraction of a short skirt which will always end up being an accident waiting to happen.

And so with Spring brings the joyous birth of many things, not least this year where there will be a new birth in the T O  household. No before anyone asks I've not got some girl up the duff, but it has been in the pipeline for some time now but the new bike is nearing production.

The Frame has been selected, I have found someone that imports it, Its now just a case of getting down there, paying the guy some money and then waiting a week or so until my new baby will arrive. In a tribute to my Toronto Buddies, I have selected a bike which will pay homage to two of my closest friends and former work mates, one who kindly took me under his wing and the other who persudaded me to leave that wing in the search of more money :).

So in Honour of Harry and Chris I have chosen the khaki green Soma Rush. (Mr green for Harry and the rush for Chris).

It will be kept simple, with only 3 colour variations, green, chrome and white, the only white being the seat, with chrome hubs, rims, drop bars, brakes, crankset. pedals.

Once the gestation period is complete hopefully within 3 months, I will have this baby up and running ready in time for some serious summer riding. I always dreamed of having a dry bike and a rain bike, and by the end of May I will hopefully have that.

everything is being built from scratch, with hand selected parts, which will make this run like a dream.
The wheels will be this first thing to get started hopefully with in the next week or so.

Walshy, my co-worker is also just about to start building his new bike, so there will be a bike workshop starting in Walshys living room very soon
This will be my first attempt at building a bike from scratch. A project I have always wanted to do.
An ideal time with summer around the corner.

Happy riding

10-4
TO-Messenger

Confessions of a Bicycle Menace: A new year, same idiots

Confessions of a Bicycle Menace: A new year, same idiots: "Well the new year is finally and I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and a good new year, by the time the 3rd of jan came aroun..."

A new year, same idiots

Well the new year is finally and I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and a good new year, by the time the 3rd of jan came around I was completely bored and going out of mind, I needed to get back to work, I needed to start earning some money, The thought of not actually seeing any money going into my back account that week was horrible, luckily I kinda of budgeted for that, I saw budgeted, I mean I had enough for some cigarettes and lunch.

The first week back after the holidays was always going to be a quite one, The first day back I done 8 jobs 10 on the second until Friday when it began to get a bit busier. It took a while for everything so start moving again, including my body, I was pretty much a slob for 10 days over Christmas, eating to much, drinking to much and generally not exercising.

My second week back started with a bang, quite literally, I was minding my own business mid afternoon riding through Oxford circus when a tourist decided that because they cant here anything coming then it is safe for them to walk out giving me all of half a second to react.

Not really to much time really, I had no where to go apart from into her, both of us ended up in the middle of Regent street on the ground, and of course, the tourist is the one that gets away with out any kind of injury, me on the other hand ended up with a nice bit of road rash across my knee.

The new year also saw a bit of a change for me in the fact that I was handed the responsabilty of opening up the office and spending the first hour dispatching, I quite enjoy the change, taking bookings, ordering people about, I could see my self dispatching in a few years or so, when my body has finally had enough abuse and cant take any more.

The week got progressively  busier and on Thursday it got extremely busy seen as I was the only push biker in work that day, some of the motor bikes took some of the pressure off me, but it was still a day that meant when I got home it was eat shower sleep.

Friday was another strange day, I spent an hour at a clients waiting for a job, luckily this was whilst the heavens quite literally opened and dumped a lake on top of London, then after a few more delivries including a urgent direct at 5:30 from Soho square to Westminster bridge. I get back to the office crack open a beer and im just about to leave when one of the bikers that is supposed to take the overnights down to the depot decides that his bike wont start, that means that its up to me to take them down to new kent road rather then going home, was not best pleased, eventually got home at 8 30.

Thankfully the weekend was here though and I had some beer in the fridge chilling for me

Another week will be here soon and more dispatching for another couple of weeks.

until the next time

TO

10-4

Confessions of a Bicycle Menace: Holiday season = silly season

Confessions of a Bicycle Menace: Holiday season = silly season: "Well, its been a while since I wrote on here and a fair few things have happened. its all gone quite as I sit here on Christmas eve writing ..."

Holiday season = silly season

Well, its been a while since I wrote on here and a fair few things have happened. its all gone quite as I sit here on Christmas eve writing this blog. Done 1 job and there is one more on the screen, but that is it, seems everyone has buggered off for their christmas drinks and feasts.

Christmas seems to bring out the idiots even more then normal, people who are more concerned about getting to the next department store then actually paying any atention to the fact they are crossing a road.

I had a accident a couple of tuesdays ago, the biggest incident and the most serious I have had in a couple of years since I was involved in a car/street car track/ rain incident in Toronto.

Students have a lot to answer for, first of all the cause mayhem in the city by protesting over fees, ( someone has to pay for them and I dont see why it should be me.) Then they vandalise property and deface memorials. My biggest grip with students are the ones that are around 13 years old, bunk off school and decided to run across 4 lanes of rush hour traffic at parliment square without looking and straight into my path.

Well I think you can guess where this is going, it ended up with me flying over the handle bars and landing straight on my back, which resulted in me spending 5 hours in St Thomas.

I know that we all have our grips with the police but they were very helpful in the fact that they were hanging around monitoring the protests, and they had the police medics on scene within minutes and an ambulance there in 20minutes. The kid was fine, just a little shaken, the police phoned his parents who went ballisitic as they found out that he had bunked off school to go to parliment and protest.

Im fine now and was back on the road after a day off to try and recover, hell if I could afford to I would have taken a couple of days off but I cant so I had no option.

This week has been a strange week, Snow, rain, sleet, bitter cold ice winds and a mixture of busy and quite days.
Monday started off slowly with the snow falling and the roads treacherous, it turned out to be the busiest day of the week, a very tiring day which required a hell of a lot of concerntration, and at the end of it I was pyshically exhuasted.
the week then began to slow down from there, gradually getting quiter and quiter as the week progressed.

But I cant complain as Im off as of 2pm for 10 days so come this afternoon I will be hitting the pubs around Liverpool st, for a good old jolly up as they say.

Wishing everyone happy holidays
Until the New year
TO_messenger

The things we do for money

I often ask myself just how far I would be willing to go to earn a pittance. Not many people I know would carry 2 bags for of clothes from Dalston to Notting Hill all for £7.50. For those of you who don't really have a grasp of  how far that is, well according to Google maps it is 6.6 miles, now that isn't to far when you consider on the average bike messenger will cover over 60 miles a day, but you also have to take into account the "dead mileage" that you have on jobs like that, the 3 miles or so that you have to ride to get back into the west end where your next pick up will be. That's 3 miles or so you are travelling without earning any money.

Sometimes you get lucky, a prime example of this occurred the other day when one of our motor bikes got a job going to Portsmouth, not a bad little run for a motor bike to take but when we get a phone call 5 minutes later for a pick up in Portsmouth, well that just makes the job like a dream.

Sadly this very really happens for me, seen as we have very few if any clients anywhere west of W2. If im lucky I will get a pick up from the BBC but those jobs are few and far between.

Then you get the ridiculously small runs, I had a Soho Square to Rathbone Place the other day, again for the geographically challenged  that is 0.1 miles. Yes someone was willing to pay my £2.50 to basically walk over the road to deliver a package. However this isnt the shortest journey I have ever made. I once took a cheque from the 15th floor of a building to the bank which was on the ground floor of the same building and then took the receipt back to the post room on the 15th floor, Distance wise, I'm going to guess probably about 46 steps.

Not that I'm complaining, I would gladly do 40 of those jobs a day, but sometimes it is just nice to get your head down and get the legs pumping and go for those slightly longer rides.

The more annoying thing then long distance runs and dead mileage, is the ungrateful bastards you deliver too. After trawling my way across London with said bags of clothes on my back the only reaction I get is a sneer of why do I want this. But very every 4 assholes there is one person that is really grateful you are good at your job. 

I have had two prime examples of the grateful people recently , A few days ago  when delivering something to the flight centre on upper street, I hand the package to a rather lovely young lady called Hayley, who proceeds to genuinely get really really excited about receiving a package, saying that I have made her week. whilst hooting with delight. Today I had another grateful client, a urgent time sensitive job from Great Portland Street to Appold Street near Liverpool Street. I arrive at 11:15 with a big warning on my PDA saying "MUST BE DELIVERED BY 12:00"

Of course the package isn't ready yet, so Im sitting there waiting, watching the clock tick by, whilst I don't mind waiting for packages as obviously waiting time is charged. The guy asks me how long it will take to get to Appold Street, I tell him about 20 minutes. So as the clock slowly moves towards the 11:40 mark I can see the guy is beginning to panic and sweat. the final words I hear from the office are "Thank you so much" and "ride like the wind" from the receptionist. 

Onto a sadder note, Its official, Summer is over.

So long summer

This sadly is the proof, this was the last day when I was riding around in t-shirt and shorts. now sadly its layers of t-shirts, at least 2 pairs of long socks and the ear warmers, I even had to dig out the Face mask on Wednesday morning. Now I know I should be used to colder temperatures having spent two years in Canada, but everywhere you go there are different types of cold, and the wind in London can be a very very harsh thing, especially near the river.

So the two tone tan will slowly be fading away as less and less skin is being left on show. 

All I can do is dream of Spring. 

I had a encounter with one of the boys in blue on Thursday evening. admittedly I was riding the wrong way down a one way street in the middle of rush hour but still I was only going at a crawl.

I see the meat wagon and just know that he is going to jump out and say something and low and behold out he jumps arm raised in front of him and orders me to stop.

I don't know if this will work again but I'll definitely try it. I managed to get out of a ticket but simply saying" sorry officer, I know Im in the wrong" to which the cop replied" right ok you've admitted that you are doing wrong, so just get off your bike and walk it down here.".

The most annoying thing was the cop made me walk the 3 yards that it was until the road became a two way street again. 

But hey I got out of a £30 fine so its all good.

Next Wednesday (the 27th of October) is London Courier Appreciation day, So if you do have a messenger in your office during the day, just acknowledge them and say they do a good job. We appreciate praise, but we de appreciate tips even more ;-) only kidding just a simple "good job" or the offer of a drink is always welcomed.

http://lcef.wordpress.com/

Oh and by the way incase  you were wondering did I make it over to Appold Street by 12, the answer is yes, I handed over the package at 11:58. Made it with two minutes to spare.

Happy riding.

10-4