Well seen as this is my first ever blog post I guess I better introduce myself, Im Gary and I am a bike messenger in London, England. I go by the name TO Messenger because that is where I discovered my love of Being a Bike messenger, In Toronto, Canada.
I went to Canada in February 0f 2008 looking for a change, I had grown tired of England, the way of life and everything that it stood for. A change was needed and fast. So I worked my ass off for 6 month doing two jobs working from 8 am until 5 doing my day job of being a builder/plumber and then from 6pm until midnight as a barman. I did this 3 or 4 times a week and most of the weekend.
Finally the day arrived, my visa had been granted, the money had been saved and the flight was booked. It had finally dawned on my friends and family that I was going, so one cold February morning my bags were packed and I was heading to Heathrow ready to catch my flight to the wonders of Canada. I went out there knowing no body, having nothing planned apart from a hotel booking for 3 nights.
When I arrived it was a shock to the system, it was -20 degrees and snowing. I had never seen that much snow in my life, let alone feel temperatures of that magnitude. 3 nights passed and I had to leave the hotel, so my next stop was Global village backpackers hostel, where I would spend the next 3 months.
2 weeks into my trip I began looking for work. Now in Canada they have a law that says that if a Canadian can do a job then they will get preference over anyone else, this proved to be a bit of a problem in finding work. So one night sitting in the hostel bar (yes they had a bar in the hostel, one of the main reasons I stayed so long) I was browsing the Internet with my new friend Hilary, both of us looking for work, when I stumbled across a ad on Craigslist, An ad for a bike messenger.
Now being a bike messenger was something that had crossed my mind before but like many previous thoughts on my dream job, it never really materialised, until now.
So the next morning I took a trip up to the office of Leader courier, where I met Rob, Anne and Brian, the controllers at leader. My interview lasted all of 30 seconds where at the end I was told to come back in the morning armed with a bike and a bag and a map and they would get me started.
So I finally had a job, now all I needed was a bike, a bag and a map. So out I went to the nearest second hand bike shop on Spadina Ave and bought myself a cheap bike. $120 later I was the proud owner of a piece of shit mountain bike, next stop was to find a bag..
I returned the next day where I meet my new work mates, Anthony "Harry Merkin" Le, Rudy, Adam or Church as he was known and Dave, the 65 year old alcoholic who would be showing me the ropes.
They started me off slowly on my first day seen as I had no idea where anything was, but within a week or two I felt like I had been living in Toronto for years.
After two weeks I decided that I really enjoyed the job and that I should invest in a new bike, so I went to a bike shop on Bathhurst St and invested in a brand new Giant track bike.
In between jobs we would hang out at 145 King Street, where I met Chris "rush" Peters, he worked for Rush international and after 3 months of working for Leader an opportunity came up at Rush, It was an offer that I couldn't refuse. Chris had put in a good word for me and had managed to convince his dispatcher to offer me the same money that he was on. I had gone from piece work to a $1000 guarantee every two weeks. It was a dream come true. I broke the bad news to Leader that I was leaving and they wished me well and told me that I would be welcome back any time. Its always good to leave on good terms, just in case.
During my time in Canada I had met a girl, it was kind of a whirlwind romance and I made a very hard decision in leaving Toronto and going to stay with this girl. So at the end of October I handed my radio in and moved to away from TO. This turned out to be a huge mistake and to cut a long story short, 1 Year 2 months, and one failed marriage later, I found myself on a plane to London.
When I arrived back in the UK I went back to working in the bar, this lasted for about 5 months until it finally drove me insane, It was time to get back on the bike and get back to doing something that I love.
So hear I am now back doing the thing I love. I am working at Scream couriers and have been since the beginning of August.
Its the best thing I have done in a very long time, they are a great bunch of people and I am loving being back on the road.
Its been a quite couple of months as im sure most couriers will tell you, but with they news last week that one of the other bikers is leaving for pastures new, im sure that the extra work that will be dished out to the rest of us will come in very handy.
So this is were you will be able to keep up with everything going on in my world. I have no doubt there will be some interesting stories of close shaves, idiot drivers and drunken escapades.
But for the time being I will leave you with the story so far.
10-4
TO-Messenger
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