Friday 1st February 2008: Not as bad as yesterday by a long shot, although despite the Sun and Times being first
in again, the rest were late and just before 5am. The Mail delayed them again although they were at least on the van this
time and not stuck on the M4. One of our early adults was away but we seemed to battle through with few problems, even when
one of our lads left it very late to ring in sick, all was done and complete before 8am. The weather has taken a turn for the
worst with temps right down and the winds up, although in fairness here in deepest, darkest Somerset we are lucky compared to
a lot of the country, some of whom have had snow and blizzards. Roll on summer I say.
Saturday 2nd February 2008: Whilst we haven't had any snow yet, we had enough frost on one of our cars today to warrant an impromptu snowball fight as we waited for the papers which was good childish fun amongst us adults whose ages ranged from 40 to 72!! Anyway, Sun and Times were just after 4am which was brilliant and the rest arrived after the snowball fight at around 4:50am. I think I must have missed the news where it said that it's national Meryl Streep day as two different papers have a free DVD of her films in them. I've checked the rather wonderful IMDB and her birthday isn't until June so that's not it! The Mirror have a free Mr Man book (collect at various supermarkets) which as one customer put it is, `proper literature!` Forget Jamesz Patterson and Stuart McBride, give me Mr Bump any day of the week.
Sunday 3rd February 2008: Whilst walking our dog before work today there was a lot of club stragglers making their way somewhere and one group were particularly loud even though I couldn't actually see then. It sounded like a lot of older teenagers just around the corner however when they made an appearance (just as I was wondering whether to go on or turn around!) there were just three teenage girls who had probably drunk their own body weight within the previous few hours. Strong wind and very cold today, however I was warmed by the sight of News of the World and Times already in when I arrived. The rest were a bit later at 4:30am but all in and no re-runs. The Mail and Tele both have free silver discs today with the latter giving away a DVD of Cyrano de Bererac which instantly made me think of that joke involving Pinnochio! I had two rounds to get done, one which I knew about in advance and another thanks to a message on the answerphone as one of our girls was taken ill. Still, one round started where the other ended so it wasn't too bad.
Tuesday 5th February 2008: Whilst the papers weren't too bad time wise today with both vans in by 4:40am, there was a problem
with the big load as we had a bundle of Guardian labelled up as Express. This basically meant that we had too many Guardian
and nowhere near enough Express (3 instead of 75 to be exact!). Credit to our wholesalers though as they had them out to us by 6am
- just under an hour and a half after I rang. Funniest thing of the year so far came on our wholesalers early morning phone message
which is a number we can ring to get a recorded message of any late papers, problems and even what time the van left.
This in itself is a superb idea and I must confess that we do use it most
mornings.. I must have
timed it brilliantly this morning as I rang at 4:30am to get a message of this ilk. "It's
the 5th of February. First van left at 3:50am, we expect the last one out
at..." then a pause and then the guy swears (big time!) before the message ends. Cue much laughter at our end as I had it
on speaker! Sadly, when I rang again seconds later, he had re-recorded the message into something less 18-rated!
Wednesday 6th February 2008: Papers quite late today and arrived at 5am. I later discovered that this was due to the publishers being allowed an extra 30 minutes deadline to get more of the American election details in the paper! What a farce!! Apart from the fact that not everyone over here in the UK is as obsessed with the US elections as the media seem to be, then they surely knew about the deadline extension in advance so why not let us know as they did with the rugby world cup final last October?? That way, we could have an extra half an hour in bed!
Thursday 7th February 2008: Standards in today and the papers weren't too bad time wise either. I'm a little bit achy this morning which could be down to a number of things. Old age may be a factor as `life begun` for me last October! It could be down to the sheer weight of the bundles and the usual two hours of rushing around like maniacs each and every morning. Most likely though is the new arrival into our household at Christmas. This little white box, a fraction of the size of a tin of quality street, has caused nothing but aches and pains for the last six weeks. Yes, the Nintendo Wii along with Wii Sports and Mario/Sonic Olympics is taking over...
Friday 8th February 2008: I got a new high score on Wii Sports bowling yesterday although my high is still miles behind my wife and daughter! Anyway, on with the papers which were all in by 4:40am. Apparently we have a few decent days of weather ahead of us and today is certainly nice with no rain, hardly any wind and quite warm for stupid o`clock. Friday is the day that we send out our monthly invoices and one customer smashed all records by ringing up to pay at 6:10am!! He was on one of the early rounds but by any standards that was impressive. Apart from that, a normal morning with no major problems which is always welcomed.
Saturday 9th February 2008: Two shocks first thing today. To begin with, the Sun and Times were im at 3:30am!! Next, when the main lot arrived, we opened the back doors and I climbed up to switch the internal light on and there were two others already in the back ready to help the driver! I jumped a bloody mile and it reminded me of illegal immigrants being smuggled into the country in the back of trucks (spooky considering the news today as well). Other than that, loads of kids off today for various reasons so a number of us were doing extras. Still, these things happen I guess.
Sunday 10th February 2008: Papers in nice and early which was just as well as we have a few kids off this morning. The new style News of the World magazine is causing confusion with one man ringing to to say he hadn't received it but did get something else instead (which of course was the re-vamped mag!). Otherwise, a decent morning which helps as I'm off ten-pin bowling this afternoon as part of my daughter's birthday party.
Monday 11th February 2008: Monday is usually a day off and lie in for me, however I had a phone call last night to say that one of our early adults had been in a car accident. Thankfully she was okay, albeit shaken up, but her car has now seen better days so I covered all of her bits today. It's at times like this when you realise how fragile things are, especially as it was the front wing of her car which was struck at 60mph whereas a second or two later and it would have smashed into ther drivers door instead.
Tuesday 12th February 2008: Both vans in together today (same as yesterday actually) and our car accident lady is back with a hired car whilst hers is off the road. Reports in the papers today that some councils around the country are switching off streetlights to save money between midnight and 5am! I can only hope that ours sees sense and do not follow suit as, aside from the obvious security implications, I don't fancy getting to work on a daily basis in total darkness.
Wednesday 13th February 2008: Horrible morning weather wise with thick fog and frost greeting us at stupid o'clock today. Ironically the papers were actually earlier than they have been lately with the main van in at 4:25am and the Sun and Times around 20 minutes later. The local daily - Western Daily Press - have a mini catalogue inside them and whilst it makes little difference when you feel the size of one paper, it makes the world of difference when you are trying to stack 210 of them! Subsequently we had a scale model of the leaning tower of Pisa looking as though it was struggling against high winds.
Thursday 14th February 2008: Nice early papers which is always welcomed on Standard day and really not much to report as all went smoothly and swimmingly. Lovely from our viewpoint but not overly exciting for our reader.
Friday 15th February 2008: `Tis cold today but the papers were again on time which is useful as one of our early adults is away for the next two days. On top of that, two of our paper lads are away as next weeks half term holidays rapidly approach. I had to do a few calls which are a bit out of the way and whilst the countryside looks nice in the cold and frosy weather, us early bird deliverers don't always appreciate it that much.
Saturday 16th February 2008: The weekend again and with it came the coldest morning in quite a while with the car needing the de-icer treatment first thing. Lots of shouting from the exiting clubbers when I walked the dog and although I couldn't see them, they were loud enough for me to do a detour to avoid where the racket was coming from. I expect one of them had their hands stepped on when they were walking home. Papers all in by 4:30am and only one free CD/DVD today as the Mail begins a Catherine Cookson week which my wife is thrilled about as she loves these Geordie based dramas. I mentioned that she should try reading some of the books as well as waching the films and was met with a stare as frosty as the road outside. I was on a loser with that really as getting my wife to read a book is akin to teaching a goldfish to ride a bicycle.
Sunday 17th February 2008: Plenty of kids off for the start of half term although although of our daily boys and girls helped out which was mich appreciated. The new style News of the World mag (mis-titled Fabulous) continues to get rave reviews in the page of the paper and crap reviews from our customers with most annoyed at the lack of a crossword even if, as one man put it, it did take him all week to complete it! On with point, a guy who I used to know some years back always caught the train to work and impressed fellow passengers by doing the Times crossword in record time. His trick was to always take an two day old copy of the paper with him by which time he had memorised all the answers given in the following days paper!
Tuesday 19th February 2008: One of our early adults still has car problems resulting in some rapid texting on Sunday when she rang me on Sunday to say that she couldn't make in on Monday. The problem was that I was driving to Weymouth to collect my daughter (my wife answered the mobile I haste to add!), however thanks to the wonder of technology, we had everything covered before I got home. Bad news today with Mail re-runs and whilst the kids being on school hols helped, re-runs are always a costly pain in the rear end with the Mail inevitably being the problem paper. We had them just after 7am but I made the fatal mistake of waiting rather than delivering what I already had meaning that my last paper was delivered at 8:45am!
Wednesday 20th February 200*: The cold spell continues with my windscreen frozen solid today, not helped by the nozzle breaking on the new can of de-icer that I bought only two days ago. I had a rare relaxing day at home yesterday as my wife and daughter were in Southampton all day, ending with a theatre trip to see Cats. The only downside was a very late return home at 1:30am this morning and although I didn't have to pick them up, i was obviously awoken when they came home so not much sleep gained after that. Papers all in on time although the Sun and Times were a bit late but otherwise none of yesterday's problems.
Thursday 21st February 2008: Having had a `life begins at...` birthday last October, I don't need any reminders that I am getting old. Sadly the local paper this week gave me not one reminder but TWO in the announcement columns. One of our former paperboy's turned 21 (this just ten days after one of our girls who only finished last year turned 18) and another ex-deliverer got married! Ouch! Congrats to them all though and although it does make me reflect on things, it's also nice to see or hear of former employees and what they are up to. Oh and thanks to our aforementioned 18-year old deliverer who thoughtfully brought us in some of her birthday chocolate cake! Oh yes, papers in on time and the cold spell has turned warmer and damper!
Friday 22nd February 2008: Both vans were a bit later today with the Sun and Times in last at 5am. Whilst walking one of our dogs beforw work I noticed that our next oor neighbours front door was quite wide open. The house was totally in darkness and the occupant wasn't around in the street or near his van. Not wanting to leave a front door wide open at 3:30am, I closed it shut and hoped that it had been left ajar purely as an oversight and not for a genuine reason.
Saturday 23rd February 2008: Papers nicely on time but they are heavy today! The Tele have again outdone themselves with the weight and the Sun have a free High School Musical stciker album. Other than that and the cold snap continuing, things were pretty much normal.
Sunday 24th February 2008: I've never been much of a rugby fan and after today, I dislike even more as the papers were late due to the late France-England six nations game last night whilst the Express and Star were on re-run and didn't arrive until just after 7am. Our drop off man was in a rush as he was off to Plymouth later in the day so all told it was a bit of a panic, although I didn't make last Tuesday's mistake and went out and did what I could get done prior to the re-runs arriving.
Monday 25th February 2008: More blasted re-runs today as the Mirror and the mirro group papers were all late and in at 7am. One of our Sunday girls finished yesterday however her brother had taken over instead of his daily round whilst one of our daily girls has moved onto his round as it's nearer her house. Confused yet? Subsequently we had a new lad starting and he seemed to do okay on one of the trickier rounds in the shop.
Tuesday 26th February 2008: No re-runs today and nice early papers with everything in before 4:30am. One of our lads didn't show up yesterday which was not the first time he's let us down and we unfortuntely had to let him go which is never nice from our end, however we need reliability at our end and have found a new lad who is starting tomorrow.
Wednesday 27th February 2008: Did the earth move for you in the early hours? Big news today is the earthquake which struck Lincolnshire at 1am this morning and at the time of typing there are lots of people on the radio giving their accounts of it. There are stories that people as far away as Southampton and Yeovil felt it whioh isn't that far from us. I must admit that we felt nothing but it must had been frightening for those that did. I'm just waiting for the jokes now - Leeds United Football ground was hit by the earthquake and caused thousands of pounds worth of improvements! Anyway, papers not too bad although Sun and Times were in at 5am. New lad has just been in for his round, helped by his older brother who did a round for us for three years so the pedigree is good.
Thursday 28th February 2008: Sun and Times were late again and in after 5am and just to compound matters I forgot to put the Times into one of the drops after I'd sent it out. Other than that things were pretty much normal although we've had an old river come back on the main van this week and since Tuesday's we've been trying to think of his name and the two of us who knew him from before are both stumped. I daresay it'll come to us but it's bugging the hell out of us at the momenr
Friday 29th February 2008: Papers not too bad time wise with the Sun and Times in first which saved a lot of messing around at our end. The mystery of the van drivers name was resolved and was one of those `Oh yes` moments. It must be getting nearer Spring as the birds are singing this morning which is always nice. Trouble is that the clocks go forward in a few weeks which makes that particular Sunday morning a nightmare!
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