Sunday 3rd June 2007: Just another manic Sunday! Back from a few days
holiday in North Wales and hopes of a quiet
start back looked good when all papers were in by 4:10am. We had a new lad starting today and although he seemed confident
enough when he came in, it all changed once he was out on the round with a number of calls getting missed and a few
having wrong papers. Thankfully this sort of thing is rare but when it happens it gives us a dilemma of whether to give
the lad another chance due to `first day nerves` or simply feeling that we cannot risk the same thing happening again
next week. Another lad was covering a couple of rounds for us but got lost in a strange area for him and was running late
although to give him credit, he did get the vast majority of the papers done at a decent time. The only way is up now I guess.
Tuesday 5th June 2007: As one of the few people who can claim to see the sunrise most mornings, today's was particular
good just before 5am as I took a spare few minutes away from the marking up room to see the sun making it's first appearance of
the day. This was one of the benefits of nice, early papers today which, to be honest, was the start of what can best be called
a normal average day with one lad taking the day off due to exams. I drove out to a fairly new hotel complex yesterday afternoon
to collect their monthly money and doubled it up with a lovely meal for myself and family. I then went the proverbial beetroot
red when having asked at reception for the cash, it became blatantly obvious that both myself and Denise had assumed that each other
had sent the invoice when in actuality, neither of us had. Oops!
Wednesday 6th June 2007: Was anyone you know born at 6am today or on this day in the past? (Hey, remember The Omen?). Onto the papers and all were in by 4:30am and all went well apart from our Guardian being cut down to a ridiculously low level. Main news of the day is the new art project for seven
year olds to design the new London Olympic logo. The winner apparently won £400,000 for his stunning depiction of something unrecognisable until it's explained to you and as an added bonus it also causes some
epilepsy sufferers problems! Okay, end of mickey taking now as I don't want to upset any
seven year olds especially those who could have made a better job for around £400,000 less than the professionals. Finally, quick book review (hey, this isn't just a newsagent site!). I've just finished reading Ian Rankin's The Naming of the Dead set against the G8 summit in Edinburgh in 2005 which is a
coincidence as this years is being held this week in Rostock. Anyway, excellent storyline and well worth a read for anyone interested in crime fiction and I know I won't need to preach to other fans of the Rebus series.
Thursday 7th June 2007: Last night's football (England away in Estonia) didn't hold the papers up by any great
degree and both lorries arrived at the same time, just before 4:45am. Standards were in again for the umpteenth time in a
row and all seemed to go well overall on our busiest day of the week as regards `behind the scenes` work and paperwork in
general. One of our longer serving lads had a mental blank and mixed up the first four calls of his round although
thankfully it was fairly straight forward to get it all sorted. The last couple of mornings both when walking our dog and then
strolling to work, there have been a few people walking around which is unusual. Either one of the nearby pubs is having
unauthorised lock-ins or well, let your imagination do the rest really.
Friday 8th June 2007: Two things caught us out this morning. Firstly came a 30 minute shower of unexpected rain around 5am, however 45 minutes before that the papers all arrived which was superb for a Friday. One of the hotels we supply had a computer crash and only just managed to get their order in before our lady left although it wouldnt have been the end of the world otherwise as I would have gone out later. The Express have a front cover story of a high number of compliants about the Diana programme shown on Channel 4 recently. This was in the news so much prior to broadcast and very few people could have not known what was about to be shown, yet still they moan about it. Do what I did in future and don't watch it!
Saturday 9th June 2007: What a difference a week makes. Last Saturday, as I was braving the M6 and M5 to drive home from North Wales, back here we apparently had late papers and Western Daily Press on re-run. Today everything was in by 4:35am and even though we were one short to help with inserts, we seemed to sail through them and all of our early adults were out just after 5am which for a Saturday is superb. The chuch oposite us have taken steps to stop the weekend drunks from congrugating in the graveyard by closing both sets of church gates. Good idea if it wasnt for the fact that the wall either side is about two feet high and easy to climb over. Finally spare a thought for another `famous for doing nothing` star as Paris Hilton is sent back to jail after she was released three days into a 45-day stretch. She apparently yelled, "It's not right!". No, neither is breaking the law dearie! Sunday 10th June 2007: We've been FND for exactly six months now and it's been an education on occasions but all told, I think we've done ok and made the right decision back in Decmeber when the mornings were dark and cold. Now it's light at 5am and warm at around the same time! All papers in nice and early which didn't help me hugely when I managed to get lost on a paper round! In my defence, I'd not done the area in question for a while but managed to drive straight past one road thinking it was somewhere different and then couldn't find two other calls in a different street. Add to that driving down a cul de sac and then finding there was no room at the bottom to turn around then the extra time gained by early papers was soon lost. A former paper boy from a few years back in now back with us - older, wiser and with his own transport - and helped avoid any repeat on last Sunday's problems. Always nice to see old faces again.
Monday 11th June 2007: Yes it's a Monday and I'm in due to our usual early Monday lady being in the Emerald Isle arguing with the leprachauns. The papers were actually quite late by their usual standards but we'll blame Lewis Hamilton for that as he's quite rightly on most of the front pages, the main exception being the Star who of course must have Big Brother (yawn!) as their lead story. Quite a few people doing extras this week thanks to a combination of exams at school and the aforementioned lady in Ireland, however so far so good although it helps with the papers being thin today. Otherwise no major problems to report which is always good.
Tuesday 12th June 2007: In general. our younger deliverers tend to stay with us for a maximum of three years as once they go onto further education or leave school and get another job, naturally enough they leave us. So when someone stays for around four and a half years, it speaks volumes for the person. One such girl finally hung up her newsbag yesterday having started with us in March 2003 and even before that she used to help her older brother on his rounds. We wish her all the very best for the future and hope that her time with us has stood her in good stead for whatever lies ahead. Papers were nice and early again today and the morning was only really blighted by yours truly sorting the mags out. Tuesday is the heaviest day for delivery mags and whilst two of our early adults start snipping the paper bundles, I sort the mags ready for the rounds. In my wisdom I decided to pile them up in one mini veraion of Blackpool Tower as I found each one. Sadly as the tower reached maximum height, it transformed into the Leaning Tower of Pisa and toppled over with a resounding splat onto the floor. I won't be making that mistake again.
Wednesday 13th June 2007: Papers very early today, in fact they almost beat me as I hadn't been here long when both vans arrived within a minute of each other. No complaints from us though. On the downside, the Sun were in a bit of a state in the bundles and we had to do a cross between a paper jigsaw and reverse origami to get some of them even looking half decent. As I type at around 6am, there's a thin veil of mist coming down to block out the haze of the sun which is a bit odd although initially I thought it was smoke. Having seen both versions of The Fog and recently finished reading The Taking by Dean Koontz which began with strange weather, my mind is thinking all sorts of wierd things. Now, if black fungi starts sprouting out of the walls, then I'm out of here!
Thursday 14th June 2007: I had an early morning wake up call at home today when the phone rang at 2:15am. I my dozy `just woken up` state, all sorts of things went through my mind. Had I overslept? Was it Harefield hospital (My wife is on the transplant list)? Was it kids messing around? When I answered though, it was the activity camp where my daughter was spending her first night with her school. She had somehow managed to fall out of the top bunk and land on her arm. They were about to take her to have it checked at their nearest hospital and would keep us informed. They rang me again later at work to confirm that she'd broken her wrist and that she needed to come home! Among all that, one of our dogs had thrown up on the landing and it absolutely hammered down with rain when I took his out for his walk. Not a good start all round really! Paper wise all was fine with Standards in again and the dailies pretty early which was probably just as well after about four hours sleep!
Friday 15th June 2007: With daughter now at home complete with cast and sling, today couldn't have begun worse than yesterday although it was close as my wife went downstaisr to use the loo as I got up and inadvertently knocked a picture off of the wall on the stairs resulting in a smashed frame and glass everywhere! I was quite glad to get to work! Papers were on time and no major problems although the driver did leave a bundle on the van in error but brought it back before I'd even missed it.
Saturday 16th JUne 2007: No rude awakening first thing today which made a change! The pre-run of odd inserts was missing one of the three Telegraph inserts but they were in with the main batch of papers when they arrived at 4:30am. We only had seven Indy mags instead of 20+ and after I'd inserted those with the intention of ringing the wholesalers, I glanced at the date on the cover of one of them to discover that they are actually tomorrow's!! Just as well I checked eventually. Lots of pubs/club stragglers around this morning including one that I didnt see but who caused much hilarity among our early adults that did see her as the back of her skirt was apparently hitched up into her underwear. Obviously she'd had a good night.
Sunday 17th June 2007: A pretty much unremarkable morning today which is always good news. Papers in nice and early and I was on the road well before 6am to do a couple of rounds. On the plus side, whilst delivering to one house, I spotted the eye-catching tri-colour of yellow, blue and white. Although the window was distorted, you could clearly make out the letters LEED so in my mind there was little doubt that we have discovered another of that rare breed known as the lesser spotted Leeds United fan. Our team may be rubbish and in turmoil but us fans still proudly display the colours!
Tuesday 19th June 2007: A dry morning which if the forecast for the rest of the week is anything to go by will be the last one for a few days. Papers were just after 4;30am so not too bad again. One of the biggest news stories (on what was clearly a slow news day) was the death of comedian Bernard Manning. People called him a racist and by today's PC standards I guess he was, however he always backed himself up by stating that he was as quick to make fun of the English as he was anyone else. I actually found him a very funny man and fair play to the BBC who somehow managed to a find a clip of him telling a joke without it offending anyone. Mind you, in today's day and age, people are afr too easily offending anyway.
Wednesday 20th June 2007: The good old Daily Mail held everything up today, delaying the arrival of the papers until 5am. This is still preferable to having re-runs though in truth. There is a new betting shop open in our town giving the other two that are already here some competition. Two of our early brigade are heavily into the gee-gees and were telling me of their big opening yesterday when they were handing our vouchers for free bets to entice people in, including hiring someone to stand very near the other two betting shops to hand the vouchers out! This seemed to work well although whether it will make a difference long term remains to be seen.
Thursday 21st June 2007: Papers nicely on time with Standards in again with a `new look` although actually it's more a matter of changing the font and re-arranging where everything is. Most importantly though they've dropped the word `Frome` from the front cover which I daresay with anger many! Our van driver is off for a few days after today as he helps out at Glastonbury. Judging by the forecast it could well rival the mud bath of a few years back with heacy rian likely over the weekend. £100+ to wade in mud. Go to Weston Super Mare and you can do it for nothing.
Friday 22nd June 2007: One of those bitty mornings again with plenty of minor things going wrong to keep us occupied. Our wholesalers have cut our Mail and Tele a bit too tight leaving us short for the rounds and our of our lads who does two rounds was ill. He's also covering for his mate at the minute so that meant extra to get covered. To be fair, I cannot recall this lad having time off sick before and he's been with us for over a year now and his Mum did let us know very early which is a major help. Thankfully one of our early adults helped out and got the spare rounds out only marginally later than usual. Never mind, these things are sent as a test I reckon to see how we cope! On the plus side, the computer program that we have to print out the wages sheets went haywire last week, reuslting in us doing it all manually. Today I've got it working!! (although I had to start from scratch again admittedly)
Saturday 23rd June 2007: Well this was a manic start! Papers were a bit late in at 4:45am and to compound this, the Express were on re-run. Now this could have been worse (Mail or Tele for example) but still awkward enough. Usually you can easily allow 2-3 hours after the first batch arrive for any re-runs to get here, however the EXpress got to us at 5:45am, catching two of our early adults one of which was still helping out and the other was just arriving. The rest could be contacted by mobile, saving them a lot of messing around later. A few years ago, before the widespread arrival of mobiles, re-runs were an absolute nightmare with people either waiting for an unspecified time or simply coming back in the hope that they were in. Now, mobile phone are an invaluable resource for us. The early adult that was here when the Express arrived was a huge help this morning as she ploughed through the Express inserts whilst I played `catch up` with the rest of the rounds. It meant her leaving a good half an hour late but her help was much appreciated.
Sunday 24th June 2007: Papers in very early with News of the World and Times here when I arrived and the rest getting here just after me at 3:40am!!
Sadly the good start it didn't last. One of our girls will use a trolley on a Sunady if her round is heavier than usual (more of that in a sec) so having helped her get her bag inside the trolley I tilted it ready for her to roll off only for her to bnip in the office to collect her money. Rather than let it drop, I leant it against the wall leaving two of the trolley legs and the stand slightly off the floor and as I walked away, the loop on my shoe lace got caught in the raised trolley stand leaving me, trolley and the nearby umbrella stand crumpled in a heap! I blame the Mail who had an Argos catalogue inside theri polybag leaving the entire paper far bulkier than normal and making War and Peace look like a leaflet. One of our lads has gone away for the weekend and not told us (Glastonbury maybe?) and unfortuntely it was one that we drop on his doorstep for him. The first we knew was around 9:30am when the phone calls began! Myself and a daily adult nipped out in the car at 10am and rushed around it.
Tuesday 26th June 2007: For the last few days, we've had supply problems, largely with a specialist paper for betting shops. With a new one opening in town, we've needed an extra one and while it was okay for a couple of days last week, it was down again yesterday so afrer a number of phone calls and faxes, the problem seems to be solved this morning and hopefully we can keep all the bookies in the town happy. Our usual driver was back from Glastonbury and here at 4:30am as was the other van. One of our eagle-eyed early adults spotted that we were a bundle of Mail short and the driver thankfully found it on board before he pulled away. After a weekend of heavy rain (although nothing compared to those in South Yorkshire and Humberside) we have sunshine this morning. Enjoy while it lasts.
Wednesday 27th June 2007: Winter returns today as it's actually quite cold this morning. It began oddly with us having a batch of Guardian and Express which weren't ours (even though they were marked up for us) yet our Mail and Times have been cut too tight. My business partner is usually in at 7am, however thanks to a combination of only having an alarm on her mobile and then leaving her mobile charger at her weekend caravan, she had no way of getting a wake up call. So yesterday we arranged that I would ring her at 6am - and I forgot until half an hour later. It could have been worse I guess especially if I was the one that overslept.
Thursday 28th June 2007: Papers very early today which was probably just as well as, after a parent/children PE session at my daughter's soon to be new school last night, I am struggling. Everything aches although this wasn't helped by my falling off the stage whilst getting too involved with a game of dodgeball. My wife reckoned that I was using muscles that I didnt know that I had. The problem was that I knew I had the muscles there, it's just that they've been dormant for so long it's a shock to their system to actually be used! A couple of our paper boys are away tomorrow as tonight is the big end of school prom for those who have just finished their exams. Now if that isn't an American idea adopted by us over here!
Friday 29th June 2007: Absolutely pi...raining very hard this morning when I walked the dog which didn't please him much as I cut his wander short. It was similar walking up here as I got drenched for the time. Ahd then it stopped in time for our deliverers to go out which was a bonus I guess. My PE enduced aches are better although still there. They might just about be eased ready for the second session next Wednesday. Thankfully the third and final session the weeka after is swimming and as I swim like a lead weight, I shall be sitting that one out. I'm sure it'll all be worth it in the long run.
