Confusion Reigns Supreme

Well, we’re a whole week into another year and I’m already learning. Nothing earth-shattering, just… well, stuff.

Stuff like how damn quick Gracie is to defrost in the mornings.

This week I have been on the early shift at work, which suits my lifestyle as I’m usually up and about at around 5 am. Early shifts could start any time between 5.30 and 7am and finish between 1.30 and 3pm. Of course the finish time is irrelevant really, as I finish when I finish. If I finish late, I get paid for the extra time, if I finish early I still get paid for the full eight hour shift.

Monday was a days impromptu leave as sanctioned by the powers that be in Planning via a group text sent on Sunday asking if anyone fancied a day’s paid holiday. I was one of the lucky early responders who go the nod for that.

Tuesday I was on for a 6am shift start, so I had to be up and out of the house by 5.

As soon as I opened the front door, it hit me. A bitter Arctic blast had been forecast and it had come with a vengance. The front lawn, footpaths and all the cars in the car park were coated in a liberal dusting of pure crystaline white. I broke the frozen crust from Gracie’s door and slid inside onto what felt like a block of ice. That’s one of the main problems with leather upholstry. I pressed the Start button and Gracie’s engine woke with barely a whisper. Not at all like my old Bubbles, the ’78 Mini Estate that struggled to start if you gave her a wrong look in the morning the day before… (I still miss that old car… sometimes.) I checked down at the console as I set the heating to its highest. Exterior temp -7C, interior -5C. So I set the heating on full at 28C, rear widow heater on, windscreen defrost set at Max. I sat back, shivering slightly against the chill and waited.

Three minutes later, maybe four, the wipers swept the last vestiges of ice from within their reach and I headed off tentatively onto the icy roads beyond home base.

By the time I got to work half an hour later you would have sworn I’d parked that car in a nice warm garage overnight…

Today was a slightly later shift – 06.30-14.30. Oooo! An extra half-hour in a nice warm bed… or up at silly o’clock to check the latest weather warnings that could affect me and my colleagues on our various routes through the day. Wouldn’t you know it? Storm Goretti seemed to have washed past us leaving snow, ice and dangerous conditions to our north and strong winds to our south, along the coast. No warnings for us from here to the Thames Estuary.

It turns out that I was worried for nothing anyway as when I got to work I was told that, yet again I was being held as a spare.

This is where I learned something. Not much, but something nonetheless. In between my numerous cups of coffee, I found out that my tablet and my phone both have about the same length of battery life when in use for browsing the web and doing other personal admin. I started with the tablet at around 6am. The battery died around three hours later, just after 9. Never mind, thinks I, I have my powerbank with me, so I just need to plug that in and job’s a good ‘un. I rummaged into my backpack and pulled out said powerbank and laid it on the table. I rummaged some more into my backpack but could I find the charger cable? Could I ‘eck! So I switched to my phone.

By half past 12 the phone’s battery was now down to 5% charge and I was left with nothing to while away my time for the next two hours except try to socialise, which has never been my forté, or hope that someone out there needed a hand with their deliveries.