them, I was hugely eager to blend in with my new workmates.
This rough, tough bunch of men that spent their working lives on two wheels were going to teach me how to make money at this most demanding profession that I had this day adopted as my own.
Having spent a moment to myself determining to give courying my best shot while admiring how my face looked with the varying degrees of faint black traces on it, I returned to my friends to recant to them the many events that had shaped this day; the first of my new life as a courier.
6
First Morning
I was up, dressed, fed and ready at twenty to nine the next day, eager to surpass myself on this, my first full day as a courier. The beep of the radio as I turned it on was decidedly less alien to me today.
“Four Sean.” following Aidan’s advice about radioing in before nine, hoping to get my 20 quid bonus.
Nothing. Not being answered on the radio was a much bigger disappointment than I would have imagined before experiencing it - something similar to an anti-climax but with a more deflatory effect on the spirit - a little bit like a watered down version of being ignored on purpose. I caught myself creating scenarios on the receiving end of my call explaining the silence in much the same way as somebody in the process of being stood up will create strings of events in which the absent one will appear very shortly and all will be well.
“Four Sean.”
Still nothing. I had been told to radio in by nine, which to me meant activity before nine. In my opinion there should have been somebody on the other end to be impressed by how eager I was. In a workplace where staff commenced at nine did man agement not begin preparing at half eight or so?
After waiting an agonising 20 seconds or so, I decided to give it another go with plenty of lungs behind it. “Four Sean!”
“Who’s calling there? Four is it?” The voice wasn’t Aidan’s and this both startled and intrigued me, flooding my brain with several questions at once. Aidan was the only base controller that I had ever heard and the strange voice threw me off, I was most timid when replying.
“Yes, Four Sean.”
“Four Sean? What happened to Four Barry?”
I was being asked about the bloke that had been fired. I had totally forgotten about him, and there was me screaming his number all over the airwaves!
“I…er …I started yesterday…em…” Reluctant to blab to a stranger that Barry had been fired, the best I could do was to try to divert the attention away from the topic. The word feeble was stomping its way around the self-esteem area of my brain.
“Okay, Sean, where are you?”
I nearly replied that I was in the kitchen before getting a hold of myself. “I’m in Lucan.”
“Fine, you’re the first on the air today. I have a blue screen at the moment so why don’t you stand by there until we get something up west for you.”
I guessed that a blue screen meant that there was no work waiting to be despatched. What bothered me, though, was the “up west” part of it. I knew the road from town to Lucan, I knew that Tallaght was south of Lucan with Blanchardstown north and that Palmerstown was on the way in with Leixlip further out on the same road. Beyond that, “up west” was a mystery to me and I dreaded the prospect of having to find my way around it. I considered confessing this to the strange voice but opted to play along and see how the work came. I had really hoped to be brought into town to do minis and get to branch out from there, but remembering Vinno’s advice about the money being in the mileage jobs, I decided to say nothing and jump in at the deep end; sure I always had the map in my bag to help me find my way.
“Roger, standing by.” In a rather firm tone that didn’t quite work as the confidence I was aiming for. It must have been as obvious to my unfamiliar base controller as it was to me that I was a total beginner, trying to sound as if I wasn’t shit scared of so many
This rough, tough bunch of men that spent their working lives on two wheels were going to teach me how to make money at this most demanding profession that I had this day adopted as my own.
Having spent a moment to myself determining to give courying my best shot while admiring how my face looked with the varying degrees of faint black traces on it, I returned to my friends to recant to them the many events that had shaped this day; the first of my new life as a courier.
6
First Morning
I was up, dressed, fed and ready at twenty to nine the next day, eager to surpass myself on this, my first full day as a courier. The beep of the radio as I turned it on was decidedly less alien to me today.
“Four Sean.” following Aidan’s advice about radioing in before nine, hoping to get my 20 quid bonus.
Nothing. Not being answered on the radio was a much bigger disappointment than I would have imagined before experiencing it - something similar to an anti-climax but with a more deflatory effect on the spirit - a little bit like a watered down version of being ignored on purpose. I caught myself creating scenarios on the receiving end of my call explaining the silence in much the same way as somebody in the process of being stood up will create strings of events in which the absent one will appear very shortly and all will be well.
“Four Sean.”
Still nothing. I had been told to radio in by nine, which to me meant activity before nine. In my opinion there should have been somebody on the other end to be impressed by how eager I was. In a workplace where staff commenced at nine did man agement not begin preparing at half eight or so?
After waiting an agonising 20 seconds or so, I decided to give it another go with plenty of lungs behind it. “Four Sean!”
“Who’s calling there? Four is it?” The voice wasn’t Aidan’s and this both startled and intrigued me, flooding my brain with several questions at once. Aidan was the only base controller that I had ever heard and the strange voice threw me off, I was most timid when replying.
“Yes, Four Sean.”
“Four Sean? What happened to Four Barry?”
I was being asked about the bloke that had been fired. I had totally forgotten about him, and there was me screaming his number all over the airwaves!
“I…er …I started yesterday…em…” Reluctant to blab to a stranger that Barry had been fired, the best I could do was to try to divert the attention away from the topic. The word feeble was stomping its way around the self-esteem area of my brain.
“Okay, Sean, where are you?”
I nearly replied that I was in the kitchen before getting a hold of myself. “I’m in Lucan.”
“Fine, you’re the first on the air today. I have a blue screen at the moment so why don’t you stand by there until we get something up west for you.”
I guessed that a blue screen meant that there was no work waiting to be despatched. What bothered me, though, was the “up west” part of it. I knew the road from town to Lucan, I knew that Tallaght was south of Lucan with Blanchardstown north and that Palmerstown was on the way in with Leixlip further out on the same road. Beyond that, “up west” was a mystery to me and I dreaded the prospect of having to find my way around it. I considered confessing this to the strange voice but opted to play along and see how the work came. I had really hoped to be brought into town to do minis and get to branch out from there, but remembering Vinno’s advice about the money being in the mileage jobs, I decided to say nothing and jump in at the deep end; sure I always had the map in my bag to help me find my way.
“Roger, standing by.” In a rather firm tone that didn’t quite work as the confidence I was aiming for. It must have been as obvious to my unfamiliar base controller as it was to me that I was a total beginner, trying to sound as if I wasn’t shit scared of so many
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