It’s Friday Right?

Driver Jatt

Right. It’s Friday, right? Has to be. That weekend feeling was there. Mid morning pickups are a bit meh. Especially around the 8-9am slot. Depending on the distance you always have to leave home 30-45 minutes early. You just ‘have’ to allow time for delays. For accidents, for traffic, for the world deciding to be difficult.

Today was no exception. I’m glad I left home early.

Once again I didn’t follow the Sat Nav to the tee, and it worked out in my favour. I took my own route out of Coventry, a hunch based on past snarl-ups. As I drove over a bridge crossing the very road the machine wanted me on, I looked down. Three fire engines and an ambulance. Blue lights flashing, the whole lane closed. That would have been me. Stuck. An hour gone, maybe more. Sometimes you just have to ignore the robot.

The job was a collection from Coventry dropping to Rochester. Straightforward enough. With work being a little dry, after the drop I decided to go for my 10k walk. A rule’s a rule. Only, the cold and me really didn’t get on. It started off with some exchanging of vulgar words, then we had a full on fight. Which I lost. Miserably. Back to my van with my tail between my legs, pathetically accepting my humble submission and general feelings of pathetic failure. A proper defeat by the weather.

But then, as if rewarding the effort, the phone pinged. An offer for a job half an hour away. And not just any job. One taking me to my adopted homeland of Wales. Happy days, right?

Well, the adventure didn’t finish there. This was a proper one. I transported five incredibly fragile and costly custom computer systems. These aren’t off-the-shelf PCs. They’re designed for a specific application at great cost, which means there’s fitters waiting in anticipation for them. Basically, don’t mess up! No pressure. Every corner and speed bump was taken like i’m transporting a glass of water which I can’t spill. Btw did you know there was a race driver who actually used to do this at race speeds!

Wales delivered, systems intact, and the sun’s setting. I see a hill. I need to get up there to watch it go down. Because, y’know. It’s a thing. Boy, it was fun trying to find a safe space to stop whilst navigating a single lane two way road with passing places the size of a postage stamp. Worth it, though. That view.

Next, I’m hungry. But I want real food. No takeaway junk. I found a dimly lit Italian place in a market town, the kind you’d miss if you blinked. Ordered what I can only describe as the best Italian meal I’ve had for years. Proper, simple food. The kind that makes you slow down.

And then, sitting there with a coffee, I remembered. It’s not Friday! The whole day had that weekend energy, but the calendar said otherwise. But then again, why should we not try and live each day with the excitement that the weekend brings? Something’s seriously missing from our lives if we feel the week is a ‘drag’. Maybe the trick is to find the Friday feeling on a Thursday. Or a Wednesday. Even on a Monday, if you’re lucky and the job takes you to a hill in Wales at sunset.