THE GOOD BUCK

I thought I’d taken my kickings for 2020. As my mam reminded me, I’ve already had the plague and been sacked this year. It’s only two days left until the symbolically optimistic fresh new start of 2021. Ha!

The last two days it’s finally turned cold. Snow that hasn’t fully melted away, rain, and sub zero overnight. Yesterday I had 04.00 start and that was quite bracing, riding through frozen snow ridges and tiptoeing over ice patches. Today was worse. The ground was a sheet of ice. I normally hop on my pushbike right outside our door, today I pushed it out and across the road before starting. The wheels were slipping out as I was pushing. In hindsight I should have sacked it off then. Asked Wendy for a lift, or walked in.

I gingerly started pedaling in, got about 300 yards and the front end slipped out. Somehow, in the second before I slammed into the ground, I had the presence of mind to decide to do a tuck and roll. Usually forearm, shoulder, hip. It was too late to get my hand down so I just went on to my shoulder. Huge mistake. I landed it completely wrong (normally there would be forward momentum, this time the movement was straight down) and the corner of my shoulder took the full impact.

Well, I’ve started my new job. The first day was really stressful, I’d been off for 6 weeks so I was getting comfortable at home, and a bit nervous about going back to work. So it’s a good thing I got this job, no matter what. Also, I was building a resistance to going back to work as I was losing my lorry driving mojo. A lot of driving an artic is in having confidence that you can. As soon as you question that, after a bump or a long lay-off, the job gets a lot harder. And it was all new. New is a bit frightening.

Anyway, I had a full week booked, and once I’d learned how to use the agency app (things have changed massively with agencies in the 4 years since I was last with one) I realised it was the same run for 5 days.

The first day was a bit of a nightmare, before I got on the 5 shifts. I got messed about, then sent to a tiny yard in Manchester to pick up a trailer. The yard was so tight a manager came out and stood in the rain to watch to see if I smacked anything trying to spin the trailer. You’ll note that word was “watch”, not “help”.

I think it’s time to be upbeat again. It’s been a bit of weird time, but it looks like I’m moving on, at last.

I’ve done all the agency messing about. Registering one day, driving assessment another, site induction (for 2½ hours!) another, them checking my driver card, references, and criminal record. All done.

I start work on Monday.

Well, I hung on until the end in the hope that I was wrong, but no, I’m sacked. As that was what I was expecting I got on with the jobs I’d already considered. I won’t be able to afford to continue paying in to the share/save schemes so I cancelled the one that matures next year, and the one after that.

I’d read in the terms and conditions that you can carry on paying into the scheme if you no longer work for the company, and I have one that only has 3 more monthly payments until it matures. That one was looking at making a £1,700 profit, so I was keen to keep it going. I rang up to see how I could pay the final payments myself. I finally got an answer (cut off from the ‘phone after 20 minutes, twice from online chat after 30 minutes).

No.

I’m still in limbo at work. I’ve faced the music, and danced, three or four times now. It’s getting irksome.

Tomorrow, I should get my official sacking. Again. I just wish they would hurry up about it. If I was to keep my job that would obviously be the best outcome, but that is a vanishingly remote chance. Unless they’ve decided to change the company policy, and I’m the first driver to whom it has been applied, I’m sacked. Sad, but let’s get on with it.

My training has been up and down. As I’ve been off work I’ve managed to stick to my Sufferfest training programme. Yoga, strength training, mental toughness, and the bike.