THE GOOD BUCK

The times they are a changing. Had Wendy’s parents over for 10 days, stopping with us, for Wendy’s niece’s wedding. While I was working nights. And they are deaf. You can imagine how much fun that was.

Added to the usual quotient of their god-squad bigotry.

*in with calm*

Really. Basically this is to update you on Twitter.

Work has suddenly turned around. After me bitching it was a great job but not enough hours suddenly last week I was blitzed. I got 6 shifts and 58 hours pay. This job is definitely a keeper. It’s only 4 weeks until I’m on pay parity which would have had me taking home £773 for last week. As it is I’m not complaining about £617.

I don’t have a life, all I do is try to sleep and work, but with Wendy running out of (a very generous, 6 months) sick pay and our debts (from the bastard tax man and car) to clear, but pronto, that is all for the good.

After me going on about how much money I was going to be on and how this could be my job for life it’s all gone a bit Pete Tong.

The shifts are too short. You’re lucky to get a 9 hour shift (paid, plus 45 minutes break) as a driver you expect at least a 10 hour day. Then I was stood down for one day one week, two days last week. Admittedly I had to take an extra day without work/ pay to do my driver training (CPC) course, but still, a 3 day/ 27½ hour week is no good to anyone.

The CPC thing is a new hoop the government have introduced through which drivers have to jump. You have to do 5 days of training every 5 years. Not practical training, just classroom stuff. Without an exam. You just have to attend. And it’s so badly arranged you could take the same class five times and still get your card. The one I did was designed for Walkers and was based around safe, fuel efficient driving and pre-op checks.

Bruce Springsteen quote there, in case you were wondering. Sadly it’s very apt. That is all I am. I had one day where I slept well during the day and I thought I’d started to adjust, but no. It’s 4 hours sleep, then wake up, sleep, wake up. I’m getting between 5½- 7 hours a day. Grim. Normally, oddly, I’m not too tired during the night. On Saturday I was snottered though. I got in, had 5 hours sleep, then got up so I would be able to sleep last night. I was awake and feeling goddawful for about 8 hours then gave up and went back to bed. I had 14 hours sleep. Wow. I must have been a bit tired. I’m still tired.

But that is it; my life is just work, try to sleep, get up, sit around bog-eyed, then go to work. And repeat. I’ve had one sax session, one run in the last week. I’m waiting until I adjust, then it will be fine. My shifts are, by lorry driving standards, all early darts. I was hoping for a 50 hour week, (53.45 if you include unpaid breaks) that’s a nice compromise between money and life. My first full week I got 46½ hours, last week 40½. That’s no good to me. We’ll have to see how it goes. On the one hand I’m getting loads of money per hour, but on the other I could be taking home more (by working shitloads more hours) elsewhere. It’s early days yet. I’ll see how it goes. Once the bills are paid (and I’ve adjusted to nights) short shifts could suit me. I reckon, once I’m on pay parity (9 weeks and counting) I would still be taking home £500+ for a crappy 40 hour week.

And I could do stuff.

I applied for this new driving job because Hermes has let me down and the tax man had just robbed us blind so we needed cash. I’m really glad I did. The job is a doddle and it’s loads of dosh. So far I’ve not had a single thing said to me. No-one on my back, no frantic ‘phone calls, nothing. They are so relaxed that yesterday, after I’d been off all day, I was about to leave the yard in my truck when I noticed I still had the truck keys from the night before. No-one had said anything. I drove around and handed them in, the guy said “Oh, yes. I was going to ask you about them.”

Anyway, it’s all good. Apart from the fact that it’s the whole of my life at the minute. I’m either working, asleep, or bog-eyed, wishing I was asleep. That should change when I adjust to sleeping in the day. At the moment I ain’t nothing but tired, to borrow from Mr Springsteen.

Still, it’s what I signed up for, and it’s better than what I expected. The first week was 4 days working and the 4½ hour induction. Which is to say, 4½ hours day rate, 3 shifts Mon-Fri night rate, and 1 shift Saturday night rate. 38 hours in total. Friday was the test of my snake-oil charlatan accountants. They came through.  I earned £486.23 , paid the accountants £23.28, paid my N.I., PAYE, and Corporation tax and still came out with £426.10