Four And Counting

8 November - Another morning, another shadow. Augustus this time, who'd called me at a very late hour the previous night to organise a meet. Really good for a pecker (i don't really know the origin of this term for 'beginner' but its a whole lot less offensive than the Canadian term 'chimp'. To start, met me at a relatively obscure location exactly on time - he had no trouble doing the riding in terms of endurance and confidence with traffic, only a few times where I made a few 'assertive' turns did he hang back. And to top it all of, he had a beautiful orange classic Miele road bike which will look very good on the road and he's Canadian (from Toronto). After I let him go at midday was flooded with really convaluted, heavy, bulky and distant work - non stop for the entire afternoon and was absolutely burning by the end of it - the only brief 5m respite was at 4 when I picked from the Deustche Bank building - renowned for the jobs ALWAYS taking at least 10m from when they were called to being available in the mailroom no matter how urgent they are so enjoyed a cigarette and my new drink - the piccolo late - not as edgy as a macchiato and not as flooding as a flat white - very nice. Was taken over to North Sydney where i'd hoped to meet a friend but upon getting to the other side I confirmed that the phone i'd feared i'd left at home had been left at home - no way to contact her no choice but to ride home, call, and ride back. Took a new route I recently discovered - Regent, cleveland, Abercrombie Wattle, Fig (??) and then boom through the expressway all the way to the Harbour Bridge - 16m from front door to Kirribilli Hotel. Nice but overpriced steak over that way and very nice evening enjoying beer and freezing Milsons Point wind whilst looking over what could very well be the most beautiful cityscape in the world - in many ways gaudy and overlit but absolutely unique and a work of art with contributions from millions. After work was also called by another potential recruit - young Englishman just off the plane who doesn’t know whether he wants to be a courier - Paul gave him my number so he ask me advice on the courier experience so he could decide whether he should invest the capital into the bike and bag so he could start working - explained the risks and hardships of starting but told him what I tell everybody else - it's the best job in the world.