Free As In Freedom

16 November - Rode into town a bit earlier than usual in order to offload all the outmoded gear to the hub - chargers and uniforms etc. Logged on and did my usual regular but soon found that there was not much happening at all in town or on the north side. Chatted with nigel on and off throughout the day and he kept on apologising for the lack of work (an almost one hour standby in North Sydney midday) and promising that he'd set up a good run for me later on. Not really as frustratingas it could have been - mainly due to the fact that I was pretty cheery about it being my last day and I was already starting to get in the holiday mental state. The fact that it was the coldest November day in a century (that's what I heard) and it was alternating between sunshine and blat blat blattering rain combined with Chicago strength winds (in fact, in my limited experience, I think Sydney is a far worse city when it comes to my most hated weather feature) didn’t make for the nicest working conditions. Most everyone seemed to be rugged up in tights and goretex but I didn’t see the point - sure it was a little bit chilly but it was also intermittantly hot - it's much better to keep warm by gettingthe blood flowing by riding hard,the extra gear just kills me with sweaty, stuffy heat when it warms up. Constantly having the elevator crowds and receptionists expressing mock sympathy for me havingto work in such bad weather but I just had to shake my head and tell them that today was not bad weather. If they think that 16 November was bad weather then they've been living a sheltered life. Attempted another bridge run in the afternoon and as sure as the Curse of Ché exists everything dried up once I got over there. Ended up going on a special mission out to st leonards (furthest i've ever been north) for a XXX to Botany rd, alexandria (about 200m from home) and one from Crows nest to the domestic airport. Near the end of the day - why don’t I just take them myself. Think of the EFFICIENCY, man! But no, had to hand them off at the hub so some dinky driver in his petrol guzzling pollution emitting veeheecl could take them because the other channel didn’t want to give 'em to me. Bastards. In any event, all done by about 4:45, said my goodbyes to Nigel and dropped off the rest of the toys at the hub where the miserable bastard Andy barely grunted at me, and only then to warn me for not wearing the uniform. And cheered all the way home. Free at last. Got home and got myself together for the reasonably event free journey out to the airoport where I had a reasonably event free flight to the good city of brisvegas. Waited for a few minutes once I got off the plane and watched all the other people being greeted by friends and family and other assorted loved ones while I sat there looking like a schmuck. Went down the escalators where I was greeted by two friends and loved ones - young Master gray and master Johnson the elder (or the middle) - had dinner, wandered back to 540 Queen st and crashed out shortly afterwds.