First Day On The Job

2 November - Set my alarm for six this morning and was given a wakeup knock by Rene, one of my kindly flatmates - because, now, for the first time since the beginning of July i'm a working man again. Although the work has changed.
A bit of a miserable morning, but that's Vancouver, I took the Skytrain into town and got there about seven thirty - i'd said I would sign on at eightish so I had time for an overpriced cup of coffee before I switched my Blackberry on and was soon greeted by my despatch guy, Chris. Took a few minutes to work out how to use my radio - they don't work very well at the best of times and my lack of experience didn't help. Before I knew it I was being sent all over town (actually most of it was within about ten by ten blocks - because I was on foot) - it's not complicated stuff, basically going from one building to another picking up envelopes and packages and then dropping them off at another building. Filling out the manifests and keeping track of the orders on the Blackberry is probably the most complicated part of it and I had that pretty much down after a few hours. However, there are a few little things that make it a bit more complicated - trying to do buildings in the right order is a bit tough at first, the street numbers are not sequential in Canada, 999 can be flanked by 977 and 1021 but they're always in order, and each block is always between #01 and #99 and the street numbers run the same for each block east and west - they're not always labelled but it's not hard to get a hold of. Especially when I found myself coming back to the same building over and over. The despatcher would suggest routes at times but at time he'd ramble on and on (it's a half duplex system so I can't interrupt) and the reception could be terrible so i'd have no way of understanding what he was saying some of the time. I must have done a lot of k's today - my foot wasn’t feeling great but it wasn’t too bad either - did have a bit of a tress when one of my walking boots (which has done a lot of walking on this trip) had the entire sole come off the back - I ended up borrowing some elastic bands from one of the receptionists I encountered to hold it together for the day. Very long day as well - about eight to half five and with only a ten minute lunch break - I did manage to stuff down a couple of bananas and cookies while I was walking but it's pretty intense, if maybe a little simplistic. At the end of the day I had a brief encounter with a couple of the other novex cyclists, they seemed okay and I also found myself crossing paths with couriers from other companies several times during the day. Some of them are very curt, some quite nice - but all were helpful when I needed to find a building. Really looking forward to doing it on the bike - i'll go further distances and have heaps less foot time then - but, I have to say that I was pretty happy with the day.
Am very happy with the house as well, the housemates are all very sound people - very friendly and I think we'll get along fine - all very different people but that has got to be a good thing. In the time that I first looked at the house to when I moved my bathroom mirror was broken so i'm awaiting that to be fixed and my bedroom is a bit cold, the house has central heating but it doesn't extend upstairs - if we up the thermostat to warm the upper bedrooms below is like a sauna - but electricity is covered so i'll be getting a space heater. Also need to get some bed linen, as my sleeping bag, whilst adequate and warm, is not really a bedroom device.
There's also a house phone here for anyone who's missing the sound of my voice (unfortunately I don’t podcast), it's 604-255-3492 (remember the time difference).