Welcome To The Subculture

18 November - Difficult but incredibly good day today. Got up early and headed into town - sans right contact lens of course. Had a coffee at 885 Georgia (it turns out I DO get a discount because of my new career choice there). Had some incredibly difficult jobs during the day, a couple of items so big that I was baffled that I managed to do them - a box about a metre wide and fifty centimetres on its other dimensions that I had to balance on my handlebars (i was very careful and it wasn’t too heavy); some architectural plans in a one metre square folio and a couple of times I had so many packages that my bag was so overloaded that I was balancing it on one leg and pedalling with only one foot up some pretty steep hills. Also, later in the day, I got sent out over the bridge into greater Vancouver to do some long runs (the dispatcher said that I was the only one with the stamina to do the long runs - and they pay a lot more so I seem to be making a good impression). It's really hard work at times; I know i'm not saving the world by doing it but i'm certainly getting good job satisfaction. At the end of a day of physical labours I feel like i've worked and I sleep the sleep of the just. However, bike couriering is a good way of venting (and creating) excess frustration. I was steaming up a street and was being followed by a truck who was honking at me. I unleashed a stream of virtriol at him (F**k off! You got a problem with bikes???); he shouted at me that he wasn't honking at me so I shouted out a merry apology. Also, crossed paths with a jaywalking woman who was in my path, i swerved out of her way and shouted, 'Don't worry!' and she screamed at me, 'Asshole!' - it appear that couriers are as little like over here as they are by Today Tonight and a current affair. No chance of eating today - one Mars bar between breakfast and dinner. Me and Stu (my co-worker also known as Jonathan) went to a restaurant on granville run by a lovely old Ukrainian woman (i've actually been there twice before) that sells great, cheap Eastern European food (apparently she also feeds the local homeless as well, a bit of a local hero it appears). I find eating there very reminescent of my home away from home in slovakia - certainly going to be going there again.
The contact lens saga continued, I got a call from the optometrist saying that the lens would arrive by Tuesday so I shouldn't worry. I told her I needed it now (i would have settled for Saturday) but after some negotiations Monday was the earliest that they were going to get it. The lens maker said he could get it made today but the courier system they use doesn’t run on weekends and Monday was the absolute limit. Well, good thing I work for a courier company. I spoke to my dispatcher who got the order on and my brand new contact was sent by seaplane from Nanaimo (on an island in Victoria) to Vancouver - it arrived at fourish and I just managed to get to the depot in time to pick it up (this did mean that I missed dropping off my excess packages and manifests but I really wasn’t too concerned about that). So, I can see again. And Vancouver never looked so beautiful.
Have met lots of couriers over the past few weeks - some very nice, some pretty curt. One of the them, Murray, invited me to the Brickyard, the post work meeting place in Gastown (near where my old hostel was). Me and Stu headed down there after dinner - certainly a bikers bar - all the couriers bring their bikes into the bar rather than locking them outside and the place is full of them. Very cheap beer ($2.50 a pint) and live music (i didn't stay for that) and apparently one of the only places in Vancouver where people can smoke inside (the smoking room was a bit overwhelming). Met lots of the bikers properly, who i've only really said hello to on the street and found them all to be capital fellows (and the female equivalent of fellows). Even the curt ones. They're all a bit weird but I felt very welcomed and I think i'll probably make a few new friends.