I thought I was off work

13 January - Friday the 13th didn't bring any bad luck today, at least none that I know of at this point in time. Wandered out to Kingsway Mall, about 40m in the pouring rain for the closest shoe repair store in order to get my trusty Nike hiking boots repaired (considering that i've had them since 1994 they seem to have held up pretty well). Had to beat down the price after the ridiculous quote the woman gave me. There was no chance of me not leaving the boots there because I wasn't going to take them with me into downtown and I sure didn't want to take them back home with the weather being what it was. Never really dried off for the rest of the day but did escape the rain for a few hours with a matinee screening of the Ringer, which was a decent way to spend two hours but not exactly a great cinematic experience. While I was downtown I paged one of the other couriers on my radio so that I could meet up with him to pick up my commission cheque. While I was waiting for him to turn up BJ (the driver manager who's acting as dispatcher until they get someone to replace Chris) buzzed me to beg for me to pick up a trip that he couldn't move. The reason why he couldn't get any of the bikers to do it was because it was a 10lb box but I had nothing to do so I was happy to do it (however, I soon regretted this because trying to carry a 10lb box with only one functioning arm is not the easist thing in the world). Killed a few hours with coffee, banking and searching through optometrist's stores for a new pair of glasses before meeting up with a few of the bikers for dinner at Nagez, home of the Ukrainian grandma of Granville St (she's just like the grandma you thouht you'd have if she was nice and from the Ukraine) where me and Dimitri were enthralled (???) by stu's view on everything from his dislike of his brother's wardrobe and his lifelong desire to make guitars and bed a woman of every ethnic group in the world. Not as interesting as it sounds. Did finish reading Amserdam by Ian mcEwen, which was excellent and started reading another I got from the library. I thought it was written by steve Martini, who I seem to recall was an author of some renown (i've never read any so I can't be sure of their quality) but upon getting home and opening back cover it appears that it's by Steve Martin, the Hollywood actor, so I'm considering giving it a miss ....