End Of The Partnership

16 June - Today was a very sad day for me for it marked the end of my working partnership with Jason. Of all the couriers to come through Novex he's the longest lasting after me (and has probably worked more than me because of my injury fueled breaks) - and a nicer fellow you would never meet. Consumate professional, slightly passive aggressive and very, very fast. He's off to ride from one end of Canadia to the other - there were some muted talks about me hitching a ride but my schedule in this country doesn't really fit and the ride is primarily a bonding experience with his stepdad and brother. In any event, its inspired a bit of soul searching and I think a cross country, intercity, whatever ride will definitely be on the cards some time in the near future. On my last day I was really pumped but Jason seemed to be very content to take it easy - probably not such a bad idea, there's no way he’s going to get any fitter for his journey and the only thing that working hard and fast could do is give him an injury. I, on the other hand, was manic again - not as bad as the prior day but non stop. I was picking up all over town, handing off to drivers (some of them are such bastards), giving trips to receptionists who I cornered in lobbies and handing off to other couriers and hoping that they would drop to the right place. You've got to be creative sometimes. Now that Jason has left (he'll be coming back to work once he returns but i'll almost certainly be long gone by then) I have been promoted to 'late guy' - its lot of responsbility, collecting all the manifests and ECOs at the end of the day and then waiting around 1090 for Kim (one of the drivers) to hand them off to - i'm not sure if I can handle all that pressure (don't fall in the sarchasm). The only reason I want to do it is because it means better acceess to the end of day SHTs ,i've been finishing earlier for the past few weeks which is kind of irritating but I can’t reallycomplain because my totals ar always higher than most of the others (with the exception of Jason). Still cannot work out for the life of me how the work is divided up between us - the other guys are all really fast riders and they seem to work really hard when they have to but when the day ends they're manifests contain about half of what mine do. Maybe they're lazy, maybe novex is just trying to keep the talent happy, I don't know. After work convinced Jason to come to the Cambie so we could pay our respects. The teetotaling bastard doesn't drink (since starting this job he's become a bit of a fumer though so he's not completely untrustworthy) but I bought him a diet coke and that shut him up for a while. Rad explained the history behind the concerns about his moral fibre - apparently offered 'rum' from a steel hipflask (actuallytwater) o another courier and made a joke about taking speed and then the rumours started. He's far more clean living than any of the other couriers I know, he doesn’t even drink caffeine. Not really sure what I did after that but I can’t have been interesting because nothing's coming to mind. Io Ate some pizza from uncle fatty's (fatihs), the best pizza by the slice in all of Vancouver. Actuallythe only edible pizza by the slice in all of vancouver when you come to mention