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Thanks to Google my stats for this blog are next to useless. I had 2110 unique visitors last week which seems pretty impressive but most of them were from search engines. I’ve never really worried about how many real regular readers I have but suddenly I’d like to know. Y’see, when I hosted the Grey Tuesday album on Tuesday I specifically requested that only regular readers download it from here. At least 25 people downloaded the whole album, which seems a lot to me considering I never actually endorsed it as such. I used to reckon I had about 30-50 regular readers, meaning people who come to the site at least once a week. I now suspect it might be a little higher.

So, if you read this site at least weekly please leave a comment on this post. You don’t have to give your name or email if you don’t want to and you don’t even have to write anything. Just stick something random in the Name field and post it. Of course if you do want to write something that’d be super keen. How long and how often would be interesting, for me anyway.

If it’s over 200 by next Friday I’m going to buy a cake.

Well, golly. I just got chosen as blog-of-the-day by the Guardian Weblog. This hasn’t happened to me since BugPowder was a “blog of note” on Blogger back in April 2001. Bring on the book deal…

When I got up this morning and saw the “different light” shining through the bathroom window my heart sunk. According to the weather forcast it wasn’t supposed to snow in Birmingham today. Usually I greet snow like a small child on a sugar rush but this was the first time I’d actually be working in it. Turned out I was wrong to be concerned. It was bloody great fun! Not only did the baths slide nicely along the ice but we were able to piss about in the knowledge that we weren’t really expected to do quite as much work today, what with most of the litter being covered in snow all morning. And it being a Friday. Still managed to get a good couple of tons though. Anyway, here’s photos!
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When I start a temp job I try and remain inconspicuous, keeping quiet in the corner and not drawing too much attention to myself. You never know what kind of people you’re going to be working with and what kind of mood they’ll be in. So far I’ve been okay, against my expectations to be honest, but I still play the quiet game. Fact is I’m pretty much a stereotypical middle class kinda guy and while I’m not particularly well off or well qualified (I still have only one A level at grade E and an Access course certificate to my name) I have been to University and most of my working life has been in the rarified environment of Waterstone’s. I am not your typical unskilled manual labourer. Generally people assume I’m a student, partly because of my youthful good looks (I’m actually 31) but also, I think, because why else would I be doing this kind of job?

So I always find it a slightly momentous occasion when I openly read a broadsheet newspaper at work. Usually this happens after a week when I’m pretty sure I won’t get the Waffle Waitress response and when I feel I proved myself, kind of a “look, I can do this job as well as you without complaint and still read the Guardian - if you have a problem with that then fuck you”. Again, I’ve never had to actually say this, though during my white-van-man experience last August I did get a bemused “so you don’t like the Sun then?”
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Okay, here’s a day on the truck with Marc. Leave the depot at 7.30am. Drive to the first job. Have a fag. Start picking at about 8.00am, depending on how long it took to find the place. At 8.30, regardless of having finished the first job or not, go for breakfast, arriving at the cafe at quarter to nine-ish (stopping on the way at newsagent). At some point between 9.30 and 9.45 leave cafe and return to job getting there at about ten-ish. Finish first job and move to second job. At 11.45-ish (regardless of having finished the second job or not) return to depot for lunch. Have lunch in cab of truck as it’s more confortable than the rest-room. Half twelve, return to finish second job if need be then move to third job. Probably have a wee break in between. Do third job. If third job is finished before 2.00pm go and check out next job, perhaps picking a small amount. If third job is finished after 2.00pm spend a while driving around before getting back to the depot not before 2.45 to tip.

And that’s a busy day. In fact that was today and when I got home I was knackered, which is odd because when you deduct all the breaks and driving around I’m probably doing no more that four hours work a day, usually three. It could be this phlegmy cough I’m still trying to shake off, it could be the extra effort of doing manual labour while wearing four jumpers, it could be the bracing fresh winter air after months of warehouses and offices, or it could be that this is actually quite hard work.
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I’ve had a nasty throaty coughy coldy thing all weekend so in lieu of any actual writing here are more cat pictures!!
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