/agree

That's got me thinking, actually - maybe there's a social world I'll gain access to if I keep going at this? New friends, new parties, new worlds. Cool!

As an office temp in places where I was the only temp, I never got to meet anyone and it was socially dead, a disaster.

Maybe being a courier could be very different.

Jim,

I think you're getting a bit ahead of yourself. Just go in there and have a beer.

Ah, I would do but the week before I became a courier I completely - and non-negotiably - gave up alcohol.

Straight edge ftw

Well then I won't be looking you up the next time I pop into London. Dump the ciggies, get back on the sauce.

booze >>>> cigs imo, especially when doing some kind of physical work every day

Straight edge, also referred to as sXe and xXx, refers to a lifestyle and scene that started within the hardcore punk subculture whose adherents abstain from alcohol, smoking, casual sexual involvement and other recreational drug use.

watch your declared allegiances!

i know you guys are probably joking, but usually when somebody gives up booze it's not without a good reason.

this thread is pretty awesome.

Jim, I always picture you a little like David Mitchell on Peep Show, am I far wrong?

Well, you didn't last time you were here either. Your call!

Ha ha, I have a friend who looks just like that.

I've been told, at various stages of my life, that I look like:

James Dean (I was 19, the girl liked me), Martin Rossiter from the band Gene, Robin Williams, and David Cameron (that one stung).

I think Martin Rossiter/Robin Williams are closed to it. That was when I was slim... add some weight and obviously I look like a fat version of them.

Yes, I know.

I abstain from casual sex... not out of choice, just never get any!

Today was awesome! Sunshine all day again, perfect weather. And I didn't have to do any nasty City jobs. Instead I was mostly around Soho, Mayfair, Victoria and Knightsbridge, though did go up to Mornington Crescent at one point.

I've often wondered whether any of the packages I carry contain anything of value. Well, today I took a box from a high-end jewellers on Sloane Street to some place in Mayfair. When I got there I found it was a watch repairers. The guy gave me another box to give back, obviously containing a repaired watch, no doubt costing many months of my salary. Perhaps I should have kept it and started a 2+2 thread, since I know how much you guys like threads about expensive watches!

My final job was delivering a book from a publishers to a small but well-known and regarded literary magazine, for which I had myself written three book reviews many years ago. As I cycled over there I thought of telling this to whoever opened the door, and asking if perhaps they might give me a book and let me try another review. I'd mention my aborted PhD, which was about literary journalism. They'd find me interesting, and give me a shot.

Sadly when I got there at 5.30pm they had all gone home, and after ringing their buzzer for five minutes with increasing desperation I settled for leaving the book with the people downstairs. The big break will have to wait.

Still, I felt very fired up and alive. I raced home across Kingsway then down Theobalds Road and Clerkenwell Road, overtaking the after-work cyclists and keeping up with the rushing couriers. Fragments of a Larkin poem appeared in my mind and stayed there:

And everyone young going down the long slide / To happiness, endlessly

Like free bloody birds

really enjoy your posts jimm, keep it up!