Thinking outside the box...writes Roy Edmonds

When I was a young chap, job-hopping and changing careers restlessly, there were some very boring times. Doing a stock take in a delivery-truck manufacturer’s store rooms was among the worst; every nail, screw, nut and bolt had to be counted.
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Usually we did slightly more interesting work, like packing all sorts of shapes and sizes of goods for despatch. That was a challenge and learning curve, while my older workmates were a good-humoured and entertaining bunch. What’s more, those skills have helped in my old age.

Just recently, up to Christmas and since, She Who Knows has turned to retail therapy for diversion from the weather – while staying snug at home. The result is I spend mornings running down from my upstairs study (really our laundry/overflow room), answering the door to delivery men. (She Who is too busy on her laptop.)

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Even the smallest goods arrive in cardboard boxes far too large. Amazon seems the worst offender. They’d benefit by a lesson in efficient packing, as I received daily from old hands at that CWS workshop mentioned above (now site of the giant, retail Trafford Centre).

Amazon deliveryAmazon delivery
Amazon delivery

While Christmas gave me opportunity to show off gift-wrapping skills, now I’m kept busy treading down empty boxes for our recycling sack. Otherwise, our home begins to look like a warehouse. I’m worn out by afternoon.

“It’s like a workout,” She Who Knows encourages me, adding reproachfully, “now you never go to your gym.”

It’s all I can manage by afternoon to stroll to the corner pub. Even there, where weary and wary men gather in dim corners, most have been given a shopping list to attend to later, while knowing, also, that at home more deliveries await them.

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Still, as She Who Knows says, I suppose it does keep the economy (and us) going.

● Read Roy’s books in paperback from FeedARead.com, also on Amazon Kindle or through Waterstones.

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