One very cold week

It’s the 23rd of November, and I’ve just survived my toughest week of deliveries so far this season. The temperature has been hovering around -1°C, and to my utter delight, orders have been almost non-existent. Each day, I’ve made it my mission to bundle up warmly, head out, and embrace the cold like a true masochist, staying out as long as I can before my body starts to resemble a human popsicle.

On Tuesday, I spent a gruelling four hours outside and earned a grand total of £6. Yes, you read that right, £6. On Wednesday, I was rolling in it with a massive £8, and Thursday managed to bring in a whopping £14. Friday was a slight improvement, though still not quite enough to inspire any kind of optimism. You’d think that with the freezing weather, people would be desperate for hot food. But apparently, they’d rather sit in and cook pasta.

During one of my rounds, I crossed paths with another Uber delivery cyclist in town, and let's just say he was having an even worse week than I was. His hands were nearly blue from the cold, and wait for it he wasn’t wearing gloves. No gloves. Not even the little ones that make you look like you're a bank robber at Halloween. To add insult to injury, someone had stolen the grips off his bike while he was inside a store picking up an order. So, there he was, gripping bare metal in freezing temperatures. I can only imagine what that felt like,.

Thankfully, I’ve been using the gloves I bought for hiking in cold weather. Apart from a pinkie that has decided to rebel and feel the chill through a hole my dog thoughtfully chewed in the glove, my fingers have stayed remarkably warm. Let’s just hope next week is more generous with both the weather and the orders.