I told Stevie I’d only help him if he let me drive one of these...’Experimental Pizza Delivery Car’ (c) 2009 John Lloyd. Used under a Creative Commons license.
(creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode)

Hello, dears.

Well...this is it. Four years after I started this blog, and about three and a half years after I first started noticing that many of my readers were in the delivery and haulage industry, I am finally taking up courier work. Yes, that’s right – Aunt Gertie is one of you now!

Don’t worry, though, my loves – the cafe is not going anywhere, and neither is the Cafe (the blog)! Courier work is just something I’ll be doing on weekends, to help out my nephew Stevie, who’s got big plans of his own (stay tuned!). I’m not even going to be getting paid – where I come from, you don’t charge your family for help!

So how do I feel, I hear you ask? Well, absolutely thrilled but also terrified. Even all those years of writing about courier work and pretending I knew the first thing about what I was talking about did not prepare me for when I actually needed to get out there, on my little van, and do what I counsel all the rest of you about week in and week out. I suppose that exposes me as a bit of a sham, doesn’t it? (Please say it doesn’t...!)

To be fair, though, I wasn’t totally clueless when Stevie tried to take me through the basics last weekend. Those who have read me for a bit of time know that I have been on a few ride-alongs with my favourite nephew (often as the terrified damsel in the passenger seat), and I do tend to have good powers of observation. That was why, as Stevie was taking me through the basics once again, I surprised him by actually being able to remember most of it! The look on his face simply cracked me up – the poor dear didn’t know whether to be impressed, astonished or terrified!

So that is it, I suppose – I will see you all on the road. If I don’t see you here first, that is...

- Gertie
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