The day began at 5am on a January morning that promised widespread rain. Steve and I sat and chatted over toast and coffee. Todays calls included delivering a Brother PR670e to Canterbury. A long run, a long drive and with a stop at a customer in Wokingham on the way.
We set off in darkness and took our usual route towards the M6. Over breakfast the weather girl had promised the widespread rain, across much of the country. And as we passed the turn off for Stoke a red sky began to dawn. Well, you know what they say…
The first call, the one in Wokingham, was to collect a Brother PR670e for service. Our customer has a garden workshop and reported that business was brisk. In fact, so much so that she has ordered a new Brother PR680W to keep up with demand. We carried her machine out to the van, and then we carried one of our loan PR680W’s back into her workshop. This will help to minimise the ‘down time’ while her machine is in dry dock. Coffee was offered and kindly accepted – Nescafe Gold, very nice. We stood and chatted in our lady’s kitchen – a nice layout with a rectangular island and a rather fetching tiger grain gloss finish to the cupboards. It always catches my eye. Looks very swish.
Coffees drunk, we said our goodbyes, raised anchor and set sail for Canterbury. This of course involved another meeting with our old friend – the M25…
This time round we were lucky. No jams, no breakdowns, and no one had taken it upon themselves to glue an item of their body to the outside lane. We pushed on until we reached the Cobham service station, where a comfort break was required. A stretch of the legs and then a first inspection of the butty-boxes – chicken and stuffing, and beef and mustard, separately of course. A cup of coffee each from the flask to wash things down and we declared ourselves suitably refreshed and fortified.
We arrived in the outer rings of Canterbury and the lady on the Sat Nav directed us along tree lined country roads and lanes and then delivered us at the wrong end of a business park. A quick phone call to our second lady brought us up alongside the correct port. This time round we found ourselves inside an old converted and refurbished farm building. It was all whitewashed walls and roof trusses, very airy and light. A collection of ladies gathered around as Stevie demonstrated the use or their newly acquired PR670e. This was one of the thousands of small cottage industries that cover every corner of the land. Steve and I have visited many of them over the years. And the addition of an embroidery machine, or two, often has a big impact on their operations.
It all went well and every one was happy and the ladies had succeeded in threading their machine. So – we raised anchor one last time and climbed the hill back to Manchester. A few miles in to our voyage the skies darkened and began to pour rain. It followed us all the way home – red skies, and all that…
