Cropredy -> Amazon Flex

Had enough of Cropredy.

Benefits include: Being close to the pub. Only walking distance away.

Cropredy circular footpath
Cropredy circular footpath

Made up towpaths. Gravelled and civilised…..

Downsides: Crap signal. Doesn’t matter where you go, your signal is patchy to non-existant.

Car vandals. Went out in car, came back, parked it up. Came out again and found a scratch horizontally across the front bumper.

It was parked in a slight lay-by area, away from any traffic moving in that direction. It looks more like a screwdriver.

Sad.

There we go.

car vandals cropredy
Scratch

I can touch it up and make it go away before I sell it.

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Amazon Flex -> Cropredy

So. A little move up.

Takes about an hour on the boat. Maybe a bit longer. 3 Locks to get through.

Cropredy

Is about the only stop on this circuit where the sounds of the motorway don’t provide the main audio backdrop to your canal mooring.

Cropredy is kind of a posh village, which hosts a blues festival in the summer called the ‘Fairport Convention‘.

It’s got 2 pubs and 2 churches.

The canal has a waterpoint, bins, sanitation and a turning point here.

There’s one shop that sells overpriced goods to unsuspecting boaters.

All things being said, it seems like a great place to moor, the only possible downside being the lack of mobile signal at many locations in the village.

In most of the locations in the village.

In fact, you have to go out of the village to get any coverage on Three, the network I’m on.

I did a post previously on Cropredy.

You can find it here.

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Twyford Wharf -> Amazon Flex

Or just outside.

My winter workplace, Amazon is about 300m from where I am moored now…

It’s very muddy here, which is why I didn’t come down here when I was starting at Amazon just over the road.

Glad I didn’t. Negotiating the mud takes in cold wet etc. is difficult. 15 minutes in the car is easy.

Pig Place

Didn’t stay at Pig Place. I was in two minds when I arrived.

Walking at 4am in the morning. 5-7 minutes to the car. And back, just to stay outside the pig place.

Not really worth it….

After having my pins pulled out and my neighbour describing my boat passing his floating backwards down the canal made me think there may be better places to be.

DOX2

So. Moved on down to Twyford Wharf, where I completed my (short) term of employment at Amazon.

Looks very much like any other factory without all the seasonal workers which were there for the Christmas period.

I appreciated my time there.

They sorted us out with free stuff. Pay was always on time. They even got a DJ in on Christmas Eve. Here’s a picture of him.

Empty warehouse? – Amazon DOX2 DJ – Christmas Party

I was told it was a lot busier last year at around the Christmas period, but since then they’ve opened 2 new sorting centres to distribute their parcels. One is at Lutterworth (DBI7 Amazon), the other is Birmingham (Amazon DBI3).

These have taken away a lot of the capacity from DOX2 sortation operation.

Last year a couple of the co-workers described scenes of operatives confronting WALLS of parcels and having to adhere to 2m DISTANCING RULES.

Very different kettle of fish to this year.

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Aynho Wharf to Pig Place

Spent 3 weeks at Aynho Wharf. Perhaps a week more than I should have, but it appears no-one is counting.

Anyhow, yesterday, I moved on.

New Job…. At Amazon….

Working in the warehouse that provides the parcels that make up the delivery routes I do for Amazon Flex.

It’s a 5am start, then 8 hours handling parcels and shipments bound for the Midlands area.

Not a lot to it: Sort parcels when they arrive off lorries and log them on the system. Group the parcels into routes. Issue routes to the delivery drivers. That’s basically what the day consists of.

The pay isn’t bad, £14 per hour, plus there’s a potential £3,000 bonus if you stick it out for long enough!

That consists of £1,500 after the first 6 weeks, then another after 12 weeks has passed. So you have to stay for 3 months!

Not sure I’m going to do that, but 6 weeks takes me beyond the Christmas period.

Fixed pumps

Both of my pumps broke.

That’s a pump that brings cold water in, and a bilge pump that pumps dirty water out.

Both broke, or started causing problems as I was leaving London.

A life without pumps on a boat is a smelly dirty life.

No fresh water to wash and cook. No showering if you can’t pump the water away afterwards….

For this reason, I needed to get them fixed pretty quick.

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Kings Lock to Aynho Wharf

20 miles, most of it on the canal.

Bowled up at Aynho Wharf at about 6.30pm. Started at about 9.15am.

A long day.

Felt tired.

Beer

Had a beer to celebrate.

One picture today, that’s heading up the post.

Bonnie in London

So that’s it for ‘Bonnie in London‘.

In the end, my return journey took me from Wednesday afternoon until Sunday night. 4 1/2 days.

I estimate that I saved

In Hotel

Accommodation from booking.com: 17 nights – Cheapest £300 (dorm), Most expensive £6000. Average £1800 (B&B).

Food from The Savvy Backpacker: Lunch £5, Coffee £4, Dinner £15-20. Daily £30 x 17 = £510

So maybe £2000 for staying in a hotel and eating out.

On the boat

Weekly shop £25 x 3 = £75

Coffee and Lunch x 5 for the days in London. £50.

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