I was going to call this entry "Ten years ago" because today was the tenth anniversary of my becoming a messenger. But I changed my mind because I had another messenger moment.

The weather was crap. No, I have to rephrease that, the weather was fucking awful. About 7 or 8 degrees C, a stiff southwesterly, rain in many varieties, mud ... not to mention more than the usual number of assholes on the road not looking where they were going, nor the long runs and difficult combinations.

And also three flat tyres. The first in the front wheel caused by a small shard of metal, the second by a fragment of Heineken bottle - also in the front.

The third by a long thin nail that penetrated both sides of the tube of the rear wheel. I had to be somewhere before three o'clock, via two other places which were not at all on the route. It was about twenty past two, the rain suddenly changed from a fine drizzle to big drops, so I pulled in under a flyover to get out my raincoat. As I pulled away again, that spongy feeling .....

... by this time I was out of spares, and so I had to patch one of the old ones.

I wondered why this much shit was happening on this particular day, whether the Almighty was saying to me : "you can stop now, ten years is a good career for a messenger, and you have to admit, you're no spring chicken."

I was seriously tempted, for a moment, to phone fixie Femke (on despatch) and tell her that I had had enough, that she could call somebody to take over my work, while I walked home, had a shower and decided what to do with the rest of my life. But it was fleeting, and I buckled down, patched the tyre, pumped it up and was on my way again soon enough.

That was the messenger moment. The moment after I had dismissed the idea of throwing in the towel and just carried on doing what was necessary to get the job done, getting back on the bike, moving once more through the Dutch urban landscape using only the power of my body and my free will.

There is nothing else like it .....

..... I made the first two drops, and was only a few minutes late for the third - the client was not at all bothered. Then I carried on with the rest of the day, in the foul weather and dangerous traffic.

Before the end of the day, as we were planning the evening medicine run, Femke bought cake and we celebrated. It felt good.

Thank you messengers everywhere, old colleagues, current colleagues, old friends, new friends, in cities all over the world. These last ten years have been special.

Bring on the next ten!