H: Tales of Temporary employment - 2

One summer I had a job for two months with a very old fashioned
printing company, but I benefited a lot more from the arrangement in
those eight or nine weeks than they did. They had a big contract to
fulfil, and took me on to help with all the fetching and carrying that
was involved between print runs - everything was still very unionised
at the time and they didn't dare ask the printers themselves to do such
work!

The best thing about the job was that the longer the print runs, the
more time I had to wile away in between them. I made very good use of
it! I managed to read the whole of Lord of the Rings AND Cider with
Rosie entirely while 'at work', not to mention my daily newspaper! But
it got better than that. The company just happened to print Spurs'
football match programmes. I discovered this just a few days into my
employment when I saw a pile from the previous season lying on a bench.
I'd supported Spurs since I was about seven, and when I asked who the
programmes belonged to I was greeted with mirth. I was told to help
myself, as long as I didn't make it too obvious, and that if I went to
the proof room, where everything that was printed was checked, I'd find
a lot more. During my two months I managed to collect over a hundred. I
couldn't believe it, it was like being in some sort of heaven. Each day
I'd polish off several more chapters of my book, take home a few more
football treasures and then every Friday I'd get paid for it!

In my final week there they held the draw for the company's summer
raffle. Everyone had been buying tickets for months, as there were some
quite generous prizes. I was eventually persuaded to buy one strip of
tickets and for my parting shot managed to win a prize - a bottle of
scotch and a bottle of brandy - I must admit to feeling a little
embarrassed when I went to collect my winnings. I was rather sorry to
leave in the end, but on reflection I'd probably exploited them
enough.