23rd April 25. Nottingham via Milton Keynes

Milton Keynes is only 25-30 minutes from home by car. By public transport it's another story. No trains.. unless you want to go into London and back out. Both are time and cost prohibited.

So. It's a bus or taxi. I found out the hard way about the taxi previously and £35 just doesn't make it worthwhile to take jobs to or from this town.

So, it's the bus. Which takes over an hour.

But I had a car to collect from Alfreton NR Nottingham. So I picked up a job on the work platform that has on average over a hundred jobs to choose from every day.

When, or if you join our program. We will guide you on how to join and what the requirements are to get this lucrative work.

This job then, was to collect a 2021 Vauxhall Mokka from a private individual in MK and take it to a dealer in Nottingham.

The customer pre-called to let them know what time I'd arrive.

The car collected, appraised and signed for I headed out of Milton Keynes on a rare miserable rainy day. The first for a long time.

The appraisal for this portal is their own app. Which you will need to have. But it's easy to use and we will show you how.

Heading up the M1 from MK is about an hour and a half drive. The M1 can be either very good or very bad. After nine in the morning it's actually good for a period of time. Good, long enough to get to Nottingham anyway.

I found the independent car dealer for the Vauxhall and did my appraisal and once signed. The job shows as finished on their app. Two days later. You're paid.

A quick and cheap Uber. Thanks Uber for the tip to save money. Extremely helpful

I arrived at the station and took the train to Alfreton Nottinghamshire.

A quick trip as you can see.

Nottingham to Alfreton

The Dealership to collect the Fiesta was a 32 minutes walk. So as the sun had came out and it was such a lovely day. And, I had time

I decided to get some steps in.

Speaking of which.. I have always been a fan of Google Maps. I keep my timeline and location switched on. As it's a great way to monitor your journeys and seems to always know with quite alarming accuracy. Whether you are driving, walking or on a train or bus.

Since I started doing this work. My average walking distance every month is 40 miles. Quite staggering really to think I walk the equivalent of nearly two marathons. Every month.

I feel so much better for it. Physically and mentally.

This working for myself has it's benefits. Physically feeling better. But more importantly. I don't have the stress that retail management puts on your mental wellbeing. I only have to listen to the demands I place on myself.

I also have been listening to audiobooks.

I just finished "The monk who sold his Ferrari" by Robin Sharma. Quite a simple moral talent. But being simple it focused me on the good things in life, I have. And made the stressful bad stuff seem very unimportant. I recommend it.

If you do this line of work. You spend a fair amount of time alone. Which I actually like. Either, driving, walking, or on trains etc. use that time wisely. I can't stress enough how good it is.

A very quiet Nottingham Station

So walking that 33 minutes. I arrived at the dealership and collected the Fiesta to get me back to Aylesbury.

It's a shortish drive to the M1. Always fuelling up before the motorway, don't forget.

Then around 2 hours to Aylesbury down the busier now, M1

Circumventing Milton Keynes as quickly as possible to get to the A481 to Aylesbury.

I have to say the 1.0 ecoboost Fiesta is great fun when you get used to it. Handling the roundabouts and little stretches of 70 mph, (that's what Google maps tells me) dual carriageways between those roundabouts very well and quick enough for most.

Maybe it suits front wheel drive and the good gearbox which makes it all the more fun.

Once out of MK there is dual carriageway all the way to Leighton Buzzard before you drive through a place called Wing.

I wonder if they are connected in any way. Buzzard and Wing??

I'll Google it later.

Home again jobs done.