{"id":21569,"date":"2026-01-14T14:37:30","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T13:37:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/14\/my-work-went-from-air-conditioned-offices-to-delivering-food-on-a-bike-the-culture-shock-is-significant-david-rayfield\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T14:37:30","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T13:37:30","slug":"my-work-went-from-air-conditioned-offices-to-delivering-food-on-a-bike-the-culture-shock-is-significant-david-rayfield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/14\/my-work-went-from-air-conditioned-offices-to-delivering-food-on-a-bike-the-culture-shock-is-significant-david-rayfield\/","title":{"rendered":"My work went from air-conditioned offices to delivering food on a bike. The culture shock is significant | David Rayfield"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The plan was to get on a bicycle to earn some money. It wasn\u2019t to get hit by cars, thumped by skinheads or to see my surroundings in a whole new light<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/newsletters\/2019\/oct\/18\/saved-for-later-sign-up-for-guardian-australias-culture-and-lifestyle-email?CMP=cvau_sfl\">Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>At first I didn\u2019t realise I\u2019d been punched. I\u2019m not sure why my brain assumed a bird had flown into me, but I suppose a magpie attack was more likely than a random bloke lashing out at my ribcage, so it took a second to realise what was happening.<\/p>\n<p>I was on my bike, waiting in a sidestreet for traffic to clear. The punch came from behind and by the time my mouth let fly a few expletives, the culprit was leaving. Then he caught wind of my colourful language and turned back to get in my face. He was a skinhead in a bad mood. Accusing me of being in his way, he told me I was lucky he didn\u2019t do more damage. I paused mid-reply. This was the moment I realised he was ready to go to hell tonight, and the only thing he wanted to take with him was me.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/newsletters\/2019\/oct\/18\/saved-for-later-sign-up-for-guardian-australias-culture-and-lifestyle-email?CMP=copyembed\">Sign up for our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/2026\/jan\/14\/gig-economy-food-delivery-bike-accidents-experiences\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><br \/>\n<img src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/5046500711e3b9eaf6ecfe8b267fb4514a881eae\/0_0_4556_3646\/master\/4556.jpg?width=140&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=064dbe3d0797ae6eb56699d8b48a5795\" title=\"My work went from air-conditioned offices to delivering food on a bike. The culture shock is significant | David Rayfield\" \/>The plan was to get on a bicycle to earn some money. It wasn\u2019t to get hit by cars, thumped by skinheads or to see my surroundings in a whole new light<br \/>\nGet our weekend culture and lifestyle email<br \/>\nAt first I didn\u2019t realise I\u2019d been punched. I\u2019m not sure why my brain assumed a bird had flown into me, but I suppose a magpie attack was more likely than a random bloke lashing out at my ribcage, so it took a second to realise what was happening.<br \/>\nI was on my bike, waiting in a sidestreet for traffic to clear. The punch came from behind and by the time my mouth let fly a few expletives, the culprit was leaving. Then he caught wind of my colourful language and turned back to get in my face. He was a skinhead in a bad mood. Accusing me of being in his way, he told me I was lucky he didn\u2019t do more damage. I paused mid-reply. This was the moment I realised he was ready to go to hell tonight, and the only thing he wanted to take with him was me.<br \/>\nSign up for our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning Continue reading&#8230;Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The plan was to get on a bicycle to earn some money. It wasn\u2019t to get hit by cars, thumped by skinheads or to see my surroundings in a whole new light Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email At first I didn\u2019t realise I\u2019d been punched. I\u2019m not sure why my brain assumed a &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/14\/my-work-went-from-air-conditioned-offices-to-delivering-food-on-a-bike-the-culture-shock-is-significant-david-rayfield\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">My work went from air-conditioned offices to delivering food on a bike. The culture shock is significant | David Rayfield<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":21570,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21569"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}