A Mashy Ending

The end of my solitaire-playing existence has now drawn to an abrupt, yet timely close. Except it hasn't because I've downloaded it on to my phone, but you know what I mean.

Thursday saw me sitting at my desk, blogging. Whilst tip-tapping my rather mean thoughts about Tiny and Jane, I was unaware that they were passing around a card to wish me best wishes, and scurrying out to Accessorize to buy me leaving gifts of shiny things. What an unspeakably mean-spirited fragment of existence I must be.

At lunchtime, I was whisked to the pub next door and presented with said gifts and a big plate of bangers and mash. Big bangers and shiny stuff, what more could a girl ask for? Well, she could ask not to have been sandwiched between Tiny's uncomfortable silence and best impression of a benevolent smile on one side, and Jabbering Jane's monologue and consistent interruptions on the other. The best part was watching her slurp up a double vodka and tonic, which radiated a ultra-violet glow, and the intriguing lack of effect it had on her system.

Back in the office after this rather stilted lunch, everything was as usual. When I came to leave, Tiny (who would not be in on Friday) stood up very formally and gave a rather out-of character speech about how nice it was to meet me. Jane busily sifted through the mountains of half-arsed paperwork on her desk and pretended she was not listening. He looked like he was having something of inward battle in trying to work out whether to come out from behind his protective, horseshoe desk to give me a hug, or remain where he was for professional purposes. In the end he settled for leaning awkwardly over the desk, proffering forth his hand for me to shake. I scurried away as soon as I could and felt guilty for not being able to find anything meaningful to say when leaving behind someone who has revealed an assortment of dark secrets to me.

As thursday had felt like my actual last day, it meant I was more than a little tempted not to bother with Friday, and have to face yet another last day. The incentive I needed, however, was the fact I had left my "Elvis Lives" mug on my desk. Plus I had my eye on a rather large tub of paperclips in the stationary cupboard. And some post-it notes. I love post-it notes. I have stolen them from everywhere I have ever worked, although I never really use them and am now developing quite a collection. I just think they are something you can never have too many of.

The day was as boring as hell, surprise surprise. Lots of uncomfortable conversations which involved me having to recite my reasons for going and describing my new job almost word-for-word to at least five people. I'm sure they weren't particularly interested, and it began to worry me because I now feel rather unsure as to just what it is I am leaving to do! It was rather curious to note that everyone felt much more comfortable homing in on the bus journey as being my main reason for going. Their minds did not seem to compute that I'm BORED!! That the company is horrendously organized, that all I can ever hope for in this job is to get Tiny's job when he finally crashes and burns, that there is an ugly divide in the office, that I don't want to feel forced to go and spend four days with them under "compulsory enjoyment" orders at the ball of Inverness.

"There were four and twenty virgins at the ball of Inverness,
And when the ball was over there were four and twenty less.
Singing:
'Balls to your partner,
Arse against the wall,
If you don't get fucked on Saturday night,
You don't get fucked at all!'"
Courtesy of my Father, and rugby fans nationwide)

Finally leaving for the last time, it was Jane's turn to fashion some kind of farewell speech, and she did a better job than Tiny. She thought I was making a pre-emptive strike and suspected there will be some people who will be forced into looking for alternate employment. I advised her to keep her eyes open for something. I didn't have the heart to tell her she is on the brink of getting sacked due to the ever growing list of complaints that Tiny is having to log, about her brusque manner, on a daily basis.

I left rather unceremoniously and walked out in to the sunshine along the cobbled streets outside. As I sat on the bus home for the last time, I thought how I will miss them all for the entertainment they have given me. They were far less judgmental about me than I was about them.

Jabbering-Jane

Where to begin?

It's almost too difficult to write about her, due to her superior intellect and knowledge of anything you care to mention, and my being a mere "underling".

She resembles Rabbit from Walt Disney's Winnie-the-Pooh. Gingery hair, a long nose with a kind of round bit at the end and slightly protruding teeth. Her eyes are not complicated by make up, indeed, it would be quite a task to make them appear more piercing than they are naturally.

At the moment, she and Tiny are on a conference call. When Tiny is taking one of these on his own, he sits very quietly, and only speaks when spoken to. Jane, however, is currently (excuse the pun) rabbiting on at great length about the plight of the Great British butterfly with the Developments Director (she should be listening to building plans).

She varies from a sweet, almost girlish voice that belittles her fifty-something years , to a stern "I KNOW ALL, FOR I AM OMNIPOTENT" teacher's voice. Any topic you care to mention, and I mean anything, she will not only know more about it than you, but in her discussing of it, will make you wish you had never been born. You don't really need to be there to have a conversation with her. She can do it all by herself. She'll start about the intricacies of an ancient Hermetic order's influence upon Moroccan tapestries, and minutes later, will have gone off on an unfathomable tangent about her elderly parent's defunct hot water boiler. All the time this will be punctuated with girlish giggles, which render the unfortunate receptacle of her speech positively nauseous.

She is at her best when absorbed with her computer screen. This (generally) keeps her quiet. I don't know what she's looking up on the web, but I'd say it's either some kind of fundamentalist animal-rights campaign site (she created a big fuss over having to choose sandwiches with "dead things" in them for her carnivorous colleagues, despite having offered to get them), or something to do with the highly fascinating Steam Fair she is visiting this weekend. She has been talking about it for as long as I have known her, and refers to it as if it is nationally recognized as the single most spectacular event of the year.

Just when she's been quiet long enough to almost forget her overbearing presence, she'll break the blissful silence with a heart-stopping cackle, and if you don't ask her what caused it, she'll tell you anyway. She also has the irritating habit of assuming you know what she is thinking and starts talking half way through her thought process. For example, she has just shattered my concentration by informing me:

"I'm describing the size of my tent to Dave, but it's okay because he's a builder! So..."

Obviously I have no idea who the hell Dave is or the need to discuss tent sizes with him, let alone why a builder has a special insight on the matter. Luckily, before the trickle could become an avalanche, she was interrupted by someone bringing her a cup of tea. In her most saccharine voice she replied:

"OOOhh! Thankyou! I wasn't expecting such kind bounty!"

After the first few weeks of trying to follow her monologues, I have now trained myself to let the sound of her know-it-all voice wash over me. Although sometimes it is impossible to ignore, particularly on the rare occasions that she touches upon a subject of vague interest. When she expounded her knowledge of sleeping disorders, her half-baked 'facts' frustratingly penetrated my concentration. As someone who has had to visit sleep specialists over the years, I actually know a think or two about this, and could only wish I suffered from Narcolepsy so I could pass out asleep.

There are so many wonderful examples of, and curios in her character, I could go on about it for longer than it would take her to discuss the benefits of full fat milk rather than semi-skimmed. So I shall end with something I heard her say to a colleague just moments ago:

"Please accept my apologies, it took a long time, and you received no useful answer"

Tiny Tears

The deed has been done.

I have now informed Tiny that I am leaving, and he has been very tight-lipped about it. He said:

"...It's not a problem........Really...Don't worry about it....It's cool...........Not a problem....."

I know from having no choice but to listen in to his phone calls, that "it's not a problem" (which is such an oft-used phrase of his, that it should be tattooed on his forehead), is actually Tiny-speak for "PANIC!".

Despite his proclamations of not being stressed, he has hardly spoken to me since,not even to ask me what I am leaving to do instead! He has spent the larger part of the morning in the room next door, talking in hushed tones with the others. I had to venture into that den of discontent to ask him about an invoice, and caught him having what he describes as "a moment" out on the balcony. This involves looking pained, and running hands through hair a lot. When interrupted, the response was a paradoxical "Cool", spoken from between lips that were almost white with tension.

I do feel very guilty for adding to his already intolerable stress-levels, and because I know he takes things very personally. I'm sure that I have now been added to the long list of people who have betrayed him. I think, as a person, he's a sweet guy, but he has been mis-cast in the role of Office Manager. He has the opportunity to play a far greater role, Cannes and Hollywood come calling regularly for his film scripts. He is in demand from a far more interesting world, but for some reason, (unknown even to himself as far as I can tell), he would rather be here stressing about deliveries of water-proof cushion covers for the infirm.

I am sure that part of his coolness towards my leaving is because it makes it all the more difficult for him to leave. There are only three admin monkeys in this department. Tiny, myself and Jabbering-Jane. I have already discussed Tiny at great length, and I am leaving, so maybe it's time to introduce Jabbering-Jane...

Tiny's Mind

Well, so much for long and fruitless days.

I have just stabbed my insipid employer in the back and accepted another job.
Hooray! For not having to get up at half past six in the morning!
Hoorah! For not having to sit on a bus for an hour and a half everyday!
Woohoo! For earning more money and (finally) getting trained properly!
And thank God my days will now be filled with usefulness!

But my solitaire skills are going to suffer, and the giddy plans I had for this as-yet mediocre blog may come to nothing, on account of actually having to do work at work... Shit.

But I may now actually learn something useful, and have some sort of respect for my new employer. They were astounded when I told them in interview (when trying to clarify why I wanted to leave my current position), about last week when "Tiny", asked my permission to take a day off work. Let me clarify, he is my boss, not the other way round. I think he is under the unfortunate illusion that we are friends.

On my first day, he was talking to one of the other members of staff about his love life problems. I was surprised he would have such a candid discussion in front of a new employee at all, especially with the whole shy, intimidated thing he has going on. It put me in a rather uncomfortable position, I thought it was some "getting to know you" ploy, despite the fact that it all seemed rather personal. Not wanting to be rude when someone is pouring their heart out, I joined in the conversation. Before I knew it, he was no longer discussing it with the other members of staff, but talking only to me about it, all the time! I would often try and change the topic of conversation, but it always came back to his depressing stories about people he felt had done him wrong. Dreary tales of running through a wood at midnight, tripping over an abandoned bathtub, twisting his ankle and discovering his wife shagging his best friend in a car, punching the guy, causing 37 stitches, barricading himself in his house like a fugitive until a friend came to find him, threatening to kill him too, getting arrested and only being able to see his beloved children for 36 hours at a time. And he tells me he's scared of women!

He is clearly scared of himself. It was not that long ago, he tells me, that if he were left on his own in anyone's company, he'd be literally pressed up against the wall with the discomfort of having to speak to them. He'd wash incessantly for fear people might be able to smell him, and, frankly, his attempts at conversation, even now, are lame:

".......So.........Did you have a nice evening?............uhm...so.....I've got so much work to do (sigh)........Can I ask you a personal question?.......Ah....What are you having for lunch today?............."

The rest of the time it is monologues about unstressful things at work he is stressed about, or the afore mentioned love life/ past ghosts drivel.

The worst part, is my tendency to try and let people who seem to be having a hard time know that they are not the only ones. That bad shit happens to everyone. The only way I know how to do that, is to recount my own tales of insecure woes, thus revealing far more than I want to about myself, and shattering the professional balance between employer and "underling" (as I was described by Jane, the other member of staff. I'll get to her another day, she'll take some work).

I still maintain, however, that it is not necessary or appropriate, that anyone after three months in a job, should know that their boss is "not fussed about sex" and thinks it is "a lot of hassle". Except, of course, when he took Chinese medicine for back pain and ended up "feeling horny all the time. I'd have done anything I could get my hands on". Imagine that being said in a barely audible, tiny, mumbling voice, and it has the potential to actually give you nightmares.

This is a man who claims Colonel Saunders is his best friend, but refuses to eat breakfast ("because I'm being good today"). But as soon as he's hung up the phone (having had to converse with some unseen entity), he proceeds to scamper fridge-wards, where he eats up to a shocking three chocolate digestive, and then feels guilty for the rest of the day.

It is always with great trepidation that he ever asks me to help with his work load in any way. Despite my obvious card playing, and near-catatonic state, he will oh-so gently say:

" Erm.........Jennie? Erm.......I was wondering...............Are you busy?....................Would you mind............erm....... photocopying this for me?........I hope you don't mind.......It's just that......"

Of course, this kind of pussy-footing around annoys me no-end, and I have now become rather snappish with him. I think, apart from the fact I should be busy when he asks such a question, he, as office manager, should tell me to photocopy whatever it is. So now, he has become so scared of my demands for work, lack of interest and outright frustration at his pitiful tales about his "life", that he is too terrified to ask anything of me at all!

My main concern about leaving this job (I use the term loosely), is that he will undoubtedly have a nervous breakdown. His house is already certain to be re-possessed (if you belief his victimized talk), he is in a constant battle with his ex-wife for the affection of his children, and his 24 year old, on-off girlfriend (another loose description) sounds like a soul-sucking waste of time (if you believe his martyr-like tales). Who will he send text messages to on his days off ("Was everything ok today? Been really worried.....")? How will he cope having to go through interviewing strangers again (if last time was anything to go by, he'll just sit there and let Jane do all the talking, and occasionaly try to get a word in). Who will he have to watch playing solitaire all day? How will he get through the pressure of "training" again, especially with all the entering onto Sage he urgently has to do (despite it's being sat there, immobile, for the last God-knows how long)?

If , or rather, when I go, he will be left only with the fearsome Jane to listen to his angst. And she does not just listen, oh no.

But she is a topic for another day...

Perfectly Pixilated-Off

I am bored.

I will bore you too with my pissed off, pixilated words...

On the first day of working here (three long months ago), I was given no introduction or real training on what the job entails. I spent the first week buying stationary for myself, and by the end of it, wondered when I would actually start doing any work.

I am still wondering.

After two weeks, "Tiny" tells me that it'll get busy soon. He gets nervous just at the thought of it. In my innocence I am impressed with his mediocre tales of non-stop telephone ringing, angry suppliers and millions of pounds worth of ordering.

I find it hard to imagine.

At the end of the first month, I noticed that if I did not specifically ask if there was anything I could help with, nothing came my way. So I ended up having to instruct Tiny that he must inform me when there is something I can do, he assured me in his best attempt at a strong voice, that he would.

It didn't happen.

Two months in, and boredom and exasperation reached new heights. I got quite angry about it and told him that I'd rather be at home doing nothing. Again, the weak reassurances.

Still nothing.

Three months later, at breaking point now, I conducted an experiment. I could see on his desk one of the forms he usually gets me to deal with. I didn't mention it, and flaunted my internet-use in front of him. At one point he even asked me what I was looking at and made a vague attempt at conversation, but not once did he ask me to do anything else.

I spent ALL DAY on the internet.

I am doing the same today.

MIND-DRIBBLES Thrust into Technological Mayhem

Good grief...

This is a truly bizarre occurrence and something I never would have thought could happen. This is what too much solitaire does for you, makes you search for fun in strange places. No, none of that was a euphemism for kinky naughtiness, I am talking about dipping my toe in a technological ocean, and I always was afraid of the water...

I am a good, old-fashioned pen and ink girl and have spent the last ten years (since the concept of computing first raised it's head out of the mists to me), avoiding anything that has to be plugged in to enable writing , reading or drawing.

This has proved to be problematic, particularly in terms of employment, where I now find myself competing with ten-year olds who are fully competent with the Microsoft Office package, because they have been taught it at SCHOOL!! I remember drawing pictures of fly-agaric mushrooms on Poulner Common at school, which frankly, sounds a hell of a lot more fun.

But time spent daydreaming with sequins and bugle beads instead of embracing the new Shakespeare (Mr. Microsoft), has somehow, to cut a long-winded and torturous story of long-haul flights,romance and heartbreak with a green tinged hue, lead me into an administration job. I was able to get such a mind-expanding position due to the fact that despite my computerized short-comings, I am far more organized than anyone else who works here. But I am consistently bored as due to the afore-mentioned disorganization, I have had bugger-all to do now for the three months I have been here.

You may think having nothing to do all day and getting paid for it, even if it does mean sitting on a bus for 45 minutes at an ungodly hour in the morning, can only be a good thing.

But you are wrong.

And now I, finally, return to my point. Being technologically stunted, the only thing I have been able to do to pass time, is play solitaire ad-nauseam. But once I started to hear Sue Barker's voice giving running commentary on e-v-e-r-y game, I realized maybe it was time to get over my fears and broaden my computerized horizons.

It has been on my mind for some time, but yesterday I finally cracked, and took the first step.

I bought my first-ever-not-hand-me-down-trash, brand-spanking-new mobile phone, with gizmos-galore!

So now I can take highly witty or deep-thought provoking pictures and put them on the super-information-highway (or whatever it's called these days) to facilitate my new time-filling device - blogging! (Groan, I feel like such a goddamn NERD all of a sudden.) But that will have to wait until my far more advanced, wood-dwelling companions, teach me the wondrous world of inter-phone/computer thingy stuff.

I will now fill my long and fruitless days by amusing all the thousands of people, who will, no doubt, all be clamoring to read my mind-dribbles.