Even though I live just 20 minutes from the City I really only ever manage to drag myself there a few times per year; normally to trawl around the shops in a desperate attempt to get last minute Christmas presents that are half decent enough to pass off as having given them some prior thought. This week alone however I have been there 3 times and not being one for a large commute (bit of an understatement actually as I can roll out of bed into the office), travelling on the sweaty smelly tube just this week has made me remember all the reasons I chose not to work in London in the first place. And being very grateful for it.
The last 2 days have seen me standing in a rather bright T-Shirt in the middle of Olympia talking my way to a jaw ache and verbal repetitive strain injury to what is the UK’s future workforce. I won’t go into too much detail around this, all I will say is that it is great to see that there is such variety and individuality left in the world…
However, the best visit to London was on Tuesday when we (the Royal we obviously) were nominated for an Innovation award and naturally were invited to attend. I could tell the evening would have a few surprises and not go completely smoothly when it was confirmed that I would be travelling in with my trusty boss… She managed to finally find my house with the incredibly over completed ‘straight road’ the ‘2nd right’ directions I gave her that even with a TomTom she couldn’t find… when she did make it we made our way to meet the rest of the clan to travel on convoy! I thought this would be safer…
Having stood all the way to London my boss decided that she and I should make a break for it and get a taxi rather than go another two stops on the tube. Sounded good in principle except the place we got off was Oxford Street and not one free taxi could be seen. Anyway in her wisdom she thought it may be best if we took a back route where it was quieter, which would have been a great idea if it didn’t mean we had to walk further than needed. I was already walking 10 paces behind her as she had a manky foot and I wasn’t sure how close I should get! I did feel bad for her being in pain but the piggy back option with my heels was out! Having made it back into the safety of a main road, no scary dark shadows and a flood lit street, I felt a little more comfortable and as luck would have it there was a taxi. Great, now we can get to where we need to be. I’m not one to pass up free drink and this was now encroaching on my drinking time.
Well we made it and managed to join the crew, grabbed our champagne and before you could blink my boss had downed hers in one fair swoop and was making a mission impossible style leap for another in case the world ran out of champagne and she would miss out… now she moves fast! Well after a few more glasses we made our way to the award ceremony, listened to some incredibly uninspiring cheesy speeches which were enough to cure my insomnia there and then. Unless I am fully engaged in something it can often spell trouble, though I think I was reasonably well behaved, I hadn’t drunk enough for my other personality to kick in so all was fairly well.
As the awards went on and our nomination came up, I was pretty shocked to find out we had not won. We should have won actually but instead some arse slapping supermarket came above us – it didn’t go down well and despite trying to be very ‘Oscars’ professional, a few hisses crept out in a rather non sportsman like way, though I can guarantee that it was not the conscious mind doing it. I think we were hypnotised by the boring speeches and the shrieks were just involuntary motions.
The time drew in so I had to grab the cab with my boss for the long drive home – she needing her cup of coco before bed and me needing to be functioning on at least one cylinder to have an ounce of professionalism the next day for a barrage of assessments. Not only that but to assess with a rather lovely man and to not look like death. Yeah, a lovely man, he …. anyway, the ride home, oh yeah. Like most random conversations I have with my boss, or anyone else actually, they do tend to lend themselves to me letting something else out about me that either no one knows or that I would just never normally speak about. I think it is just being out of the office, it seems to make me talk and be me, but I said enough really. It was quite funny and we were incredibly loud. I felt really sorry for the cab driver, he didn’t say anything but I felt I needed to apologise immensely after dropping her home – obviously she was the rowdy one and not me. I think I got my punishment though when he insisted on running through his entire auto-biography with me in the space of 15 minutes. Still, I am sure I deserved it, though I don’t recall telling him I was in recruitment. Thanks JPR, no doubt you dropped that clanger when you made your swift exit from the car! Hmmmph.
