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Feb. 14th, 2008 10:47 pm
At Christmas, Lady Mélisande returned to England for eight months, but my appeal for her postal address over here fell on deaf ears, so I had to settle for sending her an e-Valentine. I sent it just after midnight, and within ten minutes got the confirmation e-mail to say she'd picked it up...
Late shift today, on a swap with Lyn - she wanted Valentine night off, and was willing to swap me for a Monday night when Hawks are playing at home. I was assigned a booth in the very far row of the unit; the lady next to me said "You must have been naughty, getting sent to the Naughty Corner. That's how I ended up here."
Sandi had sent me an internal e-mail to say she wanted to do a piece with me for our staff mag about my support of Havant & Waterlooville FC with particular reference to my trip to Liverpool. So an hour into the shift I got to come off the phones for half an hour while she asked me a couple of general questions about why I follow Hawks then got me to relive that memorable day last month. Nice work if you can get it.
We had a briefing from the supervisors towards the end of the shift. That led to an unfortunate piece of Whitehall farce, when, ten minutes before the briefing, I got a lady - who the case notes showed as having been a difficult customer last time - who was happy to do the survey on the spot. That meant having to ask her to hold on while I ran to the supervisors' table (it didn't help that I was sat nearly as far away from the supes as possible) and asked if there was anyone free who wasn't going to the briefing. The two supervisors there dilly-dallied before mentioning Linda, only to find she was on the phone, then finally settling for Sue #4. But just as I returned to my workstation, strapped on my headphones and told the lady my colleague would be with her in a moment, adding "sorry for the delay", with Sue now getting up ready to relieve me, the lady then decided she wasn't going to do it now after all. "Can you call me tomorrow?" So I had to wave Sue away, explaining "She doesn't want to do it now now." Much amusement from the lady next to me at the double 'now'.
During the briefing, one woman asked if interviewers could describe household members in case notes as 'Person 1', 'wife', 'son', 'daughter', etc - too many people were putting 'Person 1', 'Person 2', 'Person 3' - and if they weren't giving names, say whether the respondents were male or female. She added "I had one case recently - I had no sex, no relationships..." Everyone fell about, and Jenny called out "Know the feeling!" Took the words right out of my mouth. From the row of supes at the front Marilyn announced a piece of good news - we could read the new Security guide book that we've all just been issued on work time. That was me sorted for the remaining 15 minutes of the shift.
As I sat back down in my workstation for the last quarter-hour after the briefing ended, Marilyn put her hand on my shoulder and said "Thank you. You always say something constructive." That surprised me as my only contribution had been to make an observation supporting something someone else had already mentioned, but of course I thanked her nonetheless.
No word from Lady Mélisande. Either she hasn't guessed the e-Valentine was from me, or - more likely, I think, since today I also gave her a 'fall in love with' SuperPoke on Facebook - she has, but is adopting a policy of silent tolerance towards my affections. Better than outright rejection, I guess.
Late shift today, on a swap with Lyn - she wanted Valentine night off, and was willing to swap me for a Monday night when Hawks are playing at home. I was assigned a booth in the very far row of the unit; the lady next to me said "You must have been naughty, getting sent to the Naughty Corner. That's how I ended up here."
Sandi had sent me an internal e-mail to say she wanted to do a piece with me for our staff mag about my support of Havant & Waterlooville FC with particular reference to my trip to Liverpool. So an hour into the shift I got to come off the phones for half an hour while she asked me a couple of general questions about why I follow Hawks then got me to relive that memorable day last month. Nice work if you can get it.
We had a briefing from the supervisors towards the end of the shift. That led to an unfortunate piece of Whitehall farce, when, ten minutes before the briefing, I got a lady - who the case notes showed as having been a difficult customer last time - who was happy to do the survey on the spot. That meant having to ask her to hold on while I ran to the supervisors' table (it didn't help that I was sat nearly as far away from the supes as possible) and asked if there was anyone free who wasn't going to the briefing. The two supervisors there dilly-dallied before mentioning Linda, only to find she was on the phone, then finally settling for Sue #4. But just as I returned to my workstation, strapped on my headphones and told the lady my colleague would be with her in a moment, adding "sorry for the delay", with Sue now getting up ready to relieve me, the lady then decided she wasn't going to do it now after all. "Can you call me tomorrow?" So I had to wave Sue away, explaining "She doesn't want to do it now now." Much amusement from the lady next to me at the double 'now'.
During the briefing, one woman asked if interviewers could describe household members in case notes as 'Person 1', 'wife', 'son', 'daughter', etc - too many people were putting 'Person 1', 'Person 2', 'Person 3' - and if they weren't giving names, say whether the respondents were male or female. She added "I had one case recently - I had no sex, no relationships..." Everyone fell about, and Jenny called out "Know the feeling!" Took the words right out of my mouth. From the row of supes at the front Marilyn announced a piece of good news - we could read the new Security guide book that we've all just been issued on work time. That was me sorted for the remaining 15 minutes of the shift.
As I sat back down in my workstation for the last quarter-hour after the briefing ended, Marilyn put her hand on my shoulder and said "Thank you. You always say something constructive." That surprised me as my only contribution had been to make an observation supporting something someone else had already mentioned, but of course I thanked her nonetheless.
No word from Lady Mélisande. Either she hasn't guessed the e-Valentine was from me, or - more likely, I think, since today I also gave her a 'fall in love with' SuperPoke on Facebook - she has, but is adopting a policy of silent tolerance towards my affections. Better than outright rejection, I guess.
