How was your day? (Random off topic chat)

Got three amusing Secret Santa stories. Large office, department about sixty people so a big thing our Secret Santa.


First I got a young secretary some furry handcuffs and she announces very excited at Christmas lunch that her boyfriend likes being tied up. Which was a little more information than expected in return.

Next, another PA was doing Secret Santa and wanted to collect names of who had drawn who??!! That's not secret santa. Apparently it was so everyone would have a present. I said I'll buy some bottles of wine for spares but she wasn't having it. In our section we redrew the names we had collected and I, surprise surprise 'got' the PA organising. She didn't take too kindly to my secret santa reorganisation games or gift. I got her some M&S belly button warmer pants. Still she got her revenge next year when she 'drew' my name in Secret Santa and got me some cream for piles.

And lastly, one of my directors was going out with a girl in the department. It was one of those hush hush no one knows but everyone knows relationships. So, me and a friend drew the couple in Secret Santa and wanted to get a 'joint' present. What do you get for the nominal spend and maximum effect?? So I got a pair of three foot wooden salt and pepper shakers. Went to the charity wrappers in the shopping centre, told them the story and they went to town with bows and streamers. Secret Santa day arrives and they are quite close but not together in our large office huddle. Second gift arrives and they both clock what it is before it has been opened. Much embarrassment all round but I saved them having to announce their relationship. [Disclaimer I was good friends with all parties concerned in all stories]

Better to get your awl out than your parts out, I suppose.

Nicholas Hytner's Balancing Acts, Forrest. Thanks for asking. I know it was published in 2017, but as it's about his time at the National, it's not as though any of the details have changed!

By waiting, I was able to buy a £20 book for just a quarter of that, so more money in the kitty to buy tools. 🔨 When you make your first real visit to the world-famous Crucible Theatre, you should also try and find time to visit our "internationally important" tool museum. 🙂 Is there a globally recognised order of precedence?

Update: I did apply for that new job role, and I got it!

It's a promotion, and really a totally different (slightly scary) job. If I don't totally screw it up it'll put me in a good position long-term.

It's still going to be unavoidably sh*tty when other people in the department start leaving, though.

Congratulations kathryn, that's terrific news! 

I've been feeling ill for most of this past week, fighting off a constant, annoying, slight fever, so it hasn't been the greatest week ever (and that despite being delivered flowers for probably the first time in my life and not completely making a fool of myself at that workshop on Machiavelli!).

But yesterday I bought an *actual* concert ticket to see a band whose albums I've somehow fallen back in love with these days and then overnight they announced a tour including the UK in 2021. Couldn't have been more perfect timing! So I've put this (far away) date in the calendar and it makes me so happy. I've almost forgotten the joy of planning things!




  

Why is it boilers never stop working in the middle of a heatwave but always in cold weather and last thing on a Friday night?

Happy Birthday Birthday people. All those missed birthday parties, eh?

Moved the dahlia pots to the back to be left til spring.

Did anyone catch the Zoom conference call with Maggi Smith Kenneth Brannagh and Judi Dench?

There are a couple of posts at the end of the 'Lockdown: Your very, veeeery best things to watch online' thread.

Yes, BurlyBeaR, the family history of 'ordinary' people is much more fascinating than anything to be found in a worthy tome.

Along with hundreds of thousands of others down the years, my own background is almost identical to yours. Mater worked in the office at Sanderson Kayser, with Pater a tool user, rather than maker. For 24 years, man and boy, he was a joiner at Neepsend. When he told his workmates that he'd found a new job, they all thought he was mad to leave just one year away from receiving his gold watch. Of course less than 12 months later, everything, and everybody, was gone.

For us, it was a cake slice that Stanley Speight presented to all employees when he was Master Cutler. It only ever came out for important occasions, or when we had 'company'.

Tooth ache getting worse so decided to face the music.

Couldn't go back to the previous place as we had a strong divergence of opinion on pumping the NHS.

I remembered a friendly place I used to deliver the post to not that far away so thought I'd cycle over there. The door was locked and the receptionist said through the glass they has no appointments until January. Goodness. Then she recognised the disheveled Royal Mail outfit and me, and 10 minutes later I was signed up with a new Practice and waiting for the xray! Hurrah!!

One week of three times a day and we'll take it from there: Merry Christmas