Return Of The Trolley

Today was the start of potentially a new (yet old) era at work... the return of The Tea Trolley! Yes, that's right, as a pioneering move, we're having a trial run of an at desk trolley service like what you'd get on a train or in the 1950s.

It's only a trial so initially they're not going to have much of a schedule and are just going to wonder round and try and see where the demand is. Future schedules will then be built to go more often to places where they'll sell more.

So when I spied the lady this morning I made damned sure I bought a coffee. I want them to come round my area lots, as I want coffee! And chocolate!

And was it my imagination or did it taste better than the stuff I normally get from the work cafe?

Downsides to this idea:
- I can go to the cafe any time I want, whilst the trolley is only intermittent.
- I don't get stamps on my loyalty card from the trolley.

and most importantly...

- I sit 20 seconds walk from the cafe, so it's not like it's an effort.

But still, it's good stuff. I'm hoping that next week they reintroduce the use of small boys as "chimney sweeps".

A Decade Under The Influence

As of 5pm last Friday, I completed 10 years of work for the same company. That's quite a long time. It's so far encompassed three cities, six bosses and (almost) countless desks. And I'm still happy which is pretty remarkable really.

Other things that have happened in the world during that 10 years:

1. Princess Diana was on the cover of the Daily Express every day, despite not being alive for one of them.
2. Big Brother.
3. The internet and mobile phones.
4. Big Brother 2-8.
5. Four Day Hombre.
6. All of Buffy and Angel.
7. Tony Blairs.
8. Can't think.
9. Of anything else.
10. Because I was drunk.

Now I'm just waiting for my carriage clock to turn up. I'm sure it's on the way...

Whose the daddy?

A colleague (#1) had a baby last night (well done) - it came out of his wife. One of his staff (#2) sent an email round to let us know that it had arrived and that they were all doing well. Title of the email was "Whose the daddy?". This was bad in two ways. Firstly, it was clearly bad grammar. Or possibly bad spelling. She may have well sent round an email saying "I can't use the English language correctly. Please sack me now."

I personally would happily sack anyone from work who persistently abused the language in that way. But then we'd have no marketing department. Or finance department. Or directors. It'd just be me and the cleaners (and them only because they rarely have need to write anything). We'd all be very busy and I wouldn't like it. I'd have no time for Final Fantasy.

The second part of the badness was the implication that colleague #1 wasn't the daddy. For if he was, why ask the question? It was clearly being implied that there was some funny business going on. When challenged on this, #2 claimed to have no such intention but I didn't believe her.

Never trust anyone who goes by a number rather than a name.

In very related baby news (no it wasn't me. It was #1. I thought we'd established that) I'm disturbed these days that I have a vague feel for what, in pounds, constitutes a "big baby" and what constitutes a "wee baby". There's no need for me to know that. It's never going to help me win a pub quiz.

HR are rubbish

I had an HR type meeting the other day where we were discussing a list of people currently working in the US. I was quite surprised to see halfway down the list, my own name. This surprised me a little as to the best of my knowledge I'm currently working in York, England. I think I would have spotted a daily transatlantic flight should I have been doing one.

I think what happened was the guy making the list had been dictated to down the phone and had got confused and forgotten what he was doing. HR are rubbish.

Busy Again

Another busy week at work as my boss is away - not holiday, but a two week course suspiciously close to EuroDisney. Hence I've got all the work to do and am avoiding hangovers for a while :-( Until Saturday morning, anyway. Then I expect I'll have a big one.

The Shortest Straw

I called a senior (in both senses of the word) colleague (in only one sense of the word) at work yesterday about an unrelated matter. After saying hello, he said that he'd heard that I "seemed to have drawn the short straw". I didn't know what he meant by this, and he may then have realised my confusion as he added "... a straw so short you may not even be able to see it". Hmmm. Sounds like I may have been volunteered for something... Or something is being done to me... Or something... Should I be scared?