The twelfth of December 2012 was supposed to be the day the world ended. Obviously it didn’t. After a terrible start with freezing fog for the walk to work things actually took a decided turn for the better. There were a few heart stopping moments along the way though and a Christmas tree mystery.
12 December 2012
This morning, to add to the frost we had banks of swirling, freezing fog. Lovely! Not only was I slipping and sliding all over the place and cold but I couldn’t see where I was going either. Needless to say I didn’t add any distance to my walk to work, just the safest, most direct route wrapped up in my thick coat, scarf, floppy eared hat and gloves. Along the main road there is a whole section where the driveways slope down to the pavement and the pavement slopes down to the road. In this icy weather people are using water to clear their windscreens and the water flows over the path to the road then freezes. It’s bad enough on a normal frosty morning but with fog added into the equation it’s a nightmare.
Tiptoeing across the ice every few feet with nothing to grab if you slip certainly slows things down, and the knowledge that if you do slip over you’re going to slide into the road is pretty scary, especially in the fog. I do wish people would be more considerate, do they not posses ice scrapers? Maybe I should buy a job lot and post them through their letter boxes. The walk to work was a record breaker. Record breakingly slow, even though the fog had cleared by the time I got to the office. It took me nearly forty five minutes to walk the short route. Hopefully it’s not a record I’ll be breaking any time soon.
With news of cancelled flights into Heathrow I was half expecting Arabella to be stuck in Genoa this morning so I was pleased to see her little red car in the car park as I arrived at the office. I wasn’t quite as pleased to see the three tubs of chocolate cakes she bought with her. Yet another thing to ignore in the kitchen. It’s all right for her, she’s lost quite a bit of weight in the last six weeks, maybe I need to be joining her when she next goes to dry dock.
From what she said it was pretty horrendous, cold, wet and sleeping in a half finished ship in dry dock doesn’t sound like much fun and she had a lot of problems to contend with, not to mention staff who didn’t really seem to understand what was expected. She was very pleased with how I coped with everything in the office in her abscence though, particularly the fact that I spotted the entertainers who were playing up, trying to take advantage of my newness, and clamped down on them. We went over a lot of the outstanding stuff and my huge pile is now much smaller, although I have a lot of emails to fire off in the morning. We also talked about some of the suggestions I’d made to improve things. She liked all of them and was especially impressed with my changes to the entertainers spreadsheet.
Lewis and his men were due to fit the oven and hob this morning but, with the whole saga of things going wrong so far, I was half expecting a call to say they’d not been able to make it because of the fog or the ice or the fact that today was supposed to be the end of the world, being 12/12/12 and all. At lunch time I got a text from Commando to let me know they’d not only arrived but they’d finished work. He even sent me a photo of the new hob and oven in place, with the oven switched on just to show it really did work. Needless to say I was ecstatic. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a properly working oven. The cooking day this weekend is going to be a joy.
Arabella and I were just winding up for the afternoon when the new Chief Operating Officer (Basically the MD) came up to her lair. I was expecting him to drag her off for a meeting but it was me he wanted. He asked if I had a copy of my contract with me (no) and did I know what probationary period I had, when it started and when it ended? That was a bit worrying. I did know because it ended at the beginning of December and I was hoping that, as no one had mentioned it, they’d all forgotten. Arabella provided him with all the dates and he went off looking quite cross. I half expected him to come back with my P45, after all they’ve made lots of people at the top redundant, including our own MD.
Arabella left not long after that as she had to visit her father in hospital, so I went back to my desk and started work on some of the emails. There was also a lot of hoohah going on about the Christmas party on Friday as there was a problem with the transport. To be honest I was half hoping it would be cancelled, I’d rather be at home playing with my oven. Does that make me boring? Probably. I did get my black dress out last night and try it on, surprisingly it fits, I was pretty sure it would be too tight but, after talking to some of the others, I think it will be too dressy so I’m back to square one. I may just wear some of my smart black work trousers and a nice top.
Just before it was time to go the COO asked to speak to me. My heart was in my mouth, half expecting to be told I’d lost my job (again) and right before Christmas too. It wasn’t bad news though. He was very apologetic that no one had remembered about my probationary period. With all the changes going on it was understandable. He’d been on the phone to head office because, as I was still technically on probation, I’d missed out on a pay increase and he didn’t think it was fair. He’d argued my case, even though I’d have been on probation for the pay increase anyway, and he got me a rise. It’s not a large one but it’s very welcome.
I love working part time after the silly hours I was doing before but, even with a higher hourly rate, it does mean less at the end of the month. He didn’t actually say my probation was over but I’m assuming it must be. I have to admit I had one of Arabella’s chocolate cakes to celebrate. When I left the building I noticed a huge Christmas tree in the foyer. I’m sure that wasn’t there when I came in this morning. There’s no getting away from Christmas now for sure. I hope they don’t start playing Christmas music, that would be a step too far!
The walk home was much quicker because I wanted to see my oven and hob for real. Commando had kindly not cooked the dinner so I could have a little play, bless him he’d even cleaned up the kitchen. The oven is so quiet I almost didn’t think it was on and we boiled a pan of water on the hob to check it really did work. Induction hobs are strange, no sound apart from the bubbling of the water as it boils, nothing to see, just a saucepan sitting there. It is going to take some getting used to but it’s great that it just wipes clean with no fuss and it looks lovely. Being able to leave the pasta in the oven and sit down with a cup of coffee while it cooked was heaven after months of having to stand by the old oven to keep turning it back on every few minutes. I won’t know myself at the weekend when I do my cooking for the week.
The world was supposed to end with three “blood moons” in a row too, but I guess it didn’t or I wouldn’t be typing this. I wonder what the next panic will be over.
It seems there’s always someone somewhere with a metaphorical sandwich board telling us the world is going to end. Whatever the next one is I’m pretty sure it will end the same way as all the others.