Impending Doom?

High point of today was a call from the Idiot Manager ... now anyone who has read my missives on "IM" will be picking themselves up from the floor after the use of the term "High Point" when describing any interaction with him. It appears that the powers that be have looked at my efforts over the past year and decided that a slight increase in Hunny rations is in order.* I thanked him and added that I looked forward to the hope of being able to afford meat once a month in the near future**.

Most of my day has been quite steady. I handed a piece of work back to a colleague who has returned from their hols and discussed a project that we are likely to be running together for the next few weeks. I then sat down and made a start on a significant quantity of on-line training that needs to be absorbed endured.***

All was going well until late in the day when I received a 'phone call from a Sales person I had never encountered before. She mentioned her name and then proceeded to spend 15 minutes rattling through a project that I needed to get on with as soon as possible. If I am honest I picked up less than 10% of what she said and I think it is fair to say it was as clear as mud. My feelings of despair were compounded by the fact that "IM" had mentioned a high likelihood of me being assigned to this so there was no way I could make a run for it. My name was definitely in the frame.

My feelings of gloom were further magnified at around seven in the evening when another work colleague rang to welcome me on board. His mutterings were slightly clearer and it appears they want a set of prices by the middle of next week with the aim of having final numbers at the end of the month. I carefully refrained from giving an opinion and advised that I would peruse the raft of e-mails that had suddenly appeared in my in-box. What I was actually thinking was "you have no fucking chance". I'm not being negative here. The voice of experience says that it takes a woman nine months to produce a baby. Nine women cannot do it in a month. The deliverables this chap has asked for cannot be produced in the timescales he has indicated especially when the requirements are vague and Subject Matter Idiots are very thin on the ground.

I therefore ended the conversation as quickly as possible as Bad Man Senior and Step Mum Sue are away on their holidays tomorrow and we had promised to pop over to deliver 60th Birthday cards for SMS and a hamper of goodies for them to take away with them.

On the Dining Room front Andy & Steve applied the finish coat of plaster to the ceiling and two of the walls  and will be back to finish tomorrow.

Overall today was a good day but the evening calls suggest a somewhat ominous future.

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* I won't be getting much fatter as a result
**  and perhaps we shall look at a picture of a turkey at Christmas
*** I now know that I can only endure the American pronunciation of the word "lever" for two PowerPoint slides before I want to meet the speaker and shake him warmly by the throat.****
**** it rhymes with "weaver" not "never"