h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It's nearly 3:45pm on a regrettably warm Spring day and I'm waiting for things to happen. One of my semi-esteemed colleagues, who I'll call Godot, is supposed to be coming around sometime after 9am this morning to pick something up. As you'll see from that, he appears to be running a bit late.

This is perfectly normal. He's routinely late on weekdays, in fact I've come to expect that, but when he's supposed to come and get something he needs I'd have thought he'd have organised things better. I mean, what's wrong with a quick text to let me know roughly when he thinks he'll be here?

I thought I'd do a bit of shopping once he'd been and gone. I'm running out of day. I guess it'll be my own personal Buy Nothing Day.

I put off cooking lunch until I couldn't stand it any more, hoping to avoid being interrupted while cooking. I wasn't interrupted by anyone, and certainly not by him.

To add insult to injury, once I was finally sitting down having lunch the second nosebleed of the day started. (Spring. Yay Spring. Yay pollen, and sneezing once a minute, and anti-sneeze pills that don't work as well as one would have hoped.) So here I am, somewhat unenthusiastic about lunch and unable to taste it with these wads of paper towel up my nose stemming the flow of blood.

Sometimes the glamour and excitement of my life are all too much for me.

Ivan.

I know the feeling

Personally, by 3:45 pm I would make a point of going out and switching my cell phone off Oh and sorry, I'm busy tomorrow. You have to teach people I think about what's ok. Unless he has a really good excuse this time.

...sympathy notes on the allergies...

Mine don't usually reduce me to bleeding, but an outbreak of my dust allergy is frequently embarrassing, people around me concerned over the gagging, choking, hawking, retching and vomiting asking if I'm okay.

The only effective medication I've got is something I won't use prophylactically unless I know in advance I'm going to be in an allergenic environment.

As it happens, I do have plans for tomorrow and won't be here for most of it.

He generally does have good excuses - a wide range of good excuses - but I do wish he'd pay more attention to how his acts impact on others. 'No man is an island', and all that.

But mostly, I'd have thought he'd understand that it's not good to irritate the stuffing out of his boss.

I guess it's tomorrow where you are so he should be there soon.

He should have been here seven hours ago... I'd probably better contact him to see where the hell he is, if possible avoiding any terms which cast doubt upon his ability to function independently.

He might be here around 7pm. The excuses were of the usual high quality.

God, how annoying. Can you tell him how all this impacts on you?

That's how I spend my weekdays... We're likely to shuffle the staff around early in the new year; I can't wait.

I must also ask his wife how she manages to keep him focussed on anything at all.

On being asked if it was OK for him to come sometime after 8pm, I told him to be here tomorrow at 5pm.



Apparently there's a bottle of vodka in it for me. I wasn't going to ask for any sort of recompense, but now I'm inclined to insist on it.

I have a son like that. We've gotten used to it. And he's gotten used to us not being where we agreed on being several hours before. He'll learn. I've told him no employer will have the patience long enough for him to settle in. If he can't change his ways by himself he'll have to consult someone who can, like a therapist of sorts

There may be good reasons/excuses for not calling or texting you why your mate can't be on time. But only twice. Cut him loose the third time. He may have a good excuse for the third time also, but that is his problem, not yours

If I do cut him loose, come Monday morning I'm still his boss...

This really is annoying, Ivan. My husband's reply when I complained that he hadn't called to tell me he'd be late used to be that *I* could call him if I wanted to know!

So in the end I just didn't care any more.

Tch tch tch, husbands, eh?

They aren't all like that, Pierce.

My ex once scolded me for never telling her I loved her

I told her "I do too! It's only four years ago I last did it. I remember it was a Wednesday.
And I will let you know if my feelings for you change"

I think you need to be out at 5pm tomorrow! Just to show him. With a good excuse of course.

Deb