Friday, October 24, 2008

Not too sure whether fantasist is better than pretentious

As I chatted to my boss at the play last night (I’d taken her there for her birthday since I’m rubbish at buying actual ‘things’) I mentioned that afterwards I had to dash back across town to meet a friend for a drink before heading home.

I didn’t want it to seem like I was wilfully partying on a work night so I explained that he he lives in New York and is only back in London for one night so I really wanted to drop in and say hi.

“Oh!” said my boss and there was a slightly odd tone in her voice.

I suddenly realised that I had said almost exactly the same thing about meeting a friend for lunch on Monday. It wasn’t a great time to take a long lunch break but I explained that it was the first chance I’d had to see her in a few months, since she works in Kiev and we keep missing each other on her weekends home.

Both of these meetings were exactly what I said they were, but the coincidence of timing made it odd. I wondered if my boss thought I was fabricating, perhaps trying to make my social life sound more exciting than it actually is…

Add to this that I told her that my aunt and uncle had come over from Spain the other week and Russian Gal came up in conversation the other day - so of course I described her as ”the one who’s moved to Moscow” - and I wouldn’t be surprised if my boss thought I was a fantasist, or at the very least, rather pretentious. And I was slightly worried that I might actually be rather pretentious - why else mention all these far-flung places?

Later we moved on to talking about plans for Friday and I said I was meeting a friend after work who was coming to stay. “The one who lives near Reading?” she asked. “No,” I replied, “the one from Doncaster”.

So perhaps the Geography thing’s not exactly pretentious. I think maybe it just happens to be the easiest way to distinguish my friends in casual description.

Now I just need to work out a way to make sure my boss knows that!

Posted by KT in 12:04:14 | Permalink | No Comments »

Odd start to a Friday

I have two more instalments of my play fest to mention yet but I’ll have to come to them another time - I haven’t yet had a good long train stint to catch up with proper thoughts.

This morning has been a bit weird. Waking up at my sister’s for starters, although that’s getting more common, but waking up again at Charing Cross was strange. Fortunately it’s the end of the line and my stop but I must have slept for a few minutes after the train arrived because the carriage was empty, the platform was empty and I couldn’t even see a crowd of people leaving the station as I came through the barriers. Oops.

Then I had a rather fruitless conversation with one of the girls at a nearby sandwich shop. I ordered my egg and bacon sandwich (Friday breakfast treat) and she rang it on the till as £2.16. I paid, got my change and then asked if there was a discount operating today because it said on the board it would be £2.80. (They do operate quite a few random discounts which I hardly ever know about in advance so I thought it would be worth asking.) 

Neither of the two on duty speaks English very well at all and they looked at each other blankly. I repeated what I’d said and then assured them it didn’t matter, it wasn’t important, not to worry. But the girl suddenly started apologising and rang something on the till.

I thought this meant she had rung up the wrong amount and needed me to pay more so I got my purse back out, only to have 20p thrust at me. “Very sorry” she said several times.

I tried to explain and give it back but she just kept saying sorry and shoving it back at me. In the end I took the money, slightly bemused by what had just happened.

They don’t have the tips bowl out in the mornings because there’s no table service but I’ll sneak the 20p in there next time I’m in around lunchtime.

Posted by KT in 08:44:04 | Permalink | No Comments »