Wednesday, October 27, 2004
The Name Of This Thing Is Not Love
17.17 Five Minutes Late
Sometimes you get a feeling about a person. There might be some spurious reason for it or there might be no reason at all, but you think: 'mad as a weasel', 'good guy', 'tosser'...'potential stalker'. Whatever.
I've been dealing with a punter for about a month now. Every time I've spoken to him I've had a picture of this man in my head. I knew he lived alone. His mother had recently died. I had abandoned my usual principles and been quite kind to him. Ten days ago his problem was all sorted out. No further reason to ring. No need to drip feed me any more details of his life. Last week I had a call - something else had happened, it wasn't a problem but I might like to know. Well, no, not really, but "Thanks for calling".
Yesterday he made another call. I asked PerfectTeamMember to take a message, but it seems it was far too complicated for that. He needed to speak to me, personally. I phoned back. It was a strange call. Nothing PerfectTeamMember couldn't have written down & passed on to me (he's not called 'PerfectTeamMember' for nothing, after all) plus some odd conversation about the wine bar across the road. Still, "Thanks for calling".
He rang again today.
Before I returned this call I went into LineManager's office and asked what our stalking policy was. We don't have one, apparently. I returned the call. He told me he still couldn't find the letter he'd been telling me about yesterday... and... is this call being recorded? My heart was in my boots by this point ... There were pictures forming in my head that wouldn't go away... Luckily, all he did was ask me out for lunch.
"Oh. I'm crestfallen. I'll just have to ring you every day until you say 'yes'."
We have a stalking policy now.
The Name Of This Thing Is Not Love - Elvis Costello
Give Judy My Notice - Ben Folds
Race - Leaves
Here Comes The Ocean - Roddy Frame
One Thousand Ways - Wolf Colonel
Bend And Break - Keane
Hackensack - Fountains Of Wayne
Redground - Astrid
Sometimes you get a feeling about a person. There might be some spurious reason for it or there might be no reason at all, but you think: 'mad as a weasel', 'good guy', 'tosser'...'potential stalker'. Whatever.
I've been dealing with a punter for about a month now. Every time I've spoken to him I've had a picture of this man in my head. I knew he lived alone. His mother had recently died. I had abandoned my usual principles and been quite kind to him. Ten days ago his problem was all sorted out. No further reason to ring. No need to drip feed me any more details of his life. Last week I had a call - something else had happened, it wasn't a problem but I might like to know. Well, no, not really, but "Thanks for calling".
Yesterday he made another call. I asked PerfectTeamMember to take a message, but it seems it was far too complicated for that. He needed to speak to me, personally. I phoned back. It was a strange call. Nothing PerfectTeamMember couldn't have written down & passed on to me (he's not called 'PerfectTeamMember' for nothing, after all) plus some odd conversation about the wine bar across the road. Still, "Thanks for calling".
He rang again today.
Before I returned this call I went into LineManager's office and asked what our stalking policy was. We don't have one, apparently. I returned the call. He told me he still couldn't find the letter he'd been telling me about yesterday... and... is this call being recorded? My heart was in my boots by this point ... There were pictures forming in my head that wouldn't go away... Luckily, all he did was ask me out for lunch.
"Oh. I'm crestfallen. I'll just have to ring you every day until you say 'yes'."
We have a stalking policy now.
The Name Of This Thing Is Not Love - Elvis Costello
Give Judy My Notice - Ben Folds
Race - Leaves
Here Comes The Ocean - Roddy Frame
One Thousand Ways - Wolf Colonel
Bend And Break - Keane
Hackensack - Fountains Of Wayne
Redground - Astrid
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