In the morning I had agreed to do interviewing at my job again, so I was up early and out to the office, all dressed up for work (quite an occasion for me!)
It was only after I left my flat that I realised I'd failed to think of a number of important details: I hadn't brough a headphone or web cam with me for my calls that day, I hadn't reserved a desk, nor had I even checked if I had a pen. Obviously, I wasn't all together that morning....one more reason I generally don't get up early!
The interviews went well enough, as I had one candidate who was a clear reject, and one girl who was borderline. Yet I liked her, and thought that with a healthy dose of self-confidence, she could be really good. She was just making the classic "female" mistake of being too polite, hanging back, and not fighting for her ideas as much as she should. Basically, she just needs a bigger ego. So when it came for the final battle for our candidates, I fought for her and argued that I think she could be a good fit at our company. I just have to hope that she doesn't let me down!
Once I finished the interviews, I raced over to my friend Sara's office a few blocks away to drop off some duffel bags. Sara is moving next week, and needs some extra luggage for moving all of her clothes. Hence I wanted to be of help!
I then had to race back to the office and get ready for my call, so I went to ask at reception if I could borrow a headset. Believe it or not, they didn't have a headset for me, but insisted the better idea was to lock me in a conference room somewhere to do the call by myself. I was okay with that idea, until the conference room they put me in didn't have internet access! Argh! Finally they got me into a big empty work area with one woman on the other side of the room, so I did my call that way. But I guess that will teach me never to forget my headset again!
Finally the work day ended, and so I needed to dash out to the club for a Younger Member's Committee Meeting. I ended up taking a walk through St. James' Park to get there, which was actually really lovely, I hadn't realised what a pretty area was so close by to the club.
At the meeting itself, I ended up sitting next to a severely disabled guy in a wheelchair, and of course in my struggles to seem totally fine with it, probably made it seem totally awkward, as I wasn't even sure how to hold his limp, twisted left hand when he offered it to me to shake.
The meeting was interesting however, as it was a real indication of how efficiency is not the order of the day at the club, but it's rather "this is the way things have always been done, so this is how we do it". Although having a giant meetings ledger with paper that still needs to be signed by hand does strike me as archaic, you have to appreciate that it's one of the things that give the club the character it does.
Afterwards I had a quick chat with the Membership Chair about our upcoming dinner, and upon seeing the plan for the YM's Reverse Dinner, ensured that I would be sitting next to my dear friend Des when he comes back.
My friend Toby (whose wedding I had been to on Friday) was at the meeting to announce his resignation from the committee, and so as we walked out together, he suggested to me, "Quick drink in the bar?"
Particularly as we both needed to go quickly, it seemed like a good idea, so he bought me a glass of white wine, and after shooing the rest of the crowd off to dinner, sat and had a chat about his upcoming move (exciting!) and what a fantastic social hostess his wife is. He laughed about how he can be chatting to his friends about some upcoming party, and when he comes home to tell her about it, she assures him, "Don't worry, I've already secured the invitation for you!"
We also talked about how she's such a good match-maker, and he started talking about how perhaps I should get together with JG. Now I do think it was all in good fun, as I can't imagine that he has any clue about what JG and I have gotten up to. Yet he did point out, "JG is actually the consumate gentleman, so while I'm sure he's had his little bits on the side here and there, he has of course never breathed a word of it." And I had to point out that as long as JG continues to drink the way he does, no girl is ever going t be able to take him seriously. Toby did admit that he'd never known JG to have a steady girl, which I think remains my point. If he could just get his act together, he's a really lovely chap. Such a pity he does himself no favours by his continue abuse of his liver.
Toby and I then left the club, and I made my way up to Baker Street to meet everyone after the run. Funny enough, I ran into my friend DJ as I walked from the club to the Tube station, an obvious side-effect of spending so much time in clubland, you run into your friends in the neighbourhood!
I got to Baker Street, and then went around collecting money, and everyone kept telling me how they haven't seen me in ages. It was nice to catch up with people, although luckily I didn't see too many that I desperately wanted to chat to, so I could somewhat easily make the rounds.
Then after I finally finished and was just able to stand around for a bit, I was surprised to see a man striding towards me from across the room. Completely unexpected, there was DM!
I'd last seen DM at my friend Zu's leaving do, where I'm still trying to figure out what on earth was going on that night. I did end up getting DM's number from my friend Matt, and then sent him random texts from all over Australia, without saying who they were from. So my face broke into a big smile and I exclaimed, "DM!" he laughed and replied, "I got your texts!"
Apparently DM was studying for a Master's degree at a university nearby, and had simply gone out for a drink with his classmates after class, only to find that the hash was there! Hence, the whole thing was a total coincidence. And yet, what was funny is that DM didn't seem interested in talking to anybody but me, not leaving my side for the rest of the evening except to go buy me drinks. Not like I minded, because I feel like....how to describe it....a dog in heat these days?
And you know what? I've always somewhat written DM off before, because he's just too handsome, so I always assumed too much of a player. But as we stood there chatting, for the first time I really listened and discovered how much I truly enjoyed his company. Perhaps I should look beyond the looks and realise that DM is truly a nice guy. He kept making jokes and making me laugh, and surprised me even when I didn't want to talk about going to Oxbridge, just saying, "That's right, you went to both of them, didn't you." Totally chill about it.
Then a Norwegian friend of DM's came up and joined us, and when some of DM's classmates joined us, I ended up chatting to them for a bit, including convincing some guy from New Hampshire how he totally needed to come hashing.
For some reason, DM then got into a bit of a mood and started making very blue jokes, but as long as he was buying me drinks so they actually seemed funny, I didn't mind. But finally I realised that it was getting close to the time for the last Tube, and DM and his Norwegian friend seemed to be of a mind to go home as well. I figured I'd walk out with them, but somehow they wanted to stop in the bathroom, I got talking to this girl Kim I know, and after a bit it seemed ridiculous to keep waiting, so I just followed Kim out to the Tube station. Funny how an entire evening can hinge on the missed connections at the end! Oh well, perhaps DM's punishment for his blue humour.
Although I did text him to apologize for not being able to say good-bye before I left, and found this reply when I got out of the Underground: "I looked for your number as I came out of the bathroom but because you wrote to me anonymously I didn't save your number..."
How sweet! So he wanted to say good-bye too. But I know I'll see him next week, because he checked about 5,000 times that I was going to be there too. And now he has my number too!
No comments:
Post a Comment