Happily Ever After
Life in The Rural Retreat with a beautiful wife, three cats, garden wildlife, a camera, a computer – and increasing amounts about running
Earlier posts can be found on Adventures of a Lone Bass Player, where this blog began life. Recent entries can be found here.
Who Ya Gonna Call?
by admin - 19:52 on 04 June 2012
If it wasn't for Napoleon, Matchgirl could have been in West Africa by the end of the week and earning serious amounts of money for a mere five or ten days' work. But she won't be. Merde.
The phone call came this afternoon: the head honcho of a company I can't name for reasons of privacy needed her professional skills and needed them fast. Matchgirl was recommended. Would she do it? She had just under an hour to decide.
This wasn't easy. Matchgirl likes to consider things from every angle, and at length, before making a decision. And there's a cat to consider, clients to reschedule, the possibility of missing her chi running weekend. Leaving me behind was no problem, however.
After much umming and ahhing she called the company and said 'Yes', emailed her CV to be checked by one of the firm's jobsworths, then began to worry about what clothes to take and where she could get a yellow fever inoculation.
She needn't have worried. Three hours later the company phoned to say that François the jobsworth – known by his colleagues as Napoleon – had blackballed her appointment because she lacked a desirable but not compulsory piece of paperwork. A less qualified but paper-holding replacement had been found in Johannesburg.
Matchgirl was slightly relieved, slightly disappointed, but mostly philosophical.
I like to think that one day I'll receive an emergency phone call from someone saying: “We need a sub editor/photographer/bass player in Australia/British Columbia/Jamaica – can you be on the next plane? Money's no object.” I suspect I'll wait a long time, although a while ago I was asked if I'd be interested in an assignment in Nepal (I am), of which I've since heard nothing.
Maybe I'd better renew my passport, which expires in August, just in case.
Wildlife Update: Our martens continue to play hard to get. I could have seen one at 7.45 this morning, in rather good daylight, but as I was catching up on much-needed sleep the Bushnell had to do it for me. The first of this year's young woodpeckers was spotted this afternoon on The Nutella Stump, being fed by mum, but at the wrong angle for snappery. I'll keep watching.
Band Update: Garry survived and has been advised by his doctor to rest. I'm sure his boss will be understanding.
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