Mistakes

I changed my car insurance company the other day. It saved me about £120, so it was worth it. They only trouble is that now I have to return the motor insurance document they sent me – and I cannot find it anywhere. Anywhere. And I have looked. Everywhere. I have chucked out loads of paperwork whilst searching for it so that I don’t keep going through the same mountains of rubbish and yet I still can’t find it. I can find all the other documents they sent me and even the envelope it all came in, but not the actual policy document. So today I will have to phone them and grovel or whatever it is that you’re meant to do in these circumstances and hope that they don’t punish me too harshly for my naughtiness. Although having said that, I don’t actually remember seeing the policy document, so maybe it’s all their fault. They probably wouldn’t appreciate that approach when I speak to them though. Grovelling is generally preferable.

Yesterday I was talking to someone I used to work with and although she knows exactly who I am, what with us having worked together for quite seem time and her now only working just across the corridor from me, the conversation didn’t go entirely as I had expected. I said “Hello” and she replied “Hi. How is the world with you [name of somebody else]?” I paused for a moment thinking “How do I respond to this? Do I point out that isn’t my name? Do I respond by telling her how that person is, who I happened to know had just gone out to Tesco? Or do I just carry on as though I hadn’t noticed?” Being a polite Brit I decided to pretend she hadn’t just called me by totally the wrong name. When I returned to my desk the person I sit next to just laughed at me as she had overheard the entire conversation, which mainly consisted of me asking about the woman’s dog, and was very amused that I had been called by monkey-loving colleague’s name*. The thing is that this is not the first time that she has done this and yet she does also get my name right. Maybe I’m just not very memorable.

Anyway… tonight I have to mentally prepare myself for tomorrow because my colleague who I took a bit of a shine to last month, I am reliably informed (not that I have been trying to find out or anything…), is due to be in the office again tomorrow afternoon. So I shall have to see if I can engineer a spontaneous meeting. I will also have my laminated CV prepared so that I can hand it over if a suitable moment arises.


*That’s not a euphemism or an insult. She really does like monkeys. In a platonic sense.