things to do over lunch

in the summertime, there are various nice ways to spend your lunch break. mostly, i walk down to the park that's along the lake and eat on a rug. other possibilities include getting the ferry over to the other side and back (although that requires precise timing if you only have an hour), or, if more time is available, even go for a swim. i love the summer!

 

the useless meeting

once we were at the meeting, things didn't go better. for one, the man who was supposed to tell us what was what about our building kept giving us random examples rather than telling us what would be necessary for us. it pissed me off cos the whole point of us setting up this meeting with Town Hall was to get specific information. then, it seemed he had nothing more to say after explaining two points, despite having started the meeting saying there were more than a dozen. so i asked him about the other points. 14 total, he said. there used to be 15, but the 15th was about... and then he spent 10 mns explaining the now redundant point 15! if we weren't relying on this guy's goodwill, i would have left the meeting. who cares about point 15 if it's not relevant anymore???

incompetence!

end May: it is decided at the AGM that a meeting needs to be set up with the people in the town hall to find out how our building can be 'legalised' (i'll spare you the story)

14/06: amazingly, our manager, who has this last year shown quite a lot of incompetence, actually sets up a meeting for 26/06 - finally. she says she'll send all the owners a letter with this info

22/06: i call up said manager to ask whether she's just sent the letter to the people not on the 'board' (i.e. those who already know about the meeting through her email), as i hadn't received anything yet. no, no, the letter was sent to all, we should receive it today, she says. ... i decide against asking her why it's taken her a week to send the letter and decide instead to point out that this leaves very little time for people to get organised seen as it's Friday, most people in the area start taking long weekends when the weather's nice and the meeting's on Tuesday morning. she doesn't get it. did i want as many people as possible to make the meeting? well, yes, that would be an idea. but at least give people some time to find out if they can miss a meeting that takes place on a working day during working hours. she sounds like she's not getting my point.

25/06: i call up the manager to ask how many people have replied. 2. one would come, one couldn't. right. but as it seemed people weren't going to notify her either way and as there wasn't time to find out whether people might come along without telling her, she said she'd go to the meeting and at least get the info and then we could always reschedule another meeting later. problem: it is notoriously difficult, if not impossible to get a meeting with these people. if she goes tomorrow, they won't have time for us later. i ask her to send me an email by closing to let me know of any other replies and i'd make a decision based on that information. 8pm: no email. am pretty sure she only works 9-5. this unfortunately comforts me in my position on her as a manager: useless.

26/06: 8am, still no email. am clearly going to the meeting if only to ensure someone gets the right information.

twice in a day

i was a a friend's birthday party last night and this guy arrived late. there was a slight reshuffling of seating arrangements and as i looked up, i couldn't believe it: the guy who was going to sit next to me was the very same one i'd met just a few hours earlier at a picnic on the lakeside the very same afternoon. and he was just as surprised as i was! it was quite funny.

the cinema is NOT a coffee shop

i was looking forward to watching my movie without too much disturbance: it was Friday night so most young people would be elsewhere, the movie was too violent for kids, it was going to be fine. except for the 3 girls who were sitting in the row behind mine and who clearly thought they were in their living room, commenting every action in the movie. 'he's going to do that, i tell you!' or 'look at her!' i gave them some time to settle down and get into the movie but that apparently wasn't going to change anything. they clearly didn't get the point of watching a movie in a cinema. so in the end, i had to be annoying and ask them to pipe down. they seemed shocked but they relented. mostly. after a while, they went back at it, but at least they whispered.

catching up

i've finally had time to catch up with most people in the last few weeks and it's been great to see everyone again. not only see them, but also find out what's been going on in their lives - between the funny stories and the scary ones (a bomb alert), it's good to feel connected again!

the guy 2

so after much toiling and help from various sources, i finally tracked down the guy (see earlier post) and got in touch to suggest meeting up. alas, it appears he is already taken. shame. but life goes on!