Interior Decorating

I was in the middle of a film yesterday evening (The 39 Steps if you're asking) and ventured out of the caravan mid-way to turn the water on. I noticed someone was still here, and as this was about 7:00pm I thought this unusual so went investigate. It was in fact Ray, my supervisor here, who proceeded to tell me his life story whilst sorting the entire office out. About 45 minutes later, I felt we'd bonded and as I left he promised me that tomorrow I could interview him about site management, as had been promised for many weeks. Great stuff.

So today I awoke and was happy in the knowledge that today I wouldn't have to brave the outside world as it was raining and generally just a miserable day. I entered the office a little after 9:00am, and entered Ray's office:
Me: Morning Ray! Are we still okay to talk about management today?
Ray: Yeah no problem, I just have some finance stuff to get out of the way and then we'll do it. Shall we say 11?
Me: Sounds good, I'll get on with some paperwork.
Ray: Hmmm, have I got a teleconference at 11? No, that must be at 10, although...[trails off].
Great stuff, I could get on with my write up and properly wake up with a few more cups of tea and some music.

Anyway, 11:00am rolls around and I entered the office to find it completely deserted. I searched the workshop, the garage, but couldn't locate anyone. Then I heard voices and saw that yes, the teleconference was in fact at 11:00am. No problem, I thought, I'll merely give it 20 minutes and come back in. 20 minutes later...still teleconferencing. 20 minutes later than that...still teleconferencing. I was left twiddling my thumbs a bit...

A lost art.

In the end I had my lunch and went back in at about 12:20pm to find Ray sprawled out on the floor slicing up carpet:
Ray: Oh hi Joe, I've been meaning to do this for ages!
Me: ...What are you doing?
Ray: I'm just creating a bit of protective carpet for around the wood chip burner.
Me: Oh...cool. Nice job.
Ray: I thought so, when I retire here I think I'll take up carpet fitting.
Me: [Thinks] Lovely stuff.
Ray: Don't let me forget to throw away the excess...unless you want it for the caravan?
Me: Actually I will take it, it'll cover up all the damp spots.
Ray: [Laughs]
Me: [Laughs begrudgingly, takes new rug]

Nice huh?

Me: So...can we do that interview now?
Ray: Sure, I've just got to pop into Mullion for 10 minutes to get the papers, you can come along if you like?
Me: Actually I will do, I need some milk anyway.
So off we went into Mullion to quickly drop off some Natural England leaflets at the cove and pop to the shop.

Two hours later we got back to the workshop, after speaking to the majority of the village, standing on the cliff tops and, eventually, buying milk. We're sitting in the car...
Me: Thanks for that, I'll just put this in the fridge.
Ray: Okay, I'll be in shortly, I'm just going to sit in here and read the paper.
Fair enough, I thought. Technically he hasn't had a lunch break.

I sat in the office chatting with the other staff and Ray waltzed in about 20 minutes later and proceeded to log into his computer with such painstaking care that it took a good 10 minutes. He was then informed that someone had rang for him, so naturally he called them back. This turned into a 30 minute phone call so I went and sat outside. When I got back in he was still on the phone, so I just sat next to him and stared. Eventually he finished bantering with whoever he was speaking to, and then, after this long wait, we were finally ready to go! We made it about five steps out of the office when Ray said "Do you want a drink? I could do with a tea." Me bloody too. So, as always seems to happen to me in these situations, I made the tea and then we sat down in the meeting room for the all important management talk. Well, it lasted about 10 minutes and resulted in this much information:

Yep, that's all.

It took me about 30 minutes to write up, and that's because the computer crashed. To conclude, today was an annoying day, but a great lesson in the art of procrastinating.