You Are Loved

My Dear Princess and Dear Fellow,

Oh my god! Okay. So. Okay. So.

(Apologies, I saw Ellie today and her manner of speech influenced me).

So I had THE BEST DAY at Kiwiwank today. I'm not even being funny. I'm not even going to deliver the punchline, "BECAUSE IT WAS MY LAST HAHAHAHA".

Although it WAS. And also, "HAHAHAHA".

But NO. People were just LOVELY to me today. The Auckland team organised a special meeting to say goodbye and people came to my desk all day wishing me luck. I even heard from Charlie A. Pike, who I had not met since day 1 back in December!

It made me think that maybe I HAD managed to spread a bit of Shenée sparkle after all. I'd been feeling kind of low that I'd been unable to do it. But maybe the people here are just so broken that they'd been unable to sparkle back at me until now.

Debs, the lady who hired me with tales of the good team spirit at Kiwibank asked me about this as we went for coffee. And despite her LYING TO ME I felt bad for her. She looked tired and a bit fed up.

"It's not the BA's," she reiterated. "We do what we do. When things go right we give the credit to someone else, when things go wrong we take it on the chin. But there are too many people here who use too many words and say nothing, don't you think?"

I agreed. I told her I'd been in many meetings that went on for well over an hour but with nothing of substance being said. 

"Yes," she said, narrowing her eyes. "And what did you make of D*ckhead?"

This was someone I'd had extensive dealings with. A man fluent in w*nkspeak. 

"I think D*ckhead falls into the category you just described," I said, being as diplomatic as I could. 

Debs sighed. Then she invited me to a "water tasting" she'd organised for later in the day. She wanted to know if bottled water really did taste different from filtered. 

After this I met my new agent, Cora. We talked a bit about work but then I told her to stop because my wife is an ex-recruiter and seriously, enough. She took it well and we talked about drinking and food and her OE instead. I actually really liked her, she wasn't as um "focussed"* as many of the other recruiters I've dealt with. 

On my return I joined Debs and some of the other BA's for the water tasting. And I had a really nice time! Debs was right about one thing, the BA's as a team are lovely. It's unfortunate we are then dispersed and sent to work with D*ckhead and his indecisive yet strangely opinionated mates. 

So I actually left Kiwiwank feeling like I hadn't completely wasted my time there. I made some nice connections. 

That's not nothing.

BUT. In addition to this. It was then time for SUPPER CLUB.

This meeting was afflicted by sickness which meant that both Briar and Mo had to drop out. So in the end it was just Jefe and Manda and Ellie and me. 

I was so excited to see Ellie! I hadn't seen her in aaaaaaaaaaages. And I love Ellie very much so I had missed her. She was AGLOW with excitement and very happy to be out. She furnished us all with "Pink Day" anti-bullying and positive reinforcement stickers and then we tucked into Korean barbeque and soju. 

The restaurant was great. It was one of those places where they place NO EMPHASIS WHATSOEVER on decor or ambience (it was all bare formica tables and plastic chairs) but all the emphasis on the foooooood. 

And afterward we went to the "Rogue & Vagabond" bar, which is a really funky place. They were playing what sounded like theme tunes from 1970's cop shows in there. 

"We should get PICKLEBACKS!!" announced Manda. 

What now?

So a pickleback is two shots. One of whisky, one of pickle juice. You take a sip of the pickle juice, down the whisky shot and then down the rest of the pickle juice.

"Eeeeeyew," said Jefe, making a face.

"Just three picklebacks then," said Manda.

"PICK-EL-BACK! PICK-EL-BACK!" chanted Ellie. Pickles and whisky are two of her favourite things in the world. Combine them, and she was in Ellie Valhalla.

Okay stop making those faces at me, okay. They were surprisingly nice and refreshing. I am a fan of the pickleback. 

So an excellent time was had. And as I walked to my lovely home from the train I felt happy, really happy**. 

And loved.

S.

* Annoying

** Also busting for a wee but that's a whole other story.