I'm reading a book called Additions by Toni Jordan. Having picked it out as one of the more intriguing prospects from Richard and Judy's recently released 'Summer Reads 2008' Collection (I know its not exactly high brow to get my recommendations from a middle aged TV couple but...), I toddled down to the second hand bookshop on Charing Cross Rd that i get all my reads from, in the hope of getting it on the cheap. This place is like a gold mine - i'd never ring the tills at Waterstones again after coming here. It used to be called Barbour Books, i believe, now its Any Amount of Books. Its got that rusty, antiquey feel of a run-down library, with books packed to the rafters and stacked in dust and cobwebs. They have all sorts of random books like The National Geographic's guide to Marine Geneology, Part I Volume III,but also a lot of brand new, contemporary books and pre-publication editions. Imagine my glee when I found Additions in the pre-published section for a grand price of £3 (RRP £12.99 - suckers!) - i also picked up The Pirate's Daughter and The Star of the Seawith it, (all Richard and Judy recommended!) grand total of £8.
Additions is a fiction book about a woman who likes to count. A lot. Especially in 10s. 10 socks in her drawer, 10 brushstrokes for her hair, 10 minutes snoozing in the morning. She takes 920 steps to her local cafe in the morning and orders her favourite piece of cake - the number of bites she takes to finish the cake is dictated by the number of poppy seeds sprinked on top on that given day. This sort of anal-retentiveness i find really quite interesting. That someone could define their world by numbers, by shapes, by whatever particular concept that strikes them. I've only gotten past the first chapter but already the originality of the concept as well as the writing has inspired me to give a blow-by-blow anally retentive account of my typical working day, governed by the major decisions and actions I typically make.
07.15AM. Alarm goes off. Decision remains to snooze or get up. Easy decision.
07.45AM. Alarm goes off again. Decision comes to get up and go to work or sleep longer and 'work at home'. Decision vexes me. Toss and turn for 10 more mins before conscience hits and i rise.
09.14AM. Saunter into work.
10.01AM. Major decision of the morning. What hot beverage to purchase? Opt for short Skinny Latte. I'm so yuppy.
11.28AM. Have spent the last two hours emailing and phoning up supposed specialists asking about their process methodology and whether they know whether their process is replicated for the New York Office. It appears no ones know what goes on outside of their own office. Great.
11:59AM. Emailed the Line of Business manager in Mumbai for his take on the potential migration of clients that will be serviced in his team post project-go live. He uses terms like "I would have to check to be sure" which i find to be an ingenious way of saying "I don't know...but I don't want to seem silly in front of you...I would need to check...but i'm not gonna". Also appears very reluctant to accept the project ramifications and has not taken the time to realise its impact. Good.
12.55PM. Sushi for lunch. I wish i didnt spend that extra quid on the Chicken Teriyaki Rice Ball. Its making me feel funny.
2.12PM. Explain the wonders of skyscanner.net to one of my colleagues to continues to book all her holidays through agencies. Ponder my next holiday. Dublin? Croatia?
3.10PM. The thought occurs to me that I've got fartoo much times on my hands to write this. Sudden rush of guilt causes me to get back to work.
15:00PM. Receive a newsletter update from a website i subscribed to: Headline : "(My Firm's name) - thousands of job cuts".
16:20PM. Finished collating a piece of data for the MIS team to provide a report for me on (if you don't know what that stands for, you're not alone). Made a note to pester the manager everyday to remind them of this very important task.
16:30PM. Attempted to call some dude in New York Middle Office for the fifth time this week. He asks if he can call me back. Am feeling the effects of the undesired rice ball. Uuurgh.
16:58PM. Twiddling my thumbs, getting very agitated. I want to go jogging later (yes! its true!) so i actually want to leave asap. I instant message the guy in my best no bullsh*t-formal-scary-talk manner, he asks if we can talk tomorrow instead. I say 'fine but it'll only take 5 mins' in order to make him feel bad and arrange a time to call tomorrow. Off now.
