Not Again? #

2 September 1998

What proportion of pregnancies go to plan? Less than 65% if the women in my life are anything to go by. Paula was today told by the midwife that her baby may not be growing correctly, but we have to wait until a scan on Tuesday to know for sure. Until then there’s just waiting, and uncertainty, and wondering what might be. And like the emotional coward that I am, I probably won’t phone her until then - I wouldn’t know what to say, anyway.

I hardly ever get phone calls at work. I make a point of emailing or faxing people, if they are not within walking distance, and my friends all call me on the mobile. I’d almost forgotten that I had a phone on my desk until it rang today:

“Hi Ian, it’s Michelle in personnel. Can you come on a course in Birmingham on Friday?”

“This Friday?”

“Yes.”

“Uh, I guess I could make that, sure.”

“Great, I’ll send you some information. What’s your address?”

“Postal address?”

“Yes.”

“Er, I have no idea. I’ll just ask someone.”

Our personnel department are so inefficient at times it’s unbelievable. I put read-receipt requests on the emails I send them, and they tend to read my messages about 3 weeks after I send them, if at all. They never actually ​reply​.

The appraisal was a bit of a none-event, as myself and my manager hadn’t realised which forms etc we were supposed to fill in beforehand! Don’t you just love overly-complex procedures?