“It’s down the corridor, turn left at the end. Go through the double doors, swing round to your right, and pick the middle corridor. From there, take the third exit, walk to the far end of the room, and open the large door on the left. Room smells of Dettol, if that helps.”
My mission for the last few days was to sort out a customer in Hull. It was my second visit, and like a fine wine it has improved with age. The offices, when I found them, were labyrynthine – several buildings knocked into one to provide a huge, heavily-fortified mess. It took 30 minutes to get past security, and then a further 25 minutes to find the correct room. I was exhausted before I’d even begun.
“Ah, good morning. We’ve lost everything you needed.” This was not good news. The beaming face of a slightly overweight, middle-aged woman started to detail where she last saw the software I needed, and how she had a bit of a hangover and couldn’t quite remember where she’d placed them. “Splendid!” I announced, and didn’t mean it.
I’d been given two days to sort their issues out, a decision that plainly hadn’t factored in the walking and the loss of anything I would need to work with. No matter – they found plenty of other errors for me to fix, and by the end of the first day, my legs were like stumps and it was all I could do to drive to the hotel for a good relax. Staring out of the hotel room window, I could make out an enticing sign for Pizza Hut. My legs suddenly made a remarkable recovery and before long I was full of Pepperoni Feast, regretting not plumping for the smaller sized version. Ah well.
And so it chugged on for the next couple of days. The software we needed for the first day wasn’t available, the couriered replacement managed to turn up 5 hours late on the second day, and all in all it’s a blessing I’m back even now.
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