Tuesday 31 January 2012

There was (not) a meeting

yesterday.
The meeting was arranged several weeks ago. Arrangements were reviewed and people were reminded on Friday. Yes, everyone would be there.
There was a shower of rain before I left. I eyed the sky and took my trusty lightweight two dollar yellow poncho with me "just in case". I did not need that. I did need patience.
It took me almost forty minutes to pedal to the venue. Oh yes, I need the exercise. That did me no harm. I probably should do that much everyday - and more besides.
On arrival I found one person waiting outside the hall. Well, we were just a little early perhaps. We waited. More people arrived. We waited. Eventually everyone except the person with the keys to the hall had arrived. The meeting was being held for his benefit. We waited.
Someone tried to 'phone him. He does not have a land line. There was no answer from his mobile. Had he had an accident? Was he ill? Had some other disaster befallen him?
After half an hour of waiting busy people become impatient people. They left. Two of us waited a little longer, "Just in case." We had other things to discuss so it was not completely wasted time but we could not do all we needed to do waiting outside a hall.
Eventually we left too. The other person said she would call in and see if she could find out what was going on. I heard nothing.
There was an e-mail from her this morning. "Eventually made contact. He says he forgot."
Forgot? He was reminded on Friday.
I am tempted, very tempted, to go to the "cheap" store and find a diary and give it to him with the words,
"This is a most seriously old-fashioned thing. It is called a diary, You use a pen or a pencil and write down where you are supposed to be and when you are supposed to be there. Then, every day, you look at it and it tells you where you are supposed to be and when you are supposed to be there."
He might write in it if we reminded him, The problem is - I think he might forget to look at it.

2 comments:

Frances said...

You need to take the keys from him, Cat: that was disgraceful behaviour unless there had been a calamity in his life.

catdownunder said...

No calamity Frances - except that perhaps his life is one long calamity. He got the job because nobody else wanted to take it on. (In my case I cannot get to meetings on time because of another commitment - but I do have an active role to play in the organisation in question.) This may make people think twice but I doubt it.