Rivals for Love

Today I had to call my former finance assistant in my works's old office, now another company, on the other side of the state. The phone there was answered by, let's call her Trish, for that is not her name. There weren't any Trishes working there last year, so I said, "This is Alicia from NewCompany, is [former assistant] available, please?" And Trish, I could hear her smiling as soon as I said that. She was thrilled to talk to me (that is not a universal experience, I must say). She asked how I was, and mentioned several of my past antics (e.g. the year I tried out different fortune telling methods for footy tipping, and my constant campaign to stop people using the colour photocopier unnecessarily), and all I could think was, what sort of impression did I make over there that they are telling new employees about their former finance manager? "She managed our money and she was MAD!" Anyway, I politely endured her, and then she put me through to [former assistant].

When I got off the phone, I told Jenny/NA about it, and she said, "Oh, that would be Patricia who left in 2014, remember her? I'd heard they re-hired her." So it was someone I'd actually worked with for three years. And she was the person that organised the footy tipping the year I did the fortune telling thing, so that should have given me a clue. That's what happens when you go by a different version of your name. It could confuse a stupid person.

It's the last day of the month and I won't finish my current book tonight, so here is:

May books read

* The Buried Giant - Kazuo Ishiguro (2015) ★ ★ ★ ★
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* The Beetle: A Mystery - Richard Marsh (1897) ★ ★ ★
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* The High Mountains of Portugal - Yann Martell (2016) ★ ★
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* Hy Brasil - Margaret Elphinstone (2002) ★ ★ ★ ★
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* Miss Marjoribanks - Margaret Oliphant (1866) (abandoned, twice)
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* The Road to Little Dribbling: More Notes from a Small Island - Bill Bryson (2015) ★ ★ ★
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