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Spring - Winter - Spring
Jan. 6th, 2010 08:41 amA slightly belated Happy New Year to you all!
The weather here is completely crazy. New Year's Day was definitely spring: 14°, sunny, air filled with typical spring-scent. 2 January: still spring. Sunday and Monday: bitter cold. Tuesday: 20 cm of snow. This morning spring is coming back, and for Sunday the weatherforecast promises hail showers. I might be tempted to activate the steel helmet, which is sitting on a cupboard in my office.
Boss is on vacation, so I'm continuing the preparations for the Minister's visit on 22 January -- not today, though, because it's a holiday -- and was very pleased yesterday, when I had a meeting with the Chief of Protocol and the political director, because they're *very* professional and know exactly what they're doing. Since we have to rely a lot on our Macedonian counterparts, that's a great relief.
So I fired off a long list of to-do's and questions to Vienna yesterday. Let's see if they deliver in time.
Funny detail: protocol wants the Minister's blood group, as well as that of his security guard. I said, "Nobody else's?", and they shook their heads, so I said brightly, "It's good to know that we're all more or less expendable, isn't it?"
When it comes to work, I'm usually very self-assured, i.e. I know what I know and can do, and if there's something I'm not so sure about, I ask. Yesterday I briefly experienced self-doubt, though: Before the meeting at the Foreign Ministry, I had another one, scheduled for 9 a.m. with one of the directors of EVN (that's the Austrian company which is in biiiiig trouble here in Macedonia, and of course the Minister will speak on their behalf, so we need as much information as we can get. Hence the meeting)
It was snowing heavily but I arrived exactly on time. A not-very-friendly secretary asked me to sit down and wait a little, and then she proceeded to ignore me for a solid 25 minutes. When the clock showed 9.26, I got up and told her that I wasn't going to wait any longer and left the premises. Fuming, as you can imagine. Back in the car, I thought, OMG, what if leaving was one of those really bad ideas? So I called the ambassador and asked how long he would wait for Mr. W to admit him into his office. He said, 15 minutes at the most. Feeling rather relieved, I said, "So leaving after 25 minutes was ok, wasn't it?" What, 25 minutes? Yes, 25 minutes. Yes, he said, of course you were right to leave. Who does the guy think he is?
The guy called when I was back at the Embassy and apologized profusely, and I used his guilt -- or rather pretense thereof, but you don't do dental examinatios on gift horses -- to bully him into sending me detailed, written background information. Serves him right, and saves me a lot of work.
I must say I rather enjoy this kind of work, although I'm of course aware that a) many things may go wrong at the last minute, and then we'll have to improvise and it's going to be hell, and b) that 22 January is going to be a shitty day anyway, because there won't be many possibilities for toilet breaks, except at lunch, and so I mustn't drink too much, and when I can't drink I always feel like shit. Still, the experience will certainly be worth it, and as the 22nd is a Friday, there will be ample opportunity for resting on the weekend. Poor ambassador, he'll be even more stressed, because if anything goes wrong, he'll be the one they blame regardless of whether it's his fault or not. But I'm sure we'll manage with aplomb. Or something like that.
The visit might also be a perfect excuse for buying yet another pair of shoes. I need something elegant but with moderate heels. Oh, and maybe another pair of glasses -- I'm thinking of a square, black frame, so I'll be looking very strict and important. Rather necessary, considering the subversive haircut.
The weather here is completely crazy. New Year's Day was definitely spring: 14°, sunny, air filled with typical spring-scent. 2 January: still spring. Sunday and Monday: bitter cold. Tuesday: 20 cm of snow. This morning spring is coming back, and for Sunday the weatherforecast promises hail showers. I might be tempted to activate the steel helmet, which is sitting on a cupboard in my office.
Boss is on vacation, so I'm continuing the preparations for the Minister's visit on 22 January -- not today, though, because it's a holiday -- and was very pleased yesterday, when I had a meeting with the Chief of Protocol and the political director, because they're *very* professional and know exactly what they're doing. Since we have to rely a lot on our Macedonian counterparts, that's a great relief.
So I fired off a long list of to-do's and questions to Vienna yesterday. Let's see if they deliver in time.
Funny detail: protocol wants the Minister's blood group, as well as that of his security guard. I said, "Nobody else's?", and they shook their heads, so I said brightly, "It's good to know that we're all more or less expendable, isn't it?"
When it comes to work, I'm usually very self-assured, i.e. I know what I know and can do, and if there's something I'm not so sure about, I ask. Yesterday I briefly experienced self-doubt, though: Before the meeting at the Foreign Ministry, I had another one, scheduled for 9 a.m. with one of the directors of EVN (that's the Austrian company which is in biiiiig trouble here in Macedonia, and of course the Minister will speak on their behalf, so we need as much information as we can get. Hence the meeting)
It was snowing heavily but I arrived exactly on time. A not-very-friendly secretary asked me to sit down and wait a little, and then she proceeded to ignore me for a solid 25 minutes. When the clock showed 9.26, I got up and told her that I wasn't going to wait any longer and left the premises. Fuming, as you can imagine. Back in the car, I thought, OMG, what if leaving was one of those really bad ideas? So I called the ambassador and asked how long he would wait for Mr. W to admit him into his office. He said, 15 minutes at the most. Feeling rather relieved, I said, "So leaving after 25 minutes was ok, wasn't it?" What, 25 minutes? Yes, 25 minutes. Yes, he said, of course you were right to leave. Who does the guy think he is?
The guy called when I was back at the Embassy and apologized profusely, and I used his guilt -- or rather pretense thereof, but you don't do dental examinatios on gift horses -- to bully him into sending me detailed, written background information. Serves him right, and saves me a lot of work.
I must say I rather enjoy this kind of work, although I'm of course aware that a) many things may go wrong at the last minute, and then we'll have to improvise and it's going to be hell, and b) that 22 January is going to be a shitty day anyway, because there won't be many possibilities for toilet breaks, except at lunch, and so I mustn't drink too much, and when I can't drink I always feel like shit. Still, the experience will certainly be worth it, and as the 22nd is a Friday, there will be ample opportunity for resting on the weekend. Poor ambassador, he'll be even more stressed, because if anything goes wrong, he'll be the one they blame regardless of whether it's his fault or not. But I'm sure we'll manage with aplomb. Or something like that.
The visit might also be a perfect excuse for buying yet another pair of shoes. I need something elegant but with moderate heels. Oh, and maybe another pair of glasses -- I'm thinking of a square, black frame, so I'll be looking very strict and important. Rather necessary, considering the subversive haircut.
