Blog Week 3: Finally the real intranet blogs begin and one Christmas party is out of the way.
Sunday 11 December 15.05
Friday's Christmas party was ok. The venue was not bad, food was ok, but the DJ could have been better. I once had a boyfriend who was a DJ and so like to think I know a little bit about it.
This DJ was guilty of committing the dancefloor "crime" of only playing stuff he liked rather than what the party-goers wanted. Ok so there was a diverse group in terms of age and nationality - like most international Christmas parties in Brussels - but that does not excuse self-indulgence or experimentation. At one point the music was getting so heavy I was expecting to hear Black Sabbath's greatest hits.
Speaking of that DVD, people at this Christmas party were all talking about the goings on at last week's Oral Hearing with my new firm. I am not sure who has been talking to who but it seems that the hearing was quite a disaster - a poor presentation by the client; client blaming the partner; partner blaming the counsel; counsel blaming the associates; associates blaming each other; trainees/referendars wondering if they still want to become lawyers. Glad I was not in the office today.
Before the end of the party Pierre had a word with me. He said he had been happy to fill in for me last week regarding the intranet blog, but I have to send him something each day from now on. Back to worrying again ...
Monday 12 December 19.05
I feel like I am caught in the middle at the moment. The bosses at my new place were annoyed that Yoda had allowed me to go back to my old firm for Thursday and Friday last week. Jo was not well on those days and so it was difficult to get secretarial cover.
There was a backlog of work to do when I got in the office. 3 Bears spent the whole day glowering at me through his office window - as if it was my decision I should not have been here last week. There came a point when I wanted to shout at him: if you have got something to say, then be a man and say it.
I got an email from Pierre thanking me for my efforts regarding the Christmas party (including the great choice of DJ - was he being sarcastic?). In view of 3 Bears attitude towards my absence, Pierre will continue to write the intranet blog entries this week. He advised I keep my head down and work hard. As if I do anything else?
Tuesday 13 December 23.16
Well my eyes were glued to my computer screen all day today. I hardly left my chair. Not that I think anyone noticed.
3 Bears had left for an all day meeting before I had arrived. I found out because there was a post-it note on my pc screen from him saying out "Out for the day". No signature - I had to ask Jo to decipher whose handwriting it was.
Goldilocks was not well today and so was working from home. She had left me lots of dictation tapes from last week, so I just spent most of the day working through those.
Wednesday 14 December 19.38
Another exciting day: Goldilocks was still ill and working from home; 3 Bears spent the day locked in his office. I took advantage of Goldilock's absence and have started the long, thankless task of clearing up her office.
In the afternoon, Cherie and Lisa (who have both been quite kind since I have started here) needed an urgent delivery made to the Commission. As Brilliant was suffering with the flu, I made the all-important dash to Josef II straat.
Thursday 15 December 20.46
Goldilocks was back, looking ill. Jo was away, she is ill. 3 Bears was here, which is starting to make me ill.
Shakespeare and I were in the kitchen getting a drink this morning and as we waited for the kettle to boil, he suddenly started quoting Shakespeare (as in William). When he had finished he told me he had always wanted to become an actor, but there was a family tradition of being a lawyer and so he had followed in his parent's footsteps. He seemed a bit pained when he said that, and I do not think he was acting.
Spock came to me in the afternoon. He is one of the organisers of next week's joint Christmas party and wanted inside info on the one or two of the organisers from the other firm. I did not know much about these other people and could not help. He looked disappointed (do I have the reputation for being the office gossip?) and it seemed he expected me to starting contacting former colleagues.
Communication with former colleagues is a bit of a pain right now. I got so used to using Instant Messenger and now one firm is using AOL and the other is with MSN and I have to go back to the phone and email. Talk about a step backwards !
