Friday 4 July 2008

Back to work :(

Taking the day off after the trip to Chessington really felt like a mid-week weekend... I spent most of today thinking it was Monday. Curiously, though, I didn't think it was my press day - which Monday will be.

I heard all sorts of stories about what had gone on yesterday. Largely about the editor of Monday's magazine. Apparently she had been very rude and childish toward her designer.

It's not exactly a match made in heaven. Her designer has English only as a second language and, while she speaks it reasonably well, she can find it difficult to follow native English speakers in conversation. And when those native English speakers start snapping, or speaking in a fast, shrill whine - as her editor is wont to do when frustrated or angry - she doesn't follow it very well at all.

Even after a stern talking to from my boss, all the editor did was run and complain to her new boss - coincidentally the editor of the other magazine my designer works on. He's a big fan, and doesn't understand the complaints. He asked my boss what was going on, and basically got told (not for the first time) that this editor never supplies decent pictures, has a terrible idea of page layout, and snaps, whines and cries if she doesn't get her way.

Sadly, this carried on today, and resulted in another stern talking to from my boss. When the editor emerged not only unscathe, but not crying, I wasn't sure whether I was glad or disappointed.

Still, due to the continued underperformance of that magazine, she may not be around much longer.

Another interesting point was a scene my boss related to me after work. One of the editors (the only one now who's been there longer than me!) looked over the Chessington photos and expressed some surprise that "someone as quiet" as me had ventured onto any of the rides. One of the copy controllers interjected "He's not that quiet!", leaving the editor nonplussed and my boss rolling around laughing.

After work, because my boss needed to find a birthday present for her mother, we jetted off to Brent Cross and paid a visit on... WH Smith. Her mother had actually asked for Smiths tokens and something small as a bonus. That turned out to be the treacherous part, as this commonly leads to a scene where her mother returns the gift. My boss now has a system where she buys something she'd quite like herself, for just such eventualities.

A swift trip to John Lewis yielded two new TransFormers Animated deluxes - Blackarachnia and Ratchet - and a Bumblebee for my boss to add to her gradually swelling collection (Movie, Beatmix, G1 keyring). After a swift meal at Burger King (one of the few food places at Brent Cross that was still open at this point) we drove over to Toys'R'Us and I had a swift turn around there while my boss stayed in the car and played with her new toy.

There wasn't anything new, so I emerged empty-handed... all the more annoying since I read that Toys'R'Us in Aberdeen has a couple of the Leader class figures - Megatron and Bulkhead.

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