Promotion and other stories

As I was leaving – late again – my neighbour was also leaving. Knowing I was late she greeted me with ‘Good evening!’ and we laughed.

At work I had a run-in with one of the sub-contractors on our site. If you want to see friendly me turn Furie – go blame your staff for not having done your job, especially absent staff not there to defend themselves! How can someone unable to manage their staff call themselves a manager? Management is a leadership position, not an authority-status! If staff haven’t done an assigned task, or not done it ‘right’ – the root-cause usually (truly nine times out of ten) lies outside the staff’s control and inside the manager’s! If you do not ensure all required materials are available to your staff, do not blame them for not using the required materials! In this case, it turned out that required information had been requested repeatedly, but not supplied ... by ... guess who? Correct, Mr ‘I-blame-my-staff’!

I received an e-mail today informing me of a shipment, we’re urgently waiting for, showing how it is addressed to: Mrs Freya Menzel, Site Manager! Ha Ha Ha – I wrote back, thanking for my promotion and asked whether it involved an increase in chocolate. It became quite a joke in the office – even the actual site manager congratulated me on my promotion and offered to celebrate his demotion!

This story is still buzzing strong in my mind. I think, rather than a novel, it’s shaping into a collection of short stories. Isaac Assimov’s Foundation Series keeps popping into my head, and I have something like his psycho-history as a centre concept, so short stories make sense. The centre theme in my mind is a matriarchal society – something all anthropological and historic studies claim to be unrealistic. Whenever I try to work out some specifics, I keep running into issues leading me to the same conclusion – it’s not realistic. I’ve tried setting it in the past – not working. I’ve tried setting it on an alien world – also not working. I’m leaning towards a futuristic Earth – and there I see some possibilities. I keep catching glimpses, odd scene’s, some dialogue – but it’s still way too fragmented to even start. Whenever I get discouraged, I keep reminding myself: It’s fiction, so I can make it work! I have a habit of getting bogged down in details. At the same time images of the ruins of long-forgotten steel structures described in Terry Brooks’ Shannara Series keep popping into my head as well. Hence the futuristic Earth possibility – that it does not have to be high-tech, it could also return to idealistic tree-hugging. Ah, the possibilities – and the stumbling blocks! Round and round she goes.

On another topic, IF there is a project in East London and IF I am contracted on that project – I really should get busy with the East London writing! I know for a fact that most contractors will be interested in purchasing information about the location – some may prefer eBooks, and some I know would love Postcards to be available; and some of my photo’s would make great postcards! So there would be a market at my doorstep – all I need is the product.

I’ve already made some space on my table, so maybe I should start getting my research out and start putting together some notes. I have this story at the back of my mind, writing about the life of Albert Kimmerling, leading up to his historic flight – I’ve had some success in researching his life, although it would help, if I could read french. Maybe a Facebook friend could help? Basing it as much as possible on the known facts. I think I should really get started, it’s something I am quite passionate about – and I should be able to power through the writers-blocks. I’ve tried it once before and quit when I hit the first block. But at the time it was still very much an ‘in the air’ idea – and with me already packing up to leave East London at the time, leaving the target-market, so-to-speak, there was no real motivation.

Tonight, I’m going to try take an early shower for a change. Hot Bath hasn’t really worked out the past two days – it has been so cold, that the enamel bath itself is ice cold, and draws all the heat out of the water so fast that I’ve barely had lukewarm baths. And it’s a race to get in, soap on, soap off and get out before the water is too cold.

Yeah, that didn’t work out. I heard the geyser click off at five, not six. So I decided to have dinner first – which was even more delicious warmed up! Then I manicured my nails while waiting for the geyser to come back – it was twenty to eight before the water was warm again! So saving electricity for 120 minutes to have every household go full blast for the next 40 minutes – where exactly is the saving, or sense in that? Ah well, I followed the shower with a face mask, and that was my evening.