Woah - what we have here is sense of humour failure...

Why can't people be more open minded? All I got today was comments about me being cuddled by a fella at the post conference piss up. The truth of the matter is, I was stone cold sober, as I was driving, and was absolutely freezing whilst I was walking up the drive at Warwick castle, and the fella in question was a real gent and acted as a wind break for me.

As we walked through the Kingmaker exhibit, the floor was rather uneven, and some of the waxworks were real people, who seemed to delight in making people jump. I had one of them jump out at me, and it was only because the fella I was with grabbed hold of me, that I prevented myself from getting injured, or falling flat on my face.

Mind you, he didn't object, as he jokingly said that he'd 'pulled.' (I knew damned well he was married and he knew that I was attached and that my partner was also at the do, so there was absolutely nothing in it.)

The comments were just enough to irritate me, and I will admit, it was one of the rare occasions that I was glad of managerial intervention. My line manager stepped into the fray, and told the responsible people to cut the comments, otherwise he wouldn't be held responsible if I decided to lay a few tales to rest.

But that didn't stop the subtle hints, and just to make matters more awkward for me, the fella whom had been my 'escort' for want of a better term, was in the office. He was totally professional and if he heard the comments, didn't rise to the bait. Well - not that he showed, anyway!

What makes me say that? Simple. He caught up with me in the canteen area, where I was making myself a coffee, and asked if the interest in our being together on Tuesday night was normal. I nodded, and I guess that he must have realised that I was heartily sick of all the comments / nudges and winks, because he gave me a lovely cuddle, and told me not to worry.

It turned out, after I'd left the rest of the party-goers and headed for home, he'd spoken to my partner (or significant other - the choice of phrase depends on my mood!) and elaborated on the plan that the pair of us had hatched.

It basically boiled down to the fact that not many people at the office know him, and as I'm a newbie (so to speak), we were going to give all the office mob something to talk about - even though absolutely nothing happened!

To be honest, the sense of humour failure was mine - but thankfully, there were people willing to make me laugh, and act as unwilling scratching posts for my claws this afternoon. My poor maligned line manager being one of them.

He started taking the mickey out of one of the other girls, and I decided to start flexing the claws again, as I'd been rather subdued for a while... I gave her the idea that she could refuse to pick up his lunch for him when she went out for lunch, and that was met with a howl of anguish, and the comment:

"Ok, Karen, put the claws away. I didn't mean it."

That just made me laugh, but it was soon to be my turn to get on the receiving end of the waspish sense of humor that my line manager seems to have. But, instead of reacting verbally, I just waited to get a more pertinent type of revenge.

I waited until he was leaning back from his computer, stretching his back, and then took careful aim, and threw my lavender stress ball, so that it bounced off the keyboard and onto his desk.

The look of surprise was well worth it, as I'd never given any indication that I could throw as accurately as that. However, his accuracy wasn't as good as mine and he missed the return shot at me by a country mile. Mind you - I made damned sure of that - I ducked!

A few minutes later, it was time for me to escape, and it was with great hilarity that I left, as my line manager was too embarassed by the missed shot to even say anything to me, apart from wishing me a good weekend, and that he'd see me on Monday...

Suppose I'd better call this entry quits - I've got to get the cats sorted for the night.

Back when I get the chance.

Karen.

Don't let the b'stards get you down.