The last few days or so have been a bit chaotic and a couple of embarrassing things have happened. On Friday evening last week, I switched on my mobile phone (I don’t have it switched on during working hours and some evenings I forget to switch it on again when I leave off work, especially if I’m busy. I don’t talk on the phone that much anyway). As soon as it came on, there was a text message from my friend Naomi. She was asking if I wanted to go round her house for a meal on Thursday. I assumed it meant the next Thursday. But then I looked at the date, and to my horror, it said Thursday May 3rd! I’d missed it by a day! And then I suddenly remembered that May 3rd is her birthday!
So I sent Naomi a message back apologising for my non-attendance at the meal. I assume it would’ve been a quiet meal with her family. I felt really awful about what had happened. So on Saturday I went to the shop and bought her a present (a big box of really good Swiss chocolates) and belated birthday card and took it round to her house straight away. It was a nice surprise for her, as I didn’t tell her I would be bringing a present round. Fortunately she was very forgiving and thanked me for the present and card. I’ve never forgotten someone’s birthday like that before.
Then on Tuesday morning I had great difficulty getting to work. I had a bath and washed my hair that morning, which made my morning extra hectic (I usually do those things in the evenings instead if I have time). My bus into the city centre officially leaves at 8.08am and it takes about 5 minutes to walk from my house to the bus stop. So, to be on the safe side, I always try to leave the house by 8am on the dot. On that Tuesday morning, I didn’t leave until 8.03am and by the time I wasn’t able to reach the bus stop in time. My heart sank as I saw the bus drive past me (the drivers here are very strict, they will very rarely let you on if you are not standing at an official stop. Even if you’re just 5 or 10 metres away! There was no-one else waiting at the stop that day, which was a pity, because if there was it might have given me enough time to get on).
It got worse. Officially, the buses are supposed to come every 15 minutes. But there wasn’t another one until 8.55am, meaning 2 had been missed out, and there was no chance of me getting to work by 9am. Apparently there had been an accident not too far away. At work they are quite flexible – people can arrive whatever time they like, as long as they are there for 7 hours. However, as they are used to me arriving at 9am, I phoned my manager to tell them what had happened, so they wouldn’t wonder where I was. I finally got to work at 9.30am. I felt a bit flustered for most of the morning. They didn’t ask me to make up for the lost time, but I thought I would do so anyway. Rather than stay until 5.30pm, I decided to cut 30 minutes off my lunch break.
I hate it when bad things like these happen. I feel awful and it tends to go through my mind even for several days after the incident. But when I make a mistake, I do apologise and try to put it right, as I’ve done so in these 2 scenarios, so I don’t feel quite so bad about them now.
Monday was the May Day bank holiday (in England it’s not held on the 1st of May; it’s always held on the first Monday in May), so I went with Mum and Terry for a walk around the gardens at Blickling Hall. There was a nice woodland bluebell walk and many other colourful flowers.
