Waiting For The New Legal Floater (Part 3)

Racing To Catch Up

Sunday 2:00 p.m.

Accelerated chronology, that’s how it is and that’s how I want it, this is my world and I’m sitting on it. With this, my second short interlude of the day, I hope to meet the same conclusion for my week at work as it hasn’t with too much spectacles been drawn. However, in past glance, I do remember my ongoing fascination for the red polo neck sweater girl, my lunches with Linh and the antics of the unruffled working days of this week just gone.

On Tuesday I was trying to recognize a dramatic new ploy to decrease my chronology but nothing ever works around here. So I figure, one of these days it’s going to be now or never, do or die. I figure that fast reversions will in turn yield an incapable storyline but hey, those were the days of the past. Now I am rushed for time and to that figment I shall act, and so we begin…

Rumours Of A Legal Floater

Monday for me was a calm and smooth day, rewarding in the office and sound in the mind. There were no hiccups in getting out of bed upon Monday morning and catching the normal bus and normal train to which I slept most of the way, I arrived safe and sunny at work. The morning revealed what was never really a fascination or intrigue on my behalf. For two weeks now the girls at work have been building up the notion that there was going to be a new legal floater, showing much deliberation to the thought he would be male.

Thalia, Delphi, Najla and basically anyone else young enough to be interested was showing such enthusiasm. Thalia a week ago went red in the face when she noted there will be another guy working around me, saying that I will have a friend and then uttering “There’s going to be more reason for me to be around here now”. Delphi in her explanation revealed her waiting with baited breath as to everyone else listening in our section she announced “He’s coming from upstairs, he’s got big blue, puppy dog eyes”.

Najla also sat there with intrigue upon their words and even Jana seemed interest at most stages seeming she was the one spurting out most of the juice. However, to my surprise and their anticlimax (And probably one of Jana’s cruel jokes) upon seeing Karina downstairs who used to work as a temp in the earlier stages of my recruitment, I found out that she was to be our legal floater.

Karina Takes The Job

Catching the lift up with Karina we began into a conversation as I asked “Are you still working on Level five”. She quickly retorted “No, not anymore, they’ve put me on level two again” smiling as she added “They just can’t get rid of me”. Clicking in my mind that she might indeed be the new worker for legal I asked exactly where she would be working as she explained “I don’t know, all I know is that I have to report to Jana first”.

Smiling pleasantly I knew exactly where she would be working and revealed the story of Esme having left and Karina most probably being the one to take her place. Karina used to work as a temp where Thalia now sits and has been promoted to. Karina is the lady back in the day who used to hold those ongoing conversations with me where we would talk about weird subjects.

Mainly, I remember her from her last few days working in legal where we started talking about my clothes and how I should take care about washing my fabrics, revealing the lining of her pants and noting they tore easily when there was only one thread sticking out. In one week her character came back to me and in that one week it didn’t take me long to draw a conclusion about her temperament and figure her out. However, I will save those words of indite description for the days which I did upon them endure. Therefore, let stale bread become all the more stale and as stale as this bread is being eaten, let me chew on chronology as a morsel of necessity.

Thalia Back From Camp

Being the first day back for Thalia from her work camp adventure, she headed over to our desk later that day and shed some words upon it. Asking for the lowdown, Thalia explained that the whole week was intensely bent on work but in the end, seeing it all completed and done, it was worth it. Holding mixed emotions, Thalia explained how she had to share a room on one hand but on the other they had breaks to swim in pools, spas and go bush hiking.

On the one hand the bush hiking was depleting and they only received one or two hours a day to have some fun but they had nice meals and entertainment there when it was allowed. Sounding more like a luxurious concentration camp than a fun-filled insight into the man behind HIH, I was surprised how Thalia would whisper “I can’t tell you about the project” because she was told to keep it a secret.

The reason that the big guns decided to keep everything so secretive (In all aspects of HIH) is uncertain but Thalia didn’t care to shed too much about the project, just explaining it was hard. “They seem to think that everyone will get scared off if we told them about the project” she uttered so fair enough, Najla and I didn’t ask too much more.

Najla And The Playstation

Speaking of Najla, our Monday together was coming along fine except for the Mondayitis jitters that Najla usually gets after the weekend. In the morning while doing the mail I asked Najla about her weekend to which she noted she headed over Declan’s cousin’s house to play Resident Evil 2 on Playstation. With something now in common and opening a new door of conversation, we chatted about the Playstation. All this time I thought a Catholic Girl wouldn’t find any favorable fondness in the Playstation, figuring that she would be too much of a good girl to engage her in such undermining activities such as computer games.

However, to her sustained credit, she explained how she was sitting there scared and screaming out for the whole time Declan and his cousin were playing the game. “What, but it’s only a computer game” I laughed but she was adamant in her being scared watching this game. Nevertheless, Najla wasn’t genuinely scared as she was laughing her guffawing laugh. There were other conversations throughout the day that we both contributed upon but I was more set on making an impact on my briefs to which I had completed a further two to the brief list for September.

Another interesting little note to add about Najla and the window into her character is the telephone conversation she held with her father on telephone. What surprises me firstly is how Najla is like daddy’s little girl and yet that isn’t a growing custom to the Philippians. Each time some relative or close relation calls for Najla on her work number I get a further piece of explanation to what seems to be an easy puzzle of her mannerism.

Najla On The Phone

Najla is an aggressive catholic, if there is such a thing. Using Lyssa’s bitchy attitude as a benchmark despite the both of them being leagues apart (Leagues baby), Najla seems to have the same ascendancy to sound easily aggravated over the phone. Just like my relationship with Lyssa where after two years she has learnt to get easily irritated with me, not even half a minute into their pleasant conversation Najla starts sounding choleric.

In respect, she doesn’t yell and scream or even get angry at him but just the change of her voice to which she talks loud enough for people twenty meters away to hear, that tells me something. Najla isn’t also one to beat around the bush. If someone makes an error of judgment, she’s quick to put them in their place respectively.

For example when speaking with Declan and trying to arrange a time to meet after work Najla raised her voice without any anger upon it whinging about how she can’t and what time would be appropriate. Like me and not wanting to create a struggle, I succumb to the early PMS trauma and allow myself to be the lenient one just like Declan. Another instance is when Najla’s dad called on the phone like earlier described.

The reason her dad called was because he wanted to find out some information about his life insurance and he figured that his little girl could do the job for him. Changing her voice and slurring her words more alike of how she would probably speak at home, she explained that he had to speak with FAI in a different branch altogether, not ring her.

Najla isn’t reserved when she speaks on the phone with her family or friends and most of the times when listening I think to shake my head for shame, shame of exploiting home problems so naively at work.

Sushi With The Lunch Crew

With lunch’s depiction now arriving and taking my break at midday on my sunny Monday, I met up with Linh, Thao and Rhett as they smoked outside. Matthias and Gawain were up to their usual antics of snobbing me off and I’m surprised how in these couple of times I’ve seen Matthias, how he’s never decided to come out to lunch with us, knowing well enough he’s trying to keep away from me.

Pairing off respectively at first, I started Football conversation with Rhett about Brisbane making it into the top eight. Thao expressed how Brisbane was going to get knocked out and his team Parramatta was going to overcome all obstacles and win the grand final. Ensuing a touch of chatter and muscling up for our teams, the four of us decided it would be easier to head to the Sushi store on Imad street where Linh and I hung out once or twice before.

Buying myself three rolls of sushi as well as a drink, I was surprised how Thao bought four rolls of sushi on his first time ever tasting the Chinese food. “Are you crazy” I shrieked, “You’re never going to be able to eat all that”. Looking at me with a vacant glance he asked “Do you think so” to which he dug in and tried his luck.

Thao sat next to me as the both of us talked this time around to which I was right about Thao being unable to chow down his whole meal. “Here, do you want this last one, I can’t eat it” he uttered as I grabbed the attention of Linh and Rhett who were both glad to split it up and gulp it down. Through all this, I was still the last to finish eating my food, a common occurrence in our outings.

Pool At The City Hotel

Heading back to work with half an hour to spare, we stopped off at the City Hotel where with its desolate surroundings we decided it would be a good idea to shoot some pool. Sitting out wasn’t an option as I teamed up with Rhett again and after having to acquire two balls from the lady behind the counter because they were missing from our lineup, I was allowed to break.

However, this time around I chose a cue that had some chalk on the end of it, not like the cue that had a broken tip on the front to which I was hitting with straight plastic. The break turned out decent for me but for the rest of the game I played my usual, sinking no balls, ruining some angles and creating different hitting angles for everyone else.

Rhett wasn’t having his usual magical game as he sank a couple but Linh and Thao ended up winning upon their skill. With this game taking us twenty minutes and with the four of us fairly relaxed afterwards, we headed back to work to which one instance of that brisk walk surprised me. Delphi was walking back to work with one of her friends and figuring that Linh and her would say hello to each other considering their brimming conversation one and a half weeks ago, I was surprised to find that Linh avoided Delphi.

Being at a set of traffic lights, instead of walking to the curb where Delphi was standing, Linh made his way around some plastic barriers for roadwork on the pathway which had us further down on the lights. When walking across Delphi was as unobtrusive as Linh and from there we made our quick escape into the City Hotel, played our pool and then headed back to work after they had their complimentary smoke.