Flying cats

Just thought I'd put an excerpt of the instructor's weekly letter here, as it pretty much sums up this week!

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It’s Friday again, and this will have to be rather rushed as our lovely Saturday girl has come in today. This leaves me at somewhat of a loss regarding what I refer to her as – do I now have to say ‘our lovely Saturday but sometimes Friday girl’? Anyway, she’s come in today to do the paperwork, so I have to write this quick to make sure it gets put in your envelopes.

So what exciting things have occurred this week?

I got back from my holiday older and wiser and a little bit browner, armed with a catapult – it actually fires little plastic cats, how clever – that I have been aiming at Tony whenever his back is turned. My friend gave it to me for my birthday with a knowing smile and said “This is a practical one for the office”. Unfortunately I haven’t quite got the hang of it, and so far not one of the cats has found its target. I will keep trying.

This week has been a good week for sales – the phone seems to have not stopped ringing. And for a change the people on the other end seem to be quite sane. Mostly.

We had a staff meeting this morning for the Folkestone types – as it ever it was lovely to see them and many jokes were made, mostly at Tony’s expense. They also left us with lots of cakes and biscuits, so Tony is in a pretty good mood.

***

The 'cat'apult is one of the best presents ever. The cats do look a little eerie though:

Having said that, I'm pretty sure they'll all have disappeared down the back of Tony's desk before long anyway.

Flowers!

I've been away for a week - avoiding the rain in sunny spain, yes sirree. Then yesterday it was my birthday, and it was beautiful weather! We sat outside and played croquet! So when I walked back into the office this morning I was in a pretty good mood. Tony was on the phone, so I gave him a thumbs up and went round to my desk. There, sitting happily next to my phone, was a bunch of flowers! For me! From a recently passed pupil! I was so touched, I nearly cried. There was a really lovely letter with it too, and I have to say that even though we had cake after lunch, the flowers and the letter really made my day. I always try to make sure all our pupils are happy, because we honestly believe that driving should be enjoyable, so the fact that Adam was so pleased was the icing on the cake (excuse the pun). Adam passed with only one minor, and had nothing but glowing praise for Jason Hall, his instructor.

So well done Jason, for providing expert guidance, and well done Adam! You clever lad, I'm ever so pleased for you.

Hello? Hello? ... Hello? Hello! Hello? .... Hello?

Just listened to our answerphone messages. Somebody obviously wasn't paying attention when asked to leave his name and number after the beep, as the whole recording is about 30 seconds long and features a man greeting the machine over and over again, in a somewhat confused manner.
"...Hello? Hello? ... Hello? Hello! Hello? .... Hello?"

Also today I spoke to a young lady who needed to pass pretty sharpish - in just under three weeks time, no less. She's had around 5 hours tuition, and so would be looking at around a 30 hour course. When asked why she needed to pass so quickly she told me that she and her partner were going on holiday to Australia, and were intending to drive through it. A roadtrip holiday to Australia is all well and good, if you can drive. Oh, and in case you were wondering, her partner can't drive either; he's after an intensive course too. It takes three weeks for the actual licence to come through once you've passed, so as Jordan (our new office assistant) pointed out, she needs to have passed last week in order for her licence to be through in time.

We try to help as many people as we can, but we haven't yet worked out how to turn back time. It's on the to do list.

In other news there was a massive clap of thunder outside just now. We all rushed to the window, being nosy people, and outside the sky was blue and there wasn't a drop of rain to be seen. All a bit weird.

Caption Competition

We're running a new competition - the last one went pretty well, I got to call people up and say "Well Done, you've won", which was lovely, and also appealed to my poetic nature somewhat. We've launched another one for next month, so the same rules apply; think of something that makes us smile and you'll get some free lessons. It really is that simple.

This is a picture Tony and I made of Lucas when we got a new design program, and set it as Lucas' screensaver. We thought it was hilarious. Lucas did not. He left it there though, so I think he was secretly flattered.

Look at him! So happy. He's left The Big Red L Company (possibly because of this picture) so this is in memory of Lucas, beloved office worker and reluctant tea maker.

To enter the competition just go here: http://www.bigredl.co.uk/captioncompetition.htm it'll explain everything you need to know.