I was leaving my job - needed to go to LA for a while - and it fell to me to find a replacement for myself. I had met this girl Kathy, who had recently finished a theatre course and was very keen to take on the PA job. She had never met my boss and this was her first - and, as it turned out, last - day at the office.
The West End show had just closed. All the costumes and props came back to the office as well as a load of books (there had been a book stall at the theatre, run by a volunteer named Sarah.) Martin was the production manager of the West End theatre I think. I had some kind of bug so was a bit under the weather.
I have only transcribed half of this entry; after this long and tiring workday I managed to make it to Julian K's cocktail-fuelled birthday party, then hang out with my new friend Abigail at her place, meet someone with a van who would help me move my stuff into storage, have an altercation with one of my housemates, do some packing, and have a long trans-Atlantic conversation with Dan Janisch, who would be picking me up at the airport when I flew to LA in August.
As for Kathy, well, she bailed out on Thursday, hemmed and hawed and kept me hanging for days; in the meantime I came clean with and made friends with the dresser's friend, Lisa, who came in to save the day and spent four glorious years in that office I had set up. I never saw that Kathy bitch again!
22 July 1996
So this morning Kathy was coming in at 11:00. (I wanted to make sure [the boss] was in Brighton, and if not, I would pretend to "summon" her to come in; I felt a bit weird about her coming in before she met him, but we needed to get on with things!)
But she rang before I left to say it would be closer to 12:00 and would that be okay.
In the meantime I spoke to [the boss], who was in nice uncle mode. He was thrilled with my compliments about the show, and insisted he had not been mad at me.
Well, Kathy didn't get in till nearly 2:00! Martin, Sarah and the stage manager arrived shortly after that - late as well. I was quite annoyed that they all just dumped all the stuff - not a word from Sarah who had earlier promised to help me put all the books back. It was boiling hot and I still did not feel that well.
I began telling Kathy things, but just glossed over them lightly; I thought she would be around to actually go through things with me, like [a list of boring, day-to-day complicated tasks]. But first we wanted to eat!
I stupidly decided to ring [the boss] to let him know I was going out for a bit and that the stuff had all arrived safely back.
Suddenly he turned into an ogre. Saying he hadn't received any paying-in slips re the books, that Sarah could be puttting all the money in her own account for all her knew... I told him Martin said she was faxing over the info later - but that was no good - he wanted it NOW... Then he went on to say he hadn't heard from [his accountant] in ages... and when I reminded him that a place called Theatrical Administrative Services was doing all the accounting for the show, someone called Edna,, he started shouting that I didn't know what I was talking about - and where did I get this info - "You believe everything you hear!!" - and he said that this Edna couldn't exist if I didn't even know her surname - and that I never ever made any effort to get involved or to find out what's going on - that no one was helping him - that he couldn't call upon his mother for help cause she was in her grave ...
Well, we couldn't go out just yet - I had to phone [the accountant]. He was very sympathetic and he had been in [to the West End theatre] each week to speak to Martin. He was waiting for the final figures, but said he would call [the boss].
So we went out and I was amazed to see so many pubs just down the street, and even a shop! [I had worked in that office the better part of a year, but had never once gone out for lunch in the area; either brought it in or took the train to Tesco. I later made a lot of use of those pubs!] But Kathy doesn't like pub food and the one still serving it was a bit pricey anyhow. [But great food as I found out later; sadly it later morphed into a Gordon Ramsay gastro-pub.] She seemed very keen to go to Tesco. Me - not so much - but it was so hot!
[Long account of getting lost, forgotten Travelcards, finally making it to Tesco and back; shan't bore you!]
Kathy couldn't stay much longer. I was finally eating my sandwich when [the boss] rang. He asked about the books (after I said I'd spoken to Andy), and I thought he meant the books, as in accounts, but now of course the main "simple" thing he had asked me to do was to get those paying-in slips from Sarah. I should have just lied and said I had called already. (Besides, if I had called earlier, they would not have been back at the theatre yet, and when I did call the theatre later, there was no answer!!]
[Remember, people, not many folk had mobiles back then. I actually did, a James Bond-like Sony Vodafone, but the majority of my friends and colleagues did not. So you had a hard time tracking down people sometimes.]
He was now more tyrannical than ever - going on about his dead mother again - and I don't do it and I obviously don't care and I can't communicate and proof was my saying "What books?" and I don't pay attention etc. etc. etc.
Poor Kathy heard every word. I sat down to compose myself and to eat some more and try to explain it all to Kathy, when the phone rang again. As I raced back into the office I thought of an excuse I could use as to why I had not called the theatre yet: before [the boss] had rung the first time, Lisa, the friend of the dresser had rung. (I was a bit short with her; she said she was a friend of Liz's - "Liz who?") Anyway I didn't even have to use my excuse (though I did tell him the message, that Lisa had rung) as he actually had rung to apologise! [The boss's partner] told me later she had ordered him to. He said he hadn't meant to shourt at me - and I kind of apologised too - said I wasn't thinking straight as I didn't feel too well. Also, when I phoned him later on he was nicer than ever - even apologised again!!
But back to this afternoon, Kathy ended up staying much later than she had intended - till 6:00 or so. But I didn't get a chance to show her much else. She said she'd come back on Thursday, though she could only stay 3 or 4 hours that day.
After she left I spoke to Martin - he would fax over the paying-in slips - and had a long conversation with Sarah. She was glad it was all over!
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