A proper meeting!

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Following my bumping into the man in SA, I’ve been invited to a meeting woohoo! I pack my bag with a notepad, two pens and a transparent A4 pocket - if I’d had a shirt with pockets I sooo would have popped my biros in there. Whitehall it isn’t, but still I get to feel slightly useful and important for about five minutes. I’m early and so sit with a couple of the other attendees who speak in Creole and I’m caught between looking attentive but therefore stupid as I can’t understand a word they’re saying or pretending I’m writing something of supreme importance in my pad (an Israeli - Palestine peace pact or a list of things I’ll need to make dinner) but which risks looking rude and disinterested. I opt for a middle way, smiling brightly and nodding though suspect that this just makes me look like a third term (third rate?) Tony Blair. I don’t have to persevere too long, thankfully, as everyone soon arrives.

The focus of the meeting is stakeholder management with me advising on how they can improve their current processes but I’m not sure exactly what they require and inevitably leave the meeting with more questions than answers. It’s good to exercise the brain cells though and feel a sense of purposefulness (in lieu of financial recompense), especially post-meeting when I do the necessary review and translation of my notes wondering why exactly I randomly wrote and circled the words ‘raja yoga’? Perhaps I’m channelling a Yogi - bear that is - ‘hey there, Boo Boo’

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