First thing I do the next morning is look up the details for contacting Mrs. Shaw…
‘Alice speaking…’
‘Ehm… yes, good morning Mrs. Shaw… this is Shawna Richards speaking…’
‘Ah, Shawna good morning! How are you today?’
‘I’m ok, thank you Mrs. Shaw for asking…. And how are you?’
‘Excellent, now that I have you on the phone… but please, call me Alice… this Mrs. Shaw is my mother in law, and you make me feel real old when you call me that…’
‘Ehm… Ok, Alice… The reason I’m calling you is the following… You mentioned yesterday that you need someone for running your UK office..’
‘Ah yes, I did… you in?’
‘Well, the thing is Mrs… ehm.,… Alice… I don’t really know what I want right now… My life is in a bit of a mess at the moment, and I’ve been given 3 weeks off from work to try and find out what I want… They offered me Linda’s job, and I don’t want to be ungrateful, but to me it feels like I’ve been doing that job for quite a while already… not much news, except that they’d finally start paying me for the work I’m doing…’
‘ah I see…’
‘Well, that’s not the only thing actually. What you mentioned yesterday, that the people were just looking on as Linda went all crazy biatch around me, well, that kinda shows how they’ve been treating me over the past months anyway… I mean, people must have noticed she wasn’t putting in her fair share of work, yet nobody ever came to talk to me about it… and nobody ever listened when I said I needed a break…’
‘So if I understand it correctly, you don’t necessarily want to keep your job…’
‘Yes…’
‘And you also don’t know if you want to start in another job…’
‘Indeed…’
‘So may I be so bold to suggest the following? You take these 3 weeks and come and try out our company. Consider it like a project. In these 3 weeks, you get all costs paid – within reason – for travelling to the UK, staying there, and trying to start up the office. We’ll need you to organize some things there, I’ve got a clear outline of where I want our company to be going there… We’ll need you to select facilities for baking the cookies and cupcakes, start up with a small distribution channel over there, well, you know most of the details already having seen your presentation yesterday…’
‘ehm… wow… that was actually what I wanted to ask you, if I could go for a trial run or something…’
‘Yes, find out if the grass is really greener on the other side… well, I can tell you, in UK the grass is always green… it kinda rains a lot there…’
‘So how do we do this?’
‘Come into my office this afternoon, and we’ll go over the details. Bring your passport and a small suitcase, you can buy the rest of the things you need in London… and 1 more thing…’
‘Yes mrs.. ehm… Alice…’
‘what is your favorite flavor of cupcake?’
‘ehm…. Probably caramel fudge… but they’re all really good so it’s hard to choose…’
‘Excellent answer… that’s the spirit I need… Ok I’ll see you around 2PM then? Does that work for you?’
‘Yes I’ll see you at 2PM… and Alice?’
‘hmm-mm…’
‘Thank you…’
‘oh, don’t thank me yet honey… we’ll see how things work out between us… it’s a good chance for me as well to give you a trial run! You never know if this change of environment is going to be a success…’
‘Ok, well see you later than…’
‘See you…’
…
As I rush around, trying to find my passport and getting my hair straightener into my suitcase, Sarah calls me to ask if I want to go out for dinner that evening, but I quickly tell her about my plans…
‘Are you serious? You’re leaving already?’
‘Well, as you said, what do I have to lose?’
‘Well, I know I said that, but I didn’t think you’d actually get on the first plane out of here!?’
‘Hey I’m just grabbing an opportunity here to start over…’
‘Well I just wanted to show you that you had opportunities, I didn’t want to make you get your bags and leave all of a sudden! What about me? Are you going to leave me here?’
‘Sarah, you have everyone and everything here. All I have, is you. My mum is a psycho, my ex fiancé’s stuff is still all over this house, I need to get away from here. Quickly. Before I go mental…’
‘Well you could stay with me for a while…’
‘Sweetie, thank you, but I really need to leave… like, literally, in 5 minutes…’
‘Aaarhgh Shawna, you don’t have to do this!’
‘Sarah, I do have to do this. And I am going to do this. And the first thing I am going to do is hang up on my best friend, who I will dutifully call regularly, send FB updates, Skype every chance I have, and I may even bring you back something nice from England... but now, I’m going to hang up…’
‘Ok you win, you win… be careful! Love you!’
‘Love you too sweetie!’
…
The trip to Alice’s office was uneventful, but once I was there, it seemed like all hell broke loose. There was someone waiting for me at the door, taking care of my luggage, and showing me to a meeting room. There were Alice, Mr. Rivers and Mr. Scary Guy whose last name I forgot, as well as several other men and women. Immediately I was introduced to all of them as our interim manager for our UK Office. We shortly discussed some of the targets they had laid out for me for these three weeks, and gave me a big folder with lots of information. Alice proceeded to inform me that I would be leaving in exactly 10 minutes, there was another bag ready for me with a laptop, charged mobile phone, and detailed instructions of what to do (and what not to do) upon arrival. If I could go through them on the plane, that would be great.
Minutes later, I was being ushered out of the office, Alice accompanying me to the car waiting there. Surprisingly, she actually got in the car with me, proceeding with some instructions, and handing me a small box of what seemed like the most delightful cupcakes in the world.
‘Shawna, meet your dinner. These are the caramel fudge ones, I got them made just for you. Once you get on the plane, you’ll find that these 7 hours of flying aren’t a lot. Furthermore, there are about 5 hours of time zone in between. So by the time you’re landing, it’s going to be around 6AM. You won’t get much sleep. These will help you get through the night… ok?’
‘OK…’
‘So, upon arrival, I have arranged for your new PA to be waiting for you. His name is George Shaw. He doesn’t like any jokes to be made about his name being the same as the famous Irish writer. His middle name isn’t Bernard, but it’s Bryan. Which makes it even worse, George B. Shaw… but just, try to avoid any comments. He’s a very capable young man, done a lot of the work in the UK for us already. He’ll get you up to speed on everything you need to know. Still with me?’
‘George Bryan Shaw. No name jokes. Capable PA.’
‘OK good. Now, do me a favor, ok?’
‘Ehm… sure?’
‘When you get to the UK, try not to think about your job here, your ex fiancé, your friends, your family. I’m sure at times you will think about all of them, and that’s OK. But if you try to focus on all the things you’re experiencing whilst you’re in the UK, it will be much easier to appreciate them… you may even enjoy yourself, who knows?’
‘Thank you Alicia…’
‘No problem hun… now, here is your ticket, it’s open return so you can plan it anytime you want to. Normally we have our staff travel business class, but there weren’t any available so we’ve put you in 1st class. Enjoy it…’
‘Ooooh I’ve never travelled first class before..’
‘See, you’re already focusing on the positive things… OK, we’re here… take care Shawna… and if you need anything, just send me a message…’
‘Will do! Thanks Alice!’
And with that, I got out of the car and out of my life as I knew it…