Excuse me, you are not wearing any pants

Don't you hate those dreams where you find yourself in a busy public space and suddenly realise you are not wearing any pants? There is only one thing worse than that- if you wake up and realise it wasn't a dream. You are actually in public and not wearing any pants.

It's been happening to a lot of girls around here lately. In fact, it must be like a recurring nightmare to them. They keep on waking up and realise, shit, I'm not wearing any pants AGAIN! I was in the main city mall the other day for the first time in quite a while, as I barely have time to shop at the moment. Or even just walk through the mall. It was on Saturday and I had just written an exam (yeah, exactely, I also think it's an absolute disgrace that after a 55 hour week at work I have to go and write an exam on a Saturday. Please do feel free and tell Amnesty International about it). I decided I did not feel like going home yet, so I went to the mall to do a bit of shopping. And there were all those girls with no pants.



I'm a bit confused about what exactely is going on. Is it just a coincidence and have they all forgotten to put on pants? Or do they actually think it's ok to wear a long t-shirt without pants? Or do they maybe believe that those long tops are actually dresses? It's a mystery to me. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with short dresses or skirts, as long as they can be identified as such. But what's going on out there at the moment is just not for me. Call me old-fashioned, but I like a bit of class. Not much, but just a little bit.




I do feel sorry for them. Maybe nobody told them they are meant to wear jeans or at least leggins underneath? Maybe next time I see one of them I should tell her. "Excuse me, don't look around now. But you're not wearing any pants." I'm sure they would appreciate my help.

When things get blurry

I took this photo at a cocktail party in our lounge bar at work the other day. It reminds me a bit of my life at the moment. It's pretty cool, but there's just a bit too much going on.

I have been left

Yes, that's right, I have been left. By my day receptionist. She just dissapeared in the middle of her shift on Wednesday and never came back.

I'm the functions and marketing manager at one of the biggest and most reputable restaurants in the city, and I also look after the reception team. My relatively new day receptionist asked me for a talk about ten days ago and told me she was seriously considering to resign because she was having problems with the owner of the restaurant. I told her that I would be very sad to see her go but would understand and accept her decision. I said the only thing I asked from her was to please give me a bit of notice so I could get prepared. I said, whatever you decide, please talk to me- because if you let it escalate and just storm out one day, it will cause me a lot of grief. She said, Bettina, I have so much respect for you and you have always been so good to me. I would never let you down. I was glad to hear that and never doubted she was honest with me. We always had a great work relationship and I would praise her for her work frequently and bought her presents on a couple of occasions to thank her for a job well done. She once told me I was the only person at work who consistently treated her nicely.

She didn't resign though over the next few days and I assumed she was still looking for another job. Until she dissapeared on Wednesday in the middle of lunch service. Nobody saw her leave. The owner of the restaurant called me in my office to ask if I knew where she'd gone and I came upstairs because I was worried. She knew she couldn't take breaks without anyone covering the front desk for her and had never done this before.

I started to look for her everywhere and became more and more concerned. She wasn't in the restrooms or in the smoking area outside or anywhere to be seen. I went searching for her outside but couldn't find her. The day before she had been upset because of a family problem and I had ended up sending her home, so I assumed something might have happened to her family. I started calling her mobile phone and left about three messages throughout the afternoon. No reply.

I covered the front desk for her until the evening receptionist came in but couldn't concentrate on anything because I was worried sick about what might have happened to her. I sent her two text messages begging her to please at least let me know she was ok, telling her I was deeply disturbed by her dissapearance. Nothing.

A couple of people started to suggest that maybe this was her way of leaving and she was never going to come back but I refused to even consider this option. She would never do this to me, I said, she's not like that. She might do it to the owner of the restaurant but she would definitely talk to me.

Well, apparently she wouldn't. She has never been seen again and never even bothered to contact me. She didn't even have the decency to send me a text message. She just vanished.

I am bitterly dissapointed and deeply disturbed by her way of leaving. I am currently going through the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. What a kick in the face. "So much respect for you"- my ass.

Say no to puppies and chocolate bunnies

I'm at uni. Studying, supposedly. It's Easter Monday and the rest of the world is out there having a grand old time being lazy and eating chocolate bunnies and running around with puppies and reading newspapers and having breakfast and laying on the beach and throwing barbecues and kissing each other in the park and generally being very bloody inconsiderate. Not that I mind, of course. I'm quite happy sitting in a stupid computer lab instead with only a few other poor freaks who convinced themselves that studying would be just the thing to do today. And I'm probably the only one who has to go back to full time work tomorrow while the other freaks can at least sleep in tomorrow. Yeah, ok, I'll admit it, I'm feeling sorry for myself today and I would appreciate if you would too. Especially you over there with the coffee and the newspaper and that ridiculously cute puppy. And you over there in front of the TV with the beer. Yes, I'm looking at you. I know this was my choice but let's not get too technical here, shall we? I'm sure you can spare a good thought for a poor girl like me.

The thing is, I'm waiting for them to release that new I-pod which can do my assignments. I'm sure someone is working on that idea, right? I mean, they can invent practically everything these days and computers, I-pods and mobile phones in combination can take care of almost every aspect of our lives. Fridges can even surf the internet now, so I'm sure it's only a matter of time until I-pods can do assignments. I really wish they would make themselves useful and hurry up with this one. I ain't got much time left until the next assignment is due.