Emirates for dinner

Not had much of note on this week since the theatre on Monday.

Have had a vacation student shadowing me - a young chap currently at Durham university seeing what the job is all about. Of course all this work experience stuff is of dubious value, even for those who are nearing the end of their student days, let alone for schoolkids. The problem is that you can't truly get a feel for what a job is like without actually doing it. And much as one might try, they just know too little to actually be able to let them loose on anything that is much more than clerical. So I generally take the view that my main aim is not to put them off, and to put them at ease so that one can at least assess what they are like, ie how they handle themselves. The difficulty being that one is naturally going to be nervous and on best behaviour, and this can mask the bit we really want to see in assessing whether or not we fancy taking them on.

But in a personal sense it was fine - really nice lad who was at least good company for me when I had to travel to Winchester for a meeting. Wonderful warm day, but sadly saw no more of Winchester than the railway station car park. Would have so much enjoyed just sloping off in the afternoon to a pub for a pint after the meeting. But would have set a bad example!

Did go to the Emirates stadium this week. My first visit to the new stadium, but sadly only for a charity black tie dinner. (And my next visit will be to see Coldplay. Hopefully one day I will get to see a football match.)

The dinner was a in aid of Hospices. A worthy cause and, as was pointed out, they need £1.5m a week, so that's a lot of charity. Very good food to compensate for the fact that my £20 raffle ticket didn't come up trumps (although a colleague picked up £50 in B & Q vouchers). But these affairs are just a bit irritating in that they are a chance for the wealthy to show off. First they had an awards ceremony, the charity making various trumped up awards to thank their main donors ("partners") and get someone the honour of collecting something and having their photo taken in their best clothes. And at the end of the dinner comes up the charity auction, mostly hospitality tickets for assorted sporting events - football, golf, racing - which generally went for more than a thousand pounds each. What I might describe as conspicuous giving.

Friday night, after a busy week in the office for my department, one of the partners offered to take us all out for a drink in a nearby pub. Which was much appreciated by most of us. Does make it feel like we are really a team. I had already arranged to meet up for a drink with one of my ex-trainees who is now at a rival firm, so I neatly swapped one drinking event into another. Followed by a nice meal at a Moroccan restaurant. So not a big event, but frankly a drink and dinner with a good friend is as attractive a form of entertainment to me as any. And I should make as much use as I can of this mate before he gets married in the summer and I guess evenings out will be a lot scarcer. Which is a pity for me, but bonus for his fiancee. Who is a lucky woman.