saint

I'm spending too much time at work

I can tell which staff member or post doc is coming down the corridor without looking up from my desk simply by the way it sounds when the walk.

Martin and Natalia are always fast, short strides (neither are the tallest of people). Martin's is purposeful, always in a hurry, somewhere to be, research grants to look for, ambassadors to schmooze - he seems to lead with his head (hard to explain, but it fits), his body following obediently behind.

Natalia's stride is petite but confident, shoulders at once square, back straight... and yet a simultaneous apologetic shuffle. Faux innocence, perhaps? (She's not fooling anyone.) Often muffled by a long winter coat with the current weather, her entrance is many times followed by a quiet "bon apetit" as she walks in and finds me devouring whatever Cafe 101 has offered up that day (again).

Malakai, a big Tongan researcher, wanders in slowly. Not ponderous, his gait is definitely lost in a world of it's own much of the time. A world that revolves around a (self-described) "Pacific Five Minutes", but which still allows a friendly smile and a hello as he passes.

Milenko, a gruff Serbian recently reborn a Kiwi, seems to always be late or hassled or in a hurry or something. Even when he's walking slow his comb-over seems to flap in the rushing air. He likes his coffee strong, is quick to laugh or anger, and lodly declares that if anything's going to be the EU's downfall, it'll be the endless, bottomless, mountainous bureaucracy. Which I think everyone agrees is fair comment.

Matthew, the new kid on the block, with a freshly minted PhD on New Zealand Political Party Manifestos from about 1432 till the present day, slopes along the corridor, neither fast or slow. He's the kind of guy who seems to be led by his feet - they reach out too far and his body has to bob up and down in a dramatic fashion to accomodate their eagerness to make it to the office, where he spends his days sifting through the EU-NZ trade figures from about 1432 till the present day.

I need to get out more.

Posted by saint at August 24, 2004 10:15 PM | TrackBack