Tuesday 7 May 2013

Babies

Hello. My name is Kostas Economides and I am a lecturer in the Department of Economics at the University of the South of England (USE for short). Well, actually that is not true really as the names of individuals and institutions in this blog have been changed to protect the innocent - and the guilty!

I had an email today from Molly with a spreadsheet attached showing the times and places that I would have to invigilate exams that are due to start next week. To my surprise I saw that I was down to take four sessions, not just the two that I was expecting. I immediately phoned Molly to ask why.

"Well", she said, "we've got three members of staff unavailable so I'm afraid hat the rest of you will just have to do more sessions. When I enquired who it was that is unavailable I was told that Patrick Murray has now been signed off with health problems. He had been made to go to see the doctor in Occupational Health who had diagnosed stress. I just about suppressed a snorted laugh. "And who else is off?" I asked. "Your two fellow Greeks, Petros Petropoulos and Dimitris Samaras. They are both on paternity leave as their wives are both about to have babies. They are back in Greece with them until the end of the month."

"Wow" They timed that well. I hope they will be back in time to mark their exam papers. I don't fancy having to cover for them on that as well."

"Timing is everything" said Molly. "Don't forget that this means that they were both conceived during last summer's holiday period. See, if only you were married you could have done the same!"

I wasn't going to get into a discussion with Molly about my love life so I thanked her for the explanation and put down the phone

Babies. No, I might be happy to have a girlfriend but I am definitely not ready for babies yet. All those disturbed nights and nappies to change!

No comments:

Post a Comment