What the Helvetia's Going On??

Just confirming all's well, in case either of my readers (including myself) has been wondering where AgingChild has gotten off to. Still here! And, no; no special trips or events for Memorial Day, taking me away from the computer – stupid to head out and try to hit any beach, or campground, on so big a holiday weekend. I stayed home!

The last couple weekends (that's the lion's share of my online time, and composition time) have seen me doing mundane – but demanding – household stuff. I won't bore you with the details and frustrations of an underskilled forty-something man trying to strip wallpaper, then patch, sand, and paint the wall… after painting a stucco-y ceiling. Doctor says the operation was a success; hallway looks much better… lacking only white-gloss trim where now we still have <shudder> something like cranberry. Nice light-blue spot-pattern on the carpet, too.

Meanwhile, on the work front: our department (~20 people, from Director on down through senior managers, team leads, consultants, to yours truly: chief bottle- and cork-washer) gets together for about an hour once a month to mark individual achievements and milestones. In the past we've convened on- and offsite (e.g., restaurants), and noted new and leaving employees, birthdays, a home purchase, pregnancies (quite a number for a small group, and that just since I joined a couple years ago… but this is only coincidence; look up post hoc ergo propter hoc sometime), and other professional and personal life-events.

The host/emcee/ringleader of this event changes each month… and this month it fell on my scrawny shoulders. I kept this one onsite; and since we're an internationally focused group (within a big, worldwide corporation), I asked everyone to bring in some kind of international snack (wisely scheduling our milestone event an hour or two after lunch). So we had Italian sodas, something like a giant, Twinkie-like caramel roll from Peru, I brought in Japanese sesame (?) hand-snacks and shrimp crackers, boss Mick brought – check this out – Armenian string cheese, and so on.

During this past week, most of my at-home online time was focused on downloading and cropping images of stamps from various (select) countries around the world (no time for the blogging I wanted to do). The kicker to them was that not all of them were from readily-identifiable countries. Yes, yes; we know Republique Française, Deutschland, Repubblica Italiana. But what's RSA? Éire – ah; Ireland. CCCP? The former Soviet Union. Now try Republika Hrvatska, Lietuva, Slovensko, and (my favorite) Shqiperia.

My objective was to exercise staff expertise, and also remind all OF us that meanings to everyday objects are sometimes far less than evident, especially for those of us working in other countries. (One thing our department does involves direct contact with corporate expatriates.) I also had in mind to post those images of stamps around the conference room, but we ended up commandeering a nice patio terrace instead.

Thus in the great, welcome sunshine and fresh air, I held up magnified image after image, inviting everyone (while they were munching and sipping) to figure out which country had issued that particular magnified stamp. Bosnien-Hercegovina, Côte d'Ivoire, Sverige, Norge… 'most everyone got them... even trick-countries like Siam, Abu Dhabi, and Canal Zone were no great challenge. And I was surprised a couple folks didn't blink at "Helvetia" before shouting out that that's Switzerland.

The Director and a couple of his senior managers (Mick in particular) did exceptionally well on this little impromptu group-quiz… but even he couldn't identify Shqiperia as Albania. That was also a surprise to me… and to him afterward, since he's familiar with the Leke, their unit of currency.

Also, among announced departures: both Ben and Hugo are headed out! Ben will be leaving the company after next week, working in Washington DC, where as a technology manager for a particular firm, he will be running the rollout, and subsequent maintenance, of their new HR software/database system. I asked him if he could forward me an email address once he settles in, so I could keep his pun-wit sharp. "Sure," he answered brightly, it's Up.Yours@BiteMe.com." (Pardon me there.)

And a week or two after Ben leaves, Hugo will be transferring to a different department in our corporation, this one (very numbers-focused; he's well suited) in another, though not distant, location in the greater DC-Baltimore area.

So, alas, there will be far fewer groans among us left behind – although Aurelio and Priscilla have been practicing filling the void. In fact, last week Priscilla asked me whether she'd properly affixed an odd-shaped stamp on an outbound letter; I assured her she had, and that there was nothing to worry about. Still, she was apologetic about having to ask. "You know me," she said; "I'm just clueless about these things. I'm always pushing the envelope."