Ritual Food Friday

Your know, normally I prefer to work and study quietly in my own office. But Friday afternoon is different. Then, Hnaef and I like to pick up our laptops and walk - we like to quit our offices (which are, of course, hierarchical and so patriarchal and therefore bad symbols of oppression) and "hot desk" into the Open Plan.

The "Open Plan" is the area about half the size of my office, wherein work Burton, Jenni the Community secretary, Barb the COO of Mrs Whimsey's Doilies plc and of course Charlii. Ever alert to such issues, Charlii knows that  if there's anything confidential to discuss in a pastoral role, she should ensure her visitors speak quietly. Especially this week, when she's doing a cut-rate special for counselling people with unusual and embarrassing urges.

But on Fridays, the lower-ranking people of the Open Plan have a ritual almost religious in its intensity. They bring in stuff. Doughnuts, cheese straws, chocolate, tortilla chips - every low-value, high-calorie food you can imagine. All "because it's Friday". So it would be churlish not to join in. Or "eat free stuff", to put it another way. Good grief, it's barely 5 o'clock and I've eaten six custard doughnuts already.

Obviously, now we're full of cheap calories we'll be off back to our offices. Give the lower ranks too much white sugar and they become ever so noisy. And Marston's just come in to "share" his mental-image problem with Charlii. And frankly I'm prepared to wait for the book on that one.