The Chairman goeth....

As ships, passing in the night.....

I didn't really see much of the notorious 'Chairman' during his recent visit: he spent most of his time catching up with local friends, and sorting out a new teaching contract for next semester. This was a process which entailed him spurning the rather excellent Christmas lunch party I'd wangled him an invitation to, because his new employer had supposed that Christmas day would be an ideal time for him to trek miles out of town for a contract-signing session; and The Chairman, who suffers (but in some ways also benefits) from being excessively meek and malleable in dealing with the locals, unaccountably omitted to tell him where to shove it. Galling for me, to say the least; but I am, sadly, quite used to it by now. This is the essence of 'Chairmanliness': you have take the bad along with the good.

Even when we did get to hang out together, a combination of heavy drinking and extreme fatigue (and more the latter, to be honest) has obscured my memory of whatever may have transpired. The poor Chairman, exhausted from his recent working schedule, fell asleep sitting bolt upright in a noisy bar at around 10.30pm on his first night.... and that pattern was often repeated by one or other or both of us throughout the weekend: having a 'quiet night in' on Christmas Eve, we tried to watch a film and a football game on TV, but neither of us made it through to the end!

I missed his departure also. Strange, because I almost never sleep in beyond 7am - and am often awake at 5am or 6am, regardless of how late I may have turned in - but on this occasion I snoozed heavily until nearly 10am, and rose to find that he had already slunk off stealthily to the airport for his return flight.

It was almost as though he had never been here. Except that he inadvertently 'stole' my toothbrush.....