(aka Bike) Part 2029 by Angharad Copyright © 2013 Angharad
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The meal was very nice, though I refrained from any alcohol and declined an overnight stay. Drink isn’t that important to me. Instead I had an elderflower presse, which was delicious.
We chatted about our work, our families–mine with myriad children–got a few curious looks. The Harringtons were much more conventional, two point four children and a lop eared rabbit. They had two daughters who were familiar with their father’s ‘foible’ as Norma put it and who didn’t seem to be anything than normal. She welcomed it because, while he was a tartar in the board room, he was a pussy cat in the house and did much of the chores. He prepared and cooked the meal.
I tried to move things off my life, sticking to the dormouse film and my children to keep the probes off me.
“So you’re married to Simon Cameron? Sorry, I just twigged,” said Pru. “I’ve known him for years, though he’s calmed down in recent years and is an even tougher negotiator than he was. I remember telling him so after we’d agreed a deal–his bank was funding something or other–and he said, be careful or I’ll get the wife to negotiate the next deal, she makes me look like an amateur. Are you as fearsome as your reputation?”
I blushed to the roots of my hair. I also made a mental note to kill Simon at the first opportunity. The wife, indeed. “I don’t think so,” I managed to splutter.
“Wasn’t it you who stopped the equipment being stolen by that gang, the one with the huge bloke?”
“I thought we were going to discuss the university board?” I flung the largest spanner I could find into the direction of what I hoped was the works.
Either it wasn’t or my aim was worse than I thought because Norma said, “Goodness no, your crime fighting is so much more interesting.” I hope they don’t get onto the mysterious healer–then I will rush out screaming.
The upshot was we spent the next hour talking about one or two of the things I got involved in, including the timber thefts in the woodland. Then, I was exposed.
“It’s you on the you tube clip with the dormouse, isn’t it?” Pru had suddenly remembered it–don’t know why, I’d shown it at the beginning of my documentary and admitted it was me.
“Cathy wrote and directed that film,” Norma informed her spouse.
“What the you tube one?”
“No, you old tart, the dormouse documentary.”
“Ah, gotcha. Not just a pretty face, then?”
“Where d’you buy your dresses–that one has such a pretty pattern?” I tried to run some interference.
“This old thing?” said Pru.Ebay, I think.”
“It fits you very well,” I said trying to keep the conversation away from my Batman and Robin days.
“So it should,” said Norma, “he’s got padding round his bum, and a corselet thing, plus the bust padding.”
The use of the male pronoun annoyed me, the person sitting opposite me was presenting as female so I tried to accord them that status, at least when talking to them. “Don’t you find it rather warm?” I asked.
“The wig was the hottest bit, so I was glad to grow my own hair and be able to ditch it.”
“How d’you manage in ordinary life?”
“Oh I just slick it back with gel, look a bit like Heseltine.”
“Who?”
“Goodness, that makes me feel old, girl.” Pru looked sad for a moment. “Lord Heseltine, previously Michael Heseltine, a Tory cabinet minister and deputy Prime Minister, helped to bring down Thatcher.”
“That one I have heard of,” I confessed.
“Well seeing as they practically closed London to bury her a few weeks ago, you should have heard of her.”
“She didn’t do anything for women, did she?” I suggested, though my history was vague in this period, so I was repeating what I’d read in the Guardian. I suspect the Daily Telegraph would have had a different perspective.
“Unless you accept role model,” suggested Norma.
“Not one I’d follow,” I defended my original statement.
“She didn’t, pet,” agreed Pru.
Norma shrugged. She looked at her watch, “We’d better do the business stuff as Cathy has to get home.”
“Very well, why don’t you adjourn to the study and I’ll bring you in some coffees?”
“Thank you, darling. This way, Cathy.”
For the remaining hour of my visit, we drank very mellow Columbian coffee and discussed the board of the university. It seemed that the majority were men who saw women as unwelcome intruders, except the vice chancellor–the ex-bishop who considered quotas important and enforced them. Consequently, there were two women and eight men on the board, plus the vice chancellor. I suppose without the quota there’d be no women at all.
She showed me minutes and told me what really happened in the meeting–hardly recognisable from the minutes. I wasn’t sure I really wanted anything to do with this group of sociopaths whose primary aim appeared to be boosting their empires or egos.
“I was under the impression that many university types were lefties, you know paid up sandal wearing Guardian readers?”
“Ah, those with a genuine concern for improving young minds probably are. If they stick to teaching, they’re okay, once they see what everyone else is up to, they tend to resign and retire to a monastery to cultivate turnips or they succumb and join the capitalist elite, or think they have.”
“Which group were you in?” I asked candidly.
“I was a fence sitter who kept her ammunition dry until it suited me to take sides or fight both of them.”
I nodded.
“I like to think I kept my integrity, which meant I was frequently sidelined. It’ll happen to you as well; so pick your battles, girl and keep your integrity.”
“I feel less and less happy to be nominated–I just don’t like dealing with such a roomful of tossers.”
“Which is why you have to get the place.”
“But I’ll be a voice in the wilderness?”
“So, someone might hear you, and you can retaliate.”
“How?”
“Through the bank. Let them find out just who you are for themselves, once they do, they’ll become very attentive. If they mess you about, chuck your weight around, squash one or two as examples, the rest will respect you better.”
“No thanks, I don’t think it’s for me.”
“Talk to Simon, see if he can change your mind–we need independent thinkers on that board–and we need women. You fit both groups, so get on there and start to reform them, I’m sure with your bank experience you’ll be able to handle them quite easily–some of them fancy themselves as entrepreneurs. They couldn’t sell water in the desert, but you, I think, will whip them into shape, especially if they find out who you really are.”
At this point I just held my breath.
“The caped crusader–well okay, capes are passé, perhaps the pashmina crusader?”
I left there half an hour after this conversation, my head buzzing with the effects of the discussion, the meal and the coffee. It was a long drive home, but not in actual miles.
Comments
Cathy could probably do some good
here she has the connections, though We know she is loath to use them.
Another excellent episode
Goddess Bless you
Love Desiree
Still sounds like a thankless job
... but somebody has to do it. Fact is it is probably the people who have the most integrity who avoid this type of thing so we wind up with a bunch of crap in these boards.
Kim
Have to agree
Sounds like the board needs Cathy but they'd never admit it and most likely will resist it.
Cathy, the Crusader?
What color spandex will she wear with Spike as her sidekick, and her archery set, as well as her legion of fellow Crusaders in school and at home?
May Your Light Forever Shine
She Will be Bored on the Board !
Trust me, I have tried and I know. This kind of group have their set ways and have all the decisions they are expected to make all sorted and decided long before they sit down to pretend to discuss everything - a couple of old farts sew it all up beforehand. Any poor girl allowed for appearance's sake to sit with them is (usually politely, these days) ignored, and they press on with what they have already decided or just do not see any reason to change anything. The only kind of people outside their clique they will listen to is an expensive outsider Consultant, who, because they are paying him more than they earn together to set them right, they feel that they HAVE to accept what He (rarely She) suggests.
You find this kind of situation in Industry, in Academe, in Local Govt. Probably in central government too, but as yet I have managed to avoid finding out there for sure, but I doubt they are any better, probably much worse even ! Now I am too old to expect people to listen to me, I will, luckily, never find out now !
Briar
Perhaps,
but it is possible she will spice things up, making their lives more interesting (in a Chinese sort of way)!
Cathy must be feeling...
a little pressure, So many people all wanting a slice of her time, Maybe she needs to got to a quiet place think things through properly and decide where her heart really lies, Trying to please everyone is not something in my experience that is very satisfactory and will ultimately end in her not performing to the high levels she has set herself , Something which Cathy would not be very happy about ..
Kirri