17 January 2008

Hot and Bothered


By the sweat of your face
Originally uploaded by MrUllmi.
"Are you all right, Botogol?" asked the Head of Human Resources, Strategic Operations & Shared Services Division, EMEA (excluding Russia), for it was she, standing behind me in the queue at the Starbucks kiosk.

Absorbed as I was in my new mp3 player, on to which I have podcasted an entire week's programming from Radio 4, I hadn't noticed her.

On the one hand I was pleasantly surprised to hear evidently genuine concern from someone in Human Resources; on the other I was a little miffed at the implications. "Of course I am", I said, brightly, "I've been to the gym, is all. It just takes me a little while to cool down"

She appraised me suspiciously. It was 8:30am, I was outside without my coat and I was (OK, I concede it) a trifle pink.

As I smiled, a bead of sweat ran down the side of my face.

"Don't I look well?"

"To be frank", she said, not unkindly, "I thought you were having a diabetic induced hypo"

We stared at each other for a moment and the barista coughed, gently "Gingerbread, Cinammon Dolce Latte with a caramel shot?"

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