I was completely astonished by this news - the past week at work

Above: we walked there (down to Piccadilly, and down Waterloo Place, and past the pink granite Duke of York’s column, and down the Duke of York’s steps, and onto the Mall, and left into the square).

Monday

I sat at my desk and idly wondered what I should do with the day. The weather outside was warm, but because the central heating has been turned off the offices felt cold. Pete (my so-called assistant) asked me to look over his CV, so I assume he is thinking of leaving.

In the afternoon we had the weekly sales meeting. While I was seconded upstairs I had forgotten how dreary these meetings were. Advertising is supposed to be the barometer of the economy, so our continued expansion shows… what exactly? The message from Terry (our MD, who wasn’t present at the meeting) was that we needed to become a “360° agency”. Ian said we were too dependent on traditional display advertising and were missing out on digital opportunities. We are to recruit another designer to work full time on websites, since Paul is overloaded and Tony B hasn’t got the knack.

In the last two hours of the working day I quickly put together a presentation for a new client (entertainment complexes). I recycled a previous presentation, and to please Ian put in lots of digital options (micro-sites and the like). I had been putting off writing this presentation for days, and had to cobble it together in a rush.

Tuesday

Paul came back to work, looking sheepish. No trace of any limp. No-one mentioned his accident.

In the morning a new client came to look around the agency. Kate brought her in, Ian showed her around, and the three of us then took her to lunch at a nearby pub. In the same pub Alan (director, mid-50s, shambling, sarcastic and not very clean) was talking animatedly and in a very tactile way to a pretty young woman none of us had seen before (surely not a girlfriend?).

In the afternoon I gave the presentation to the entertainment complexes company. I was conscious that at several points I was bluffing my way through. For such sceptical people I was surprised at the way they fell in with my ideas (“Don’t let the symbolism obscure the narrative” one of them told me).

Wednesday

Horrible day. I persuaded one of my clients to advertise in an expensive (in terms of media space) magazine and I learned this morning that the magazine has closed. No-one is sure how many of the magazines were distributed last month, which would explain why the client hasn’t had many calls. To make things worse, I bought the space myself, so I can’t even blame the media buyers for not asking the right questions. The advertising sales reps at the magazine were probably aware the of the rocky situation when they sold me the space. I had to ring the client up and say: “I’m afraid some problems have arisen…”

Thursday

Very quiet day.

Freelance Joey came in to take a brief from Alan, and afterwards stood by my desk chatting. Kate was sitting at Pete’s desk opposite (this was lunchtime when Pete was out the back with the five-a-side team). We all complained of feeling cold.

Out of the blue Joey said: “Is Pete having an affair with Sarah?” (office receptionist, aged about twenty, very slim build, orange hair, natural complexion, girlfriend of Ben - photographer and Ian’s son).

“Isn’t it obvious” Kate said, “and right in front of Ian as well.”

I was completely astonished by this news.

Friday

In the morning I visited BQW, showing them the aerial photographs just taken of their new site near Watford.

In the afternoon I had to go back to BQW to collect some artwork they want us to store. I took Anne with me to help carry it all (Anne is one of Sheila’s admin staff, aged early twenties, considerably overweight, black-rimmed glasses, black curly hair, pleasant personality but inclined to argue over things that don’t matter). We walked there (down to Piccadilly, and down Waterloo Place, and past the pink granite Duke of York’s column, and down the Duke of York’s steps, and onto the Mall, and left into the square) and got a taxi back with all the redundant artwork - which I am sure no-one will ever ask for again.