December was a busy time, with a couple of extra jobs needing to be done for a specific date.
Normally a little bit of time pressure is fine, but there was an additional complication to this cluster of jobs. They were all interrelated to such an extent that I had to be VERY careful to remember which client I was talking to!
It started simply enough, with a request from the members of a club squad (we’ll call him X!) for a special wedding gift for the groom, one of their squad mates. Then shortly afterwards things started to get busy when the Groom himself called and asked for a couple of blades to be painted, one each as gifts for his wife-to-be and for his best man.
Cue a bit of panic from Squad Mate X: “The groom is talking about a blade you are painting for him!” No need to worry, as I explained that the Groom was organising extra ones and that the surprise of the initial gift was not ruined. Squad Mate X was now working out how best present the first blade without clashing at the Reception with the presentation of the Groom’s gifts. All good.
Things progressed well (with various subterfuge in the background) until the day before the wedding when I got a confused note from another member of the rowing squad…
“I’ve been asked by the Best Man to help him with some blades, but this is not what I thought the squad had organised. Do you know what is going on?”
It seems the Best Man was organising a set of blades for a guard of honour after the ceremony (half from the groom’s club, half from the bride’s), but the squad rower had thought it was something to do with the painted blade.
I dealt with this completely calmly (not really) and managed to convey the basics along the lines of “don’t tell the Best Man, the Groom, or anyone else anything about any blades until you talk to ‘X’…”
Luckily, Squad Mate X was on the ball and managed to not only transport all the blades, but get them into the right hands, and keep the element of surprise for everyone.
And so the fairy tale wedding came off without a hitch, everyone got their blades, and they all lived happily ever after.
And I needed a strong drink!
Trophy Oars 