i testified about this on friday, but i'll write it here so that in the far-distant future i might look back and remember these things.
but as an aside, i have realised that what my teachers have been telling me from time immemorable (?) has been proven true on this blog: i don't know how to paragraph. my paragraphs are mini-essays in and of themselves, and are as easy to read as a bucketful of concrete.
and as another aside... i woke up at 3.30am on thursday morning and walked to my local 24-hour kopitiam on the off-chance that they might have been showing the Liverpool-Birmingham match on TV... they were. =) watched till nearly six before heading home and getting ready for work at 8. so fun!
it was friday morning, friday being yesterday at the point of this writing. i had come off a 5km run, my first in very long (i haven't been disciplined enough to run in recent weeks - just part of the overall disillusionment with army) and i had dropped by the gym for a short while after that... i was tired, and stoned out. i walked into office, and was greeted with a "Where's the speech file? Mr XXX (names hidden for fear of the ISA) is looking for the speech file".
context: Mr XXX is known locally as the angry old man - rather old, and gets angry easily. a high-ranked warrant officer well-trained in the art of shouting.
Seeing as the request was not put personally to me, i decided to ignore it and hope he would forget - a futile hope, considering past history, but a hope nonetheless. so i went about doing some other stuff which some other highly-ranked warrant officers had asked me to do, and settling some problems with a very-lost despatch driver, when dear Mr XXX pops in and demands "Where's the speech file?? Have you found it yet?? How long must I wait for you??" Aiming glares at every soul in the room, he disappears for some time. I message the filing clerk inquiring after this particular file, being not familiar with such things, and carry on with my other work.
As expected, shortly later Mr XXX pops in again and demands the file: "Fee Fie Fo Fum where is the speech file" (can't remember the exact words). Being truthful in general and also not very good at throwing smoke, i tell him truthfully that I have no idea what file he's talking about. and he gets angry "What?!?1 That's a very important file!! It contains xxxxx xxxx xxxx (etc) how can you all lose it?!! call XXX, call XXX see whether they know where it is, if not call XXX you all better find that file (etc etc etc)" So dutifully i call up all the respective XXX's, who either a)refer me to the wrong file (one which we've shown Mr XXX and been loudly rejected) or b) give me the verbal equivalent of the blank look (generally expressed as a long, drawn-out "huh??")
then pops in one of the guys, sent hither by Mr XXX looking for a certain document. and i went "A-hah! I know where this is!" and i went to my computer, checked my records, and found that the document should have been kept inside ZZZ book in the usual drawer. and so i went to flip open ZZZ book, and lo and behold the document was not there. and then i stared at the blank space for awhile. then i flipped through the book and found everything else in order, but for this missing document.
and then i look half-heartedly in all the various drawers, without much hope because i know my drawers fairly well, and i found nothing. and then i sat down to stare at the blank wall for awhile. and my friend enquired "What shall i tell Mr XXX?" and i told him to wait until i had gone and hidden somewhere, and then tell Mr XXX that it was not to be found.
and in despair and weariness I prayed, and said this: "Dear God, I have done all that I can, and I cannot find these things. Please help me to settle these problems." and i asked my friend to go away and ask someone else while i carried on looking.
so i considered the date of the document, and the events which were going on during that time, and i decided to look in a certain miscellaneous drawer, which is filled with all manner of things. and looking slowly, and without much energy, through the reams of stuff, i come across the document.
a short while later, one of the XXX's which i had called called back with a new suggestion: "Try this." (long detailed instructions follow) and i discover the long-lost speech file in a cabinet which i have never before opened (also discovering that it has been lost some six years so its really hardly my fault i don't know what it is)... seems quite miraculous to me. when the person couldn't think where it was before, but remembered after i prayed... how i went to look in exactly the right place for the missing document after praying.... such things are encouraging me greatly these past few days.
press in.
