A Bad Taste

Some of you may be aware that there was something of an upset in the first round of the Gentlemen's Singles tournament yesterday, with Rafael Nadal going down in straight sets to Steve Darcis. When I saw the below tweet, I couldn't help but think that 30-1 was not that great a price. I seldom trade tennis, but I did see that on the Exchanges 1.01 had been matched for six figures, as well as all prices north. 

The excellent Betting Expert web site has an excellent Wimbledon preview which shows that just 7 men's singles favourites priced at sub 1.11 have lost in the past five years which, all things being equal, means that 30-1 backer was lucky this time, but not the sharpest of minds.

Yesterday was also my first day back at work after a few days off, and I noticed that I was being treated with a lot more respect than I remembered.

I'd hardly walked through the door when I heard "May I get you a coffee Signor Cassini?" As I was about to sit down at my former desk, the Chairman appeared, slapped me on the back with much exuberance and asked me to follow him to the executive floor where he showed me my spacious new office with a corner window view. Still in a state of some shock, he went on to explain that sometimes misunderstanding arise in business, and he hoped that I wasn't one to bear grudges, because "we're all one big family, and we want everyone to be happy".

It was all very strange. At lunch time, I wandered down to the canteen to grab a bite to eat, and noticed several surreptitious glances in my direction, and colleagues appeared to pull their plates a little closer. As I sat down to join them. I noticed a new face at the table. When I introduced myself and asked his name and position, I thought at first he said he was a "tester".

Turns out he was the new "taster".

To cut an already long story short, before leaving on holiday I had been chosen for the Employee Spotlight feature for the June Newsletter, and had answered a few questions about my life including interests outside the office. With sports and investing taking up much of my free time, I felt it necessary to mention the subject and that I enjoyed writing about various related topics.

It seems that in the process of formatting the Newsletter, the ditsy secretary had felt the need to make a rather crucial edit, resulting in the sentence nonchalantly mentioning that I had been published in newspapers, magazines and on web sites reading:

...with articles on subjects as diverse as the weather, football, running, cycling, basketball and poison distribution.

Based on a true story. At least she left my rather humorous pet hate of "improper use of apostrophe's" as intended.