The day dawned bright and sunny – or at least, I think it did. To be honest, by the time it was properly light I was already in the back of a taxi, halfway to Chaengwattana. I do remember thinking it seemed to stay darker later than usual, but maybe that was just my skewed perception, having been awake since quarter past four. I’d set the alarm for 5 o’clock, but my brain decided to wake up that extra bit early just to be on the safe side.
Why so early? Well, we were all under strict instructions to be there by seven thirty at the very latest to get through the security checks. Being located inside a huge shopping centre, it does make sense logistically and security-wise to hold the ceremony before the centre opens to the public at eleven. Which still doesn’t really explain why we needed to be there at least an hour and a half before the princess was due to arrive at nine. Further instructions included wearing BC and Central ID at all times (us) and to have your passport/ID ready for inspection on the door (everybody). Nuainee also reckoned my plan to leave the heels at work overnight and change into them when I got there was a non-starter – ‘Maybe they’ll be checking dress code at security’, she whispered.
Though I did reason that if they threw me out for dress code violations, my lesson plan would be walking out with me – literally, in fact, as I don’t think I ever actually wrote it down.
Anyway, heaving myself out of bed and slamming the air-con on to max to ensure the tights went on with a minimum of stickiness, I have to admit to being quietly pleased with the overall ensemble. I was even more relieved when the heels successfully carried me out of the flat, into the lift and down the drive onto Ladprao Road. Nevertheless, the slingbacks were in my bag ready to change into afterwards.
Arriving outside Central Chaengwattana, the security seemed to be gathering in the form of (amongst others) a whole troop of uniformed police listening to their instructions. They took no notice of me as I tottered past and round to the side entrance in the loading bay. Neither did the Central security staff sitting there. And a little while later, Russell walked straight in through the main entrance at the front without anyone batting an eyelid either. Hmmm…
Up on the seventh floor there was plenty of activity already (6.45am) – albeit most of it involving head office staff sitting around the staffroom, chatting, drinking coffee, and in one inexplicable case, suddenly pulling out the spare chair from the side of my desk (where Duncan and I had thrust it in a fit of pique a few days earlier to stop it getting in our way), pushing and pulling it, fiddling with the arm a bit, and then just abandoning it there in the middle of the room.
By the by, the chair arms are a constant irritant for the male Chaengwattana staff, being allegedly impossible to fix in position for more than an hour or so – our days are punctuated by the sound of Russell trying to adjust his. Mine, on the other hand, have stayed solidly in place ever since I first fixed them there back before Christmas; even once, just to prove my point when the other two were complaining again, taking my entire weight without a flicker of movement!
Duncan, Russell, Nuainee and the girls hadn’t arrived yet, so not really having anything better to do I wandered into Classroom 1 to start setting up. (I’d pulled the short straw and was getting to do my demo lesson in the Goldfish Bowl, though that also meant I did get to see some of the ceremony.) The security guard, who had probably been in there all night, smiled sheepishly at me, moved his stuff off the desk and wandered out.
We’d had to have security in overnight because the alarm system had had to be disabled to allow the doors to be changed round so that they opened inwards rather than outwards – more respectful and polite, apparently.
I switched on the computer and started loading up the flipchart. And discovered that Internet Explorer was still the default web browser, and there was no sign of Google Chrome anywhere on the machine. Now, I’m sure there’s nothing inherently that bad about IE, but back in the staffroom the day before, I knew, everything worked just fine on Chrome, and today was not the day to trust to fate. Luckily, just then I heard Russell’s voice in the corridor, so I went out to catch him to do a little last minute installation (being only a mere teacher, I don’t have administrator’s rights on the classroom computers).
He saw me coming towards him, and … ‘Waaaay!’… which I think meant The Princess Outfit had got the boss’s seal of approval. As it should. Hell, I was even wearing lipstick.
Dealing with technical hitches seems to have become a major part of his job description, so having sorted Chrome out for me, he did then look a little panicky when he noticed the projector was flashing up the message ‘No source found’ on the screen. ‘Is that a problem?’ he asked. ‘Nah, it always says that’, I said and jiggled the pen against the board to get rid of the screensaver. He sighed, grinned, and went off to fret about the fact that (a) there was still no sign of Duncan, and (b) the computer in Duncan’s room didn’t seem to be working at all.
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