Leaves on the way home

Same leaves, different day. This time there's a bonus view of my spotty work dress.

I have been multitasking and it is painful. I prefer to have just two or three 'main' things to do every day, but this is unrealistic - work calls for a lot more. Today I compiled a newsletter, while at the same time dealing with an endless stream of student enquiries. As well as this, I arranged a number of 'home' things like getting Mum a GP visit, getting both her and my central heating serviced, finally getting blasted gas and electric smart metres fitted. I did it because I had to, but towards the end of the day I could barely think.

Then just before home time, I was approached by a confused non-English mother tongue student who needed help to figure when exactly to pick up course notes. He showed me his phone, with an email from his tutor which read "I will leave the course notes in the library, no later than 21 October."

He looked at me and asked, "So are they there now?"

I opened my mouth to say something definite, but realised I had nothing. I went back and re-read the sentence a couple of times. After considering it for a few moments, I said, "They might be there now, or they might be there later." This didn't help him much, but I think it was the right answer. He looked disappointed so I said, "Come on, let's go see", and he followed me into the library, quietly repeating to himself in puzzlement, "no later than 21 October". The notes weren't there yet. The student asked, "When should I come back to check?" I wanted to say, "No later than 21 October" but realised this was absolutely the wrong answer. So I said, "Erm, dunno. Maybe 21 October. Or later."

But seriously though. That was a crap way to tell someone when to pick something up.