Our Auggvvvvvvvvvvvfhjjjjjjjjj newsletter brought to you by Mister Clark the cat
Those of us who have never experienced working from home and always longed for the sort of job that means possibly avoiding hours of tedious commuting, dodging disputes over heating/the air con or enjoying the freedom of not wearing underwear(?!) may have discovered a new-found sympathy for those who regularly work from home. As many of us are now working from home, including the formerly office-based Solinear team, we are encountering new and interesting challenges during our working day.
Minor disturbances
Everything from minor disturbances such as a phone call or a knock on the door to take in a parcel for a neighbour, to more frustrating disruptions, for example lack of space/sharing a home office, dogs barking and, of course, the constant gravitational pull between you and the fridge.
Next level disruption
Then there’s next level disruption and a sage warning to avoid by anyone working in television – the two most unpredictable entities you need to consider whilst trying to maintain a professional persona – children and animals. Nowhere is safe and nothing is sacred.
Children
In 2017, Professor Robert Kelly’s home interview, via video link, with the BBC went viral when his two kids hilariously interrupted the proceedings. www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-39232538/bbc-dad-interview-with-robert-kelly-interrupted-by-children-live-on-air The look of hopelessness on Professor Kelly’s face, as he became resigned to the fact that the situation was out of control, was both excruciating and amusing. His fraught wife, who had been watching the interview in another room, could be seen crashing through the door to remove the children which all made for a perfect example of spontaneous slapstick comedy. Later, Professor Kelly would admit that he believed the BBC would be unlikely to interview him again. How wrong he was!
More recently, amongst the swathes of bulging bookcase backdrops accompanying lockdown interviews, have been some highly amusing interruptions. During a BBC interview Dr Clare Wenham tried to explained local lockdowns to viewers, despite her daughter, Scarlett’s best efforts to distract her. www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-53253549/this-is-most-informative-interview-i-ve-done-all-day
Animals
And Rojo the cat only partially appeared on a webcam during questions posed by SNP MP John Nicolson to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport but it was enough to temporarily halt a Parliamentary committee whilst everyone stopped laughing and composed themselves. www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-politics-53392371/john-nicolson-s-cat-s-tail-interrupts-subtitles-debate
Spare a thought for trade expert Sally Jones, when her pet cat pawed his way into her office whilst she was giving evidence to The EU Services Sub Committee via Zoom. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-politics-52925370/pet-cat-interrupts-lords-committee
Please don’t Zoom that
Pictured here is Mister Clark the cat; ever since he set paw in the house after being adopted from the RSPCA he’s proved to be quite a character with his tail perpetually curved over his back, his meerkat impression when trying to get a better view of something and his chattering and cheek flapping when he sees birds. He has fully embraced lockdown and his humans working from home as it means he can plead for food throughout the day, in between sleeps. Unlike his humans, he does not seem too concerned about his lockdown weight. If ignored/not fed, he interrupts whatever the humans are doing – at his worst he’ll bring something in from outside and drop it in the room so the human has to scrabble around trying to locate and liberate the poor creature back in to the wild but usually he’ll interrupt the human’s stream of thought by meowing, chewing wires, knocking things off tables and desks or walking on and laying on keyboards. Hence Mister Clark renaming the Solinear August newsletter – the Auggvvvvvvvvvvvfhjjjjjjjjj newsletter! Closing the door doesn’t help as he will scratch and paw at it until a human lets him in. As if Mister Clark isn’t enough to contend with, there is his accomplice, Monty. Monty prefers to meow a lot and
tap humans or wipe his nose on them if they ignore him and Monty is fond of displaying a close-up of his bottom to humans on Zoom prompting cries of “Yeeewwww”, “Urrgghhh” and “Please…no…!”
Mister Clark, Monty and their human are signing off now until the next newsssssssssddfffrrrttt (that’s newsletter, to you and me)
