So I'm back in the swing of working in an office again, and even though it's physically a long way from where I'm used to working, I'm learning that offices are the same everywhere. The same types of characters seem to exist in every workplace. An odd one I've noticed is the person you vaguely know, and only ever talk to about one subject. All your conversations are somehow limited to one thing you've got in common, and never seem to alter - so much so that you notice that person coming your way and immediately start thinking of that topic to prepare yourself.
In this office, that person is another Brit, and our subject (predictably) is sport. He came up to me this morning and said 'So I see England lost in the rugby again'. I completely threw him by replying that I don't like rugby, and it didn't matter to me if England lose (sorry Dad). But we rallied by talking about cricket and Rovers somehow scoring three goals in a game on Saturday. After that, he left.
It's a strange way to talk with someone - I remember when I used to work in a food distribution warehouse and the man in charge of where the deliveries had to be left was a real angry type - especially with us students. He used to moan at us for leaving anything in the wrong place, until one day he suddenly mentioned that his hobby was keeping tropical fish. I told him about my fishkeeping background, and he never shouted at me again - from then on all we talked about was fish.
