I sang a song today on company time

We made up a song today to creatively demonstrate how to cut a paper cross with just one straight slice of the scissors; I wrote the lyrics while other people worked out how to do the presentation. I may put the lyrics in here later, but the song was Jingle Bells.

The best part of the last three days

Today six other people and I gave a presentation to a bunch of our fellow managers that I call "Mother Goose and the Our Company Name Here Fairytales." In this we presented three stories, told panto style, showing how we had come up with solutions for actual problems people in our group were facing. First was "Cinderella," in our case the ugly step sisters versus Buttons (representing a bullying episode): the "fairy God manager" came by and split up the mean girls and told "Buttons" that he'd be best working on helping himself.

Second was "Beauty and the Beast." Our Beast was a person a year away from retirement who was making the department a depressing place to work because of her attitude. "Beauty" came by and saw the inner nature of the beast: a bored woman who'd probably enjoy being given some challenges and a bit more respect for her seniority. We'll see if our guess in any way matches up to reality.

The final act was "Snow White and the Four Dwarves," who in this case didn't "tidy the cottage, make their beds, or get their status reports turned in on time." Snow White originally couldn't see the dwarves ("Look behind you!" we shouted) and, when confronted, they all denied they weren't doing what they were supposed to ("Oh no we don't!" they said. "Oh yes you do!" she replied). Snow White was going to give them all clearer deadlines and reward the team with "a trip to the castle for a fancy dinner" if they made all of their targets. "Watch out for poisoned apples!" I warned them as the presentation ended. (I played Mother Goose.)

This was really the silliest thing I've done in months and months, and I was paid to do it as part of my managerial training. Thank God I was working with a group of silly , bored, and unchallenged people who were looking to find a way to make this rather dreary afternoon a bit fun and were fully lacking in any sense of shame. We rocked the house and people loved it. I just can't imagine Americans doing anything like this. It was all recorded on people's camera phones; if it makes it on YouTube I'll be sure to let you all know.

I ended the day in a good mood and ran up to Islington to meet shadowdaddy and my uncle. We went to the Almeida to see In a Dark Dark House (which was pretty good but not brilliant like Fat Pig), then came home and discovered my theater blog has hit a new high - 313 hits today! I guess that means I have to feed the monkey and get tonight's show written up soon - must keep the visitors flowing!