Even though it was now over a week since the football tournament Percy Pottersgate was still not a happy MD this Friday morning. Gavin Galloway had phoned him at least twice every day to gloat about Galloway Gloss winning the Midland Paints trophy, again. Sidney at least was still being claimed a star for his brave goalkeeping in the semi-final. Sidney had been feeling quite jolly all week as he was still remembering his date with Hannah Harper and was also delighted that Peter Pottersgate would not be returning to Pottersgate Paints after his own goal. Sidney was also very pleased that all of his requests for members of the SharePoint Project Team had been agreed including Hannah Harper. The only part that Sidney didn’t like was the decision that Gwen Gardner, the cigar smoking PA, would also be on the Project Team.
The first meeting of the new SharePoint Project Team yesterday was a big success. The Action SharePoint Consultant led a three hour Admin Training course to start with that even Gwen Gardner seemed to enjoy. They were all impressed at how easy the Action SharePoint man added a video of the latest Pottersgate Paint TV advert to one of the SharePoint sites. Although, Sidney did wonder why he had never seen any of the three glamorous looking ladies in the advert walking around the site? He decided not to comment as Hannah Harper was sitting quite near. The Training Department team member, Tonia Toothpick, was very taken with the ease in which she was able to create a ‘Trainee Feedback’ survey which even allowed her to ask extra questions depending on previous answers. Some of the other Project Team though created slightly more informal surveys. One did a survey on holiday plans and Gwen Gardner, scarily, did one rating the hunkiness of the male employees at Pottersgate Paints. Interestingly the survey created by Hannah Harper was on recent visits to the cinema.
Sidney had really enjoyed his date with Hannah Harper watching Shrek in 3D, despite having a rather swollen and squashed nose after his goalkeeping save. It made him sound like Melvyn Bragg off the South Bank Show, but Hannah seemed to take pity on him. She even called Sidney her hero for his heroic save even though she was slightly puzzled why he hadn’t told her he was playing in the 5-a-side tournament. With his disfigured nose Sidney did struggle keeping the 3D glasses on but this just made Hannah smile more. They even shared a tub of strawberry cheesecake ice cream. Sidney was slightly concerned that a few drops of blood from his nose had fallen into the ice cream but decided not to say. Hannah just said how nice the strawberry sauce was.
After the SharePoint Training session the Action SharePoint chap led the first real Pottersgate Paints SharePoint Project Team meeting. Even though Gwen Gardner refused to be minute taker, everyone had their say. It was clear that the Action SharePoint Consultant had done this kind of thing lots of times before. He was able to answer all of their questions including the continual worry from Quinton Quigley, the Quality Manager, about security. In the end Quinton Quigley was satisfied that confidential documents would in fact be more secure under SharePoint than they were on the desktop of his laptop. He was also delighted that the document control part of SharePoint would help the Pottersgate Paints’ ISO 9001 inspections.
The SharePoint meeting had finished with a discussion over the name they should give to the new SharePoint system at Pottersgate Paints. Ideas included ‘PottersPoint’ and ‘Pottersgate Resource and Training Site (PRATS)’, but in the end it was decided to make the choosing of the name a competition for all of the staff.
Just after lunch on Friday all the Pottersgate Paints SharePoint Project Team members met in the car park ready to have a group photograph taken for the company magazine ‘Pottersgate Paints News’. Sidney was quite excited because he had never been in the magazine before. He was also thinking that perhaps he could arrange it so he was standing next to Hannah Harper. He noticed that Hannah looked particularly lovely today in her black and white skirt. The official company photographer was Simon Snapper and he got the job because he owned the biggest camera. His photography skills didn’t really match his impressive equipment though and his nervous twitch often resulted in some surprising pictures. He also had a habit of cutting people’s heads off. Percy Pottersgate had not been over impressed at the opening of the Perry Barr site when Simon Snapper managed to cut the head off the Duke of Kent on the official photograph. Simon Snapper spent ages trying to position the SharePoint Project Team and just as he had them in the right place Gwen Gardner announced that she was going to go in the centre and pushed in the middle of Sidney and Hannah. Gwen Gardner had obviously planned her outfit for the photograph and was wearing a large hat with a feather on. It was certainly not what she normally wore to work even on dress-down Fridays. The feather was just in front of poor Sidney’s face. It started to tickle his nose and he felt the need to sneeze. He tried to hold it back but just as Simon Snapper finally started taking the photograph Sidney gave an almighty sneeze.
Just as Sidney was leaving the car park he was tapped on the shoulder by Gwen Gardner.
“We have a fourteen year old on work experience for the next two weeks and she’ll be spending it with you in IT”, Gwen Gardner informed Sidney.
Sidney’s heart sank as he knew how draining it can be entertaining a child on work experience. He asked for a name.
“Penelope Pottersgate. Percy’s granddaughter”, Gwen replied sternly just before taking a cigar out from her handbag.
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