blag

there are several skills i admire in people i have worked with over the years.
there is the ability some of them have to remember names and faces of people they have been introduced to in a meeting and then 6 months later greet them as if they were long lost friends. there are times when i have forgotten someone’s name during the meeting i meet them.
i also admire the skill a few have had to indulge in mindless small talk with people. this isn’t to say i don’t indulge in small talk, but i can only do it with people i know. i have watched people just strike up conversations with strangers, true much of the conversation is two people puffing themselves up and trying to convince the other person how important they are, but it is still a conversation. see me at an opening or a function and i could be auditioning to replace an easter island head.
but if there is one skill i admire and wish i had: it is the blag. the art of blagging – the getting of something free just by asking for it. it is true that over the years i have received a number of freebies, but i just don’t have the barefaced cheek to ask for it. i know several people who just ask, they don’t always get what they want, but they have no problem with the refusal nor do they have a problem with having to appear needy when they ask.
yet this weekend i sort of semi-indulged in a half-hearted attempt at a blag. what happened you ask?
well first of all i have to say it was a thing of beauty the item i was after: a fing fang foom heroclix figure. yowsa! but it went wrong. instead of a “you must be joking mate” (the long form version of no) or a “we might have one back at the office we can spare you” (which roughly translates to: no). no what i got was a monologue about how the company the guy worked for was unhappy with the company i work for. so the only thing i got was a snotty bollicking on behalf of the company (and my thanks? oh yeah i am being made redundant – but i am not at all bitter….. )

i wish i could say i don’t do the blag out of pride, but i have to admit i don’t do it because i can’t stand to be thought of as greedy.
i am so shallow.
but at least i know it.