Graham was a trainee on the section. He was a simpering sop with a military obsession. Not as in being a member of the Territorials, but just obsessed by military. He was the only person outside Defence Divisions on the circulation for Jane's Weekly. And was proud of that fact. He had applied twice to be on Defence Division, the biggest in the office, and had twice been turned down. (I on the other hand specifically stated that I didn't want to be on Defence).
Graham had a fiancee called Helen and they were due to be married in the December. Repeatedly, he would simper, "Helen's so looking forward to the wedding; it's going to be her Big Day." I got the impression that neither Helen nor Graham were at all aware that marriage isn't about the Big Day, but about lifetime (give or take) of commitment.
He was also obsessed by public schools. Repeatedly, he told me that Haileybury was his 'favourite' public school. Eventually, I said, "So you went to Haileybury, then?" Turns out he had been to some good-enough comp in Hampshire.
He decided to leave and go and work for one of the firms. Our manager really couldn't understand why. He would have to delay his P2 for a year, and have to study in his own time, rather than on block release. And for no better money. John did suggest he should complete his training at our place and then move to the firm for much moolah on qualification.
He asked John for a reference. "Sure," said John, "you write it, then email it to me." Rather than emailing it to John, he emailed it to the whole of Unit B, some two hundred people - he thought he would find John's email address by looking in the Unit B 'menu', which was actually the Unit B group address. Panicking, he ran into me, asking what he should do, so I showed him how he could retrieve the email. It was absolutely hilarious watching people gradually sending read receipts as the system slowly chugged away at deleting it.
Later in the afternoon various people smelt wine on our section and discovered various spurious reasons to visit us. Each and everyone asked John for a reference, on the basis that he had given Graham a really nice one.
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