Just after I got off the train with Ms Squeaky this morning I watched a bicycle courier get hit by a taxi outside my office. I double-checked my calendar to see if perhaps I was actually out of synch and today was Friday the 13th.

Got into work today to find that someone had stolen “my” desk (okay, we all work on hotdesks and they’re technically first-come-first-serve, but there’s a sort of unspoken rule that you don’t nick someone else’s desk if they generally sit there day-in, day-out). So not a good start.

Needed to have a client presentation ready for this afternoon, but my new secretary is still learning the ropes. Handed over the presentation for printing and binding — but didn’t realise that I needed to give her more explicit instructions than that. Fast-forward to an hour before the presentation: total pile of crap comes back from our graphics department (honestly, how hard can it be to print and bind ten copies of a presentation?). Sent a junior consultant off in a frenzy to put right what a secretary couldn’t. Kaizen, my ass. This was just-in-time production at it’s finest.

It was all alright on the night, though. The client came in, rolled over and let us scratch his belly. We gave him exactly what he wanted to hear and it looks highly likely that we’ll get the piece of work that we were bidding for. We saw his back leg jiggling — you know, the way it does when you scratch…just…the..right…spot!

So, for me, it was a pretty good day. Despite the fact that it was clearly a shit day for everyone around me.

And it ended where it started. Jumping on the 18:34 train to Dover Priory, I took my seat and started checking my e-mail. Mr. Self-Important-Banker (*not his real name, I suspect) got onto the train boasting a Bluetooth headset and an attitude. About three minutes into his “Buy! Buy! Sell! Sell!” call, he got the same mobile phone treatment as Ms Squeaky this morning.

Morale of this story: hell hath no wrath like a commuter annoyed.