Chris (Dr.Petty) and Cleese

                                                                                                              

                                                                                                              
One of our first classes last week was the beloved,  The Writer's Craft with Dr.Chris Petty.  With his lovely English accent and surprisingly versatile sense of humour this is by far one of my favourite classes.  Why are you laughing? It is, seriously...Okay so it’s the English accent, nothing can sound bad with an accent like that...but i digress...After a brief lecture Dr.Petty played us a movie, or short film? I am certain that I was not the only one excited to see John Cleese's name in the opening credits (that’s right B-Easy).  Come on two English accents in one day…within the same hour? However was I supposed to learn anything? *sigh*

The movie/film titled, "Meetings Bloody Meetings" is a very creative, if dated (it was made in 1976) tutorial about how properly planned and organised meetings are the most effective methods of internal communications.  John Cleese depicts a mid-level manager with mediocre management skills.
How does this factor into my very eventful weekend you may ask? And if you didn't you should have...Well I was the ‘victim’ of a poorly planned meeting this past Sunday.  I lost a huge portion of my day in a meeting that had me literally ticking off everything that the participants were doing wrong to waste time...

Don't get me wrong I spent most of the meeting either laughing my head off, or chuckling under my breath, (while furiously recording the minutes).  This meeting was like going back home to the Caribbean and just watching my aunts prepare for a huge party or event.  Chaos always ensues.  This meeting, that should have been an hour and a half at the most, started at 1:30 p.m. and ran until 5:00 p.m. I kid you not...
Luckily being inundated with the loud, sing-song accents of these women transported me to my childhood, which, luckily for me is chock full of great memories of my extended family.  I found myself very homesick and after a while I revelled in the chaotic atmosphere. The bickering, joking around and endless interruptions, as well as, the total ignoring of the Agenda were something to behold.  But the piece de resistance has got to be when the Chairperson pulled out a projector and proceeded to show a slideshow of her recent trip to India, Germany and Italy, midway through the proceedings. 

Don't get me wrong I had a great day, good food, ridiculously intelligent, accomplished women with shared ethnicity and really interesting pictures, but I had only expected to be at the meeting for an hour at the most.  Needless to say, by the time it was over I barely got any groceries done. Why did I sit through this you may ask? Well, it was important that I not only showed up to this meeting, but also that I made a good impression by showing keen interest.  That’s what I am going with...the free food and dare I say, homey atmosphere obviously did not make an impact.

It’s not that I have never been to a meeting before but I am left wondering if it was because I had just recently seen “Meetings Bloody Meetings”, or if I was just having some kind of bizarre culture shock, that I even noticed all the time wasting that occurred. It’s been a while since I have been so completely immersed in my Island culture, could it be that  I have  assimilated to the North American culture  so much so that a  mere  dose of patois can bring forth all these startling revelations?

That being said I wait with bated breath for the next meeting…One of the ladies leaves for Israel next week ;).