You know how this works. Someone in your team goes away somewhere nice on holiday, and they bring back some sweets or something for everyone else. Sometimes it’s just a nice bag of fruity chewy things they picked up at the airport, but there are people who take pleasure in bringing back something unusual that divides opinion.
In our team we have a side table where people sometimes put biscuits and other things to share. (We call it the calorie counter.) This week I came in to work after a few days off to discover it had several interesting things on it. But one of the oddities of working in a department where we all do shifts is that different people are in on different days, and by the time I arrived, there was nobody on shift who had any idea where this stuff had come from.
So I was left to examine it and see if I could work out what it all was. Here is what I found.
A bag of red lollipops, “Lick-It!” brand. The flavour is just listed as “sour”.
I’m not big on sour sweets but our Kate is so I took a couple for her. These didn’t seem to have been popular so I didn’t feel like I was depriving anyone of anything.
OK, next.
Something in a bag. The brand is “Ajmir Store: Snacks of the Legend”, and apparently these are a non-spicy variety of “round muruku”.
Hmm.
The internet says that muruku are a “South Indian round spiral shaped fried snack” made with rice flour. So these are just bland crunchy things that have been deep fried.
I expect they’re OK, but I’m fine thanks. Next.
More “Lick-It!” lollipops, but these ones are “energy drink” flavour. Bag has not been opened.
Hard pass. Next.
A plastic box, all other packaging or labelling discarded, greasy on the inside and containing three beige chunks of an unknown substance.
Presumably, if so many have gone, my colleagues liked these, but they had the benefit of knowing what the hell they were before diving in.
I am happy to leave these in their sticky nest and pass up on an international culinary experience.
As it stands the above items are still on the table and I expect they will still be there when I finish this run of shifts and then come back after my next days off. And if they are I will bin them, because it is my duty as a senior member of the department to show leadership.
Some people in my position inspire loyalty, fostering team spirit and cameraderie. Some pass on their knowledge to the generations that follow to grow new generations of expert engineers. Some have a genius for administration. Me? I think I’ve finally found my niche. I bin the snacks that everyone else is politely leaving alone.