A visit to the solicitor
One thing
was at least positive, it wasn’t a Zoom or Skype Business meeting, but a
meeting in person. As for virtual meetings, people working from home tend to
have their office in the most unlikely places, and so offer you an
unintentional peephole into their private lives, which seems to take away their
authority. Especially the bank employee who showed me his Ikea wardrobe
devalued his expertise. But today no handshake, no coffee or tea, but neither a
corona questionnaire to fill out, no temperature check and the use of handgel was
not compulsory. So far so good, and almost normal. Except for the elevator,
which was spacious but only two people at the time were allowed to use it. The
two sets of feet, or rather the soles of a pair of shoes in the two utmost
corners, fascinated me. It struck me that they were not facing the wall, but in
fact each other. How risky in these troubled times! And was that really 1,5
meters, diagonally? Standing there alone, I wondered if I still had to stand on
one of those pairs of shoes, or if it was fine to stand in the middle and
ignore the stickers.
I was shown
into the office and told to sit on the far side of a big, round conference
table. My solicitor sat down opposite me, with a Perspex screen between us
across the diameter of the table. It looked as if we were going to play a game
of table tennis, the only difference being that the net now was a screen. Well, we talked about the usual things
solicitors and their clients talk about, which almost always ends with the signing
of important looking documents, full of jargon which only lawyers can interpret.
But if I did not understand each and every word or phrase, I know what it all
meant and implied. The signing was the interesting part. Instead of handing me
the papers, a game of shuffleboard began. The solicitor would slide his papers to
me through the gap beneath the screen, with a nice swing of his arm, trying to
give it exactly the correct amount of speed to land in front of me. After
signing I swung it back. My swing was far better and the documents really gathered
speed. In a flash I was back on the bank of a lake in the Rockies, throwing
pebbles across the surface of the water. Always fun, although I must admit I am
not really good at it. I could not suppress a smile. This process with the
documents was repeated a few times, and it was fun. Fun which one usually doesn’t
associate with a solicitor’s office. I wondered if I should pocket the pen used
to sign he documents. There was a mug full of pens and mine might be contaminated.
In the end, I decided against it.
I came out
a very happy person. The sun was shining, the air cool and very pleasant, and
the world was a good place.
On my way
back home I had to get some cash – cash is a rare thing nowadays as we have to
pay electronically almost everywhere for fear of passing on the virus via our
money -, and buy some bread for lunch. On an impulse I bought a delicious small
cake as well, with mousse, and fruit, and a yoghurt cream. After all, what else
can one celebrate during this long and endless lock down but a game of
shuffleboard?
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