Pricked bubbles

'Tell me about a time you've pricked someone's bubble.'

'You what . . . '

'Have you ever raised your head above the parapet?'

Ginny is doing her impression of a gawping goldfish. She finds her voice.

'Didn't you just want to get up and leave?'

'Yes, but I did want the job,' said Clive. 'I don't think I've ever pricked someone's bubble have I?'

He's relating the story of his latest job interview. Clive currently works for Very Big Computer Company. VBCC is undergoing some 'restructuring' which means Clive no longer has a job. But, it being too expensive to make Clive redundant, VBCC is trying to 'place' him elsewhere in the company. This is proving difficult as Clive does not have the requisite grasp of management 'lingo' and he is a good 15 to 20 years older than most of his interviewers. He's only just started using phrases like 'plucking the low-hanging fruit' and 'singing from the same hymn sheet.' According to Nick these are 'soooo 1990s.' Nick knows because he's doing business studies GCSE and is up with all the jargon.

Clive is very worried about his career. He has devoted many years to VBCC but he senses that now he's seen the back of his mid-40s his career is on the slide.

'It'll only be a year or so before I'm farmed out to the training department, then it'll be a few quiet years in the backwaters, pretending that what I'm doing is really important to the future of the company and I'll be quietly pensioned off (or not pensioned off depending on the state of VBCC's pension fund).'

Clive can be very gloomy sometimes. Ginny tries her 'stuff and nonsense' routine in a bid to rouse him. It fails.

'I may as well go and be fitted for my orange overall now.'

'What orange overall?'

'B & Q's'

'Clive you've lost me.'

'Isn't that what all of us has-beens end up doing? A little part-time job in B & Q shifting bags of cement until we finally keel over . . .'

Oh dear Clive's bubble has definitely been pricked.