It's The News Wrap!
Monday 28 November, 2005

I should have seen it coming. The guys at work have played desk pranks before. They turned everything upside down on some guy's desk when he was away, and I mean everything. With my week off work, it was inevitable that someone would take the opportunity. I just shook my head as I walked in and saw my desk, everything on it, my chair and the floor around it...entirely wrapped in newspaper.

Last time they played a little prank I got annoyed because I should have seen it coming and I kept asking who did it. This time, I took it very well, got my photo taken with it and honestly congratulated them. They did a really good job. Even a folder in a cabinet they wrapped. Pens and everything. A little bit of Blu-Tack on my desk. Really well. There's so many wacky shapes that it feels a little like Christmas unwrapping stuff and seeing what's inside. And they left a gap on the keyboard and the mouse buttons and laser so in theory, I could still use them. So I left most of it there.

It was friggin hilarious this morning, so I said I'd gradually take it down. Now people are starting to think I'm a crazy guy in my own little newspaper world. Maybe I should just stare blankly at anyone who walks past and say "I really like the news" in a low, creepy voice. Hmmm, strike that, I don't feel like wearing a muzzle to work or whatever. I'm lazy, OK, I'm not a nut!! I'm trying to do work here, but it seems I'm crazier for being able to do work with everything covered in newspaper than doing nothing at all! It's a little distracting, as I keep reading articles and it occasionally feels really black and white which is odd, but I'm a professional, I can work like this. My room's been messier than this. This is organised!

I thought it reflected badly on the guys in our aisle who have enough time to entirely wrap my desk up during work hours! It was estimated at about an hour over three days, as they didn't have enough newspaper to do it at once. To put that in perspective, they used the Herald Sun, the Age and the Australian. For three days.

It's not all bad though. Like a magician, this has proved a distraction to everyone who visits me. My new haircut and general lack of work in the past two weeks has gone unnoticed amongst the news!

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