Thinking about Gemma doing her thing

I’ve been missing Gemma. I’m well used to her being away from home, but it doesn’t mean that I don't miss her hugs, or one of our late night Glee-fests or one of our into-the-wee-small-hours blethers. Also, we’ve both been really busy over the past three weeks since she headed off, so we’ve not even had much of a chance to catch up properly; texting and the odd quick phone call have been about as much as we’ve managed. It was great to get one of those wee calls yesterday.

I’m having to eat my words as I didn’t think Gemma would enjoy this job. She’s doing an internship (a paid one thankfully) with a company that’s all about preparing students and graduates for a career in the business world. They provide relevant work experience that will, hopefully, increase the student’s skills and, in the process, give them some meat to impress future employers with. Gemma’s never done any kind of sales job before, so she’s opted for door-to-door selling; trying to get folk to commit to helping a local Children’s Trust charity. In typical Gemma style, she’s thrown herself into it and seems to be fair enjoying herself – even though she’s spending most of her time trudging around the streets of Greenwich from morning till late evening, knocking on doors and trying to get folk to sign up to a charity. I honestly thought she’d hate it. But, she’s doing really well, is surpassing her targets, has been fortunate to be placed within a good team (a bunch of other students whom she's really hit it off with) and, most surprising of all, she seems to be meeting some lovely - and interesting - people on the doorsteps.

I thought Gemma’s days would be filled with slammed doors and angry residents telling her to sod off. But nothing could be further from the truth. She’s been welcomed in to folk’s houses, sits at their kitchen tables and delivers her spiel – with great results so far. Some of the pitches, however, are more interesting than others.

As Gemma was approaching this house the other day, she could hear singing coming from inside. She half-heartedly rang the door-bell and, thinking that nobody would hear it, turned on her heel. However, the singing stopped and within a few seconds the door opened. Gemma smiled and said her stuff and the woman, kindly, invited her in to chat some more. On entering the lounge, Gemma was confronted by a lively bunch of folk, standing in a group, obviously waiting for the lady of the house to return.

“Hi there. Do you like Gospel singing?”, one of them asked.

“Yes, I love it!”, she replied (she would probably have replied yes to "Do you like Pinky and Perky?" if it meant getting a sale).

“Great! We’ll sing for you!”

So, Gemma stood in a stranger's living room and listened to a bunch of strangers belt out a lovely Gospel song. It got better though. Gemma clapped politely when they'd finished and complemented them on their fantastic performance.

“We're even better when our pianist's here. It’s a pity she's ill today. It’s just not the same without her..... you don’t happen to play the piano do you?”

“As a matter of fact, I do!”, says Gemma

So, next thing, the woman has Gemma sat down at the piano and is handing her a sheet of music!

“Can you manage this one?”

And, blow me, it was one of the songs that Gemma was brought up on! While other mums were lulling their kiddies to sleep with 'Twinkle, Twinkle' or 'Rock-a-bye-baby', I was crooning away with 'Day by Day' or 'Can’t Help Lovin Dat Man' or 'Another Suitcase in Another Hall', or some other such song from one of the musicals. So, there Gemma found herself; plonking out the chords to ‘Prepare Ye’ from Godspell in accompaniment to a Gospel choir in some wifey's front room! Aye, never a dull moment in the life of our Gemma!

After all that, the woman declared that she already gave enough money to charity and politely showed  Gemma the door! So, no sale in that house - but it sounds as if it was a whole lot of fun trying!