A (Really) Good Friday – Sandra 51

 

[For a quick guide go here: Quick guide.

For back story go here: Story so far at 30 Nov 2020 and more recent Sandra episodes especially this one.]

[Other back story through in-links.]

Together… Apart had never looked so good. It was slick, fast moving, involving, sticky and abundant with users looking for their soul partners. Sandra sat at one end of a video line with her new hire Tamsin as she rocketed through code, throwing out ideas and thoughts in all directions at once. Sandra could just about keep up with her, Trinny had given up and asked that she get a update on what had gone on at the end of the day.

“Not sure why your man before was using some of this,” said Tamsin. “I mean it’s not bad stuff, but there’s other way to get what you want, and there’s no point in slowing anything down.”

“I think he was just trying to build something new,” said Sandra. “A first attempt or whatever. Probably never went back to correct anything.”

“Probably right,” said Tamsin. “User experience is everything now though and whatever you can do to improve it you do that thing.”

New buildings had sprung up in the virtual world of the dating app, new interactions were now possible with the AI bots and even better, the AI bots seemed a bit more human and far less likely to laugh at your chat up lines or just plain ignore you if you failed to use a keyword.

“So, are you doing anything over Easter?” asked Sandra. “I mean, I realise we’re working on what’s meant to be a holiday for some but…”

“Well, I work whenever – when the mood strikes me,” said Tamsin. “No hard or fast timetable or anything, just go with the flow. I was wondering about going out to meet people but everyone’s getting so excited. It might be better just to stay in a go for a quiet walk at some point. What about you?”

“Oh I have a niece and nephew who are already fully versed in the amount of chocolate they should get this weekend,” said Sandra. “I might go round and seriously wind them up. But mainly my sister. She’d like them to just decorate some hard boiled eggs but Auntie Sandra’s got a few other ideas. Hide loads of eggs where they can’t find them and then leave. They’ll spend the entire year finding another, and then another. And then another. And then they'll have to go to the dentist.”

Tamsin laughed and ploughed on.

In truth Sandra was hoping she wouldn’t have to go round to Frankie’s house. She suspected the grandparents would get in there first, to see their grandchildren in their natural habitat and while this could be possible there was some concern that they were stretching the boundaries of what some would call a ‘local’ trip. There had been some hot debate over meeting half-way and while this had been a welcome compromise neither household was any closer to identifying a location where they thought this might be possible. 

Frankie had really wanted to find somewhere that had an arranged Easter egg hunt that the kids could go off and do – or at least something which would require minimum input on their part, but such activities were hugely popular and no one relished going outside to be swamped by other people. No one really relished the idea of trying to book anything through the web pages either.

“I kind of feel like we should wait a bit longer before going back out,” mused Sandra.

“Yeah, I get that,” said Tamsin. “Although that’s also cos I’m just not used to it any more. It was hard enough not having to go out and now it’s getting hard to reverse it.”

“Oh, by the way,” said Sandra. “The bloke who’s sold a sponsorship deal wants to get his client on the sound track, do you think that’s possible?”

“It’s a bit tricky but should be OK.”

“And he wants all the food shops to have his granary buns front and centre.”

“Nice. He’s got some good images I take it?”

“And he wants there town centre to feature a statue of their founder.”

“What?”

“He….” Sandra trailed off. “Hold on.”

She swiftly switched over to her phone and dropped a message to Daniel. “Just checking,” she said. “This might be an April’s Fool.”

“Those granary buns are looking a bit special,” said Tamsin. “I can’t wait until we have to start programming smell as well. Imagine that. Walk into a virtual bakery and it’s everywhere.”

“Oh, OK I got it wrong but it’s not a joke,” said Sandra, coming back to the conversation. “Apparently the guy who’s running the sponsorship deal does want a statue erected in the town square.”

“Er, OK,” said Tamsin. “Of a great big granary bun?”

“Nope,” said Sandra. “Of his daughter.”