Cancel culture

WARNING: This is a cranky blog post. Should I make up a word for that? Is it a crog?

Let me start by saying that I enjoy a cancelled plan as much as the next person in my middle age. An unexpected night at home always hits the spot.

But 2025 has felt like the year of people letting me down.

And they invariably do it less than an hour before they are meant to be meeting me.

If it’s a purely social catch up, no problem. But when it’s for a drinks event I still have to go … on my own.

Generally that’s fine as I know lots of people in the industry, but if it’s something intimate, like a fancy, sit-down event, it’s a bit awkward.

I have been stood up so many times this year by people who accidentally get the day wrong or are sick and forgot to tell me or suddenly have to work late or … last night’s excuse … have a headache.

It is very hard to find a plus-one replacement 45 minutes before an event.

I’d invited a co-worker to come to a bar with me last night, where I’d been invited to sample the new cocktail list. We settled on a date and I organised it with the PR company. I went over to the co-worker’s desk in the morning to make sure we were all set. I sent them the address. And at 4.45pm they said they had a headache and couldn’t come.

It had been a hard day at work and I was not feeling very resilient. I was angry about the cancellation. I did not want to go to the bar alone. As I walked through the streets in the heatwave my anger melted into melancholy.

When I got to the bar the manager wasn’t there yet and the other bartender had no knowledge of my booking or who I was. I sat on a bar stool for a few minutes while they faffed, but my heart officially wasn’t in it any longer.

I said I’d come back another time.

I will not go back another time.

Cue more grrrrr and melancholy.

So it was probably a blessing the co-worker let me down.

But it is tiring always being the plan maker and the person who turns up when she says she will (well apart from a dinner booking with friends that I forgot 18 years ago during the toddler years that still haunts me).

It is disappointing to be let down. Certainty and reliability mean a lot to me.

I am also tired and cranky because I can’t sleep lately. The tossing and turning is driving me crazy. I think it’s caused by hormones laced with work stress.

Just four more days of work to go, then a little break.

Crog rant over.

Gotta go, I’m on call for work from 7am and there are dogs to walk.

Song of the day: Billy Joel “Piano man”