Silence is golden.

Unsurprisingly, CH has let me down again. We had an agreement to meet for coffee on Friday afternoon - she suggested Thursday or Friday and Thursday didn't suit me. However, she got called into a lat-minute meeting. One of her staff had a grievance to air and, as an HR issue, needed to be sorted.

The nature of the meeting meant that CH couldn't keep me updated, but it also meant that I stayed behind after work on Friday for an extra 45 minutes before she could update me. So she suggested this morning, before work. CH starts work at 8AM. I start after 9AM. That would mean I'd have to get up two hours earlier than usual. I texted back - could we do tea break instead? She agreed, but suggested that before work suited her better "in case I get called into unexpected meetings".

This morning, I was in a semi-panic. Somehow, my phone was down to 1% charge. This is unheard of for me, and I was aware that CH might text at any point to meet. I managed to get a quick burst into my phone to get it to 5% - enough to get me into work.

As I plonked my ass into my chair just after 9:15AM, I text CH asking what time we could meet and plugged my phone in to charge.

I heard nothing.

At 10:40 AM, my need for caffeine was too great and I trundled off to the coffee shop for my fix.

It was 12:55 before CH finally replied. She re-iterated that before work was better for her and she wouldn't cancel on me, even though she acknowledged that it sucked for me and explained that even though she had no meetings this morning, she got sucked into one unexpectedly.

As it was a text message, I presume some words were left out and that she meant she had no scheduled meetings.

Now, I sometimes think that I hold my friends in too high regard, but I don't think that, if we'd made plans to meet this morning that CH couldn't have sent a quick text before going into her meeting to let me know. I don't think that's unreasonable.

This is why I always have issues with CH's unreliability. On the rare occasions that CH has made arrangements herself, she never seems to cancel. When someone else sets out the plans, they have to change to suit her.

I suggest lunch to CH, she will only agree to coffee.
I suggest a day with CH, something pops up unexpectedly.
I suggest a time to meet, she cancels unexpectedly.

I don't believe that CH is telling lies above regarding Friday afternoon or this morning, but this kind of thing happens too often for it to be true all of the time. It was this kind of behaviour that prompted me to text her 18 months ago that then caused our communication failure - it's always other people who compromise, never her.

CH asked to reschedule to Friday morning, but I've got a lunch date with KfW2 on Thursday that will end up in the pub, so I'll probably be nursing a hangover on Friday. I'm going to ask CH about meeting next week.