10-Day Challenge: Day #4

And I thought yesterday was hard to find the positives in...

I'm going to start with something that could so easily be a complaint, a way of seeing the irritations of life and the casual way in which it's possible to be taken for granted. But I'm not going to focus on that, I'm going to focus on the fact that I'm awesome, that I can be left in the lurch and still come out smelling of roses.

We're making a rather curious scientific instrument for a rather curious scientific Russian customer. We first made this customer an instrument twelve years ago, and the new one is a complete replacement, with better performance and more interesting features plus a collection of spares and extra bits for the old instrument so it works better. On Friday, our curious Russian customer informed us that he needed all of the spares and extra bits this week. Immediately. Or we wouldn't get paid. Dealing with Russia can be a bit like that. 

Now, for Various Reasons That Escape Me, my colleagues didn't tell me this, and as far as I was aware, these spares and extras were due to be sent to Russia in the middle of November. It was only at 11am that I was told that the spares and extras were in a box, awaiting a collection by DHL, but that they couldn't ship without a manual, so could I please write one? 

And thus it was that in a mere two hours I produced a manual, including annotated photographs of the original instrument showing where to fit the new parts, diagrams, explanations and detailed instructions. Even my colleagues were impressed at what I managed to pull out of the bag with so little warning.

I am bloody good at my job, and some days I need to sit back at the end of the day and remember that.