How to humor me

While on the drive South today I stopped for a coffee from a little stand along the highway. My expectations were rather low, for a coffee stand which is brought along behind a car which seemed to be in the 'wrong' directions for the commute. Imagine my surprise to see a 60+ gentleman in a full white outfit including the hat, who asked 'what would you like today, Sweetheart?' upon my walking up. Obviously he loves what he does--as I was getting back in the car and on the cell phone while still parked, I caught him waving to some cars and trucks who beeped to him. Genuinely being called Sweetheart and served real (not instant) black coffee what a super start to the morning.

Part of my trip to Guildford this week was to visit the Portsmouth area office for a day as it was only an hour or so from here. During the past six years, I've probably visited 30 or so offices of Benevolent Company J. It can be quite interesting, because on one hand Company J is a large American company, but on the other hand, it's interesting to see how various offices in different countries conduct business, crafting solutions to similar problems through local protocols.

I've visited a few offices where parking is at a premium or non-existent. Mainly there are workaround such as parking at another location or catching a ride from another colleague. Here in Southeastern England, I got a named visitor parking spot for the day, the first time I've ever seen such a solution at one of our offices. The front desk controls reservations so my colleague managed to get me on the list for one of the four visitor spots:

I was here doing some work for this main colleague today, along with a newer, local fill-in colleague for a second piece.
Colleague 1: Do you think you can work with this like Heather has it, Colleague 2?
Colleague 2: I think so. Although it would be better if it included x and y. Although if that's too hard to do, that's ok...
Colleague 1: Say it if you want it while "the Wizard" is here with us today.
Heather (muttering): I am 'The Wizard'??
Colleague 1: (under her breath) of course, you make the magic happen!
Colleague 1: Yes, Colleague 2, 'the Wiz' will try to sort that for you, but you won't get won't you won't ask for, so speak up.

I had such a great time in the South being humored with such special nicknames and rock star parking that I'll go back on Thursday as I need a place to sit that day. If I manage to remember the right highway point, I'll try to stop off at the same place for coffee too.