Making Appointments with Friends

Part 1

Dave: Hi there. What are you up to on Friday night?
Philip: Nothing. Why?
Dave: Fancy getting some dinner?
Philip: Sure, why not? What time?
Dave: 7 Ok?
Philip: Yep, no problem. Where?
Dave: I’m thinking the new Spanish restaurant, No Va Ici.
Philip: Do you want to meet there, or somewhere else?
Dave: I can come to your office at 6 30 if you like.
Philip: Sounds great.

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Part 2

Anna: Hi. How have you been?
Philip: Not bad. How about you?
Anna: Ok. Hey, listen, are you busy on Saturday afternoon?
Philip: I don’t think so. Why?
Anna: Me and a few friends are going to watch the football. Fancy coming?
Philip: Sure. Do you mean at the stadium, or at a bar?
Anna: At the stadium. I’m going to pick up the tickets this afternoon.
Philip: Sounds great. What time does it kick-off?
Anna: At 3. I’ll head around to yours at 1, if you like, and we can go together.
Philip: Nice.
Anna: Alright. Hey, I’ve got to run. I’ll see you on Saturday.
Philip: See you later.

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Part 3

Sunday is Samantha’s birthday, and her friends are planning a surprise birthday party for her.
Claire has told Samantha they are going for lunch with 2 friends at Big Sally’s Steakhouse. Claire will pick Samantha up at noon, and then they will pick up Angela. After that they will drive to Susan’s. The surprise will be that actually there will be 8 people at the lunch.
Sam knows she is going to have a surprise party. Claire knows Sam knows she is going to have a surprise party. Sam knows that Claire knows she knows. Sam doesn’t know, however, that her real surprise party is after her surprise party.
After lunch Claire will drive Samantha home. When Samantha opens the door she will find 30 people waiting for her, a choir singing happy birthday, and a lot of presents.

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Part 4

According to Career Builder (2012), the most common reasons for being late to work are:
31% Traffic
18% Lack of Sleep / Overslept
11% Bad Weather
8% Taking Kids to School
Amongst the other 32%, there were some strange reasons: a fox stole the car keys; the cat had the hiccups; an employee thought she had won the lottery (but hadn’t) ; and another was busy watching TV.
However, being late is not always a bad thing. In fact, at some events people don’t want you to be on time; for example, if a party is from ‘7 onwards’, it might last for five or six hours. The party can slowly get bigger, rather than the host having 20 people suddenly coming at 7 o’clock.
The basic rule is to know what sort of event it is: if something has to start at a time (such as a movie), or you will keep other people waiting (for example, at the doctors), then be on time; if it is fluid, with people coming and going, and food and drink available all the time, then it doesn’t matter much.

The article may be read here.

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