TEN-TWO OR TEN-TO: THE CHRONICLES OF UNDERSTANDING THE COVENTRIAN DIALECT PART 1

Occasion: Me on my morning shift in Sherbourne Residence on my way doing bathrooms of two flats with an approximate of 24 bathrooms before my lady manager told me ‘’Azfar, would you please come in to my office ten two before going home today?’’. Without thinking twice and keeping everything up my sleeves, I nodded in agreement and said ‘‘Yeah, alright Lynne’’ and headed straight toward my cupboard on the third floor to prep my trolley. 

I quickly poured the cleaning chemical into the mop bucket at the bottom of the trolley and mixed it with warm water till half full, replenished a pack of dozen 2 ply toilet rolls with a brand that I wouldn’t buy it myself to wipe you know where and fixed the refuse bag onto the front of the trolley. I then marched like a Caesar on his mighty gold-plated chariot, riding with pride to the arena before I began to realise what did my manager actually meant when she said ‘ten-two’?

 

The staff room cum kitchen cum dining area. This is how the room normally looks like every workday morning 10 minutes before 1000 AM. The manager or the supervisors will walk in to debrief before our work starts exactly at 1000 AM. These were all the ladies whose shift same as mine. The best team mates I've worked with. Photo is of my own. All copyrights reserved.

Suddenly my mind started to wander like a flying soul chained to its master, gliding like a kite guided by the wind travelling into another dimension for an answer but to arrive in a realm full of melting clocks on the ground and hanging on trees just like how you would see on the canvas painting of Salvador Dali’s ‘The Persistence of Memory’ in search of the actual truth behind this ‘ten-two’ riddle before I’m telling myself to quit this alternate reality soul searching spooky stuff and began to let my detective conscious mind to start working and visualise the many possibilities of ‘ten-two’ that I can think of as the time is running up.

Possibility No. 1: She meant ten minutes before two o’clock in the evening but that is not even possible when she knew that I finish at one o’clock in the afternoon every day. Maybe she forgot? Well she did forget where she parked her Audi and had a hard time finding it the last time I heard. Since the rest of the ladies going back at two so this might be a possibility.

Possibility No. 2: She tried to convey that to meet her two minutes after ten o’clock in the morning which explains why she said ten two to simplify the common time telling format from 10.02 AM to just ‘Ten-Two’. That’s brilliant. Yes, I finally got it. Plus, there’s a possibility she will let me home early today as soon as after I get myself told off because of whatever the reason that I don’t really care of, but the time is already 10.10 AM. So, I’m afraid this theory doesn’t apply anymore.

Possibility No. 3: Maybe all she meant was to say that she ‘Tend To’ do something as soon as I’ll show up in her office. But if I am putting up this theory with my other two theories then that would make no sense as no time indicator has been mentioned anywhere in her sentence after I decided to deduct the phrase to a non-numeric phrase of ‘Tend To’ which still make no sense but still worth a try.

As I’m pushing my trolley towards my first flat, Corinna, or as I always pronounce her name as Kah-Ree-Nah in my mother tongue, suddenly showed up from behind, possibly just came back from finished her first fagging session in the morning I guess. I quickly popped up my thoughts and asked ''Corinna, Lynne told me to see her in the office ‘Ten Two’ this morning. What did she mean with ‘Ten Two’?’’. 

Corinna then replied, ‘’It’s ten to one, basically ten minutes before you’re going home at one’’ in her deep voice with a quirky smile behind her glasses. ‘’Owwhhh… that is what actually ‘Ten Two’ (ten to) really means. Thanks Corinna, you saved my day’’ I said, resuming my work with the first disabled bathroom the size of the prehistoric shower room as featured in the American mystery horror film 'Saw', which was clearly not being used since last week as no student yet to occupy the room. ‘’Nice’’ I said. One down, twenty three bathrooms to go.