Chocolate

If you want to have a taxi arrive at the allotted hour, it is not the booking in advance, it is not the confirmation e-mails, it is not the whatever.... it is buying the secretary a present from outer Mong-vuelia-kust. Brownie points are to be earned. Bonus Points are given if there is substantive evidence that the Credit Card monthly expenses is not cross referenced to "Duty free". Chocolate is welcomed to substitute for true affection but... but it is not the gift of secretarial choice. The gift needs to be rarer, unique, to be so wondrous that it can be gently dropped into a secretarial gatherings that her boss is statistically better than their boss. And in due course the taxi arrives nearly on time.

The secretary would prefer ....wants a local gift from the end of the world where the big deal is going down. A present to be presented to her to reflect her true worth as a taxi organiser. These gifts are covered by real net of tax, real money -my money, I am the one putting the "i" in taxi - secretarial tithe, secretarial tax. A special gift that probably once was a King's treasure protected by a dragon half way up a mountain that unlocked a princess' kiss.

Nowadays the best one can do is a mad search by a delegated local secretary to buy something for the non-local head office secretary with a mad dash round three blocks and half of a local flea mart called C&Local, that at best will eventually unlock a secretary's half-smile.
And by some comic reflection and perhaps a hint of magic in the air, the secretarial dragon feels a little obliged to put up with one's foibles such as my taxi organising foible. Chocolate is not cutting it any more.