How to be jolly

"I have noticed that the people who are late are often so much jollier than the people who have to wait for them."
           -- E. V. Lucas

Isn't that true? They are jolly, having fun... sometimes with a quick "apology" to those who've been waiting, but completely oblivious to their perceived rudeness, and therefore much happier. 

An old friend of mine (hi Sven) who is just like that, called me on late Friday afternoon years ago. We were a group who were often making the Art and Music segment of a radio show, early Friday evenings. He said that he was scheduled to run the show that evening, but he had coughing fits (though I never heard one), and could I take it instead? I said it was inconvenient because I was making a painting and I was much into it, and it was very late notice, in fact hardly any at all. 

But he was insistent, and I said that if he could find somebody to interview me (that always works fine, whereas if I do a show alone, I lose the energy), I would do it. 

So he came and drove me to the station, and wanted to say goodbye at the door. He said he had found a replacement for the technician, and the present technician, John, would interview me, and it'd all work out fine. I said, "does John know this?". "Nooeee, but he'll be fine with it, you just see..." 

Heck, I was not gonna deliver such a message, he could sort out his own mess, ten minutes before air time! So I dragged him into the studio, and as I suspected, John was not at all happy about being dumped into that job in the nick of time. But he's not a grouchy fella, so we did the interview, and as it happens it went very well indeed, something I found was the case at least as often when we were unprepared as when we were well prepared.