Diaries

Imagine yourself at work, and the boss comes in and asks you "What is in your diary for this week?" or the project manager emails the entire team, with the subject line "A date for your diary."

My first intuition was a bit of embarrassment, as this seemed like a very private matter.
In the States, children keep their secrets in a diary under lock and key. An adult might have a journal, which may be less "classified" but nevertheless very personal. So to have people at work referring to an item with "confidential" invisibly written all over it, was a bit unnerving.

However, a diary in Ireland is more like a calendar or planner. So one checks his diary to see if there are any commitments on the schedule and to keep track of appointments.

I confess, even after living here for 6 months, I still cringe about to hear grown men, perhaps from a platform behind a microphone, speaking of their diaries. I think I'll stick with referring to my "planner."