Eating Cookies in an Empty Office
It's Friday morning, and I find myself sitting alone in the office. Alone on the entire floor of the building. I bought cookies on the way in for the few people in the building today to share – we are thin on the ground because most have been given permission to work from home today, ahead of a company river boat cruise this evening. The company is celebrating it's 30th anniversary – I've been here for 15 of them – so we are going to eat and get drunk together on the river.
When I first arrived this morning I made my way down to the kitchen and made a coffee. I somehow missed the pretty lady that lives across the way – the one I've written about before. We often cross paths when she's either taking her dog for a walk, or leaving for work. We smile, wave, and say hello. We've never actually exchanged more words than “hello”. It's odd really – it's like we know each other, but in reality we know nothing of each other.
I made the coffee, and stomped back off to my desk, where I then sat and ate an entire packet of cookies while reading the news. I need to stop doing that – otherwise I'll get so fat I won't in an office chair. I guess I'm not overweight really, but I could do with being a lot fitter than I am at the moment. The last time I went swimming I did a couple of lengths while the kids walked round to the slide, and knew I had it done it afterwards – I was quite shocked at how unfit I have become. I remember going to the outdoor pool in the town I grew up with my Mum almost every morning in the summer holidays, and swimming half a mile or so “for fun”.
What else is there to report?
The bike! The new bike has been great. A revelation of sorts. I still wiggle my fingers to change gear now and again, but the muscle memory is slowly fading. I should have gotten away from mountain bikes years ago, but I guess single gear bikes have only become popular in the last couple of years. If you go to a mainstream bike shop, they only really sell mountain bikes these days.
I don't know if it's related, but the stiffness I had in my knees a few weeks ago has vanished since changing bikes. I've always had bad knees, after a dislocated kneecap, and a bike accident years ago – when I bend down, my kneecaps sound like the rigging creeking on an old ship – but I had never had any pain until a few weeks back. I wondered if it was pain to go with the noises my knees make – perhaps the result of getting older – but thankfully it's all gone away.
I need another coffee. I've been living on coffee recently. It's a cycle – going to bed late, getting up early, and then using coffee to stay awake throughout the day. If I had more trouble getting up on a morning I suppose I might pay for it more, but I don't – this morning I woke at 6:50am, and got up pretty much immediately. Within half an hour I had showered, shaved, got dressed, fed the cats, fed the fish, washed up from the night before, and started making breakfasts and lunches.
I need to find some bloggers that live and work on the same side of the planet as myself – people to swap silly messages with. Almost everybody I have ever become friends with on the internet has been on the other side of the world, and that means you can't really procrastinate with them during the day, because your day is their night. They suddenly appear mid-afternoon, saying good morning to you, when you are counting down the minutes to the end of your work day. It's kind of messed up.
Right. I better at least try to look busy for the rest of today. I have a document to read, but there's no point starting anything complicated because we're finishing early.