In the audience for a change
Normally when I set an alarm on the Kindle tablet, I wake up a few minutes it before it. This morning it was set to go off at 5:30am. I woke up at 4:30, 4:45, 5:00, and finally stared at the ceiling for a while before sliding out of bed, and stumbling off in the direction of the shower. By 6:20 I was putting one foot in front of the other in the general direction of the railway station, and by 6:40, had bought a ticket, and set off towards London once more.
It occurred to me while walking into the depths of Paddington Station that most of the commuters on the early trains are men – easily nine out of every ten people – probably far more. I wondered if it's because the only people going in that early are either those that don't have children, those that have nothing to do with their children, or those that expect their wives to do everything related to the children – such as the school run, making packed lunches, making breakfasts, washing up, washing clothes, and so on, and so on. The number of suits early in the morning is high as well – far higher than an hour later when I would normally arrive.
Today's destination was a rather large building on the far side of London, to attend a conference with the small band of techies similar to myself from various companies spread across Europe. I met one of my co-workers en-route, and we spent half an hour sharing stories over a coffee before setting off.
Given my recent role as a mentor and teacher – often standing at the front of rooms full of business people – it was decidedly strange to sit in the audience today. It made a nice change. Of course the laid-on food and drink was really nice too. My only regret was that I had to leave as soon as the conference finished to race home in time to pick the children up from their dance class. I think pretty much everybody else had free drinks, and got to network for a while.
The journey home was unremarkable – but unremarkable is good when it comes to commuting. I guess there was the half an hour spent sitting next to Jonathan Ripples (you'll have to look the name up), but otherwise – pretty ho hum.
At the time of writing I'm sitting at the dinner table, having made beefburgers for the children for dinner, and washed up. I think a trip to the shop to buy some beer may be in order.