Late Lunch Break
The project I have been working on for the last few weeks came screeching to a halt this morning because it became obvious that the client is working to a very different schedule. Suddenly a delivery date of a couple of days is looking more like a couple of months.
I lost the entire morning to a conference call with a client. I put the phone down a couple of hours ago, and have been connected to their system every since, making chances all over the place. I just disconnected, looked at the clock, and realised I missed lunch.
We don't really have a “lunch break” here. Sure, we can stop for a break, but nobody says when – and nobody really notices if you stop for half an hour, or two hours – it's up to you to get your work done, and keep project managers informed.
Anyway.
The soap opera story continued this morning – sort of. I arrived in the estate on my mountain bike, and met a co-worker en-route – we cycled the last mile together, making small-talk as we went. While propping our bikes up and going our seperate ways at the building entrance, I noticed somebody leave one of the houses behind me, and get in their car to drive off. A Porsche left, so it must have been him – the big question is which house he left. If this was going to be an interesting story, it would have to be her front door, wiping lipstick off his cheek, but I really have no clue.
I wonder what the chances are that they have discovered this blog, and are avidly reading it – acting out their part on mornings and evenings to see what ridiculous speculation appears next? I bet celebrities do it (actually, we know they do it – staging relationships while movies are doing the marketing rounds).
Change of subject. Again.
I made a new friend on the internet yesterday.
It's funny – there are times when the internet can seem like a very lonely place. It can seem like everybody else knows each other, and you know nobody – that nobody has asked after you, because nobody really cares. Everybody else is going to meetups, and taking selfies with selfie sticks, grinning like idiots with beers in their hands, and ramming the stories of the amazing friendships they forged down your throat.
Well they can shove all that, because I made a new friend. One of those chance encounters where you realise after a while that “oh, you like that TV show too!”, or “No way – you like that book too!”, or some clever comment is made referencing some kind of inane nerd trivia, and you get it immediately and make another clever about something even more nerdy and they get that immediately too. Those types of connections almost NEVER happen. And yet one did yesterday.
So yeah. I have a new friend.
I guess this is where other people I know immediately set themselves on fire, and shout “BUT I'M YOUR FRIEND, WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME”, and I activate the Iron Man fireproof suit, and murmur “but I only had a couple of friends – am I not allowed another one?”.
It's true though – I don't have many friends at all online. I have lots of acquaintances, but very few people I keep in touch with from day to day. Very few people I ask after, or that ask after me. Realising that I have a new, proper “friend”, is making me a bit giddy. Like being 5 again, and making a new friend in the playground, and sharing your packed lunch with them.
So yeah – maybe the internet isn't so bad after all.