Preparing To Head North Again
On Sunday evening I will make the all-too-familiar journey to the train station, and purchase a return ticket to Leeds. The hotel is already booked, and I'll have to start filling a bag with clothes over the next few evenings to last the entirity of the week ahead.
In truth I have no idea what I will fill my time with in the evenings next week. While at home the evening pretty much organises itselffrom the moment I get in from work until perhaps 8pm it's a flat out round of washing up, tidying up, helping with homework, and rounding up stragglers who should have already brushed their teeth and gone to bed.
There is a huge temptation to just keep on working while staying in a hotelthe alternatives are either the awful hotel provided television stations, or sitting in a nearby bar or restaurant on my own.
In the movies people get to know the staff of hotels after their first day, make conversation, and become unlikely friends. In reality the staff rotate almost every day and you rarely see the same person twice.
Perhaps I should seek out fellow bloggers in Leeds, and arrange to meet for a drink? I've thought about it before when visiting other cities with work, but it always seems forcedfalse somehow. I think unless you have known somebody online for some time, meeting up in the real world doesn't really work.
I will admit that the continual trips away with work have completely erased any of the novelty of either travelling on trains, or staying in hotels. Huge swathes of the George Clooney movie “Up in the Air” have been proven fairly accuratelife on the road is lonely.