Running Out of Words
When you’ve been on the road non-stop since the start of the year, you start to run out of anything noteworthy to say about your day. Each day becomes much like the last one. I think it was Gandalf that said something about the small, seemingly insignificant things being important – so perhaps I will concentrate on those.
I didn’t go to breakfast in the hotel this morning. The alarm went off on my phone at 7am, I cancelled it, and then stared at the ceiling for half an hour, rather than having a shower and trudging down for some rubber reconstituted scrambled eggs, sausages, and baked beans.
I was working in an office across the city this morning, so walked the half hour or so across the city – following Google Maps. It struck me while blindly following it’s directions how much things have changed. In years gone by I would have printed a map of the area, and would have been scrutinising it at each road junction. These days I just drop the postcode into Google Maps, and it tells me “walk that way”. It even vibrates when I need to change direction. I don’t know why I’m writing this – I imagine most people use Google Maps, and are humoring me – pretending to be interested.
I bought cookies on the way to the office today, and dropped them into the middle of the table mid-afternoon, among the class of students I have been droning on at for the last couple of weeks. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a group of people so happy with a cheap bag of cookies in my entire life. Tomorrow morning will be our last in a teacher / student capacity – when I return, I will be wearing a different hat.
I’m not sure I really like teaching. I can do it. Some people have told me I’m good at it. But I know quite a few teachers, and the gulf between me and them is startling. A couple of years ago I put forward the idea at work that I could go and help out in the local schools – run a “code club”, to get the kids up and running with their Raspberry Pi computers. Unfortunately it didn’t fly (mostly because I’m always on the damn road).
I go home tomorrow afternoon. Another 5 hour epic aboard a succession of trains. I leave Leeds at 1:15pm – I’m guessing I’ll walk in the door at home a little after 6pm. I’m just looking forward to seeing my family again now.