Tuesday in London
I somehow managed to wake up at 5am this morning, stared at the ceiling for a while, and then fell back asleep. I woke again with the alarm clock at 6am, and scraped myself out of bed, had a shower, got dressed, and wandered around the house organising this and that until it was time to leave for the train station.
I suppose today was a “day off” really. A day in London at a technology company, sitting in a room with a group of people that do pretty much the same thing as me, to find out what might be coming down the track in a couple of years time.
I guess the curious thing was that out of a room of perhaps 20 people, only 4 of us seemed to know much if anything about the technology and tools we were there to see. I imagine the rest were project managers – there to get a free lunch, and have a day out.
I would love to say that I took endless photos of London, and sat in cafes watching the world going by – but that's not what happened at all. I got into Paddington Station late (because trains are assholes sometimes), then watched the clock all the way across the underground, arrived at the destination five minutes late, made a cup of tea with no milk in it, then tried to concentrate on the various presentations for the next six hours before repeating the journey in reverse to escape London once more.
We did break for lunch for an hour, and the four of us I mentioned earlier somehow organised a trip to a local coffee shop together, to get a half-decent cup of coffee. I think the girl making the coffee was a little bit overwhelmed at the sudden onslaught of coffee orders – telling her co-workers pretty comedically to get the hell away from her, and let her get on with making the drinks.
Anyway. Home now. Three episodes of Westworld to catch up on, and a tub of chocolate brownie ice-cream to eat. I may be some time...