Today finds me taking my lunchbreak in an office building just off Bishopsgate in London. They have kindly allowed me to use a workstation with internet access, which I am taking advantage of to send word of my day so far.
The day started (as all these “London” days do) with the alarm going off at 6am this morning - only it didn’t because I woke up 1 minute before, and switched it off to spare the thump from W.
I saw watching the seconds tick for ten minutes before finally deciding to get out of bed. I say “deciding” in it’s loosest sense - I don’t recall my head telling my arms and legs to locomote me to the shower downstairs, but that’s what happened.
I never cease to be amazed how the time available for something (in this case “getting up”) will be filled, no matter how much time is allocated. I am also repeatedly amazed and not amused that my body will decide it’s time to eject all processed materials about 5 minutes before I am due to leave the house for the train station.
Following a 10 minute chunk of time I had “spare” this morning, I found time to login and check on the status of the neophyte Bloggers forum (so that’s where the spare time went…). It was comforting to see new people discovering it and taking part - even if I was drinking tea, doing up my tie and putting things in my bag while trying to take part myself.
The trains were quiet this morning, lending the final walk through Liverpool Street station a strangely disconnected air. As I strode out from the underground steps into the main concourse (and the seas of people), a tune from the new Take That album rode forth into my ears and made the world a happy, floaty place. Music has such a strong effect on me sometimes. Perhaps it was the music plus the chapters of the Adoption book somebody gave me that did it.
While climbing the steps to the street, I experienced a moment of clarity. I’m not sure what caused it either - but for an instant, I understood something very deep about the people around me. I made a note to myself to remember it, and you know what - it’s gone. I have no idea what my thoughts were now.
Perhaps for that moment, walking up the stairs, holding the chrome handrail, blinking at the morning light, and hunching against the cold air with the music in my ears… perhaps for that moment I entered some kind of trance state. Who knows.
All I do know is that for the remainder of my walk to the offices I thought about W, and about maybe surprising her with a meal out when I get home… and then I remembered we are visiting a friend to deliver the most excitable 6 year old girl in the world her birthday present (on visiting yesterday, her first words - after hugging my legs - were “It’s my birthday tomorrow!”).
So much for spontaneity.