I start work in London tomorrow. It’s like starting a new job. Although I am being “seconded” to the client from my full time employer, I’ll have my own desk, my own telephone, my own email address, and will be introduced on Monday morning to their entire team as “one of their team”.
I’ll have the longest commute of any of them by quite a margin - my journey each morning will start at 7:20am from Marlow station, and end with a 5 minute walk from Liverpool Street station on the far side of London at about 9am. If the trains behave I will invariably find my way to the cafe in Paddington Station for an early morning coffee and pastry.
I will try to take my camera with me each day. I have walked through the “City of Angels” scene in Paddington one too many times without a camera. In the early morning at Paddington, the sun streams across the concourse in a very dramatic manner - turning the sea of people into silhouettes against the blinding morning sunlight.
Strangely, I have no reservations or worries about the work I will be doing. I am being seconded as a developer, and seeing as I invented, designed and built most of their system, I know that they already have me on a pedestal.
Working in London is going to be interesting. Especially for this kind of time period. I will be “in the city” for 4 days out of each 5 day week. On Friday’s I am back in the office in Marlow to complete paperwork, and consult on anything that is required of me.
I am hoping to find time on the way home to meet up with various friends from the internet who live in London. My cousin from San Francisco is also living in London at the moment - not too far from where I am working, so lunches with her look like a good possibility too.
My MacBook will of course be accompanying me on the train each day - saving me from madness. One of my close friends reminded me that I could even watch movies on it while commuting. Knowing me, it’s far more likely that people will peer over my shoulder to be confronted with screens full of programming. I am a geek, afterall. Complex stuff interests me. Either that, or they will see an episode of “Ghost in the Shell” playing.
p.s. the headache is going.