I woke up this morning to the sounds of the breakfast radio show, and peeped out from beneath the bedclothes at the clock on the bedside cabinet.
7:00am.
I then watched the minutes tick ever closer to 8am, and the absolute limit in terms of getting up, having a wash, filling my bag up with all manner of stuff, letting the chickens out, finding money for lunch, and tipping myself out onto the street on the mountain bike.
I made it with 10 minutes to spare, and relaxed into a backlog of seventy five emails - one of which required an action. Colleagues expressed disbelief that I had gotten away with being away so lightly. I countered that my efforts to not engage anybody in coversation were slowly beginning to work.
Mild consternation was also caused by my choice of attire - cargo shorts - given the 9:30 fire alarm, and the distinctly chilly air outside. I was vindicated later in the day when the weather did what the forecast had predicted for once - the sun shone, and the office turned up a notch towards “incinerate”.
Lunchtime eventually arrived, and I fished a pile of 20 pence coins from my bag - mined from the penny jar this morning while (a) not having enough time to make lunch, and (b) not having food in the cupboards to make anything from in the first place.
The pile of coins sat there. I eventually enquired about the non-appearance of the Sandwich man at the office, and was cheerfully informed that yes, he had come and gone, and yes, I had been told, but was engaged in a conversation at the time…
Curse my idiotic head. Whereas it’s usually something of a gift to be able to block everything out, sometimes it has it’s downsides.
I remember looking up at 3pm, and feeling really very hungry indeed, but then became absorbed in something - as I am want to do sometimes - and before I knew it, people were packing up around me.
As the lovely Nichola skipped from the building, waving as she went, I noticed it was already 5:45pm. Time to go home. Time to face the washing up mountain.
Turning the corner at the back of our house, I was greeted by a five year old little girl in a nurse’s outfit, who had apparently become a vampire. She growled “Hello Dad” at me, before threatening to eat her sister (who apparently was a police dog?!).