I woke up at 5:30am this morning, and watched the minutes flicker past on the alarm clock. I reasoned with myself that 6:15 would be the absolute latest I could get out of bed, based on needing a shave, and to check the contents of my work bag. Miss Eight appeared in the bedroom doorway at 5:50am, asking if I was “getting up early yet?”.
“Yes, I’m getting up in a minute.”
“Can I go downstairs”
“When you’re dressed”
Without another word, she turned around in her nightie and wandered back to her bedroom - I presumed to get dressed. Of course, I presumed wrong. After rolling out of bed, I wandered into each of the children’s rooms, and pulled the curtains - signalling the start of the day for them. Upon entry into the younger ones room, I was greeted again by Miss Eight (who I thought was getting dressed) stood naked on her sister’s bed, holding a Smurf in each hand.
“Come on… time to get up.”
“We are up”
“Well get dressed then!”
After jumping in the shower, having a shave, getting dressed, and packing my bags, I shouted my goodbyes up the stairs to the little people who hadn’t appeared yet. Murmured goodbyes drifted back from the bedrooms, and I left the house.Promises had been made last night about behaviour during my absence - I’m wondering if they’ve already reneged on those promises.
The walk to the train station was pretty uneventful - or at least, as uneventful as they are while carrying two laptops, and a change of clothes. I’m sure my back would have something else entirely to say about it all. The trains connected as they typically do on a morning (afternoons are a lottery), and I slowly chugged my way across the country, trudging from train to train at various far flung stations.
On the final leg of the journey the guy sat in front of me got caught for travelling with an incorrect ticket, and exposed the madness of the ticketing system. His ticket covered him from 10am only (“off peak”). He was travelling at 9:30am. The ticket Nazi forced him to buy an entirely new train ticket for his whole journey. I would have had the argument, but the unlucky guy didn’t. I could understand it if a train is full, but it wasn’t - it was perhaps three quarters empty.
After sitting down with a coffee in the local coffee shop, watching the world go by for a few minutes, I finally headed off for a day filled with whiteboards, dry-wipe markers, talking, inventing, thinking, and going round in endless circles.
Where am I now? In my hotel room at 4pm, writing up notes, and trying to make sense of the circular conversations. Tomorrow is W’s birthday, so I’ll be heading out to the nearby shops in a bit to try and find something for her. I have no idea at this point what to get - let’s hope inspiration strikes while avoiding old people getting their shopping…