The clock is ticking towards 9am on Saturday morning. I’ve been up for an hour and a half already - chiefly to scrape our middle daughter out of bed. She’s playing in a hockey match an hour away from home with one of the town senior teams - the captain picked her up a few minutes ago.
The hockey match is in Witney, Oxfordshire. I grew up a few miles down the road from Witney, and lived there for about a year before getting married - my first apartment. I was just thinking back this morning - it’s been nearly twenty years since I’ve been back now. I wonder how much it’s changed? From the bits and pieces old friends have shared on the social networks, the town has been largely re-built in that time.
During one of the last visits we picked up our wedding rings - made by a goldsmith in the town, and had lunch with the girl I used to work with. She had just started going out with a guy. They are married now, and have grown up children too. Time flies.
So - the weekend stretches ahead. I’m hoping it’s going to be a quiet one. The schools have all stopped for half term, so the younger kids are going to be knocking around the house for the next week - no doubt driving me mad in the process. Given teenagers proposentity for a nocturnal itinerary filled with “Insta”, “Tiktok”, and whatever else, I’m doubting I will see them before lunchtime each day.
Work is going well. I’ve been busy inventing something for the last few weeks - drawing screenshots of a sprawling system that “might be one day”, in collaboration with a great group of professionals via online calls. It’s been a real validation that you don’t need to sit in the same room as each other to collaborate, and make decisions. Hundreds of hours travelling, and staying in hotels have been wiped away - instead we greet each other through the computer screen each day - coffee mugs in hand.
Anyway. It’s Saturday morning, and I have a world of not very much to be getting on with. If you’ll excuse me, I might need to go and re-fill the kettle. Coffee perhaps.