I went to my other half’s work Christmas party as her “plus one” last night. It was interesting - being the person on the outside, looking in on the work friendships and relationships - not having to “be present”, or “show up”.
I learned so much about a room full of strangers - a collection of wonderful people who somehow decided to empty their head - sharing their stories while standing with drinks, or sitting together to eat.
The good will and smiles around the room were infectious, and went some way towards filling the hole left by missing my own work Christmas party (we were flying back from Copenhagen).
It a strangely hollow feeling though - being on the outside. You learn names that you’ll quickly forget. You hear stories that you’ll attribute to the wrong faces in your recollections. You wish you could know some of the people better, and you find yourself quite glad you don’t have to get to know others any further than absolutely necessary.
We left the party late in the evening, and wandered through the night to the nearest railway station - where a concert crowd at Wembley Stadium had turned every railway carriage into a gigantic game of sardines.
We crammed into the middle of a carriage, and tried not to listen to a drunk family heading home after a night out - with a mid-twenties daughter repeatedly challenging her retired father on anything and everything that left his mouth. I felt so sorry for. No doubt when he’s grand-standing on social media’s algorithmic timelines, his racist, bigoted views are laughed at and encouraged - when surrounded by a cross-section of society on a train, not so much.
Anyway.
We got home at about half past midnight. I forgot to drink water. Somehow I woke this morning with no headache, and no after-effects. Miraculous really.
This evening I’ve started to watch the clock. Back to work in the morning. Back to normality. Back to the treadmill. I can feel the stress building towards the moment I login to Outlook and Teams, and watch the screens fill with pages of email, messages, conversations, and chaos.