Thought Picnic: Composing elements of life and work

Counting down the sheep

I was up too early as I was trying to adjust my sleep patterns for the regularity of a work day. Getting to bed earlier and putting in more hours of sleep might mean I have to learn to count sheep better.

Some might say because I am in Wales, the matter of sheep is easy, but I will not subscribe to ridiculous stereotypes, I have not once seen a specimen of such since I arrived here.

Ironing smooth blogs

Between getting a blog up and the usual morning chores that had me ironing a shirt using a full-sized iron on a miniature ironing board, I could not help but wonder why irons do not have automatic sensors to determine the material being pressed and adjust the temperature accordingly.

Now, I know to turn the dial, but too many times the ironing surface needs high heat to attempt to rub off the material that had welded or should I say melted on the surface before you indelibly stain your cotton shirts.

Picture to see

My taxi to the office arrived 10 minutes early and by the time I was ready to leave, there wasn’t enough time for breakfast as I climbed in the cab for the 10 minute journey to work.

Greeted by soft rain, I arrived at reception and for my visitor’s pass I had to pose for a picture with no make-up on, then my hosts at the office had not yet arrived as I waited a while, catching up on my emails and other events on my tablet in the lobby.

Life comes up

Later the receptionist came to tell me that my host will soon be down to get me. Greetings, pleasantries and a visit to one of the offices presaged a meeting in the café for the mandatory morning coffee or was it a latte I had and it was nothing like Starbucks.

We had a general chat about things, where things were going and well about life, for whatever happens to us, either good or bad or somewhere in between comes under the broadest definition of life – that makes it easy to understand – questions get asked about my cane.

Then we went to meet other members of my team, 7 firm handshakes later, I began to make notes, read documentation and got my first access to the environment; the all-important wireless internet connectivity.

We are good to go, my first day has begun.