Today was my first day back to work: my own personal big bang.
Now that my beloved Bryn is no longer a house husband, we both left the house together at the same time today. The daft thing is that I drive past his workplace but I finish a good four hours before him, it makes no sense me driving him to work and then going and collecting him – it would save nothing. I am glad I didn’t because it meant he was able to give a colleague a lift that took him five minutes out of his way but saved her a full hour. Since I used to use buses myself only seven years ago I can remember waiting for night buses to take me home.
I knew that I would arrive at the ‘park and ride’ just around about the time that the Hadron accelerator got turned on and was determined to hear what happened. The press have gone mad – building this up to a huge story and people were running up and down like headless chickens. A colleague told me that her child had not slept properly because a sibling had told her that we were all about to die, and several colleagues have had to reassure their children that it would be alright.
I listened to the radio on the way to work, eager to hear how the big event would go. I waited until I had heard the champagne corks popping before I climbed onto the minibus. My back got jolted a little on the bus, and the walk into work did not help, so I was beginning to ache when I arrived at work, but I sat down and, one someone had reset my password, I began to work. I had more than 280 emails in my in-box, of which around 20 were reminders that my in-box was getting full. There were a dozen or so funnies, which I will look through tomorrow. The rest had all to be read and about 30 actioned. I am working my way down them. I have meetings all tomorrow morning and then start teaching again on Friday. My calendar looks very empty.
I feel a little lost really. I admitted to Colleague W that I did have a slight worry that he would have taken over radiology and that I would have less of a role. He just laughed and said, “and then you woke up to the real world!” He has been far too busy and was not all that keen to take up the mantle.
I really enjoyed being back at work – it was good to see my colleagues, good to feel useful again, good to have a purpose and a role. I love my job, as I often say.
The distances I walked though today have worn me out and I am having a bit of a problem with pain tonight. I expected to. I pushed myself, perhaps too far, but I need to know that I am not being lazy.
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