The view…
Work
#73 – Worn
Worn.. Is how I feel following an 8 hour grilling by the regulator… I could use winning the lottery after all…
#37 – The View
4.30pm, after what has been one of those hectic days from which I am only too happy to be saved by the end of my work day. Today though, the sense – for the first time in a long while – that I have been productive.
#Content
#20 – TGIF
A Guinness for the pain…. and to kick off the weekend
#TGIF
#16 – Work (Talk) Shop
Yet another day spent in a workshop, hammering out the finer details of the support we’ll need to provide for an upcoming project. This time away from the office; sequestered in a building on the corner of Market Street and North Esplanade West. I could get used to this; talking about work as opposed to doing work…
#12 – What A Bloke Lives For
Detailed, intense, technical conversations debating the finer points of a certain choice of material of construction. Worn, drained and tired at the end of it all but with all that comes a sense of satisfaction at making progress. Better to be busy than out of work I suppose, particularly given the state of the commodity market at the moment.
#Thankful
#7 – Of Mentors
Watching Whiplash again reminded me of the power mentors (or more correctly in this case, people who we look up to and whose opinions we cherish) can have over us, driving us to become singularly focused on achieving, thereby impressing them. The merits and demerits of the influence of Fletcher on Andrew may be open to interpretation – the methods certainly are – but the intensity with which that final scene was delivered might make up for every thing.
I have had the blessing of both being helped – and hounded – by workplace mentors. What comes to mind again and again is how the intensity of those formative years have stood me in good stead and influenced my work ethic. Over a decade later, those mentoring relationships have lasted, and when I pop into Houston for work or pass through Lagos (for those still there), meeting up for a drink or a meal is never up for debate. We make it happen.
So for the moral, a useful reminder for me to celebrate the mentors – past and present – in my life.
#4 -Of names…
At the coffee machine, catching up with the new, younger engineer who shares my first name, he asks me what my surname is. I give him the anglicized, easy to pronounce version which doesn’t satisfy him. He asks me how I would pronounce it – cue five attempts, after each of which he fails colossally to reproduce the sounds I make somehow ending up adding, subtracting and transposing syllables through his various attempts.
Full marks for interest I guess, but I suspect he and I will be sticking to our (shared) first name going forward.
#Resolved
#2 – Savouring the Silence
Each year, on the last day before work officially resumes, I pop into the office to clear my desk. Something about the emptiness and the quietness allows me to, as I put away the detritus of the past year’s work, progressively bring myself to a place where I feel prepared to face the new work year. A large part of that is about trying to ease myself into the routine of work, acclimatising to my work space again after what usually has been two to three weeks of absence, and a food fuelled haze of sorts.
Speaking of food, this year’s Christmas silly season was a lot more muted than usual (read three gigs as opposed to the eight or so from a year ago); the impact of continued low oil prices, job losses and the prospect of a difficult 2016 not doing much to help the mood over the holidays. Not much could be said about the weather either, the 7’s and 10s we got over the period a far cry from the 3.5s and near zero’s we’ve had particularly over Christmas – all very not normal.
Three hours of filing, cleaning and shredding later, all that is left are the unread emails in my inbox; all 235 of them. I will have to hit the ground running tomorrow, but today I am cherishing the silence, savouring the peace and learning to breathe; before the next wave hits.
A Geek's Life 