An Unexpected Adventure

One day last week the weather was rather unfriendly. It had decided to start raining just before I left work to go home.  I have a five minute walk to get to my car because I deliberately don’t park too close to my office building so that I get a little bit of exercise each day.

I was carrying two bags and an umbrella so my hands were full when it was time to get my car key out of my coat pocket.  A little bit of juggling and I managed it, but unfortunately the key slipped out of my hands.  It landed at my feet and then slid under the car.  I could tell by the sound that it had slid quite someway underneath…

The thought running through my head was I wonder if I will be able to reach the key or if I will have to call International Rescue to bring me the spare one.  There were no other cars on the car park so there was no chance of help from any passers-by and there had not been many people left in the office either so not much chance of any help from that quarter either.

I peered under the car with some trepidation.  The key couldn’t have gone much further if it had tried.  I was left with no other option than to kneel down on the wet gravelly floor and stretch to my limit underneath the car. At this point I was hoping that I didn’t put my back out again.  Just a couple of weeks ago I trapped a nerve whilst leaning forward to pick something up and it took longer than usual to recover.

I only just reached the corner of the key!  The worry was that I might push it further under and totally out of reach!

I tried carefully to coax the key in my direction and luckily I managed to do that.  Thankfully my back withheld despite the stretching and the only cost was sore knees and mud on my gloves, which if I had been thinking straight I would have removed before undertaking the retrieval operation.  I suspect my skirt was also covered in mud but as it was dark brown it was difficult to tell.  Needless to say it went straight in the wash when I got home.

Now I really must remember to be more careful in future…

• Posted at Vision and Verb.

Work Over the Years

When I first started work, it was in a large campus, but as time moved on I changed departments and we relocated into a modern office block with all the mod cons.  Now things have come full circle and we have moved back to our starting place – the large campus.

Recently, whilst making the short walk from my car to the office, I was daydreaming about how the campus used to be like a small village with its own bank, post office, canteen and shop.  The bank and post office have long since gone.  I used to catch the bus to work, which dropped me off near a footbridge (that is no longer there) which led to one of the entrances into work.  The path took me past a row of field guns all pointing in my direction, which was very intimidating for a 17 year old young lady.

I then reminisced about the nearby pubs that we used when celebrating peoples birthdays and retirements during lunchtimes.   Many of these pubs have disappeared over the last few years too.  Thinking these thoughts, I was in my own little world as I walked past the trees that were waving in the breeze and towards the zebra crossing which is right outside my building.  I was vaguely aware of a car slowing down, which is quite unusual, as I stepped onto the zebra crossing.  Drivers normally speed past, ignoring the crossing and anyone who might be on it.

Then I heard someone calling my name, I turned round to see that the driver of the car was one of my former colleagues whom I hadn’t seen for 15 years, and who was obviously pleased to see me.  It was a blast from the past and the good old days, that time when I worked in the personnel department.

Later in the day I bumped into another of my colleagues from those days in personnel and he began reminiscing over those days and the building and the people we used to work with.  So it isn’t just me.  Perhaps it can be put down to being a certain age…

We were remembering a time before the increase of work and the resultant increase of staff forced our move to the larger, brand new, shiny office complex.  This was before all the current Civil Service staff reductions, threats to jobs and other uncertainties.  We have recently vacated the shiny office complex (which was not so shiny when we left) and are back where we started in the old place.  I work in the same building (now refurbished) I was in when I worked in personnel.

Despite all the changes over the years the whole place still feels like home to me…

• Posted at Vision and Verb.