about half of the office had to move due to renovations. it seems the in thing now is to break high walls and big space down by like a third each. more open plan, less open individual space. the latest wave of conformity to hit, although admittedly there is no way we can allow more people in without downsizing the cubicle spaces to be able to squeeze more people into the same floor area. so now it’s less storage, less privacy, but more rowdy company and more reason to just junk stuff when in doubt.
while moving my stuff about i chanced upon an old appointment diary. quite befitting actually as my work here has come full circle. it was from the first year i joined my current place and the first time i started scribbling in an appointment anything to keep track of work and other things. flipping through it i noticed that the diary was simple and my penciling neatly scripted, with some design scribblings here and then. work-wise, i actually had more items noted in it than i remembered. things seemed a lot slower then. i had actually been trying to recall some films i saw in that year, but without much avail. so it was also quite a nice surprise to see some record of that turn up suddenly.
nowadays i don’t do pen and paper much justice. the diary has gotten a little more fancy looking but the handwriting has gone out the window. i have my strength in my fingers to type all day long but not enough to write decently with a pen for a paper. such an irony – i used to always have a rather tight pen grip and paper pressure, so much so that certain fingers developed bumps in school.
so it begins and so it ends. moving cubicles has also proven an opportune time to not just junk stuff, but also pack up and be ready. some will stay where they are. for others the move is temporary because they will move again when renovations are done. they have little need to unpack. and neither do i. it will be a more permanent shift for me. it will be a nice round-up of my time here, to leave at about the same time i came in. it will be a strange sort of parting though: i will leave friends and the environment i know now, but yet i will not be considered as having left service. supposedly i am to return some day.
but in the meantime i will get a change of scene and pace. i will run briefly with the press, which will seem akin to a job introduction without the obligation. after that, the country club on a hill. meantime, there is much else to be done on the home front.
so much awaits.
