The Parent Project: Month 10

Photo of bunnyI can do my project communications work for The Otobos Group from anywhere but when I work for my employer I sometimes need to travel. Nap time is about 9am and it feels weird to be north of Coventry before my son is due for a sleep. We don’t often have meetings in Birmingham and what with maternity leave, it’s been a while since I’ve been to the city.

When I leave the station it’s all different. The concourse is shiny and new, the escalators have moved. I don’t know how to find the right exist. So I guess.

Once outside, the city looks familiar but different. Yay for urban regeneration. There are roadworks, and my normal landmarks for navigating to the venue (which is only a short walk away) have gone. I have a legendary sense of direction – my team knows I have none at all.

There are 60 people attending the meeting and as I get closer to where I think the venue is I expect to recognise people on the street. I don’t see anyone, and I think I’ve made a wrong turn, but I’m only just going to make it so I don’t want to stop and fire up slow 3G maps on my phone. To make it worse I can’t remember the name of the street anyway.

Just when I start to panic I recognise the street sign. I’m on the right road and I’ve spotted someone I know ahead of me. I arrive at the venue with 5 minutes to spare.

It’s a good meeting. It’s energising to be in a room bouncing around ideas and to hear people say nice things about my projects and my team. I use the lunch break to catch up with people I haven’t seen for ages and resolve a couple of project issues that are much faster to deal with face to face compared to on email. As the meeting draws to a close it doesn’t even feel like I was rocking my son for an hour as he sobbed through the pain of teething before I even left the house just after 6am. I make a list of things to do on the train home to carry on the buzz from the day.

But before the train has reached Coventry again, I’m asleep.