A trip to London
Jul. 26th, 2020 07:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anefI hadn't been into the office since lockdown started in March. Since then, like my colleagues, I've been working at home. Our office just off Fleet Street has been staffed by a small team, and if you want to visit you have to get permission so that they can manage the social distancing.
We are due to move to new offices (a couple of hundred yards down the road, above City Thameslink station) and the old building will be closed at the end of August. A visit was becoming imperative to sort out my desk, rescue some personal belongings (including a large number of pairs of shoes, ahem!) and dispose of a lot of old files.
As the things that needed to be rescued included a computer monitor, and a few boxes worth of books and files, M suggested that we drive in and do it in one day, rather than me trying to wrestle a ton of stuff onto and off the train, and possibly having to make two trips.
I have actually not driven in Central London for a very long time, so I set up a congestion charge account, worked out a reasonable car park to use (my office only has three spaces and they were all booked) and asked Google Maps how to get there. Google Maps suggested that we go down the M11, continue in a straight line until we hit the river, and then turn right. Oh, and PS you'll have to cross to the South Bank via Southwark Bridge, drive through Bankside and back over Blackfriars Bridge because why not. (Why not was because the road was closed, presumably for repairs).
The office was just weird when I got there. Stripy tape all over the floors showing one way traffic. We were supposed only to use the lifts to go up, but so few people were in that I ignored this. Perhaps ten or so people on my floor, all sitting at desks far apart (though no face masks). The coffee machine was working but we had to bring our own milk.
I had brought my library books to return, as the city libraries are now open, and M kindly took them back for me. He then came and helped me with the shredding (that is, stuffing old client papers in the shredding bins). 99% of it was on the system anyway, and no, it did not feel like being at Arthur Andersen, back in the day, thanks for asking. I had to ask myself why I had kept all this old paper, and the answer was that I never had time to deal with it. Well, now it's dealt with, apart from a handful of client files that I felt I needed to keep just in case.
The drive back was much more trying than the drive in, as the traffic was a lot worse, and also I was navigating while M drove,and I am not good at this even with Google Maps. Instead of taking us back the way we came Google decided that the best way was diagonally north-eastwards towards the bottom of the M11. There was a lot of sitting in traffic interspersed with exciting intervals when two lanes of traffic tried to pile into one. At one point we found ourselves heading the wrong way down the A12. M took it quite calmly, considering.
Now all I have to do is find somewhere to put it all, which is going to involve sorting out my bookshelves. Hey ho.
We are due to move to new offices (a couple of hundred yards down the road, above City Thameslink station) and the old building will be closed at the end of August. A visit was becoming imperative to sort out my desk, rescue some personal belongings (including a large number of pairs of shoes, ahem!) and dispose of a lot of old files.
As the things that needed to be rescued included a computer monitor, and a few boxes worth of books and files, M suggested that we drive in and do it in one day, rather than me trying to wrestle a ton of stuff onto and off the train, and possibly having to make two trips.
I have actually not driven in Central London for a very long time, so I set up a congestion charge account, worked out a reasonable car park to use (my office only has three spaces and they were all booked) and asked Google Maps how to get there. Google Maps suggested that we go down the M11, continue in a straight line until we hit the river, and then turn right. Oh, and PS you'll have to cross to the South Bank via Southwark Bridge, drive through Bankside and back over Blackfriars Bridge because why not. (Why not was because the road was closed, presumably for repairs).
The office was just weird when I got there. Stripy tape all over the floors showing one way traffic. We were supposed only to use the lifts to go up, but so few people were in that I ignored this. Perhaps ten or so people on my floor, all sitting at desks far apart (though no face masks). The coffee machine was working but we had to bring our own milk.
I had brought my library books to return, as the city libraries are now open, and M kindly took them back for me. He then came and helped me with the shredding (that is, stuffing old client papers in the shredding bins). 99% of it was on the system anyway, and no, it did not feel like being at Arthur Andersen, back in the day, thanks for asking. I had to ask myself why I had kept all this old paper, and the answer was that I never had time to deal with it. Well, now it's dealt with, apart from a handful of client files that I felt I needed to keep just in case.
The drive back was much more trying than the drive in, as the traffic was a lot worse, and also I was navigating while M drove,and I am not good at this even with Google Maps. Instead of taking us back the way we came Google decided that the best way was diagonally north-eastwards towards the bottom of the M11. There was a lot of sitting in traffic interspersed with exciting intervals when two lanes of traffic tried to pile into one. At one point we found ourselves heading the wrong way down the A12. M took it quite calmly, considering.
Now all I have to do is find somewhere to put it all, which is going to involve sorting out my bookshelves. Hey ho.
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Date: 2020-07-27 02:29 pm (UTC)Another Covid-19 milestone!