Hello and welcome to....

Being somewhere else..
The glamour of the time away from home falls short when twinned with waste land just off the M1.

The actuality of the small kettle and tray of tea bags hits home when you really are making it just for one.
Overheard conversations being held by salesmen who've travelled the length of the country and wandered through the great invisible North South divide. No glamour there either, just massive amounts of relief that it wasn't me.

An induction into the new and the obligatory tell us all about you team builder thing. Here I am, amongst real grown ups who have job goals! What do I do?
I am honest, refreshingly so. After being told that others enjoy the wonders of F1 and various sports, I am compelled to let out that I enjoy looking at the stars, thinking, daydreaming and occasionally writing something. I curse myself at one point for not giving away the secret that I also enjoy gaming, on my , in the dark mostly and never online. I should have put the lid on the tin and given away that I also enjoy sometimes walking up hills with my friends. They may have sent me home at that point with the wails of their mistake made ringing in my ears. 
I couldn't help thinking about the room we were in. How many other inductions and private functions had it seen?How many speeches and first dances had taken place in it? These places all seem to be built using some identical plan, some duplicate brick and interior layout.
Later, I ring home and explain about the day and the feeling of  detachment. It is echoed through the ether.
Food time and I'm with some nice folks. I do the talking thing but eventually I start listening to them talking to each other and the wondering kicks in. Who are these people and what do they want from all this? What was their reason for jumping ship? That's how I want to ask, just as that, why did you desert the flaming wreck of your previous role? Maybe they didn't. Maybe they had some conscious  reason for moving up the ladder rather than the feeling that they should be somewhere else now. Perhaps I read too much into people. Perhaps they're  just as lost as I feel in some of these situations.

Eventually, it's back to the massive bed ,another one cup tea bag adventure and my book. I talk to my wife again and suddenly, as I look through the window, I catch sight of the sprawl that is Sheffield, falling down the hill like a bed of low scattered embers. There's magic again and the everyday gives up its beauty under the glow of sodium. 

In all of this, I think I somehow get closer to where I'm actually supposed to be, where my unseen pull is eventually going to lead me. It takes time and there's much to be thankful for in the meantime. Not least this.

Colours, values and names change but underneath, it's still all about working with the uncertain and the unpredictable. Even if it involves hotels on reclaimed wasteland, just off the M1.