Home » London » My Work Day

Whew! End of my first full week of work.  It’s a good thing I love this company.  My day looks something like this:
7:00am – Get out of bed, get dressed, check email, make/eat breakfast, get everything ready for work
7:45am – Leave the flat to head for a train station (the one around the corner where the trains only come every 20-30 min if I’m feeling really lazy or, more often, the one 10 min walk away where trains come every 2-3 minutes)
8:40am – Get off the train and walk a few blocks through the absolutely gorgeous bank district to catch the bus
9:00am – Hit the office, usually just in time for someone to offer me a cuppa tea – and I’m usually already ready for one!
10:00am – Someone else makes tea for everyone
11:00am – Someone else makes tea for everyone
12:00pm – Someone else makes tea for everyone (we make and drink a LOT of tea in this office)
1:00pm – Lunch time! Walk along the little canal outside to the grocery store for lunch.  They have premade sandwiches and pasta salads (although no premade regular salads sadly), but I’ve been alternating those options with a French roll, goats cheese and an apple (both the tastier and generally less expensive of the two options but decidedly less healthy).
1:45pm – Back to work and… could it be time for more tea?
3:00pm – More tea and the editorial staff starts playing music on random.  And when I say random, I mean random.  Because we list every single event in London, we have CDs and music from every kind of band in London.  I’ve heard the range: ‘C is for Cookie’ the disco version; some epic Hungarian power rock, Finnish ballads, popular hits and classic oldies.
4:30pm – Sure… just one more cup (also about this time the headphones go on.  As much as I love Hungarian rock…)
6:00pm – End of the day for editorial staff.  Aww, no more tea.
6:00-7:00pm – End of day for me, depending on meetings/work/site issues
7:00-8:30pm – Get home/get groceries/make and eat dinner
10:00pm – Shower and get ready for bed
10:30pm – Flatmate comes home.  Hi Ann! (If I’m not already in bed!)
11:00pm – Sleep

So… as you can see, I keep busy.  The killer part is the commute.  I guess it’s pretty standard that it takes this long to get around.  Next week I’m going to experiment with another station that might be a lot quicker.  It’s a bit more of a walk, but it should cut my tube time in half at least so it might be worth it.  We have a station really nearby that’s under construction and will be open again in October.  Once that one’s open, I’m pretty sure I can get the commute to 40min max instead of the current 75min (the different tube lines are very different in their reliability and speed!).

This weekend I’m going to spend Saturday in London, doing more of the touristy stuff (Tate Modern, Harrods and Camden Market is the plan) and Sunday I’m going to try to get to Cambridge or Canterbury.  Should be a great weekend!