Tuesday 4th June 2019

A day away from the office.

Going to head office.

Which meant driving 80 minutes up motorways, and arriving in time to show my face in the department, and have an interview and drive back.

I planned to get to the office just after nine, so planned to leave the hotel at half seven, allowing me time to lay in bed and listen to the morning sounds from outside.

I have a shower, get dressed, then go down for breakfast before getting the car out and heading to the E20 out of town.

A glorious morning, in light traffic, but soon I was in the middle of a bank of fog, making the drive more interesting than it should have.

I go over the bridge over the Vejle fjord, and then I hit the jam.

For an hour we inched along, at least the sun had broken through, but it meant less time in the office when I got there.

I get to the front and traffic speeds up, but I see no reason for the jam, so who knows.

When I arrive in Aarhus, there are no parking spaces at all. So, I have to go and park the other side of the main road, then jaywalk my way back, get a pass to allow me into the building, then go and see who I hope will be my new colleague, but in fact were my colleagues until 5 years ago.

After an hour or so of meeting old friends, doing some work, it is time for the meeting.

I have presented with the results of the aptitude test: did you know you had 75 minutes to complete it? Yes. So why did you do it and have 50 minutes spare? I thought I did OK. You did OK, just.

And then my psychological test. I wasn't to be locked up, which was good.

And that was it, HR will contact my former boss to see what he thinks, and I might know next week.

I walk out straight to the car to get out of the city and on the motorway by three, when the rush hour starts.

I am well south of the city by three, cruising in the warm sunshine.

I arrive back in Esbjerg, too late to go to the office, so I return to the hotel, walk to the Circle K, buy a salad and a bottle of pineapple juice, go to my room to try to eat said salad with a spork.

At the bottom of the bowl I find a bag of croutons and a bag of cheese savings.

It was fine salad, though clearly not steak and fries. But it does the trick, and the juice good.

I was pooped and end up snoozing for an hour until it was to meet with Tim for dinner in the Dronning Louise.

I have nachos and beer.

As you do. And as we wait for the food to arrive, we talk about work, football and life and our plans for retirement.