A shower, get dressed and go down for breakfast and then the drive to the conference venue for the meeting. It was the start of June, and to mark this the sun came out, and so it was a glorious sunny morning, bathing the city in fine warm golden light. Including the heavy traffic.
The conference venue was a mile or so behind our office, so the same route really. It is about the 6th time I have attended an event here, so I knew where to go, so could just enjoy the drive. Once I have found my way out of the underground parking garage, and then coming out of it in a different part of town, unsure of where I was or even which way to go.
I am near the station, so I hazarded a guess, and soon came to the inner ring road, turned onto that was went east.The venue is also a hotel, and is a modern sprawling building, set on many levels with stairs and steps upside down, meaning it is hard to find your way about. I find the room and indeed it has whiteboards, felt pens, flip charts, coffee machines, snacks and my colleagues were also arriving.
We were together for a department meeting-cum-seminar thing really. We all work on different projects, so there is not much sense of belonging, and this was supposed to fix that. And for our ultimate boss to inform us of the direction to the new year.
We start at eight in the morning with the weekly winge, and it went downhill from there.
Lunch was served at half twelve, then we had the results of a personality test well had undertaken and see what it meant, if anything, for the department. Not sure I believed all the mumbo jumbo to be honest, but it was interesting. And it gave us lots of ammunition to throw insults and jokes at each other. But, overall, a dull day sat inside on a glorious sunny day. I needed a walk.
At half five it was done, meaning we had an hour to get to the venue for the evening function, a place called The Happy Madness. I'm not saying anything!
I drive back to the hotel, drop off my work stuff, then go to the lobby to meet back with Chris for the walk to the restaurant. I was pretty sure where it was, so we set off down the hill, past the Highlander then over the main road and the new tram line that is still not finished, and beside the water along the old harbour where huge modern buildings mix in with the old in a slightly jarring way, but it works, but with the old huge merchant's houses on the other side of the road, it kinda holds together.
OK, I got us so far, but in the mix of ongoing building works, fragments of old roads and pavements, I was lost. Chris gets his phone out, and turns out I had gotten us to within 200 yards of it. We weave through the building work, and along an unpromising road, there were two new restaurants sharing the same black wooden building. We go in to find all the other tucking into the first course, and all had full wine glasses. 
No one came round to fill our glasses, only to be told you helped yourself! what could possibly go wrong? We have some fish dish which you poured cold pea soup over, it all went well together, although not sure about cold soup. Anyway, the meat course came, and I went to get some red wine. A large glass, and all went down well, but the meal had taken the best part of two hours, and I would have to be up in less than ten hours, so I bid my farewells to the team, shaking hands and leaving, as dessert was being served.
I walk back the same way, light was less harsh, and had a warm feel to it, even if it was much cooler, but then a good walk is good, past the old buildings, one of which was now a bbq chain restaurant, over the tram lines, stopping to take shots, then back through the town to the hotel. 
I had forgotten the power lead for my laptop on Tuesday, and it was now on 17% power, no time to do anything, just as well really, as I needed sleep. I clean my teeth, and went to sleep to the sounds of Flashdance coming from the theatre next door.What a feeling!
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