Anywhere But Here

I spent the last two weeks in Sheffield in the north of England living the life of a traveling businesswoman; working all day and into the evening in a large blank room in an “office complex” before returning to my Travel Inn to eat gammon steak & chips and then off to bed. At first there was some novelty in choosing whether to eat at the hotel or go to one of the many restaurants within walking distance. I could come and go as I pleased, see a movie at the cineplex across the road or wander around Meadowhall, the huge shopping mall a short tram ride away. This wore thin pretty quickly though as I saw all the movies worth watching and they weren’t all that great and I discovered why Meadowhall has been dubbed Meadow-Hell by the locals.

I missed my husband and I missed my daughter, even with the webcam/Skype we had set up so she could watch me work and I could listen to her play. Blogging went out the window as the hours I spent working crept up. Without anything else to do I found myself staying in the office until the caretakers kicked me out. Still I was shocked to have the old feeling of work-guilt creep up on me because my desk was in the middle of the room and was overlooked by my boss so how could I take twenty minutes to pop on here and post? Now there’s a feeling I don’t miss now that I freelance!

I took the above photograph one evening while heading back to my hotel room after eating a meal beside the Cineplex. It was a beautiful. balmy evening and I thought the picture of so many jet trails heading every which way out of Sheffield captured something of my mood.

So, when Matt rang me on Monday to tell me that Eve has the chicken pox and keeps calling for her mummy I’m afraid I failed as a noughties have-it-all woman and booked a flight home for the next day. I’ll be flying back next Wednesday to finish out a last week there but this time I won’t be going on my own; Matt and Eve will be flying with me.

I guess I’m not cut out for the jet-set high-powered lifestyle.