I am happy to report that my return to work today went rather well. I got to work early at 0720 only to realise that I couldn't get in as the receptionist had not yet arrived for the day. No matter, a workmate kindly let me in and another let me in through the glass barricade that encircles the stairs.
Once at my desk, I saw that my laptop was not there and neither was my phone. My first emotion was panic. Would I get to keep my wonderful extension 2600? or had they given it away to someone less worthy? Maria, our administrative assistant will not come in until 0930. Oh well, time for a chai latte. I was aghast to find out that the price of my favourite hot beverage had increased to $1.30. I had to move on and cope with this so I brought my drink with me to enjoy with a Tim Tam while I pondered what to do next.
Amanda, another colleague, had a brainwave and suggested that my laptop could be in the storeroom. She let me in and after rummaging around, we found a laptop. I turned it on only for it to die a few minutes later. After about 30 minutes of failed resuscitation attempts, IT rescued me by advising me to take out the battery pack and re-inserting it. Karen rescued me by finding me my phone. This meant that I could now call Malcolm, Sharon and Vivien in my breaks.
Maria, upon her arrival, informed me that the laptop I had scavenged was not mine. IT was still "refreshing" my laptop and it would be ready by 2pm. Oh well, I guess I couldn't do much work until then. Damn shame as we have a meeting scheduled for 2pm. In the meantime, I wiped down every surface I could see with anti-bacterial wipes and cleared out the previous owner's stationery drawer. After testing out every pen/highlighter/permanent marker, sorting out all the paperclips into large, medium and small, and organising my 3 pairs of scissors, 2 sticky tape dispensers, clips, blu-tack, a regular stapler, a light up stapler, rulers, post-it notes and notebooks, I finally got to visit my most favourite place in the building...the stationery room. It was definitely one of the highlights of my day!
By this stage, I thought I'd better watch Amanda do a few cases on our new database. This didn't take long and before I knew it was time for lunch. Hurray! After lunch, I acquired myself another thermal mug for my tea breaks. It was then meeting time. By the end of the meeting, my laptop still had not arrived. The time had been delayed until 4:30pm. Bummer, I guess its time to have another break. To my joy, I rediscovered why it was so hard not to put on weight when I was working before. There was a lovely selection of cakes and pastries leftover from a meeting. I helped myself to a yummy macadamia nut caramel slice and wondered what would be served for lunch at the meeting tomorrow. After chatting to Malcolm, Su and to Sharon briefly, my laptop finally arrived. I was delighted to discover that I had received one the newer laptops complete with a new bag. I was even happier to find out that on Wednesday, we are all going out for yum cha at Rhodes to farewell Diana (the girl who replaced me while I was on maternity leave).
It was now time to go home. I couldn't have asked for a more wonderful first day back.
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