14 December 2021

Office away from the office

In recent weeks, it has happened several times that I had a gap between engagements on campus. And what I need in a gap like that, basically, is a supply of hot drinks and a computer I can speak to. And since I have a laptop, that last feature is sorted. And one of the buildings I often teach in: Thoday building, which actually looks a bit like my old secondary school, has a little kitchen with one of those boiling water taps and some tables nearby where you can sit. And I always end up there. I can just keep refilling my flask. Sometimes work can be difficult there; other people use the space as well, and if my microphone picks up what other people say then things get confused, but quite often it is quite quiet there. So this has now sort of become my office away from the office! I even have a default table. And I sometimes end up having a bit of a chat with people who walk past. We are all in the same college! 

We as the School of Ocean Sciences actually do have a hotdesk on main campus, and I used that when I only had a desktop. But it is in a building without a boiling water tap, and where I don't know anyone. So off to Thoday it is! And these are the tail ends of teaching, but I suspect I will be back at my table in the New Year before too long…

View from my impromptu office (boiling water tap just out of view)


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