It’s no secret that I Iike to be busy and when things are slightly crazy. Juggling multiple things at the same time is when I thrive the most. And days that go down as some of the most intense or extreme are also some of my best and when I truly feel that I’m alive.
The last day in May I came into the office some time between 7-7.30am. I knew it was going to be a busy and long day. But I didn’t know it was going to be as long as it was. We had a big client presentation in Geneva the following day and I had a lot of thinking and wireframes to prepare. The visual designers finished their part just after midnight and headed home but I still had some way to go. A colleague from account management kept me company and helped get everything ready and come 5am all the documents where prepared. As per magic the printers behaved and without any objections printed out all of the things we needed. We put them in a folder and with that folder under my arm I jumped into a cab to head home. I got in just before 5.30am, half an hour before I was supposed to get up and get ready to go to the airport. There was no point going to bed so instead I jumped in the shower, got dressed and jumped into another cab that had come to pick me up. At Heathrow I met my colleagues and debated whether I should try to get some sleep on the plane but decided against it. Sometimes getting just an hour is worse than staying awake the whole night and besides I was too excited about presenting our work to the client.
The presentation went brilliantly and they loved what we’d put together so happily we headed back to the airport and went back to London. But the day didn’t end there. At the airport we got in another cab and headed into central London for an old colleague’s leaving drinks. I lasted until just after 9.30pm when I decided that it was time to call it a night. So I jumped into the 6th and last cab of those 38 or so hours and headed home. It was one of the longest and craziest working days of my life but also the most fun.
Though yesterday was purely pleasure it had some resemblance with the craziness of that 22 hour day followed by the presentation in Geneva. Contrary to last time I did decide to sleep for a bit when I got back in, but waking up this morning after just an hour and a half of sleep I wasn’t sure what was going on. I started fiddling with the brightness settings on the phone as to not wake up D with the bright light. Until I realised, that is, that actually I hadn’t woken up to fiddle with the phone but to go to Sweden to celebrate my dad. My bags where thankfully already packed and just before 4.55am I was down at Northfields tube station waiting for the Picadilly line to Heathrow T5 and picked up the day’s Metro with this picture on the front page:
I’d just come from there. I’d been in there when the fireworks went off. When the Olympic flame was put out and the whole stadium whispered ‘Nooo’. It felt surreal and sad and at that time I didn’t want to go. I wanted to go back to bed, drift into sleep and relive the memories from the day before. Pretend that the Olympics wasn’t over. But it was and I had a plane to catch and for a lovely reason. My dad’s birthday.
And a few hours later I arrived at Copenhagen airport and took the train over to Lund where I met my middle brother. Together we continued up to Sofiero Castle where we celebrated the first part of dad’s day. We met up with him and his friends and had a lovely day walking around the gardens of Sofiero before heading back to his for dinner in the evening.
Those two extremes couldn’t have been more different. The day before I walked around in the middle of the Olympics and the day after I was with family and friends in Sweden. In those 24 hours from Sunday morning when I left the house at 11am I managed to see Team GB win gold, attend the closing ceremony, catch a flight and arrive in Sweden and give my dad a hug on his birthday. And during that 22 hour working day followed by 6 taxis and 2 flights I managed to get an awful lot done, present to the client in Geneva as well as go for an old colleagues’ drinks in London. Though neither of these two days contained a lot of sleep it’s amazing how much you can manage to do and how far you can go in just over a day. And sometimes, just sometimes the crazyness that comes with going without a lot of sleep makes it all just that little bit better. Or at least that little bit more like an adventure. Perhaps that’s why I like my early morning flights so much.
Happy birthday dad. So pleased I got to spend it with you.
Tomorrow – Day 227 | London, Copenhagen, Lund – Home sweet home
Image source: My instagrams from the closing ceremony of London 2012 & Sofiero Castle in Sweden
