Commuter Life

As I sipped on my glass of red wine, I looked around last night at the people in Canberra’s Bar Rochford. They were all well dressed, and aged late 20s to late 30s, and they were probably working in the public service, or in politics, I concluded, without any real basis for making such a judgement.

I wondered, for a moment, about whether or not I would have been one of these people, albeit twenty years ago. As I recall, I sat the public service exam, though I don’t recall what happened next, as my heart pursued a career in radio instead. With an interest in politics and policy, I could quite well have become a senior public servant by now. Maybe I would have ended up in foreign affairs or something like that? Anyway, it was just a brief moment of reflection as I sipped on a glass (actually two) of excellent French wine.

It was the second time this week in Canberra where I’ve been in a bar (and I’ve only been here since Tuesday night). On Tuesday night, I caught up with a former colleague, now working in commercial radio here. It was terrific to reflect on old times, and to catch up on where our lives are up to now.

Otherwise, it’s been work, hotel, work, hotel for most of the time I’ve been here. And that’s fine, because I’m really enjoying the work, and I’m really enjoying Canberra. I’m dividing my time roughly half the week here, and half the week back home in Sydney.

And earlier in the week, I needed to be home. It’s now compulsory to have safety locks on all apartment windows in NSW, where it’s possible a child could fall and possibly be killed. In my apartment block, there are 32 apartments, which kept a couple of blokes awfully busy for a couple of days.

For me, it meant working from home, as I awaited “my turn”. This was totally awesome because a) I got so much more work done b) the line between what I wore to bed the previous night and what I wore to “work” the following morning was “somewhat blurred” and c) I got to have lunch at my favourite local restaurant. Work/life balance, for sure.

Next week in Canberra? There’s a good chance of snow, apparently.