posted in 2015, this text was I think an attempt at capturing the solitude and darker thoughts of a sleepless business traveller - and, boy, did I sleep poorly on most business trips (mostly, I now realise, to my FODMAP intolerance to onions and garlic. I clearly wasn’t on a business trip on the 27th of December, but remembering one - probably brought to mind by a similar poor night following a celebratory meal
Disorientated. Where? Dim pre-dawn - or streetlamp - light crept lethargically, reluctantly, unenergetically through a gap between blackout curtains. Energy aplenty thundered in audio form through the window and into the room: sound waves, but not homely. A hotel room. A truck, or a tractor. Almost military. No, not that - but east European. One east European truck or tractor followed by another: agricultural. A church or town hall bell, three simple rings. What in God’s time is it? Yes, three quarters past - quarter to - what?
Where, a hotel room in Romania. When, a quarter to. Who? And why?
Hand stopped half way to reaching smartphone and dropped back onto the bed. Time was unimportant now, as was place. This was him: a family man. This was him: a company man. This was him: an engineer. Half awake, three quarters not there.
So - a company man. Could that be a defining characteristic? If so, then he had changed. If not himself, then at least his company. He didn’t feel that different after all, even if he was now working for the competition. So - not defining. It was a new start, let that be sufficient for now (not this short now - a long now). Fresh perspectives and new beginnings had brought fresh motivation and impetus - surely to fade - but why not enjoy making new connections and revisiting old challenges with fresh eyes?
A company engineer and a family man: plenty of work to be getting on with. Reason enough not to be lying unasleep in a foreign bed, awaiting meetings, reviews, discussions, coffees and presentations with a whole new group of people. For what? Oh, don’t let’s go there now: there is no what for. Especially when the real question is: for whom?
I am why. They are why. You are why I read specifications line by line - especially the ones I have written; why I go through drawings item by item, FMEAs cause by cause, assign component attributes like a librarian, consider new developments like a patent lawyer; test parts, write reports, write emails, write presentations, travel to stranger places than this - and, from time to time, to write about it all here. For the company: your company.
Four more simple rings, followed by four sonorous ones. Two and a half hours to wait for the smartphone to ring, hopefully until then oblivious to time…