tales from an ordinary world

2001-07-05

2 and a half days in the white room, off-site, where the roads are full of long trucks and people welding things and the sky takes on that whole industrial feel to it, even though you're not quite there yet, just next door. Lunch is a choice of 4 takeaway shops all huddled together against the truckyards, with their hamburgers, dim sims and australianized "chinese food" - lemon chicken, beef and black bean sauce, etc. I don't belong here, but it's refreshing. Anything's better than spending all day inside the white room. Just down the road, the yuppies are coming, buying and building and renovating and redecorating, and things just won't be the same. My systems chatter happily - disk arrays, computers, ethernet switches all flicker their LEDs in turn. I don't think I've ever used a laptop computer all day before - they're always just toys that other more important, suit-wearing people have. People like me, we get by using dumb terminals in cold white rooms, standing up for hours on our own, talking to inanimate objects as we slowly move closer to our goals. I've felt so isolated that when I've met up with friends after work this week, all I can do is stare at the inner city surroundings, the things I'm familiar with, but just now feel so far away from.

Welcome to smoke-free dining.

Current Listening :

• Rock Action, by Mogwai.