AUTISTIC NICK AND RETURNING TO WORK
December it was a blink and you’ll miss it kind of a month.
One minute you’re enjoying a prawn cocktail in a 30 degree heat by your swimming pool and the next minute you blink and you’re waking up albeit with a slight hangover and it’s Jan the 1st already!!
Where had December gone?
Had it been kidnapped?
Had someone spun the axis and spun us into January?
Whatever had happened 2023 was here and now as I sit here and write this I am reminded that on Tuesday the 17th January I will be returning to the office.
I am somewhat nervous, not like first day nerves when you know no one in the office and you are bombarded with learning people’s names (which you forget or even recently have forgotten and wish that they’d wear a name badge so you could remember or that someone would come past mention that persons name and then you could look like you knew it all along, even when you didn’t!)
For the past 3 weeks (I think) I have been on holiday/vacation and during that time any routine that I had around getting ready and being prepared for work has to some degree gone out the window.
It’s as if my memory had been wiped of everything work related.
Maybe I was too relaxed during the Christmas period?
I don’t even know if I am ready to return to work just yet.
I feel underprepared on so many levels.
I just need to take a deep breath.
Ok first I’ll check my backpack and see what items I have in there and what items I may have taken out or are missing and seek to replace/search for them (in the case of the latter this means turning my room upside down!!)
Next I need to get myself back into my work routine and remember what I did before I had a long relaxing sipping cocktails by the pool under a Perth summer sun.
I must remember to make my lunch the night before (on the Monday), check and if necessary top up my Smartrider train card, check train times to see if they’ve changed since last year.
With regards to work, I think it’ll be an idea to re-evaluate any processes and procedures that we previously had in place and see if they need tweaking or updating in anyway.
I am very nervous about returning to work, I guess that’s normal, but I did really need to have those 3 glorious weeks of peace and quiet and being able to relax as much as I did.
Enjoying lazy lunches, restful days watching TV, swimming in the cool waters of my swimming pool, not hearing the door bell ringing, guests not turning up looking to be entertained, ahh the happy, happy memories of it all.
But back to where I am now.
No more talk of enjoying fresh seafood, or cooked honey glazed ham, or a buffet meal all outside in a 30 degree heat by my swimming pool.
I need to go and check my backpack to see what I need to repack back into it.
20 Minutes later.
Backpack checked I have my noise cancelling headphones plus it’s recharger, my notebook with all its paperwork inside, pens, headphones, staff pass and my word search book.
Next I need to locate my lunch box, it’s bag and my water bottle (hold on).
I briskly walk into the kitchen, turn, and head towards the pantry and then opening the pantry door, bend down, pick up lunch box and bag and water bottle and then come back into my bedroom and type that all out on my computer into my word document.
Log into my Transperth account and check the balance of my SmartRider see that it’s a little low and then top it up.
Now that’s all checked I can move onto checking who I contacted before Christmas regarding article ideas and chase them up (I foresee a busy Tuesday ahead for me!!).
So, Monday afternoon after my lunch, I will get into making my lunch for work on Tuesday and be as prepared as I will ever be for Tuesday.
Now if you’ll excuse me I have a date with a chair Lilo and a cocktail with my name on it.
CARRY ON THE CONVERSATION
As always, I can also be found on Twitter:@AutisticNickAU and on the Official Autistic Nick Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/AutisticNickAU/ Thank you for reading and I will see you next time for more thoughts from across the spectrum.
Autistic Nick 
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