What's the perfect way to finish a long week at work? Well there could be many responses to that question. One response that wouldn't qualify would be something like this.
Get up at 6:30 on a Friday morning.
Catch a packed train with school kids who have no idea about common courtesy and hence conclude that while everyone else has to squash together to fit on the train, they shall maintain their seige of defiance - impenetrable, immovable.
Start work an hour early, leave work an hour early, so I can get to church on time for a meeting that starts late.
Meeting starts off OK, except for a feeling of tiredness. Everyone is speaking decent amounts of English, so I can still understand.
I can't help feeling that this meeting is going painfully slow. Is it just me, or are there fundamental misunderstandings going on here? One person explains their POV, someone else expresses theirs. And then they spend 20 minutes re-explaining their POVs until someone else explains what they both meant, and discover that they weren't disagreeing in the first place.
Meeting progresses, lack of dinner catching up, thoughts wandering.
Time for a dinner break. The shop behind the church is closed, so I do a KFC run. One register open, no change in the register, more waiting.
Food is consumed while the meeting continues. Talk slowly slips into Indonesian. Topics move out of my territory into matters for which I am not concerned. People talking aimlessly about things I don't care about. Things that I could sort out completely in 5 minutes. Frustration grows, feel a need to throw something.
Put my head down, close my eyes, wait for the finish.
Four and a half hours after we began, we adjourn.
What's the best way to finish a 45 hour week? Not a 4.5 hour meeting, that's for sure.
