On my travels

Today will be my first day away from home this week.  Initially it was a one day meeting in Sheffield and then I suddenly realised that I had a Continuing Professional Development training course in Leeds the following day - I may or may not have only remembered because I was sent an agenda.   

Journeys to both cities can be done in a day.  For example; a 5.39am train to Sheffield will get me into the Sheffield office by 8.45 and I can do a full days work before catching a train just before 5pm to get me back in my house by 8.30pm.  Leed is a similar journey.  Except that doesn't make a whole lot of sense when I can get from Sheffield to Leeds in 45 minutes.

With permission from my manager I have booked myself into a hotel near the station and very close to Leeds town centre.  I do get there too late for most of the shops which my bank account is silently thankful for but it does mean that I have enough time to grab some dinner and see a film at the cinema.

Beautiful B thinks I am crazy for being quite happy to go to the cinema on my own.  I've never had a problem with it; probably gained when I was 12 years old when having to see Dirty Dancing 10 times on my own after my friends got fed up of wanting to see it after the second time. 

I am currently undecided between Delivery Man (a comedy about a man who is dad to 533 kids thanks to making a bit of extra money donating sperm when he was younger) and Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom because even I can be serious every now and then.  I grew through my teenage year just as Mandela was released from prison and I think it is important to better understand one of the men that changed our history.

I am saving 12 Years a Slave until next week as I am seeing that with Angel.  Again, I think it is important to realise just what people had to go through not so long ago so that we can continue to be grateful for what we have.  Of course, now that it won a Golden Globe or two it is topped for Oscar awards and so it is bound to be a moving film.

I listen to a lot of mums at work who desperately miss their children when they work away from home.  While I can see where they are coming from, even when Beautiful B was younger, I relish my time in a hotel room up to a point.  I do try to look for the best in every situation so I relish the no cooking, no cleaning and ability to concentrate on me when I am away rather than how much I miss my daughter and hubby.  It is only if I am away for 3-4 nights that I begin to pine for them.  

My only issue is that I am good at enjoying it too much and often find myself wide awake at 1am and then I am exhausted by the end of the following day.  That and the fact that I always seem to come back and have a lot of washing and cleaning to do because Beautiful B and Hubby aren't quite a clean freak nutty as I am.

This time I will try and be sensible and go straight to bed when I return from the cinema; here's hoping I don't lie awake until silly o'clock reading.