the return

This week I returned to work on the 18th floor of a very large office block at a very large state government department. I returned to relentless fluorescent lighting, artificial climate control and olive green decor.

I also returned to uninterrupted lunches, cups of tea that I actually get to finish and the city - things may not be so bad after all! And it is only two days a week.

I think that Melbourne city is wonderful - I love the wide streets lined with trees, trams running down the middle, the warren of lanes hiding hole-in-the-wall bars, the bluestone and the concrete. I really connect with the city and find it a wonderful place to work and shop and explore. Earlier today I wandered past Piadina Slow Food, along Crossley Street past Crossley & Scott, Madame Virtue and Gingerboy, to the Salvation Army op shop on Bourke Street and felt like I had come home.

Adjusting my head space to being back at work has been a bit of an effort though. After spending a little over a year at home surrounded by a truly bonny baby, domesticity and various knitting projects, getting back into the swing of quarterly reporting, progression, performance and development plans and key performance indicators has my head in a swim. Coming back to work after a year's absence has been quite disorientating - it's like starting a new job and having to take everything in but I already know most of the people and my way around the office. On the surface nothing has changed but the deeper I look the more I find that is new, different, foreign. Everyone here is a year older (including me) although it's hardly obvious, and nothing like the incredible growth and change that baby bear has experienced in the same time period.

Tim likes to remind me that motherhood makes you smarter (apparently) and I must say that my ability to plan and multi-task has certainly improved. I also think that my creativity has soared since baby bear was born, endless ideas about things to make. Some women say that they are desperate to get back to work in order to use their brain again but I haven't felt that way, my brain has been plenty busy with creative pursuits. Now that I am back I hope that there is ample room for both.

And ah, the view.