Office flashback

At the end of the day, we went to a conference room decked out with bunting and some party games (that mainly involved table tennis or throwing a hoop over something). We had planned to use the outdoor terrace, but the weather meant it was closed off.

It was a 'summer party'. A few drinks were either left over from a previous event or generously provided by some of the team (given there was no budget), and it was a very pleasant couple of hours. The cans of lager were consumed relatively quickly.

Those who remained by 9pm helped clean up and wandered to the local over-priced bar. We walked through our deserted offices, and on the way out, I noticed this old phone on a table. It's the kind of telephone everybody would have had on their desk pre-pandemic, and now nobody has one: the desks are clear. I don't know what it was doing sitting on the table (missing the handset piece), but it was a flashback to office life that seems from another age, but is not much over four years ago.

The stragglers had a few beers until closing. At some point, somebody started dancing, and the bar staff asked if we wanted last orders. When we did, they wouldn't serve us as the tills were closed, but when we questioned, 'Why ask?', the manager agreed it was a bit silly and opened a till to take our money.

I took the tube to Wimbledon, where I unexpectedly saw a mainline service to Raynes Park approaching. It got me home faster than I thought, but instead of heading straight to bed, as I should have done, I ate some dinner that PY had left for me.