Lunch Time Adventures. Episode 1.

School holidays, and specifically half-term school holidays, are great for many reasons; not least because I get an opportunity to see what goes on in the lives of my familes and friends, outside the goldfish bowl of education!



I'm sure there is much subtle humour I miss in comedies like The Office, because I don't work in one. Even if I do get it, I perhaps don't feel the poignancy of it like others do, who work in that environment day after day after day.

Today saw the first installment of my Lunch Time Adventures. I ate my cheese and pickle sandwich with Chris Poston, who works for HP, and gives IT support to the Bank of Ireland which has a major office in the Plaza West building, just by the Oracle Shopping Centre, here in Reading.

If you work in education, credit crunch talk is for the most part an academic exercise (pardon the pun). We won't be losing our jobs here at school unless: 1) the birth rate drops significantly, or 2) the current recession gets really bad and when I say really bad, I mean Mugabe's Zimbabwe style. Nevertheless, talking to one of Chris' colleagues whilst filling my face with Duck and Hoisin flavour crisps, (I'm a sucker for a special edition flavour even with a Jesus sticker on my bank card! ;o) made me realise that credit crunch means a whole load of different things if you are working in mortgages. She said that she was dealing with around 5-6 reposession orders a week. When I asked her how many she would normally see, she replied about 5-6 every couple of years!!!

I am very grateful for friends like Chris. I'm also grateful for opportunities to get out of my own navel-gazing little world and enter other people's worlds for a change.

If anyone would like me to come and visit them at lunch time, I would welcome the invitation! Do get in touch.