A bittersweet farewell to the morning commute

For the past seven years, regardless of where I live exactly, my weekday mornings have been the same.

Alarm goes off, I reluctantly turn it off (I hate having to lift my arm out of the warmth to do so) and climb out of bed. Once I'm awake, I'm awake so snoozing isn't really my thing.

After a quick wash (I'm an evening bath/shower person) I'm downstairs to make breakfast. I usually whisper to the hubs to ask what he wants before rushing downstairs, to keep within the very short allocation of time I have for this part of the morning.

The next five minutes are when I properly wake up. 

Bread/bagels are quickly popped in the toaster, on non toast days cereal is poured and the kettle is flipped on. Whilst bread is toasting and tea is brewing, the tray comes out and plates and cups are arranged accordingly, at this point appropriate cutlery is removed from the drawer and ready for use. As soon as the toaster pops and the kettle clicks I'm on fire, spreading and pouring away as quickly as possible.

After I've slowly carried the tray up the stairs and placed my breakfast on my dressing table, I put the tray on the bed ready for the hubs. By this point he's in the shower. Daybreak is turned on the telly, the straighteners are flicked on and I'm ready to roll. The next quarter of an hour is my beautification and news catch up time.

Once my hair is done, my makeup on and my breakfast eaten I'm ready to get dressed. By this point the hubs is ready and pretty much always waiting in the car for me (we drive to the station to catch the overground to London) 

This is my frantic time, I never know what to wear and particularly at the moment (with lots of things still being in boxes) don't know where anything is!! After sprinting across the house half naked to find a matching pair of socks, I'm in the car and ready to go.

We always panic on the journey (this is due to the fact that the hubs likes all our clocks to be set up to an hour fast, we don't actually know which are an hour, twenty minutes ahead and so on… not annoying at all!!) that we've missed our train. 

This has of course never happened.

Five minutes later, we're on the train and on our phones. This is usually where I write my daily blog. The train is dead for the first few minutes until the second stop where it properly fills up. By this I'm lost in my own thought and imagination so barely notice the crowds.

Twenty minutes later, I kiss the hubs goodbye and leave the train.

It's funny thinking about the people who have an impact on your day. The hubs always tells me about a man he passes every single day who sits outside a cafe near his work. He's always smiling and chatting and sipping a mug of tea, come rain or shine.

For me, there is a particular man at my station who impacts my day. For some reason my train pass  never works in the machine (I think it gets deactivated by my phone). Some of the staff at the gates give me a hard time about this. One particular man always smiles when he sees me and rushes over to help me by opening the barrier. He's so sweet and in the 30 seconds or so that we are together each day, he makes me smile.

After this is where the tone of my morning tends to change a little. This is where I enter the tube. I only travel a few stops, but in those few minutes I'm usually irritated at least twice. Whether it's being shoved and bumped on a busy carriage or annoyed by a stupidly loud music devise and headphones, my morning happiness tends to be disrupted.

After a ten minute walk from the station to my office, I'm at my desk with a long glass of cold water to revitalise me before I plough into my emails.

A week today this all ends.

A week today, bar a few errands, I'll have nowhere to go. Yes I'll still drive the hubs to the station in the morning to avoid the car park fee (well, at least until the weather improves) but that's it.

I'm so tired, and most certainly ready to rest up before Baby J arrives, but the reality of life is going to be so weird.

Even little things like the chap at the station who makes me smile everyday will be missed and I'm sure forgotten quite quickly.

I know once Baby J arrives life will be busy, manic and full of joy (as well as vomit, crying and poop) but until then, I think I am going to find it very strange not coming to work everyday. The first few weeks will be fab as I'll feel like I'm on holiday, then we have the Christmas break which will be amazing and full of friends, family and presents :-)

It's January that I am a bit anxious about… those mornings where I'll wake up and realise that I truly have nowhere to go… It's going to be very strange.

I know it's just the start of an amazing journey but after seven years of the same routine, three years before that of University and years before that of school… this is the first time in my life where (at least for a few months) I have no real purpose other than sorting out my house and preparing for my little boy to arrive!!

I think the blog is going to help me through this transitional period… I am going to pretend it's my job to build a little sense of routine into my day!! 

I hope that helps to ensure I don't feel lonely and a little bit useless :-(