Back at work

"So, how does it feel?" everyone asked me. 

First day back at work after a 13-day leave can seem like a tiresome task, and sometimes when you're a journalist and you have been hearing stories about being short-staffed, it can be dreadful.

It starts off right as I had predicted it, the curse of the return, astroman (Copyright, Miss P) was waiting for me. And as I worked on the predictions that astroman had written down for others, apart from the usual nondescript sentences, he seemed to be doing quite fine. 

That and the usual coffee banter or the hurried chats between work where we still manage to find the most stupid jokes and laugh it off as they were the best, brings you back to the everyday routine you had.

And even then, by the end of the day, you look at the empty chairs or the replaced ones. You look around for those random messages that used to pop up on your screen or the offering of a biscuit right when you are super hungry. The conversations that would make you smile or the one that continues over texts about pending plans that have to be checked off a bucket list. 

Somethings don't change for good and the ones that do, leave an empty space forever. Sure, with time, you adjust to it but at times, when you look up from your desk, and there's no one to say "Can I interest you with a cookie?", you wish they had never changed.

:)