The office

We were given 3 days to move out of the current office which the 8 of us share, and we'll be scattered in 3 different offices.

It's no big deal I guess, especially since there's already been talk about us moving. But it's true that this has been my second home for more than 2 years, not because I spend so much time here, but because it feels like it. For me, home is where sleep is. I don't sleep well in strange places and the office has already passed the litmus test because I nap there all the time. And the funny thing is, my dear colleagues actually try to talk in whispers and not make noise when they see me sleeping when I'm patently NOT supposed to!

Our office has an open, communal concept: there're no partitions and we sit in 2 rows at the sides while in the middle there're 2 big common tables. So a bunch of us often talk across the office and well, everyone can hear and see everything. It feels like a classroom, only without a teacher. And instead of flinging paper planes and crunched-up paper balls at each other, we hurl mock-insults.

And the view from here is fantastic--I often stand at the windows that span from ceiling to floor, just looking at the green hills afar which turn misty on cold days, and the occasional thunderstorms. Now they're turning it into an archive room cum general office, of all things, and building in those looming, grey compactus shelves libraries use to keep books that no one would borrow anymore.

For the move, I managed to keep my immediate neighbours, which is a relief. All of them have by now shifted out of the old office, except me and my right-hand neighbour (and a part-timer who's not often in), who seems as reluctant as me though he keeps a cheerful face about it. I thought I was crazy to be sad about leaving an office, but at one point, he mused aloud that he's been here for 2.5 years, and I knew I'm not really that nutty. Now that he's out in schools, it's just me in this big office which is so quiet and still, I can hear the humming of the printer and people walking by outside.

People have been coming in and out of the office all day, carting off boxes, stock taking, putting labels on the furniture. I wanted some quiet time in the office but now, looking at the empty desks around me, I realise it's the people who make the place. This was an office built for 10 and the noises and buzz they generate, and now, it's too big for comfort for me, and the dust is making me sneeze. Time to do the packing up that I've been putting off and head for the new office.