Fish Tank

There is a weird back-to-school atmosphere around at the moment. I say weird and it is but it gets to me every year at this time – a sort of regret that the holidays have to end even when I haven’t been away for the six weeks that we used to get. I can imagine that with all the extra pressure to comply with curriculum restrictions these days, the feeling may well be stronger for children now though maybe most kids are like most adults; they just aren’t that worried about things as much as I am. I always like direction in my life and at the moment certain compartments of it just aren’t navigated in any way which means I worry about change. Is this latent Asperger’s?

Next week marks 20 years since I left academic life to start work and although the name of the company I have worked for has changed, I haven’t actually moved at all – I have 20 years of continuous service. I could have looked forward to at least some sort of occasion to mark this time but with all the fragmentation that seems to be the way of business these days, this anniversary has become invisible to my current HR department meaning that any book-token I might have expected will not be handed over in a gentle ceremony followed by a few pints at the local pub. Actually we don’t have a local pub on this site. The Plessey Site at Edge Lane in Liverpool was well served by hostelries, having its own tame, modern bar within stumbling distance of the factory gates. Indeed one pub was actually built into a niche in the perimeter fence, the landlord having refused to sell it to the company along with all the houses which were demolished to make way for the car park. Not sure how that place makes any money any more. The North West Development Agency are doing their best to regenerate the area but it looks like the major part of the project is knocking down houses along the main drag so that they can put up shining new brick walls to hide the wastelands beyond. Or am I being cynical?