Progress (and rodents)

Well, the first week in my new group has not been so bad. I still feel like I'm trapped here doing something I don't want to do, and that it's a big step back after practising for 6 years in a different area. But the people have been very nice, and I finally got an actual positive comment about something I'd done. You won't believe me but that's the very, very first time that's happened in my current workplace in about 15 months. Also the job involves reviewing individual cases and reporting on their validity, which is more satisfying in the short term than my previous role because I actually get to finish things and move on quickly rather than working on projects that go on for months and even years and sometimes still don't actually reach completion in the end.

Also, not having to deal with property agents and surveyors makes a big difference. I think I can be fairly safe in the knowledge that no one working in those professions reads this blog so I'll push on without fear of causing any offence.

So the only thing I really have to complain about right now is all the mice in the new building I'm working in. They turn up every night, basically on the dot of 6pm, and wander around the office checking things out, searching for crumbs, and generally creeping me out. I've developed this weird almost-involuntary stomping dance that I do at my desk, out of an irrational fear that one is preparing to run up my leg.

The building I'm in now is a super-snazzy new one, younger than the average London office building by, oh, at least 150 years I'd say. How can it have a mouse problem already? A group email went around last week telling everyone to stop leaving food in the offices (including in the waste bins?!) because apparently the mice are so well fed, there is no incentive for them to eat the poison in the traps lining the walls. This email then got leaked to a legal news and business website, which gleefully published it in full. If that takes down the ego of a partner or two a couple of notches, the mice can stay.