Coffee with friends!

Did that really happen? Well yes and no  I suppose because it was also a meeting to do some work - and yes, we did work.
There are some things, particularly in craft related areas where it is just not possible to do everything by email and phone call. Those technological whiz kids might be able to do it by "Zoom" but some of us need to do it the simple, old fashioned, "Let's get together" way. It has not been possible until now.
Yesterday though three of us got together and did some work, a lot of work. We also had coffee. It was proper coffee in real cups in a real coffee place.
I am not fond of coffee. If they make it about a quarter of the usual strength then I can tolerate a cup of it for the sake of being social. If I had thought about it I might have asked for hot chocolate instead. It was that sort of weather.
When I made the arrangements one of the other attendees said, "Real people? Real coffee?" I could imagine her smiling. She gets out far more than I do and has undoubtedly missed such outings even more.
It all made me think about "working from home" and then the importance of "getting together". There are distinct advantages about working from home. I do not need to "dress for work". I do not need to waste time travelling to and from - and that saves money too. In my case I can care for the Senior Cat as well.  One disadvantage has been the "but  you don't really work do you?"
syndrome. I wonder whether that has changed at all now that more people have been working from home? 
But there are times when "getting together" does help. In this instance all three of us are I suppose "volunteers". We don't get paid to do what we do but we have also committed ourselves to doing something. This year has seen plans which were made interrupted by events outside our control. There is a need to keep a major state event going and keep people's interest in it. This is not about the way so many people think of the event as "good fun" but about the economic well being of the state and how the event contributes to that.
I came away from the meeting having committed to doing something.  I will work on it in the coming week and then put my ideas in front of the others.  Their ideas will come to me as well. We can fine tune and  then take the next steps.
We might do it over more coffee later but  that "coffee" yesterday has made us all feel recharged. We can get on with work now.