Commute long and short

David (Your Move) Wake
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Living on Perth’s northern coastal fringe (at Quinns Rocks) and working in the city makes for a long commute. My usual commute involves a 20-minute bus ride (my bus stop with a view above, including ocean glimpse) and 35 minutes on the train to get from home to the office. With brief waiting times, it is about one hour each way.

I generally enjoy my commute. It is time that I can use; time to read, study, plan, write, observe the world around me. It is time away from the demands of home and work; time when I have choice. This is often the only time I find to read a novel or article (I recently read Margaret Atwood’s Year of the Flood, topical). I could drive but don’t want to add to polluting emissions or sit in traffic.

Of late, my commute has changed, like many others. I am working from home, which has been a positive experience. Connecting with my work team online, able to focus on thinking and writing tasks and data analysis. And I have more time outside work hours to walk or ride with the family and get into the garden. I can imagine doing this a few days each week ongoing, but also want to meet up with colleagues and draw on the incidental exchanges across the partitions. And I want to find that reading time again.

Current times can be an opportunity for us all to reflect on what matters, how we might do things differently to better balance work, family and personal needs and make life as good as we can… We can adjust our commute to make our day to day work for us.

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