Wednesday 3 October 2012

Desk stories

A Magic Door
My 9-5 work desk is totally chaotic, I realised.

To the left the surface is covered with various work papers, underneath which is my A5 planner diary, open on this week, a pen lodged down its spine. My iPhone is charging, my glasses case is abandoned (I don’t need glasses, ok? *squints*), my hair-band is escaping to a new land under the keyboard.

My monitor is propped higher on various medical books (work-related) and is also home to a calendar, a pencil sharpener, and a branded fluffy pink hippo key-ring with soulful purple eyes.


There are various post-it notes stuck around the monitor, some work-related reminders, some doodles. One is a magic door. I haven’t decided quite where it leads yet, but it's obviously been waiting there a while, since the date of the photo is saying April.

A Fortune Teller
Next to the monitor is an origami fortune teller. Let's choose our fate for today... Pink, 1, and number 4... 'A new opportunity is coming your way'. Oh, how exciting! I think I need one. Actually that is the nicest of the fortunes, I seem to recall. Others include developing a coffee-related facial tic, and being the office plant killer.

To the right of me are various pen-lids (who eats my pens?), fluorescent markers, Tippex, scissors, a stapler, and Pritt stick. There is also a slim bottle of Rescue Remedy (dusty), really ancient herbal teabags, salt, mustard, and Gaviscon. (Are they related?) A banana and a tangerine waits for tea-time. Headache pills lurk beneath a flyer for a vintage fair.

Discarded Metro newspapers litter the outer reaches of the desk, along with a doodle of an unhappy girl. A full glass of water and an empty mug are by my side - my priorities are always caffeinated. On the shelf two origami boats are filled with conkers (horse chestnuts). On the wall there are doodles – mainly of me strangling computers, a postcard telling me to ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’, various Nemi cartoons cut out from Metro, a Bauhaus exhibition leaflet, and Waterhouse’s Pre-Raphaelite Miranda, still waiting for her ship to come in.

I feel this desk is far too telling of my emotions!

What’s on your desk?

16 comments:

Laura S. said...

Your desk sounds delightful, Jayne! On my desk is a zebra mug filled with fun pens and pencils, a heart-shaped paper weight, pads of bright colored paper (one is in the shape of a Halloween ghost), a small jar half-filled with pretty rocks and seashells, another small jar half-filled with tiny fun erasers, and a stack of books and notebooks. I love desks!!

MorningAJ said...

Fascinating insight. I love the little door!

At the moment my desk has a large pile of science journals I'm supposed to be reading through to look for follow-ups. Hm. MUST start that tomorrow.

Johanna Garth said...

My desk is ridiculously cluttered with my kid's homework so I've relocated to the clean space of my dining room table.

Suzanne Furness said...

Fluffy pink hippo with purple eyes - sounds like my kinda key ring! Your desk sounds wonderful, my writing *home* seems to be wherever I lay my laptop.

Old Kitty said...

A work desk should be an extension of whoever owns it between the hours of 9-5! LOL!! I think that's why I loathe the concept of hot-desking! Nowhere to call your own for a few hours of doing what you need to do rather than what you want to do!! take care
x

Golden Eagle said...

I loved reading this summary of the items on your desk!

On my desk are cluster diagrams, scraps of paper from my attempts at hexaflexagons, headphones, and a tape dispenser.

Out on the prairie said...

I collect lots of thoughts on little sheets of paper, and I haven't cleared it off since December when I got it.

Dolly said...

Fantastic, I can picture you sitting at your desk now.

My desk (at home) has Art History lecture notes in a scattered mess, thanks to a Cat Named Mario, who has now run off in search of more mischief. Sister Roxy is stretched out beside the laptop having a nap.

What is above the desk is more important: postcards, small art gallery reproductions, sketches,
photos...taped to the wall for inspiration and pure enjoyment of looking at them!

With reference to the old Metros, oh send them to me! How I miss those so-London papers!

snafu said...

Sounds quite tidy to me,I have not been able to see the surface of my desk for weeks.

Maggie May said...

Piles of rubbish (useful kind) that I'd be too embarrassed to show you clutter my computer desk.
Love that secret door!
Maggie X

Nuts in May

Happy Frog and I said...

I love how much this post said about you (in a good way of course). I'm looking at my desk and thinking I'd better not write about what's on it, far too insightful! ;)

Plain Jane said...

The tinyest can of Mountain Dew I've ever seen, two empty diet coke bottles and mounds of cat hair and dust.

Charmaine Clancy said...

I envy your envelopment in beautiful clutter. I can't be comfortable at my desk until I clear it, if it's messy I pick up my laptop and sit somewhere else. But I think your desk sounds very magical and inspiring!

Writer Pat Newcombe said...

clutter maybe but probably needful clutter... I guess most of us could write something similar - at least yours hasb't got half eaten food, dead coffee cups and chewing gum remains... Mmmmm health and safety come to mind... must clean up my act!

Julie Dao said...

I love the sound of your desk! Must be an inspirational place to work. I'm neat, but I think clutter and knickknacks on my desk help me get creative :) I love making fortune tellers like those!

Julie Jarnagin said...

I used to keep my desk pretty neat, but right now it's a mess. My son left a dragon perched beside my laptop. I have a stack of book and papers that I meant to put away a month ago when I returned from a writing conference. It's time for me to clean!