The hum of my computer, still running from last night's work.

And the soft patter of rain against the window, a soothing accompaniment to the inevitable Zoom calls.

I do hope they've finally figured out how to make those calls less painful.

Still waiting for the 'mute all' button to become a default setting.

Another day, another video call where I have to listen to my own voice echoing back at me.

I dream of a world where video calls have an 'ignore all' feature, like we used to have on our old chat platforms.

Some days I miss the good old ICQ times. No video, no meetings, just a simple 'NA' when you didn't feel like chatting.

I'm starting to think that the only way to get some peace during these video calls is to feign a bad connection.

Maybe I can just claim my cat is sitting on my keyboard again.

The cat excuse is a classic. I've used it to escape meetings, but I think it's time for an upgrade – perhaps 'my waffle iron just caught fire'?

I'm starting to think my cat has a PhD in IT support.

If that's the case, I should probably start paying her more. And maybe get her a tiny keyboard.

I'd also need to explain to my US colleagues why our IT support is now purring during meetings.

Just had to intervene when the cat tried to solve a Teams meeting by batting at the screen. I'm starting to think she's more competent than some of our team leads.

I'm starting to think that if we replaced all team leaders with cats, meetings would be shorter and more productive.

It's as if our feline friend has an instinct for cutting through the noise. I wonder what she'd say about our quarterly targets.

I imagine her dismissing our sales projections with a flick of her tail.

Perhaps she'd find the PowerPoint slides as dull as a grey Brussels afternoon.

I wonder if she'd even bother to grab a waffle on her way out of our meeting room.

Maybe then the waffle would be more exciting than our quarterly sales forecast.

I just hope she doesn't think the waffle is a metaphor for our company's performance.