As I stepped into the GROW office at quarter to ten, I wondered whether I would be the first person there or amongst others eagerly waiting to start their own adventure on Digital Gum’s Digital Skills for Returners course.

So it turned out I was the first person to arrive, which of course gave my internal chatter an excuse to pipe up and question, did this make me look too eager? Should I have stayed in the car another five minutes? Why is that I don’t drink hot drinks? At least I could have made myself busy for five minutes making a cup of tea whilst our course tutor finished preparing the room.

Time keeping has always been important to me. As a young child I could never understand why we always arrived half an hour late, when we visited my grandparents. Now of course it is my parents who arrive half an hour late when visiting their grandchildren.

Anyway I was here now and ready to start my adventure. Our chairs had already been allocated by course tutor Louize, thanks to a named envelope which I decided to open. Enclosed was a thoughtfully chosen postcard with the strapline ‘And so the adventure begins’; a name I instantly stole for my first blog post title or magpied as my children would say.

Louize was very keen to give the session that ‘first day of school’ feel with a range of goodies including; a Digital Gum tote bag, with a notepad (branded of course), pencil case and some funky bits of stationery; a little piece of heaven for a stationery geek like me!

Next up, an introduction from our course tutor Louize Clarke and the inevitable ice breaking round the table introductions.

Meet Louize Clarke, Digital Gum Creator

I was in good company, four other ladies, much like myself, who had made sacrifices in their careers for their children, a father who had done the same and a very talented lady from Portugal to complete the team.