07:45 AM | I woke up with a slight, but persistent headache after a mostly decent sleep. I very rarely get headaches and this one makes me grumpy. I took a COVID test this morning, because I’ve also got a runny nose and wanted to be sure. Negative, as expected, but the headache bothers me a bit. I can be a terrible whiney patient sometimes. I’m glad I’m working from home today which means a) I don’t have to operate a vehicle on the motorway to get to work and b) I can take it a bit easier. It’s always more comfortable to be at home when you’re not feeling your best.
Trying to look at the bright side: A lovely sunrise above / behind the houses on my street when I looked out the window. Two new podcasts with Frank Turner to listen to later today.
Podcast & Therapy | What a segue, right? On the drive to and from work yesterday I listened to one of the latest Struggle Care podcasts. I don’t listen to all the episodes, just the ones where the guest and or topic seems relevant to me. This was episode 19 “How To Clean Everything” with guest Ann Russell. While I don’t have a classic “How do I clean this” question / problem for Ann, there was still so much that gave me food for thought. About the relationship with my mum and her attitude of keeping house and cleaning and all the care tasks. About different generations and moral views on house keeping and all that. Fascinating. The funny thing for me as well, was that Ann’s voice sounded familiar and when it was stated early on that she has a TikTok account with a huge followership, I realized I must have seen some of her content there in my feed. I checked it out later and I was right.
Work & Age | What is it with my two word prompts today? I’ve been asked by another department head to assist in picking new staff for them, who will be working with me/us on climate action projects in the future. So yesterday I spent most of my time going through the stack of applications, CVs, cover letters and evaluate it all. A mix of interesting but tedious work. I think we have a few good candidates to invite for an interview. And it is a good practice for the next few months when we have to pick staff for the new positions in our department. Most of the applicants are fresh from uni / graduate programs or in their first job after. Which means most of them are born in the mid-90s. After I graduated from school. Which made me feel soooooo old. I mean, I am old. I’ve been in this job for 10 years now. But the thing is, I don’t FEEL that old.
Reading through their cover letters I’m also glad that I (hopefully) don’t have to go through the process of having to apply for a new job anymore. How to best present yourself to a potential employer, when you don’t have that much job experience yet, because you just got your degree a few months ago and haven’t had a proper job in the field yet? Some try too hard to describe how they tick all the boxes and use too many cliche phrases from all the “how to apply for a job” guidebooks. At least for some it seemed that way. Which doesn’t necessarily rule them out yet, don’t get me wrong, because putting yourself in the best light is a difficult thing to do. At least it never came easy to me.
It’s 8:20 AM now and I’ve mostly posted what I had thought about writing about yesterday, when I got home knackered and not in the mood to do anything else then veg out in front of the TV. The headache is still bothering me. I’m still a bit grumpy about that.
Sunrise from the Baltic Sea, not my window…
