Pandemic days 102-105
Jun. 29th, 2020 09:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
highlyeccentricSo it goes. My mood profile is up, my work productivity is up, but I feel like I'm struggling to stay on top of things all the same.
Work: Had a productive mentoring meeting with MF on Thursday: sketched an outline of the first chapter I will write (which, I discovered in verbally sketching it, should be the second chapter of the book) and a more vague sense of the book as a whole. Book of PhD is not coming along as fast as it ought but I AM working on it in small but steady chunks, and have found new ways to be interested in it.
This week MF and I have a series of 'advisor chats' with the external project mentors that were part of the project proposal. Today's meeting was with the prof who was her mentor for her Marie Curie, and went I think very well? I liked him a lot, and although his research field is not very related to my specific section of the project he had a lot of cool stuff to say.
Teaching prep for next semester continues to roll. I need to get back to updating the project website. And I have paper proposals - not MANY but enough - for the remote study day, so next task is to organise them and make a schedule.
Health: Physically... better? Guts seem suspiciously non-drastic although by no means ideal. Fewer aches and pains of late - I've been a bit better at regular meditation if I'm not running, and the new mattress (memory foam) clearly agrees with me.
Psych wants me to see a different specialist (a psychologist, not a psychiatrist, so i think I won't be covered - that's a supplementary insurance thing and I can't get supplementary insurance because I have A Preexisting Mentals - but I can cope with that). Today I called the person she recommended; he got back to me via text with a different recommendation of someone taking new patients who can work in English. So far, so good. Tomorrow I try THAT guy, I guess.
I have figured out the confusion with filling my scrips in Bern: when my psych writes in fr. 'valable 6 mois' i'm pretty sure in geneva they used that for six month-packets, but in bern they mean they will only dish out during that period - so the first one was 3 months and, due to finding some of my Aus supply, I didn't refill it, and that's that. Also the Bernese pharmacists have real trouble with my pysch's handwriting. But that's fine, now I understand HOW it works I can put that in my to-do-list app.
Today I achieved Going Running, and using music as my interval, 4 running-interval-songs instead of my usual 3. Next week I guess I'll switch back to... actually maybe it wasn't C25k i used last time, I think i gave up around the same point I did this time, and switched to Runkeeper, which just tells you timed intervals and distance. Switch over to 3 minutes but two-on one-off.
Social: Yesterday I attended a remote birthday party for a cat. The cat in question did not seem to care about his celebrity, but he did enjoy his birthday tuna cake. Also called R.F., who had useful perspectives on psych situation. Also I've never been in the habit of calling them and perhaps I ought to be, I miss them!
Called Shiny on Saturday, and Saturday afternoon was zoom playreading. Oscar Wilde's 'The Duchess of Padua' sure was an experience.
Did not call my parents, have been avoiding that for some weeks. I had been calling them during the week, when procrastinating, but between having Some Shit To Process and doing less procrastinating, I have not done so. Dad sends me occasional screencaps of the Linux fortune cookie cow.
Tomorrow a mission to the office, and coffee with the medieval junior assistant (the professor's lackey - quite literally fetches and carries. It's... odd, but hey, at least someone gets paid and it's not dumped on the phd students).
Crafts: Sewed another hem on the tablecloth. No I don't know why this is taking me so damn long, it's very simple. Continuing to crochet A Square, have not started the new coaster patterns I want to try (for making coaster/doilies to go under vases).
Other: The house is not as messy as it was, but I have also not assembled even the easiest of the furniture that arrived last week. Or COMPLETELY unpacked the trolley I brought from Geneva. So it goes.
I did repot the petunias, and put the fern into a proper pot, and the i don't know what or why I bought it exactly into a bigger plastic container (a tomato punnet, I think). The petunias, I hope, will be happier and better able to defend against bugs in a bigger pot with smaller drainage holes - they were constantly very thirsty, and some bugs specifically target thirsty plants.
The COVID situation here continues to seem... okay? Case rate is up, but still well below the 300-benchmark the health minister described as What We Can Cope With. There was a "super spreader" event in a Zurich nightclub, a great many people are in quarantine. Canton Bern's rate remains low - the highest in the past two weeks has been 5 in one day - so I'm not overly worried. Geneva likewise in recent weeks, despite the initial surge. The weekend's bump seems to have been Zurich (that night club) and a few other cantons with rates between 5 and 10 on the weekend days.
Work: Had a productive mentoring meeting with MF on Thursday: sketched an outline of the first chapter I will write (which, I discovered in verbally sketching it, should be the second chapter of the book) and a more vague sense of the book as a whole. Book of PhD is not coming along as fast as it ought but I AM working on it in small but steady chunks, and have found new ways to be interested in it.
This week MF and I have a series of 'advisor chats' with the external project mentors that were part of the project proposal. Today's meeting was with the prof who was her mentor for her Marie Curie, and went I think very well? I liked him a lot, and although his research field is not very related to my specific section of the project he had a lot of cool stuff to say.
Teaching prep for next semester continues to roll. I need to get back to updating the project website. And I have paper proposals - not MANY but enough - for the remote study day, so next task is to organise them and make a schedule.
Health: Physically... better? Guts seem suspiciously non-drastic although by no means ideal. Fewer aches and pains of late - I've been a bit better at regular meditation if I'm not running, and the new mattress (memory foam) clearly agrees with me.
Psych wants me to see a different specialist (a psychologist, not a psychiatrist, so i think I won't be covered - that's a supplementary insurance thing and I can't get supplementary insurance because I have A Preexisting Mentals - but I can cope with that). Today I called the person she recommended; he got back to me via text with a different recommendation of someone taking new patients who can work in English. So far, so good. Tomorrow I try THAT guy, I guess.
I have figured out the confusion with filling my scrips in Bern: when my psych writes in fr. 'valable 6 mois' i'm pretty sure in geneva they used that for six month-packets, but in bern they mean they will only dish out during that period - so the first one was 3 months and, due to finding some of my Aus supply, I didn't refill it, and that's that. Also the Bernese pharmacists have real trouble with my pysch's handwriting. But that's fine, now I understand HOW it works I can put that in my to-do-list app.
Today I achieved Going Running, and using music as my interval, 4 running-interval-songs instead of my usual 3. Next week I guess I'll switch back to... actually maybe it wasn't C25k i used last time, I think i gave up around the same point I did this time, and switched to Runkeeper, which just tells you timed intervals and distance. Switch over to 3 minutes but two-on one-off.
Social: Yesterday I attended a remote birthday party for a cat. The cat in question did not seem to care about his celebrity, but he did enjoy his birthday tuna cake. Also called R.F., who had useful perspectives on psych situation. Also I've never been in the habit of calling them and perhaps I ought to be, I miss them!
Called Shiny on Saturday, and Saturday afternoon was zoom playreading. Oscar Wilde's 'The Duchess of Padua' sure was an experience.
Did not call my parents, have been avoiding that for some weeks. I had been calling them during the week, when procrastinating, but between having Some Shit To Process and doing less procrastinating, I have not done so. Dad sends me occasional screencaps of the Linux fortune cookie cow.
Tomorrow a mission to the office, and coffee with the medieval junior assistant (the professor's lackey - quite literally fetches and carries. It's... odd, but hey, at least someone gets paid and it's not dumped on the phd students).
Crafts: Sewed another hem on the tablecloth. No I don't know why this is taking me so damn long, it's very simple. Continuing to crochet A Square, have not started the new coaster patterns I want to try (for making coaster/doilies to go under vases).
Other: The house is not as messy as it was, but I have also not assembled even the easiest of the furniture that arrived last week. Or COMPLETELY unpacked the trolley I brought from Geneva. So it goes.
I did repot the petunias, and put the fern into a proper pot, and the i don't know what or why I bought it exactly into a bigger plastic container (a tomato punnet, I think). The petunias, I hope, will be happier and better able to defend against bugs in a bigger pot with smaller drainage holes - they were constantly very thirsty, and some bugs specifically target thirsty plants.
The COVID situation here continues to seem... okay? Case rate is up, but still well below the 300-benchmark the health minister described as What We Can Cope With. There was a "super spreader" event in a Zurich nightclub, a great many people are in quarantine. Canton Bern's rate remains low - the highest in the past two weeks has been 5 in one day - so I'm not overly worried. Geneva likewise in recent weeks, despite the initial surge. The weekend's bump seems to have been Zurich (that night club) and a few other cantons with rates between 5 and 10 on the weekend days.