The Week Between

My week off between jobs hasn’t quite panned out as I’d mentally planned, but it had still felt great to relax.

A Cold

We got off to a less than ideal start when I went down with a cold on Sunday. It had been years since I’d had a full on headcold like that. It meant I didn’t have the stamina for much other than brainlessly lying on the sofa, but I made the most of resting by digging into a replay of Skyrim.

Skyrim

I hadn’t really planned for falling back into Skyrim! After I finished The Outer Worlds last weekend I thought I might as well get into another game since I had the week off, and somehow it ended up being Skyrim with my partner’s encouragement (it has actually somehow turned into a shared playthrough). It had been about 5 years since I last loaded it and I’d forgotten how additive it can be! But also, how relaxing. It has such soothing ambient music, and you can really pick what you feel like doing in that world. Am I up for plundering ruins, or hunting dragons? Or, do I just want to spend an hour practising my alchemy and picking flowers?

Needless to say, a large portion of this week has been spent on building my new Mage and decking the house out. I’d never played the Homestead DLC before, and I’m a sucker for any “build your own” content. Half my play through of Fallout 4 is building settlements!

Embroidery

My big Goal for this week was to finish my wall hanging embroidery. I finally finished all the stitching yesterday and today I’ve got it backed, but it does still need a load of tassels making for the bottom. I won’t get those done this weekend. I have not had much success with tassel making in the past so I’m not really looking forward to it! I do now have a tassel maker device which I hope might make it a bit easier than the scrap of carboard method I tried last time. Any tips?

Once I have it all done I will share a post about my experience with this project!

My big hindrance was I couldn’t work at the tapestry stand for more than a couple of hours at time because it kills my back and shoulders. Then I switch to playing Skyrim again to sit more comfortably.. and well.. hours have gone by.

Still I have done hours and hours of embroidery this week! This is born out in the fact I watched the final 2.5 seasons of Fringe.

Fringe

Fringe is a TV show I loved when it first came out but I remembered declining in quality before a bizarre season 5. In my latest binge of it I definitely felt that, seasons 1-3 are excellent then season 4 pulls a weird trick that bogged everything down and then season 5 becomes almost an entirely different show out of the blue.

I did enjoy it more this time though! First of all, I really miss this kind of procedural “monster of the week” type of format. They don’t make these kind of sci-fi shows any more. I also love the characters, all of them, but especially Olivia Dunham. This time I knew where things were going to end up, so I was prepared for the wrench when it happened!

I’ll write another post dedicated to Fringe I think!

I might try a re-watch of The X Files now, though that can be a bit more of a slog to get through to the good parts!

Last Day of Freedom

It’s now Sunday and tomorrow I’m going to start my new job! I’m partly excited. I’ve had an induction plan for the week from my new boss, so it is nice to have an idea of what to expect! (A level of organisation and structure I’ve not experienced in a long time!). I am ready to embrace a new way of working!

But I am also undeniably anxious about meeting an office of new people! I have never had a job with so many colleagues before. My last one was a three person office, including me! Before that I’ve been in a one person department, or in a very small team where I mainly worked shifts with one other person.

This will be different! I’m excited for the opportunity to forge new relationships, but I’m also seriously rusty in social situations and I’ve not had to fight my social anxiety for a long time, so I’m trying to put some mental bracers in place!

I have the First Day At School feeling. What should I wear? What lunch do I pack?

I’ll plan something neutral! I don’t think I want to go in on using a microwave in my first week, so I’ll take some kind of inoffensive sandwich until I feel more comfortable over the lay of the land!

What I did not do…

I had hoped I’d spend more time on the blog this week but, you know, Skyrim happened… Also I didn’t really want to spend time at my desk. And my other excuse is that I had to return my dual monitors to my old work so I currently only have one cheap little 17inch LED one (it’s so tiny it looks ridiculous) which these days I find hard work to actually focus to think and work with.

I’m hoping to find out whether new work might provide me with one along with my laptop for working from home, if not I’ll buy two new ones at some point next week!

So I still have not written my review/analysis for All’s Well although I really do want to! I have no idea how next week is going to shake out and how tired it might make me with all the new people and learning I have to do, but hopefully soon I’ll get around to it.

I also am really behind on my newsletter, as is usual…!

But am I more relaxed now?

I think so! I definitely hit that holiday mood early last week. God it was nice to not have to do anything, I had not had a long break like that since last year and I’d been so tense and wound up for months.

Of course now I am getting that creeping anxiety in anticipation for tomorrow! I’ve also realised my period is due at any time which is really not the optimal hormones for my first week at work but we’ll struggle though somehow.

I hope you had a good week/weekend!