DECEMBER. What. How is it December already?! Sorry, I know it's old news but time is seriously flying by. If I'm honest I'm feeling a little bit overwhelmed at the moment. I've over-subscribed myself and have definitely spread myself too thin - BUT - I am learning an awful lot. I know it isn't sustainable and it's not what I'd advise people to do, but I am getting better at time management, prioritising and saying no without feeling guilty.
I started my new job and I am so happy. My team are great, the work is challenging and I now live way closer to the office. Win-win. In my first couple of weeks our head of research got promoted, which shows senior management value research & design *yay*. And our new head of research is the wonderful @Lorna_Wall - who is not only clever and kind, but a living example of the success you can achieve outside the mon-fri 9-5 work pattern. Exciting times!
I learnt css, bootstrap, JavaScript and jQuery in my Code First: Girls classes. These are the tools that will enable me to make the changes I've been wanting to make on here for agessssssss. As always, big ups to the amazing instructors that volunteer their time to help us.
My best friend took me to Harry Potter world! We got our nerd on and I definitely got a bit emotional when I saw the castle. The tour was amazing, but it was even more amazing to spend a whole day with her - something we don't often get the chance to do these days.
I've talked about it quite a bit already but the WebSummit in Lisbon was incredible. I got the chance to interview some badass Cyber Women and I look forward to sharing their stories with you soon.
My lil baby car passed it's MOT. Great success.
As previously mentioned - I am over subscribed. I'm currently working full time as a user researcher in a new (to me) gov department, running this blog, transcribing interviews from WebSummit, volunteering for Refugees at Home, interviewing for other part-time bits and pieces of work, learning to code with CFG, mentoring, applying to university (again) attending 101 workshops, events and talks and trying to work out & socialise. There's more I've probably forgotten. It's a lot. BUT, in a way I'm happy about it. I'm learning so much and meeting so many wonderful people. London is hectic and that probably doesn't help. I think eventually I'm going to have to cut some things out, but I'm just figuring out what those things will be. I'm also trying not to be too hard on myself. I'm going to do things as and when I can and I'm not going to pressure myself into meeting certain metrics (X blog posts published, X workouts completed etc.)
My diet has drastically improved, as I'm not able to make the gym as much as I'd like to, I've had to sort it out. I'm also tracking my meals on an app called "Lose It!" - I found My Fitness Pal a bit too guilt inducing.
Lots of people asked for a Cyber Women sticker/ business card - I wasn't expecting much interest tbh - so it was really heart warming. Thank you to everyone who supports me <3
Got a beautifully chilled Christmas planned. So looking forward to doing nothing.
