A small update

[mtbc]

It's been difficult for me to get around to much lately around the day-to-day needs so here's a small slice of latest events. First, the weather's been glorious lately, it almost makes it feel okay to live in Glasgow; I could get used to this. Yesterday, we took our dog L. over to Glasgow Green and today I still hope we get to bring him for a walk along the Clyde.

Recently, we got coffee with R.'s childhood friend and their partner: they were passing through Glasgow, which was great. It is interesting to see here somebody who lived so near R. far away and long ago.

Yesterday, R. observed that our mattress really isn't great in how it transmits disturbance on one side of it over to the other. So, this morning we headed to IKEA to replace our VALEVÅG pocket-sprung mattress with an ÅNNELAND hybrid mattress. I was skeptical about how well we would be able to fold our old mattress and fit it into the car but R. led and it all worked out. The council waste centre was rather busy on a sunny weekend afternoon but there was parking near the mattresses and, with the help of R.'s sons, the mattress replacement is now complete.

We also stopped at Sainsbury's, which is near IKEA. It's one of the more pleasant supermarkets to shop in: the aisles are generally wide and the self-scanning handheld device's UI isn't annoying.

I realized that I've generally been sleeping rather well for quite some time now. I think it may be the change in job: having dropped a couple of grades in responsibility, going from leading teams to taking Jira tickets, the stress is reduced commensurately.

On not-in-office days, I've been using the cross-trainer more often than not. I am pleased to be achieving this change in habits. My calf is a bit sore but, as always, ignoring an issue seems to work fine: if I don't use it as an excuse not to exercise then the exercise tends not to make it any worse. My eating has not been anywhere near modest enough but the food has been tasty so, well, there's that.

At work, I have an on-site visit in NYC coming up and I have already checked that the hotel also has a cross-trainer. It will be interesting to try getting between Newark Airport and Penn Station by rail: it looks easily achieved but is a new experience for me. We do have business Uber but I got on so badly with the Uber app and their customer service that I am happy to avoid it.

Often, I've felt as if my body and mind were moving through molasses: I can do what I must but everything's effort, whether mental or physical. More recently, that's happened less. It seems premature to link the improvement with exercising but time might tell.

Comments

[lovelyangel]

I've always thought less stress and responsibility was preferable to higher pay, status, and responsibility. As long as I could make enough money to live, I was content to stay in a mentally sustainable role – which is why, numerous times, I declined promotions to management. I could see what a headache being a manager was.

I hope you can be happy in your current role and compensation.

[mtbc]

Thank you. I'm happier about my compensation than my role but, in the current employment climate, post-pandemic, post-AI, I am happy to have a decent job at all. I'll hold on to my job at least until my family finally have settled status, the UK equivalent of permanent residency, otherwise some badly timed unemployment or income loss could be awkward indeed.

It's an interesting one. I've resisted moves to management in the past because what I'm best at, and enjoy most, is actual coding. So, I've kept at a low-enough level where, sure, I can manage projects and people but I get enough coding in too. Once we see more of how AI changes software development, perhaps someday I won't be leaving as much behind if I do allow upward movement.

[thewayne]

Oh, I hate Newark Airport! I've only flown internationally once, but I can't imagine a worse airport for entering the country.

Best of luck in your travels.

[mtbc]

Ha, thank you, I always thought of Newark as one of the better, though it's been some years now since I used it. I'd sometimes connect there between Ohio and England. Many years ago I spent a lovely night there sleeping on the carpet airside, in my special configuration atop/holding luggage, can't remember now what had happened to the flight. I was glad to avoid JFK but sometimes it's not too bad.

[thewayne]

My big problem is this country's ridiculous mechanism that anyone entering the country has to go through Customs processing regardless of whether or not they're just passing through.  No transit area.  Not that it's exclusive to Newark.