While I check new comments and links to this blog daily, I haven’t posted in a while. I never realized it was this long though. Looking at the archive page just now revealed the horrible truth: there hasn’t been a single post here in December!Many things have happened in the past weeks, and I would like to reflect on them a bit before getting back into my routine of posting new articles.
My mother went back home after spending 3 months with us
These must have been some of the greatest months we’ve had – she helped us tremendously by minding Elizabeth while both myself and Jane were going to work, and I took a week off to spend the last few days with mom and Elizabeth – so we did some shopping together and explored new and not very new (to me, that is) parts of Dublin.
We have spoken of so many things during her stay with us! Once again, I have discovered many things about my mother, which made me love her even more. She has a very strong personality, and it amazes me how she managed to accomplish many things in her life in situations where others could easily give up.
I’m also very happy to see her being proud of me. She loved Elizabeth from the very first sight, and all of us got on really well. Everything in our daily life was new to mom, and not speaking English made things even more challenging. Still, just like I said, she has grown personally a lot, and enjoyed her trip back home through Gatwick and Heathrow much more than her flight to us.
Our little Elizabeth turned 10 months old
It happened just last Monday, and her birthday also coincided with the first full day she had to spend at her creche.
I will have a separate post about the whole creche experience, but for now I’ll just confirm something most parents already know: it’s VERY hard to let your little angel go. I’ve spent a few days leaving her there at the creche for an increasing amount of time (first day – 1 hour, then – 2 hours, last day – 4 hours) to help her get used to a new environment, and she cried. All children do, because up to that point they were lucky enough to only know you and your closest relatives and friends. So it’s hard for both your baby and yourself to get started with creche.
Today marks her full day two at the facility, and all her minders confirm she’s getting used to everything: smiles a lot, plays with toys, eats and even tries some sleep. I guess I’m fine as well – although it is still hard enough to leave her there in the morning and run away even if she cries.
Jane had finished another round of her exams
That was quite an event, cause she had to struggle really hard to find time for her study lately. The last few months she had been studying a few hours every evening, and that’s not an easy task after a full working day and with constant temptations to drop everything and play a bit with your lovely baby girl :)
Again and again I understand that I’m not very fond of such long-term study projects. I much rather prefer a single exam with a given set of topics/subjects, where I can decide myself how and when to prepare. I then get fully focused on my preparation for a few days and then pass the exam.
With studies Jane has, she does at least 2 exams each term and they involve two 300-500 page books of accounting theory and math problems to solve.
We all were glad to have Jane back, and now we enjoy long dinners and evening movies together.
I’ve given a tech talk at work
I was nominated to present a tech talk prepared by our colleague from San Jose, and while the topic was purely technical (Linux), it was challenging enough a speech – mainly because it was supposed to be an introduction to Linux for people not necessarily familiar with Unix. These talks you have to keep well-worded, entertaining and easy-to-follow enough to engage everyone in the audience.
I’ve got tons of positive comments after the talk, and slipped only by 1 minute for a 45minute talk – which I think is a pretty good result. I’ve also visited my local ToastMasters club for the first time, and liked it a lot. I guess I’ll join the group a few more times and then become a member – I really liked the atmosphere and could see the benefits people get from such meetings right away.
There you have it – a short history of the last 3 weeks. It all happened so quickly! It still seems like most of these events were just yesterday, yet looking at my calendar I can see some of them are almost a month old. Oh well, time waits for nobody! I better get on with new challenges and things to do, and – of course – keep you posted about my experiments.
I wish you all a great day (if it’s only a morning – have a good morning, and obviously you’re more than welcome to enjoy your good evening or even good night if that’s the case), and I’ll talk to you later!
Please take a moment to leave me a comment, I’d love to hear from you.