My first (real) Day of Maternity Leave

It’s is really true. I am on maternity leave from now on. I am free and a lady of leisure. No more presentations to deliver – I had my last one yesterday, just to delay the goodbye a tiny bit longer. But now no more reports to finish. No more goodbye parties. No more doctors’ appointments (at least for the next 2 weeks). Nothing ...

For 5 weeks. Or 3? Or 7? Depending on when our little dottie decides to come.

Feels good!

Sleeping in every morning. Having a proper breakfast with my lovely husband. Read blogs on end. Reply to all the emails sitting in my inbox. Prepare everything for the arrival of my little one. Start organising our move to Germany. Catch up with friends who I haven’t seen in ages. Take walks at the beach. Craft, craft, craft.

Feels weird,too!

No coffee or lunch break with my nice colleagues anymore. No gossip next to the coffee machine. No nice emails from happy clients. No challenges with new projects.

Oh well, I think I just need to start the first day of my maternity leave with a caffe latte, paper and pen and think about what I really want and need to do in the next couple of weeks.

I will show you my mat-leave-to-do-list tomorrow. Have a great Thursday!

Work is over

Today was my last day at work.

On the one hand I was really happy, because the last few weeks have been getting more and more exhausting. I am not a morning person anyway, but in the last couple of days getting out of bed was almost impossible. The walk to the tram was so tiring. Sitting all day at my desk was uncomfortable. In presentations I literally had to gasp for air (my lungs are just too squashed up by now). And by 3pm I could have fallen asleep on my desk.

On the other hand I am sad, because my lovely colleagues made it really hard for me to leave. They took me out to wonderful girl lunches. They constantly offered me help to carry things. They toasted me with drinks. They gave me a huge card full of best wishes and a wonderful baby carrier as farewell present... In one word: they made it just incredible hard for me not to see them 5 days a week anymore.

Oh well, but now it is done. All my projects are finished. Handovers have happened. Invoices are checked. The goodbye email is sent. Work is over for now!

Busy Day

Today I had a very busy day at work. Lots of work. Lots of things to organise. Lots of telephone calls. Lots of emails. A presentation to finish. Group discussions until late. Puuuuhhhhh! I am tired and which I could be here:

Ueber den Wolken. In the blue sky. With clouds and rivers and forests and mountains far below.

Busy Day

Wow! Today really was a busy day. Driving to work very early. A presentation with a very nervous client in the morning. A quick at the desk lunch. Preparations for the next project. Interviews in the afternoon. Driving around town. Back to the office. Checking the letterbox for friends. A bit of housekeeping. Quick TV dinner. A refreshing shower. And now... exhaustion.

So I leave you today with a view that always calms my nerves. Gives me power and strength. And is simply beautiful! “My beach” in Brighton:

Relax! Enjoy your evening! I am off to bed now ;-)

My first day at work

The first day in a new job always feels like the first day at school to me. You don’t know the other people. You don’t know who is going to sit next to you. What the teacher will be like. Whether you will find friends quickly or not. You don’t know the place. You don’t know where your desk will be. You don’t know exactly what is expected from you. What you should do straight away. What you should avoid altogether. It is extremely exciting!!!!

Anyway, my first day at school aehm work today was good. My colleagues are nice. My boss is also nice. I got my own desk in a sunny office. I have a phone and the computer will be set up hopefully tomorrow. I got my first project. I have a to-do-list for tomorrow. I am back on solid ground.

And my little one also feels comfortable. I got lots of happy kicks from her today.

Life is good.

A new job

I got a new job today! I am so excited about it. It is really a dream come true. The team seems to be lovely, the job is basically doing what I love and the office is really close to where I live. It is a 3-months contract, which is perfect, because it gives me the opportunity to work while I feel great (and quite restless at home) and to have a bit of time off towards the end of my pregnancy.

I am starting next Wednesday and until then I will make to most of my remaining free days: Go to the immigration museum. Spend a lazy evening at the beach. Get my hair cut. Go and have lunch with a friend. Sleep in without feeling guilty. Finish all the baby projects I have started over the last couple of weeks. Ride my bike...

Isn’t it funny that you seem to appreciate your free time much more when you know that it is soon over? Stupid, really, but that is the way it is for me anyway. I always seem to need the next step in sight to appreciate what I have now.

Anyway, I am going to celebrate with a glass of preggie champagne aka sparkling grape juice now!

My work

I am a market researcher. Not one of those pitiful but nevertheless annoying people, who call your at home after 8pm and want to ask you questions about your TV-watching and telephone behaviour. No, I am actually one of those researchers who work in a nice office and invite people to have a chat with me about their favourite topics: their dog, dishwashing liquid (yes, some people can talk for hours about how much foam it should produce), cars, cookies and and and... . The best part is people get actually paid to talk to me. To give me their opinion. To tell me the truth – honestly even if it’s brutal. Sometimes they also get free chocolate or new mobile phones to test for me. Okay, sometimes I also invite people to talk with me about their not-so-favourite topics, health insurance for example. As compensation they get extra money and even more free chocolate. ;-)

picture from here

I love this job, because I spend at least 70% of my time talking to all different kind of people and the rest of the time I sit in front of my computer and try to make sense of what they have said. The perfect mix for me! I also enjoy working on a broad variety of different topics – from tacos to credit cards, from toilet paper to cosmetics. You meet so many interesting people, find out so many interesting things and honestly who would want to think only about one thing, let's say hair colour, for more than 2 months. See, NOBODY!

picture from here

Okay, okay, I am sure you have understood by now, that I really really love my profession ;-) I have started right after uni and since then I have never stopped. And that really means something since we are talking 10 years. Gosh! Until recently I worked with a market research institute. Which means nice colleagues, a nice office and a nice regular income. Then the aftershocks of the Global Financial Crisis hit and I lost my job. Now I am working as a freelancer, which means sleeping in more often, working from home and a not-so-regular income. At the moment that’s fine with me.

So, enough now of this serious stuff. Tomorrow I will share the first of my passions with you.