Senior Student

When I was at university in the 1990s my peers and myself made fun of what were known as the "senior students": fellow students considerably older than us, mostly retired already. I guess I fall in that category myself now, even though MBA students tend to be older, per se of course. My mum recently asked me if I found that studying was harder now that I was older and it's not that, but the, let's call it study environment could not be more different than it was back then. Obviously computers were already around when I submitted my first thesis and I wrote it on my laptop, but research was what you did in the brick-and-mortar library.  Going there, taking out books or making photocopies of huge chunks of the books you wanted to cite, was just part of the deal. All my study books were actual, physical books too. Now I have access to a gazillion of online resources, which is waaaay more convenient. I do not , however, want to print out all the .pdfs I download. Reading them on my screen is not quite the same thing I find and overall the fact that most aspects of the courses (apart from the classroom-sessions) are digital almost feels a little banal in the sense that it is very similar to my day job that is spent in front of my computer for the largest part. 

PS: I don't knit when writing a paper. This picture was taken last week when I took part in a webinar and was itching to multi-task...

Lockdown Nostalgia

 

This might be a very controversial statement, but I suffer from occasional lockdown nostalgia, or more specifically, WINTER lockdown nostalgia. Contrary to what this photo suggests, I don't miss having to "style" Highflyer's hair with an electric trimmer because haircutting is not really my talent, nor passion. What I do miss is the simplicity of life and quiet domestic bliss of the past two winters when nobody was expected to do anything or go anywhere with anyone in the run-up to Christmas. No obligations, no FOMO, no calendar-juggling. 

This is not to say that I am not extremely thankful for the pandemic slowly morphing into an endemic disease, but it is as it is, I quite frequently think back wistfully to my uneventful existence in the tightly sealed suburban bubble-for-two.

Home is Where the T-Shirt is Not

For about 1.5 years a.ka. the Lockdown Era, I only sporadically visited my flat in Vienna as my main residence was Highflyer's house. I actually liked the simplicity of having fewer things around me and it felt like an extended holiday for the longest time. Now that I am partly back to the (brick and mortar) office and spend more time in the city it seems like an eternal ferrying back and forth of clothes, shoes and other items. Sure, I have long since bought duplicates of all my favourite kitchen appliances and the "country house" is now better equipped for culinary endeavours as I have much more space there. Also, I have parked most of my casual clothes there as I don't put on fancy clothes for home office. However, it sometimes happens that the very thing I was going to reach for happens to be at the respective other place. It may be only a 30-40 mins car journey, depending on traffic, but is still feels weird at times to divide my time between two places. It's absolutely a first world problem to have a "bonus home", but at times I do feel a little torn and not quite at home at either locations. Judging by the contents of my fridge, my flat in Vienna has long become the step child in this patchwork family...

Kick-off

So. I spent a night at a lovely hotel with a gourmet restaurant and a pool (outdoor, alas) at the weekend, but it was neither a romantic retreat with hubs, nor a girly weekend, either but the kick-off of my MBA programme. I got handed my student ID (LOL, makes me feel 22 again in a way) a huge pile of business books with titles that make my brain go numb and I already am in the middle of pre-work and post-work assignments, so there's really no going back now. Thankfully the crowd (5 out of 13 participants are actually colleagues of mine) is nice and it's a refreshing change of doing training with company people only, so all in all it's something to look forward to...minus all those lost weekends still about to happen, and I am not talking about the partying kind.