Business Trips 2.0

In the past 10 days I was in Linz, Klagenfurt and Innsbruck for business. This week, I will be in Graz for a day. I have travelled more for business recently than I did in the past 7 years and it's like a less glamorous, more environmentally friendly version of my business travels with the Firm which I LOVED and lived for. Goodbye planes and 5* designer hotels, hello trains and staying at my parents' or Highflyer's Innsbruck home (in all fairness, I could have stayed in hotels there, but chose not to for obvious reasons). I still appreciate the change of scenery and have mostly resigned myself to the fact that even if I still had my old job, there probably would be less travelling and more videoconferencing these days, which is only sensible. After all, it's good to have fond memories and my fondest work-related ones are of these business trips that always had a bit of an exciting vacation element to it. At the same time, I wasn't exactly happy most of that time and spent many hours in hotel rooms obsessing over the cryptic texts of guys not worthy of my attention. While it's good not to get stuck on negative things that happened years ago, it's not fair to completely gloss over them and romanticise the past. I'll gladly swap fancy hotels for emotional stability and contentment.

Calm. Hopefully not Before the Storm...

I was able to combine a business commitment in Klagenfurt with a visit to my parents and am writing this from their house. My Mum has recovered from her broken arm and its aftermath and even though both my parents currently have a fierce cold they are comparatively well and I am mostly in my old role of  (spoilt) "child" (if with the footnote "to aging parents") after a summer of role reversal. It feels deceivingly normal, but I am almost afraid I'll jinx it if I say this out loud. Let's put it like this: I am happy about the status quo, but mentally prepared to switch into caretaker-mode again.

Doping. The Legal Kind

 

It's that time of the year again when pretty much everybody seems to be sick. Be it the latest strain of Coronavirus or just the seasonal flu, the sniffling and coughing is REAL and it is omnipresent. Not that I am ever keen to get sick, but I feel I had my fair (?) share of multiple back-to-back throat aches this spring and I am not ready to join in yet. Also, I have some in-person meetings at work that I "need" to make an appearance at. So...precautions it is. Vitamin C in fruit and vegetable form, as much sleep as I can get (still working on that one), Berocca and hot baths in particular after a day spent in rooms full of (semi-) sick colleagues or on public transport where people are coughing so dramatically all around you that you expect to see blood on the floor any second. A good reminder to stay home if you're not feeling well if there ever was one...

It's All Relative

This past weekend Highflyer and I attended two 50th birthday parties, one being for a uni friend (and her husband) of his, the other for a colleague of mine. It was interesting to observe the guests, many of whom were in the same age group. I am used to hanging out with my friends who I think have mostly aged very well in mind and body, but strangers' age is often hard to guess. Some who seem almost a generation older and Boomer jokes would seem appropriate for some things they say turn out to be not even 50 yet, others are closer to 60 but seem so much more active and clued up to latest trends than some people in their mid-forties. I really find it fascinating and wonder what the most critical factor for this gap is. Is it hanging out with old(er) people that makes you act (and look?) older than your age? Is it your background or the field you work in? I often gravitate towards considerably younger people in social settings, but I have now reached an age where I sometimes wonder if this is actually rather cringe to them. Well, let's see what the vibe at 60s parties (8 years to go for me) will be. One thing is certain: I shall have the coolest playlist and best DJ for my own party. I had referred our wedding DJ to my colleague for Saturday's party and chatted with him there. He (a year younger than Highflyer and me) told us he would probably die at the turntables, so we might end up hiring him for our 70th and 80th, too. Keep on partying!

And Just Like That

 

...seemingly endless summer heat has been replaced by torrential rain and gale-force winds. I definitely don't mind cooler temperatures and am sure that it will be warm again at the beginning of October at the latest, but right now it seems like winter has come and the weather forecast with likely flooding in several parts of Austria is pretty scary. My parents still have not been able to repair the water damage in their basement from heavy summer rain last August so I am mostly relieved that their area is being spared (for now) and less concerned about myself. I saw a cartoon last year that showed a family watching the weather forecast with hands partially shielding their eyes like you would watch a horror film. Yep, it definitely seems like that these days and this - man-made- volatile weather is not likely to go away anytime soon.

The Challenge

 

I've never been one to make New Year's resolutions and yet I have already decided what I would like to try next year: I will set myself the challenge ideally not to buy ANY new clothes or shoes for as long as possible, ideally the whole year. Every month without buying anything (other than replacing things that break where I don't have a backup) will be a success. I don't actually think that it is that difficult and am already looking forward to a) rediscovering things in my substantial "archive(s)" and b) finally tackling all those sewing projects that I've been meaning to get around to for, ahem, years actually.

This idea is a "byproduct" of my recent e-mail purge when I unsubscribed from so many marketing newsletters. I do most of my shopping online and it is often triggered by nothing more than boredom and attractive offers that feel too good to pass by. I will try to resist the urge and not seeing those e-mails will definitely help.

I mentioned my plan to a colleague who is less than half my age recently and she told me she could never do that herself because "I can only wear my clothes 3 times max. There is this energy that prevents me from wearing them more often". Erm, okay. I definitely don't have this type of problem and actually love combining things I have had for decades with more recent acquisitions. 

And, no, I am NOT planning to stock up on things before January first, either, like a friend thought I might do ;-)

OMGEEE

 

They say that mothers immediately forget the pain related to childbirth once they hold their newborn baby in their arms. Maybe this is the case with all painful/disturbing/uncomfortable experiences? On my recent e-mail-folder-purge I came across newsletters by retailers promoting their clever ways to provide a comfortable and seamless online shopping experience during lockdown and also many e-mails reminding me (as a ticket holder for an event for example) what "G-rules" were in place at the venue. In Austria, the Gs stood for "genesen" (recovered from the virus, i.e. you got naturally infected) "geimpft" (vaccinated) and "getested" (able to show a recent antigen or PCR test, depending on which was required). 2G meant it sufficed to be recovered or vaccinated, 3G meant that on top you also had to have a valid negative test result.

I actually had to google what the difference between "G and 3G was again (wasn't sure if the test or the vaccination were the critical third element) and also couldn't remember for a hot minute what those more accurate tests that I took dozens of were called again. How can this be when it dominated my life a little over two years ago?!? Last week was Highflyer's and my second wedding anniversary and we were still a little anxious that our wedding with around 100 attendees would cause a Covid cluster. Luckily quite a few people had Coronavirus shortly before and we don't know of a single infection in the aftermath, phew.

I decided to keep a handful of those e-mails as a reminder of those crazy times anyway.