Cheery's country living adventure

Cheery_Daff

Aha yes, of course, sorry! 😂 I don't know a single social sciences person who does that (not to say it doesn't happen, but certainly not common). I've got a couple of PhD students, but they come with their own topics, not much to do with mine. This funding bid has got provision for hiring a researcher, but that will be for the specific project, nothing else. 

Will have to investigate - it's certainly not usual to have a team/lab in the same way as you would do in natural sciences. But just because it's not common doesn't mean it's not doable...

Cheery_Daff

Evening chums! 

What a strange old day it's been! 🙄 Had a meeting this morning - I confess I've taken my eye off the ball somewhat with this looming deadline, but I was alarmed to join the Zoom call and find me the only person on Zoom, and 14 other people sat round a table in masks on the other side of the world (I knew where they were! And if I'd thought about it I've met a couple at a time before and they've been in the same room... but I somehow wasn't expecting so many people, or for me to be the only one on Zoom like a giant head on the wall that everyone was looking at 😮😂 ) Most unnerving. Especially as apparently I was chairing the meeting 😮

Anyway, I despite the alarm, I did achieve some other things today, although unsurprisingly the funding bid still isn't finished, so that'll be a weekend job 🙄 Hoping to get a bit of actual weekend too at some point... but that might have to wait until next weekend...

Might have got more done this afternoon but was suddenly beset with period pain (I was hoping it would wait til tonight!) and had to ditch everything for a bath until the painkillers kicked in. Did have a productive couple of hours after that though. 

Hey ho. I know what else needs doing, and hopefully my colleague is going to join my last ditch writing attempt, although so far she's proving extremely bad at saying no to other people asking her to 'just do this thing first... 🙄

Right, best go to sleep i suppose!

Chiglepig

@Cheery_Daff make sure you do have some weekend for yourself - I'm spending my doing the SFHEA application I've been putting off for about the last three years

rtandon27

Hope you had a restful & cramp-free night Cheery!

Cheery_Daff

Thank you folks! I didn't quite have a cramp free night - ended up on the sofa at 4.30am - but wasn't awake for too long and Mr Cheery got up to go to the loo just as I was contemplating letting the chickens out, so I persuaded him to do that instead and had a bit more of a snooze...

I've done about 4.5 hours work today, a good chunk but I'll need to do more tomorrow, and move considerably faster... 🙄 Still, I'm pleased with how the bits I've finished are looking, so that's promising! 

And we've had a bit of weekend time too - breakfast in a cafe this morning, and then a very quick charity shop sprint late afternoon followed by a rather soggy cuppa outside the last open coffee in town, and a wander in the drizzle. Couple of exciting charity shop finds - a pair of walking boots to replace my tatty old (charity shop) ones which are literally falling apart at the seams, and a home made apron with lots of chickens on, which we spotted through the window of a closed shop a few days ago, then couldn't find again, but I spotted it today on a back rail. £14 for the two so not cheap, but not bad. 

Tomorrow I'm going to get up and dressed early and get as much done as I can. No doubt Mr Cheery will want another excursion (and he's right, I shouldn't spend all weekend working!). Trying to prepare for Monday. We've booked an INDOOR cafe trip at 9.30! I want my full application ready to print out to read in the cafe. 

Unhelpfully Mr Cheery has a dentist appointment on Monday, and may not be able to drive himself, so I might have to trek over to the city. NOT helpful, but might be inevitable - going to attempt to get everything done tomorrow just in case.

Hope you got your SFHEA fellowship application done Chigle! 

Karmacat

Hope your weekend becomes better, Cheery.  And my word, what an odd Zoom experience I hadn't thought of hybrid meetings.  It's a new world ...

Cheery_Daff

Thanks KC. Yes, hybrid meetings are a bit of a nuisance, but MUCH better with videos 😮 I've had some horrific meetings with some people in a room, and others on speakerphone. Utterly dire. Video isn't great, but the tech has got a lot much better recently, and at least you can see body language or when someone wants to speak. Handy for when someone occasionally can't travel, but on the whole I much prefer to have either everyone in the room, or everyone online (although on this occasion I was clearly never going to travel to the other side of the world for an hour and a half, pandemic or not! 😮 )

So, today. Done an hour of work, and been to the cafe, and now back at my desk ready to start again. The sun is shining and I would MUCH rather be outside tackling my jungle garden and letting the chickens roam free for a while, but sadly needs must. Mr Cheery has gone to sit in their outdoor run with them for a while which is good, and I will stick my phone into 'work mode' in a minute and crack on for another few hours. 

It'll be worth it in the end if we're successful! (I'll be pretty annoyed if we don't though after all this work 😂 )

greenbee

Cheery_Daff said:

 (although on this occasion I was clearly never going to travel to the other side of the world for an hour and a half, pandemic or not! 😮 )

I really hope those 'fly over for a 1 hour meeting' days are long gone, but I have my suspicions that they will come back. I've done several 'day trips' to the US in the past.

Tipping down here. AGAIN. TBH if I were you I'd be out in the sunshine. 

Cheery_Daff

Day trips to the US?! Crikey 😮 I suspect I'd never be so important 😂😂

Didn't make it out in the sunshine other than a quick visit to the chickens, and a dusky walk this evening. Did do several hours of proper, head down work though. How is it still not finished?! 🙄😂 Could 't face any more this evening, but I'll have to get up early tomorrow to carry on. Just trying to decide HOW early... 🙄

greenbee

Usually try to book other things round conference sessions, but sometimes the sales teams are lazy and don’t let clients know I’ll be there. More than one day in a city is a luxury. Three nights in the same hotel is like a holiday. It’s not fun... 

I’ve given up working over weekends, although TBH the weather today was so abysmal I should have just got tomorrow morning’s work out of the way.