Ridiculous Ramblings, Really

Why have I decided that a DW entry is the thing I want to do today? No clue but I'm very low on tasks that need doing so it seemed like a good idea.

This lack of tasks is getting very annoying to me, I really don't like having nothing to work at or plan for. I could and should just pick up more tasks with the OTW or one of my other volunteer things but I like a broad spread of different things that need working on.

Yeah, yeah, I'm moaning about life being life but this is DW, moaning about life is most definitely covered by the TOS.

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The UK, having fucked up bascially everything they possibly could about their reaction to the pandemic likes to pretend that their vaccine rollout at least is great. Which it is only when compared to the rest of all their fuckups, which is not a particularly high bar.

But hey! I had my first vaccine dose last week. AZ because if we set the age limit any higher than 40, the logistics and numbers would look even worse.

Not that I personally mind overly much, vaccine is vaccine for me. Having booked the jab after four nights of weekend and bank holiday fun I can't even say how much of my tiredness the next day was a side effect and how much just my usual post-work fog. Also not helped by the only headache medication I usually use being Aspirin and so having to resort to taking Night Nurse for the paracetamol content in the morning when I woke with a headache. Am I tired because of work, the meds I've just taken or as a vaccine side effect? Who knows - or frankly cares.

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I'm trying to be patient about the restrictions being relaxed, I'm fully aware that this is one of the only government things that makes sense, but after fourteen months of not leaving this county I'd really like to be able to travel again at some point.

I've been looking into jobs back in DE, just because I've been working here for ten years now and that's way too long in one job for me not to get itchy feet. The places I've been speaking to we all ended more or less on "Well, once you can actually can travel again, come by one day and have a look around, we can decide on stuff after that." Which, fair, but also, I HAVE NO PATIENCE, so fun.

Same with the other application I made, ESA looking for astronauts being a thing I could NOT skip trying for, obviously. Only, theirs is a slow and deliberate selection process and so even getting an answer if you made it past the initial screening to the first initial testing round means a couple of months waiting time and have I mentioned that I HAVE NO PATIENCE?

Life is very hard.

I'm finishing up the last block of shifts before the new colleague starts. I am so ready to occasionally work a less than 60h week again. And the next week with 90h of work better be a long way away too.
I'm completely and utterly done with the last 3.5 months. Just done.

Oh well, I have amassed enough overtime by now to cover my whole holiday to Australia next year. So that's something?
I just didn't get a lot of other things done in that period. I had plans, you know? But, realistically speaking, none of those plans are that time sensitive. I can still do them, once I'm back from my wild to-ing and from-ing (Next week: Visit Family, Tough Mudder BB, back home. The week after: camping in MeckPom, back home. The week after: Visiting Berlin, Sommerfest chez kriski & dirtyzucchini, back home.)
All with working a couple of shifts between each trip of course.
Sleep really is overrated.

The important thing is staying focused on the next move:

First of all, thanks to everyone who had kind words about my cat keeling over dead. I really appreciated them, even though I still don't know how to answer them.

On that point I still don't know what caused her death. Pathologists say completely healthy cat. Just dead. Weird.
Anyway. Apart from the fact that I just didn't know what kind of entry to write to follow up on that one, I have been busy turning in my dissertation (waiting for the defense now and working on the publication I need to finish before being allowed to print the thing), getting all my stuff out of my flat and into storage/my parents' basement, finding a job and organizing a move to another country with all the paperwork that entails.
Still not finished on that last point but getting there.
Had an interview to apply for a NI number this morning. They'll answer at some point in the next six weeks. I wouldn't mind so much (even though I called them three weeks before I started work and they told me to wait until I was in the UK before setting up an interview...) but without some kind of official letter sent to my address I can't open a bank account. And without a NI number I can't complete my employment forms. Both of which mean no salary until that number is here. Please no to be taking six weeks!

I've been in Essex for the last six days, doing consultations on the weekend to get an idea how things work here and started to work at my proper job (Night Vet) on Monday.
Until now, I feel as if could do the job with my hands tied behind my back. We'll see how that looks at the end of this week or in a month...

Since I work on a one week on, one week off schedule, next week I fly back to Frankfurt, put all my stuff that's at my parents in a rental van, drive to Berlin to get all my stuff from storage in the van as well, drive to Holland, get on a ferry to Harwich, drive to Hertfordshire, get the keys to my flat, empty the van, drive back to Harwich, ferry to Holland and drive back to Frankfurt.
All that in less than 72 hours. Sounds like great fun, right?

After that I have two days to get from Frankfurt to Berlin, since my flight back to England leaves from there. Then it's one week of work again. Three days of trying to get the flat into some semblance of order. And then four days of a conference in Cambridge. Then back to work. And so on.

Did I mention that my best friend is getting married in the beginning of July. In Berlin? I see lots of flights and rental cars in my future.

@dirtyzucchini: I'd actually love to see the Mika DVD I've just been ... busy. Since I'll probably be in Berlin at least once a month for the foreseeable future, maybe we can still find a time to watch it together. Otherwise I might have to borrow it from you :)

Ok, now to get this posted before another day passes.
I've actually been aiming for rambling infodump with this one, so this is one goal achieved...