First post of 2017 and the first for a very long time. There
are a number of reasons for this hiatus
but two main ones. First my personal laptop died, a victim of old age rather
than anything more malicious. Secondly I’ve been working to a stress risk
assessment for the last year that requires me (for my own good) to leave work
firmly behind me at 5pm. No evening working, no checking emails at weekends, no
going anywhere near work stuff outside of 9-5.
And because I now rely on my work tablet for access to Word I have for
my own well being avoided any professional activities other than those
that fall within work time. I've now got to the point where I feel I don't have to be so rigorous with that separation.
I have of course continued to be busy. In June I attended
the ARLG annual conference during which I managed to find some of my old
enthusiasm for what I do, mainly thanks to the wonderful colleagues who
reminded me just why I love working in libraries. I also organised cross
service UX training and took the lead in a review of library spaces using UX
techniques. I’ve been refining the
library chat service and supporting other services across the university in
implementing their own online chat. I’m also at the start of a number of
interesting projects including introduction of the CSE standard and
introduction of an enquiry management system. Throughout this all we are still
continuously reviewing our services and processes, ensuring the teams have the
training they need and identifying areas that can be refined or improved.
Outside of work it’s been a year of firsts. I climbed my
first trad route in South Gower, I stayed in my first bothy in Scotland, where
I also saw my first pine martin and climbed my first Ben. I bought my first
property, held my first house warming and then adopted a beautiful ragdoll cat
that has very much become part of the family. I learnt how to tile, created
kitchen work tops from scaffold boards, demolished cabinets and have slowly
started to create a home that reflects my style and personality. And I’ve done nearly all of this with the
lovely Ross supporting me and holding my hand.
This year will see more adventures to come. I hope to get
fit, find solutions to ongoing injuries and start climbing again, stronger and
better than before. I’m travelling to Australia to meet a new nephew, will see
my twin for the first time in over a year and have plans to catch up on friends
around the country. More immediately I’ve set myself the goal of improving my
printing techniques and have already started with reduction lino printing using
a home made printing press. (following Umbrella Studios instructional videos)
I’ve set myself the goal of completing prints good enough to exhibit this year
and hope to find someone willing to show them. I’m also starting my first photo a day
project, something I’ve never done before. I’ll post monthly updates of how I’m
getting on with the months photos included.
So generally I'm positive about the year to come despite the challenges I know are still to come and happier in mysefl than I have been for a while. Things are still difficult at work but to mitigate that Ross and I are planning adventures (#microadventures - sorry private joke) and I'm focussing on the things that make me happy. This year I hope to fill the blog with these things so hopefully many more posts to come.
