Excuse the swearing, but holy shit, 5 years!
So much has happened in that time, some of it awesome. Some of it absolutely not. I have no idea who still has this in their feed, but for those that do: hi!
Shall we do the good? I'm in a job that I love, and things are home are as good as always. Short and sweet. Standard life stresses, and standard life rewards.
There are some wonderful standout things:
I was awarded the Microsoft MVP for my developer community work (something I never expected in a million years).
I still get to speak at conferences, and even organised one myself last year!
And I still use all of that as a chance to learn new things, and play with new technologies. Which is also what my job is +/- these days. Looking into how we can use technology to help use in our work, and help our users and their clients. I feel really lucky that I have a boss who trusts me enough to give me a long leash to work on projects outside of the teams - and gives me the chance to excel at what I do in a way that I just can't do in the confines of picking up ticket after ticket from the backlog.
I also wrote a book in the last few years (I'm currently putting the finishing touches to the second edition of it, seeing as technology has moved on past what I did the first time around). It's incredibly stressful, very low paid work - but seeing your name on the spine of a book is mind blowing.
And the bad...
Unfortunately, there has been rather too much of that.
In 2022 I contracted Covid whilst in the UK (my mum did make the most of mothering me for 2 weeks though until I could drive home 😊). Thankfully I was not too sick - just sniffles etc. But there was one big problem, and that stairs (and energy in general). It totally wiped me out.
And for the following 12 months I was pushing myself so hard to get the fitness back that I had lost.
Fast forward a year and I collapsed completely. I got what I thought was a really bad stomach flu and never recovered. Turns out it wasn't stomach flu...
I've been diagnosed with Long Covid, ME (CFS), and POTS. It sucks. Since 2022 I have not been able to work full time, and am now waiting for disability payments as I can't work longer than 24 hours a week (and even that is a push).
Going for days out takes days of rest to prepare myself, renting of a wheelchair, and then days of rest afterwards to recover. My days riding a motorbike, or on roller coasters (or taking a car to racetrack) or behind me and I have to accept this new normal.
I am taking a smörgasbord of pills and potions, and it means that I can now do something at least, but it's limited and not fun at all.
Still, I persevere (what else can I do?) and make the most of what I can do. Speaking of which, I need to get back to work.
If you read this, say hi! I'd love to know how everyone is doing.
