Day 45: Beautiful views from Wadestown

Took a long stroll today. Lots in my mind. I spent some time during my walk saying my prayers for special intentions for family, friends, and myself. I also spent some time musing about where I am now, the situation in New Zealand, the situation in the world. And with just a tiny bit of optimism, I also thought a bit about the future. I pray for a brighter future for all of us.

My walk was beautiful, I saw the huge moon as the sun was setting.


And at the edge of the view from the Wadestown, I saw the snow-capped hills.

Day 44: Deliveries!

Today felt like Christmas, a few of the things I ordered a week ago came today! I got a box of fresh vegetables and fruits for a good price!



Another box of dry goods came (non-essential items) and it included this nifty laptop mount. One of the perks of level-3 lockdown is the delivery services of non-essential items.



It was a busy workday, really glad these arrived today. It brought my spirits up!

Day 43: Monday again

Another start of the workweek. I am getting the hang of working from home. I do have a routine and I am getting some work done. Probably still not as productive as pre-covid19 but I am progressing to get some good outputs.

I may quite like working from home. I do enjoy getting to cook and sleep more. Let's see how the next few weeks will pan out for New Zealand. We might be moving to level-2 quite quickly.

Days 40 - 42: First level-3 weekend

Level-3 is still pretty much level-4 lifestyle for me. Nothing has changed with how my day goes. In the periphery, I notice a lot more movement and activity. The local fish-and-chip shop opened on Thursday, and they had a few customers queuing up on Friday evening. The streets are a lot busier with cars, and there are fewer people walking about the neighbourhood during the day.

I still work from home Mondays to Fridays, from 9-5; taking my lunch break at 1pm in time for the daily COVID19 update from the government. I clock out around 5 to do my daily walk. I have started exploring home delivery options, I ordered a box of vegetables which will be delivered next week. And I ordered a few things from KMart too.

My weekend will be the same as the past weekends, I will spend most of the time on this chair:

Day 39: Pumpkin and spinach pasta

I made something new tonight! I had some pumpkin and spinach to work with. I've been eating rice for the past few days, so tried to make pasta instead. I made a creamy sauce base and put a bit of mustard and lemon juice for some twist. Topped the dish with cheese and baked it

Day 38: Acknowledging my PhD in Twitter

I attended a women's online session, a chit chat with mentors and peers on navigating academia with special focus on acknowledging out COVID19 situation. One of the common themes from this pandemic is that we have to forego some of the plans and celebrations we were anticipating this year.

Birthdays, planned trips, thesis submission, defence, graduations, weddings etc. Some of these have to be postponed or conducted within the premises of our homes. For me, I know there was no clear transition from being a student to working as a post-doc researcher. It just sort of happened as the levels of lockdown was changing while I was defending, submitting, and completing.

So to commemorate a personal acknowledgement of my accomplishment, last night I put "Dr" in front of my Twitter name. I had an overwhelming response online! Thank you twitterverse for being supportive and awesome.

Will #ImpostorSyndrome ever go away? There... I’ve done it. Put Dr in front of my name. It has taken a few weeks after I completed the PhD. But I need to acknowledge this for myself. #phdchat #AcademicChatter

— Dr Marion Lara Tan (@tan_marion) April 29, 2020

Day 37: A busy day

Yesterday was a busy day. I conducted a two-hour online session on innovative methods for a research and evaluation methods course. I am also trying to coordinate a webinar for next week. Plus meetings in between.

I was a bit flustered throughout my working hours. The end-of-day walk around the neighbourhood really helped me clear my head.

I am very lucky to have a job and to be able to continue working from home. But with the daily mundane routine of my everyday life, it also makes me think about the bigger questions. What's next for me? What will the next few months be like? We did not imagine in January that life would be like this in April. What would life be like 3 months from now?

For now, I am taking things one step at a time. Do my work and hope for the best.