Weeknotes #5
Week commencing 5th August 2019.
Focus for the week
This is the week that was tough but so rewarding. We had review meetings for two of our apprentices, which went well. I had a great meeting with Alan too, we worked out some practical ways to help improve the way we do support and operations work and managed to get some work away from him so he has time to focus more on his role as a Lead Engineer.
I had a few delivery issues to sort this week, I’m acting Product Owner for our Blue Badge software which had a few bugs rear their ugly heads. Thankfully, nothing too dramatic (a fault with addresses and some weirdness with an API that the Department for Transport provide) and the team worked through them to keep users happy.
There are so many things about this week that were tough and sadly most of which I can’t share. What I can say is that I am immensely proud of the resilience, honesty and trust amongst the people around me day to day. The strength shown by many of the people in our team this week is something that I hope, in time, many more people see in much more positive circumstances.
What I’m thinking about
Being selfish in a good way – I need some time to reflect, I need to protect some time and keep some space for me next week. Can’t have another week like this one without time to think. I think I’ve balanced this week pretty well but there’s so much room for improvement and I want to make time for that.
I am pleased
- I made it to the leads meetup, organised by Alessandra Canella. I missed the first one and it was a chance to meet some people in real life for a change. I’ve followed and admired quite a few of the group for a number of years no and the chance to meet, share ideas, stories and learn from such an ace bunch of people was really what I needed to get me through such an unexpectedly chaotic week. Thank you for listening, speaking up and being kind Ale, Emily, Giulia, Jan, Dom, Sophie and Kiran it was great to meet you all.
Yesterday at the #Leadmeeting we talked about: the switch from creating physical outputs to creating relationships and empowerment, progression for our mentees, building a community of practice, how to turn impatience into something positive, >
— Alessandra Canella (@hello_lale) August 8, 2019
- We had the 20-week scan for our second son this week. It will never cease to amaze me what science can do, seeing him there kicking about was about the best start to the week I could’ve asked for. Also, the radiographer thhat took us thhrough the scan was incredible. The composure, knowledge and skills needed to navigate an ultrasound that sees inside people and to do a running commentary explaining exactly what she was looking for was stunning. I was in awe not just of the experience itself, but the precision and demonstration of care being shown at every step. Thank you Northampton General Hospital. Thank you NHS.
- I got accepted onto a Masters Degree programme this week, it’s going to be a lot of work but I’m grateful for the opportunity and really curious as to what I’ll learn.
- To have the privilege of working with Steve and Kiri. Two people who, without them, I would’ve crumbled many times these past few months. They continue to do so much difficult work so that our team can succeed, I’m proud to call them both friends.
I learned
- I can actually balance more ‘things’ in my head than I thought if I have enough energy to be able to separate facts and emotions; I had more curveball challenges this week than I think I’ve faced in a long time and actually felt pretty good about it all… all things considered.
- Probably some other things but it’s late, been a long week and my brain is fried.
Recommendations
- Software Defined Talk podcast, for those of you in tech or doing DevOps 👂
- Yellow Bourbon coffee roasters – even if the coffee here wasn’t so good, the people would make it the best coffee place in Northampton, they’ll even post coffee to you ☕
- Notion an all in one workspace tool, like your own wiki/todo list/custom database storage thing, possibilities seem pretty endless and it’s given me a new, much more useful way to arrange my life, highly recommend 💯
- Miracle-Gro EverGreen Complete 4 in 1 – stick this on your lawn, watch the moss die and the grass go green, in a really lame way, this stuff blew me away. Simple things eh. 🌱