Well, this time it took me less than 2 years to return, actually, just a bit over 1 if we're counting!
This new year has found me in a new year of my life too, almost at the 30 mark, so I thought it's about time to sit down and write down what's been happening and where we are in this new year, 2022.
Now the good news is that the pandemic restrictions are starting to lift across the world, the even better news is that I'm typing this from my newly setup office by our lovely Dave, in the newly acquired house I purchased in June 2021, who knew that it will all work out after writing that last post in May of last year. The list of achievements doesn't stop there though, indeed, the MSc has been completed with a distinction, unfortunately, no graduation yet, but guess what, I just got an email today that it might happen in July 2022, yes, apparently it's never too late to wear a silly gown and shake hands (although after the pandemic not sure how much handshaking will occur). The cancellation of the graduation ceremony did have some unexpected positive effects, my mom and dad's mom (mamaia) have come to visit and stay for two weeks in the new house and it was so wholesome to spend so much quality time with them, even though they were on house arrest while isolating for the first 10 days after they arrived. Nevertheless, I loved spending time with them, laughing, cooking and tidying the Jurassic Park garden!
The list of surprise does not stop there dear friends, as in July 2021, we (dashing the royal we here) also got promoted to VP in the most awesome job with the most awesome team we've been lucky enough to be in so far in our career! We've also hired a lot more lovely people to help us spread the cloud love and I am happy to report that they are all kickass 😊 Now after the summer, no holidays have really happened, but we did go with Dave in October to Bournemouth to collect the storage contents I abandoned in 2020 when moving to Glasgow, they were intact and mostly occupied the living room until I found the time to unpack, think the last box was this month, oops! I also started learning Korean, and am on a 340+ day streak on Duolingo, Dave is starting his Spanish again, so game on 👾
The advantage of having a big house is that we've regularly had lovely friends stay over and brighten the otherwise gloomy and grey weather during the winter. It was so lovely to reconnect with old friends and spend some quality time exploring the nearby scenic beauty of Scotland. Of course, this month, in a few days, it will be 2 years since the pandemic started and my old life stopped. I travel less, am grounded more and have grown a lot in this time. To celebrate we'll be going to Romania for the second time since the start of the pandemic, and we're going in April, it will coincide with Easter but also dad's 4th anniversary since his passing. It's been tough not being there with mom and my sister and family through these anniversaries, but hopefully this year will be better together.
To pick up where I left off in winter, my sister, nephew and brother-in-law were meant to visit and I was meant to return with them after going home home to Romania, but no such luck. In January, all flights to Romania got cancelled from Glasgow/Edinburgh, so had to postpone the trip and cancel the tickets. It was good though, because I had time to re-enter my groove at work and it has been super busy, so grateful I had the time to get setup for the new year! On the professional front, this past month and a half has been surprisingly fruitful, I spoke at ProductWorld which was amazing, started an external speaking program training in EMEA, got accepted as a WomenTechmakers Ambassador (organizing an event in April for IWD), got into the AWS Community Builders program anddddd best of all, got selected for the Expert Engineer program, a really prestigious learning experience which only about 100 technologists in the firm get on each year! I still can't quite believe it, and comes with the added bonus of travelling to the US in June/September/December, to meet with all the other participants, which after 2-3 years of no travel, soothes the nomad spirit in me!
I've been also taking care of my health more, been doing check-ups and seeing the doctors to get my hormones under control and am feeling really good! I've been reading a lot, Oana and Dave have been feeding me series to read and the local library has a free book borrowing app that I've been taking advantage of a lot (BorrowBox is the best). I think I've ready at least 20 books since December and feel like I'm rekindling my love for reading, my Netflix watchlist has been suffering as a result, but have been watching a lot of Kdramas lately, Squid Game, Uncanny Counter, so good!!!
Dave and I also went to our first concert in years, we saw Halestorm last week, which was a present for his name day, and it was epic, the atmosphere, band, everything was amazing, well worth the effort and mask wearing! We're also mean to go to a new 1 Michelin start restaurant in Glasgow, Unalome, to celebrate his birthday next month, so exciting times ahead. I also booked tickets to see Eric Nam in concert on the 10th April, hopefully Silv wants to join me, oh yeah, she's moved in for a few months whilst deciding what she wants to do and settle in Glasgow hopefully, it's so lovely to have more friends around!
The family is great, Raducu is growing by the day and look forward to going back home to play with him again. I went back to Romania in August last year for a month and it was amazing, though can't say I ever played with cars, Lego and imaginary zombie killing that much when I was a kid, so definitely making up for it now! Life is good, work is good, family is good, we are good. I hope dad, wherever he is now, is good too. Everything I wanted last year happened, so this year, I will just wish for the plans we and I made to happen, nothing extra, just that, and maybe a holiday to Spain with Dave and Greece with the family, we've all been dreaming about that!
Love and light, always xxx