Week 17
Getting back to weeknoting despite being gainfully unemployed for a while. The habit and practice is good.
Two small work related things, my laptop was picked up which really made things feels final. And a there was a bit of drama on Linkedin which set my phone on fire. Not my drama, for a change.
New routine
I struggle with change in routines. I’ve noticed that going from working to not working - a bank holiday or a longer holiday - usually results in a few days of grumpiness while I establish a new routine. I was conscious of that going into the week after Easter.
Not sure I’ve got a new routine for my days in place yet. But this transition wasn’t so bad, I suspect Easter helped.
I’ve managed to get a bit more sleep - longer lie-ins in the morning. But that’s led to late starts and I don’t like that so next week is getting back to more of a normal sleep cycle.
Outside
The weather has been better than expected so I’ve been outside, pottering about in the garden. Dai has been building me a new set of raised beds. His dad has been helping where he can and I helped finish up the structure yesterday and cleared the ground ahead of filling with soil.
2 learnings:
- I can still pick up heavy things (reclaimed railway sleepers)
- A pick axe is required to removed hellebores. Those root structures are quite something.
Next week’s job will be filling them with the 3 tons of top soil that’s being delivered on Tuesday. I suspect we’ll need another 3 tons.
Then planting. I’ve already got 2 fruit trees to go in - a fan trained cherry and an espaliered pear tree. Beyond that, I’m not sure yet.
[Can we take a moment to just admire that wall?! It's been rebuilt and repointed and it's a STUNNER.]
Jobs and other opportunities
I’ve already applied for one role. Civil service. A really lovely role that felt like it was literally written for me on a rather exciting area of work.
It's been a long time since I applied for anything in the civil service and yeesh, it's not got any better.
The whole recruitment process for the civil service needs to be blown up and redesigned. Much more than just Civil Service jobs, that needs a special form of nuclear weapon strike though.
Nowhere else does recruitment in such an inaccessible way. In all the trying to remove bias and advantage, they’ve actually made the barriers even worse.
I don’t know of anywhere else that recruits like this. Private sector recruitment can be dreadful but it’s not full of frameworks, success profiles and the mystical dark arts.
Your recruitment process is your front door to your organisation. It’s the first experience a candidate will have of you. If you made it as hard and obscure as possible, you’re really not setting people up for success with you as an organisation.
I’ve also applied for a non-exec board role in Wales, in an entirely white, male, post-middle aged dominated space. That wasn’t quite as painful an experience. But it’s definitely also its own mystical dark art as this recent Senedd report on public appointments set out.
Consulting
I’ve also got some nibbles for contract and consultancy work for the summer. I’ll be following up on those in coming weeks.
I’m working on a better description of what I do and how I can help organisations. I’ll be putting out a proper call for work soon.
I’m pondering again about setting up my company as more of a small agency rather than a one-woman band. I think this is where my heart really lies and there’s a group of people I really want to work with on the regular again.
No one is coming....
Work continues with a small group behind the scenes. We’re passionate about Wales, the possibilities and opportunities that we’ll have post-2026 elections.
We’re working on a vision for what public services in Wales could look like. Shaping and honing that and engaging with a wider group of people to help us in that. I’m really excited about this - I’ve learnt I’m really good at articulating a compelling vision that rallies people to a cause and selling that.
There's some thoughts brewing in my head about creating an approach to public service delivery that's uniquely Welsh. I'm really interested in how Leanne Wood is talking about community level work and organisation (and doing the work), how we design public services and how Wales organises itself as a nation. Pondering...
Health
I’ve had a few ongoing, low level issues that I finally saw a doctor about just before I finished working.
I’ve been struggling with very stiff, achy hands. My grip is sometimes not wonderful. So I had x-rays this week of both hands to check for signs of osteoarthritis. Blood tests next week for inflammation markers.
And a painful foot, the first one I had bunion surgery on 15 years ago. The bunion is back. So I’m going back into podiatry for poking, prodding and more scans to figure out what is going on.
Also had a bit of a scare with rather high blood pressure, but that looks like a one-off. I’m monitoring it daily at the moment and it’s consistently back in the normal range. Huge relief. Nothing like stress about high blood pressure to give you high blood pressure.