queenbarwench | Hello world! (Reply)

Hi, internets, how's it going? Once again it's been a while... 8 months, in fact. Wow! Ok, the last 8 months in bullet points, coming up:

May: It was approaching fiscal year end at work, so it was all hands on deck. We were also expecting a new team member, so there were plans made for training her.
June: Chaos reigned! Our new person started just as our manager went off sick with an ovatian cyst. Suddenly, I was the most experienced member of the team, whilst still being a temp. At the same time, an offer of a permanent position with the company came up in a different department.
July: We made it successfully through the year-end trauma, and I was handing all my projects to the new person. Manager was still off, recovering from surgery. Right at the end of July, I went on holiday.
August: After a week in the Peak district with Paz, I returned to work as a fully-fledged real employee in my new team. OMG, I was finally going back to science after 5 years! Learning curve approximately vertical.
September: Learning curve still vertical. I am loving the job, but working harder than I have since my degree.
October: First travel opportunity of new job - Geneva! I didn't get to see that much of it, but got taken to a very nice restaurant by my boss.
November: Second travel opportunity, to an oil refinery in Spain, right next to Gibraltar. We stayed in this fancy hotel in a marina and ate wonderful food and it was 22°C. It felt like being on holiday! Also rather a lot of lab work that month.
December: Trip no 3 - Beijing. For a training course. I cannot believe my boss actually let me go on this! Amazing course, though, and I got two days to be a tourist (that post comes later).