I don’t really mind working the summer months, though it’s not fun watching almost all of my colleagues take off for 3 or 4 weeks of vacation at the same time. Because I took 2 weeks early, the rest of my summer vacation doesn’t start until the beginning of August, though honestly, I’m considering changing to taking all the Fridays during the fall off again. Even if I take the 2 weeks in August, I can still probably take off most of the Fridays in the fall as I will still have 2 weeks, plus another week of rollovers that will have to be used before the end of March. Hmmm, what to do, what to do.
Because my team is a service organization that helps all of Axis with marketing material requests, including the regions, there always has to be at least one person, preferably two, working during the summer months when the rest of Sweden shuts down. It’s a bit of a drag that the other teams in our department don’t have to do this, and it always feels a little unfair. Regardless, this year, it’s me, and our summer-cover Andrea working for about 3 weeks by ourselves. One of the illustrators will be back next week but only for a week, and one of my teammates will be back the week after that, but again, only for a week. Andrea worked for us before, a couple of years ago, and knows our processes and our brand very well, and she is good with the digital assets, where I don’t feel as comfortable, so that’s great.
It hasn’t really slowed down though, even though the amount of tickets coming in has lessened slightly. I have a pile of larger, complicated requests that I’m dealing with, and really hoping that people will give us a bit of break for the next couple of weeks. I also have several projects that need work…the kinds of things you’re supposed to be able to do in the downtime…except we never really GET any downtime. ARGH.
I worked from home today, which was nice and quiet. Anders is on vacation for 3 weeks (this one was the first one) and he went to Copenhagen today and met up with Karin for a day spent biking around the city. Judging by the pictures they sent, they had a good time, and perfect weather for it. It was hot and rather humid today, around 27C (80F), but there’s a decent breeze moving the air around so it doesn’t feel stifling. The days just zip by.
Karin was home from Sunday to Tuesday afternoon, and picked a big bowl of cherries from our tree. There are lots more that need to be picked so I plan to do that this weekend. We still have a big bag of frozen cherries from 2 summers ago in the freezer, so I doubt I will freeze more, since they’re still in good condition. They keep getting pushed to the back, which means I forget about them. Anders pulled up a couple of potato plants and filled a bag, so when I went to the grocery store after work today, I picked up some filets to grill, fresh asparagus, and bernaise sauce for dinner tomorrow.
Debbie and Camilla asked me if I wanted to join them today after work, but I declined, as I need some downtime after the busy/crazy of last weekend. I just want to get some stuff done around the house, and relax a bit. We’ve made plans to get together both next weekend and at the end of the month.
If all the summer days are like today, I’ll be happy. 🙂
Mood: good
Music: Skye Bishop—Free