My first week at Mazars is behind me. I worked from home the entire week as I’m still waiting for my building access card to be set up and there was no real reason to go in (most people are still working remotely). It’s mostly been onboarding, although I’ve already done a little bit of client work. The firm’s culture seems much better suited for me and the stated values resonate with my own. And I feel very much at home with my fellow “Mazarians” (as the people of the firm call themselves).
The weather has been chilly this week, with some rain and even some sleet/snow this afternoon. I have been trying to avoid turning on the heat given the high energy prices and instead continuing to enjoy my warmer winter comfy-clothes. One challenge I’m facing is that I am running out of storage in my apartment, now that I brought back more stuff with me from my U.S. trip. I found some storage cubes on Amazon.de (the German site, which being in the EU avoids some import fees) that seem like a good solution for organising my shoes in the front entryway. The space is a bit more crowded now, but there’s really not anywhere else to store them… and now I have a few more pairs of dress shoes in anticipation of dressing more formally in the office.
I took on another household project / investment this week — I finally ordered a new mattress. This has been probably the biggest dissatisfaction with my apartment. In Ireland, apartments can’t be rented without beds provided by the landlord, and the mattresses on the two beds in my place are not really adequate for someone as large as me. At the recommendation of my friend S., I decided to order an Emma mattress (one of the ”bed in the box” kinds). It was supposed supposed to be delivered today but for whatever reason was rescheduled to Monday. The delay is annoying, but not that big of a deal since I’m still working from home. As long as it doesn’t show up in a meeting, it should be fine.
I haven’t been out that much during the week given the weather (and admittedly some laziness on my part). On Tuesday, I had a chiropractor appointment after work that got me out of the apartment for a walk. A rally for Ukraine / protest against Russia was taking place at the end of Grafton Street across from St. Stephens Green. The war continues to dominate the news headlines in Ireland. COVID-19 seems to be barely mentioned at all anymore, even though there are people I know who are still testing positive.
Yesterday evening, I did force myself out of the apartment for a walk to enjoy the ever increasingly long daylight hours. It seems the spring buds on most trees are too shy to appear before Easter. However, the cherry blossoms should be out in some of the parks — perhaps that’s motivation for me to go exploring this weekend.
Until next time….
