Time flies in a post COVID world

Wow, July already. This year is vanishing at a rate which is somewhat blowing my mind. Although I think theres a lot of people out there who are more than ready for 2020 to be done and gone.

We got through the COVID lockdown quite well although we indulged a little too much (more on that later). All up we spent 8 weeks on lockdown from work before my office opened back up part time. Chirsts was shut down for longer because they are more able to work effectively from home. I coped with the lockdown much better than I thought I would. Partly because we were so busy getting things ready for reopening there wasn't really time to get bored but mainly because Chirst is a delight to be around. She calms and centres me like no one I've ever known and I am so lucky to have her.

Looking at the state of the world now make me appreciate how lucky we are in New Zealand. It's true in a number of ways but the COVID response made me appreciate it more. Yes, being small and isolated makes a big difference but the government responded quickly and decisively and we managed to contain things in very short time. I was heartened by how the majority of the population took it seriously and followed the rules. Living in central Auckland it was bizarre to look out the window and see no people or vehicles but it meant we were able to get back to the new normal as quickly as could reasonably be expected. Lately I've been shaking my head at the people in other countries (mainly the US and UK) thumb their noses at basic precautions and as a result they continue to have real problems with this virus. I wish I could say I was surprised but people respond to their leadership and Trump invites this kind of chaos. I'll end my Trump rant before I start because it adds nothing.

Through all the virus craziness my company has been gearing up for an Agile transformation. This was put on hold through lockdown but we are now back in the swing of things and moving towards a flip date of 1st September. While in Lockdown an opportunity came my way to apply for a role as an Agile Coach. I put my application in more as a way to find out more. I was given an interview which while I felt went well I wasn't expecting to get the role given my lack of experience and knowledge about agile. To my surprise and delight I was successful and given a start date of 1st July. This meant a very speedy handover from my old Operations role needed to be set up and delivered.

I'm a few days in now and really enjoying the change in responsibilities. The big challenge for me is to embrace the coach role and resist the urge to "do". This will be hard as I have always been a get in there and do it type but we have plenty of training time so I'm just trying to relax and get into it.

While I have been lucky enough to be appointed into a role my colleagues have had to go through disestablishment and applying for roles in the new structure. This has been tough for a lot of them and I really feel for them. But that's enough work talk.

As I said early we indulged a little too much leading up to and during lockdown and we have both been feeling a little heavy and lethagic. We had been enjoying swimming before lockdown started but post lockdown the pools were still closed due to the droughts in Auckland and we didn't replaced the exercise with something else. We needed to do something about it.

Chirst found a program called 75 Hard. It is a 75 day program with some very strict rules (not all of which I agree with). This program calls for us to follow a diet of our choice. Since we have some friends who have had great results with Low carb (or Keto) we decided to give it a go. Initially it was really hard and Keto flu is a real thing but we stuck with it and are starting to see results. We have about 7 weeks to go and I'm encouraged enough to keep going with a mainly carb free diet going forward. I do miss bread though.

Not too much else has happened with all the craziness going on in the world. We managed to have a weekend up north with Chirsts family which was nice. We have a holiday coming up in September which we are very much looking forward to and is sorely needed so I will update again when that rolls around.

Loo