Working from home thanks to Corona
Yesterday my management asked our department to work from home as much as possible until further notice. For me, it’s theoretically possible to work from home 100%. I did that once, in Q4 2014 or ’15. I thought it would rock, because
- my boss is in Nürnberg
- my employees are in Romania
- at the time, I didn’t work closely with the people geographically close to me
- my customers are around the world
- I could get my gym routine done in the mornings before work and still be ready to work at 9 with time to spare
…but actually it kinda sucked, because:
- our apartment was cold, dark and had lousy WLAN access in the office area (a repeater only helped a little bit)
- lunch became a daily challenge — planning it, cooking/reheating it, or buying it
- (and this is the big one) I needed casual random human interaction (water-cooler style) a lot more than I thought, even to the point of bugging @sarah1976 with social neediness.
This time around, what’s different?
- better lighting and heating in the home office area
- better WLAN connection (still not great)
- better kitchen in this house with an ability to cook and eat outside, weather permitting
- two outdoor sitting areas, either of which is suitable for work outdoors (if I dispense with the docking station and monitors)
- I frequently collaborate with another department less than 3 minutes away by bike (but are they requested to WFH as well?)
- My own scope grew between the first time and this time; I work closely with those geographically close to me now (in addition to my team members in Romania)
What’s unchanged?
- My boss is still in Nürnberg and my employees are still in Romania
- The morning gym routine is still doable before work at home or in the office (but…how long will that facility stay open?)
- Have yet to master the lunch planning
- I expect I’ll be socially starved again, despite lots more diverse subject-matter interactions since the first time around, if this WFH-until-further-notice stuff sticks around for more than a couple months
What’s changing in your work-life balance as a result of Corona?
Fun Things to do around Puerto Vallarta: Botanical Gardens
In December 2019, we spent a couple weeks at one of our usual vacation destinations. But we did a ton of new stuff. See all our posts tagged with Puerto Vallarta.
About an hour away by bus or taxi from near the airport, the Vallarta Botanical Gardens is a good look into the mountainous jungle further inland from the coast. Continue reading Fun Things to do around Puerto Vallarta: Botanical Gardens
Fun Things to do around Puerto Vallarta: Whale Watching
In December 2019, we spent a couple weeks at one of our usual vacation destinations. But we did a ton of new stuff. See all our posts tagged with Puerto Vallarta.
We’ve done some whale watching before — about 10 years ago, to be precise. That time, we took a bus up to Punta Mita, got out, headed for the beach and waited for someone with a boat to approach us and make us an offer. It was not very scientific, but it was uncomplicated, and we saw some whales.
This time around, we took a very different approach. Continue reading Fun Things to do around Puerto Vallarta: Whale Watching
Fun Things to do around Puerto Vallarta: Take a Taco Walk
In December 2019, we spent a couple weeks at one of our usual vacation destinations. But we did a ton of new stuff. See all our posts tagged with Puerto Vallarta.
We’ve been to Puerto Vallarta plenty of times. Inspired by the Taco Chronicles, we wanted to discover the food we love in the place we love, but not in the restaurants we already know.
AirBnB to the rescue again! We found Memo’s tours there, but if you’re interested, you should consider booking through his website vallarta101.com. He does more than just food tours: history and culture walks are also on offer (and he gave us an inside tip that they’re expanding that area, too).
Continue reading Fun Things to do around Puerto Vallarta: Take a Taco Walk
Fun things to do around Puerto Vallarta: Roast Your Own Coffee
In December 2019, we spent a couple weeks at one of our usual vacation destinations. But we did a ton of new stuff. See all our posts tagged with Puerto Vallarta.
Background
We are fully aware of our coffee dependency — never moreso than while hopping time zones. So we decided to Learn the Process of Coffee Roasting via this AirBnB Experience, which popped up while searching for things to do in the area. We were looking to AirBnB for inspiration after our good buddy Kristin’s recommendation to take the Pasteis de Nata baking class during our trip to Porto.
Getting There
Daniel’s coffee shop, La Cabra y La Mata, is not in Puerto Vallarta. It’s not even in Jalisco. But it’s less than an hour away by bus in Bucerías, a sleepy resort town north of Nuevo Vallarta with long stretches of beach.
We started our journey with a walk to the airport — about 20 minutes from our home base in PV — and caught a bus going towards Bucerías, or maybe La Cruz de Huanacaxtle or Sayulita. Bus fare was $20 MXN per person each way, payable in cash to the driver upon boarding and stating our destination. That works out to around a dollar or euro, depending on the exchange rate. We monitored our progress on the bus via GPS and just got out at a stop that seemed close enough.
The Shop
Coordinates: 20.75515,-105.33859
Nice Day along the Danube
…and also the Altmühl.
A buddy and I met up with our bikes at the train station in Sinzing late this morning and biked our way to lunch near Bad Abbach. Then we pressed on to Kelheim for a nice ice cream treat. We went back the way we came a bit for me to catch the train in Saal an der Donau.
Parte 4: San Valentino alla Muta
This is the final installment of our road trip around Northern Italy in September 2019. You can catch up on
- Parte Zero (pre-trip and overview)
- Parte Uno (Piombino Dese and Venice)
- Parte Due (Ravenna)
- Parte Trei (Modena and Parma)
The last part of our trip was a big change of scenery on the way back to Regensburg. Rather than going back the way we came through the mountains, we jagged west at Bozen/Bolzano towards Meran/Merano instead of east towards Brixen/Bressanone. The drive up through Bozen to the Brenner Pass is usually good for some oohs and ahhs, but the little towns along the route from Merano to San Valentino were adorable. It also took a lot longer than it looks on the map, because those are little country hillside roads getting you to Graun im Vinschgau, because those villages come with a speed limit of 50 km/h (≈30 mph) most of the way.
See what I mean?
Parte 3: Modena and Parma
This is the next installment of our road trip around Northern Italy in September 2019. You can catch up on
- Parte Zero (pre-trip and overview)
- Parte Uno (Piombino Dese and Venice)
- Parte Due (Ravenna)
Modena and Parma were undiscovered country for us. We’d been to Bologna before (ten years ago!). We’d heard good things about Emilia-Romagna and Italian cuisine from various sources — including our waiter at Colline Emiliane on our trip to Rome. But for all the famous foody aspects of this bit of Italy (balsamico, parmesan cheese, prosciutto), we’d never actually been. Well, why the heck not? We loved both these cities.
Parte 2: Ravenna
This is the next installment of our road trip around Northern Italy in September 2019. You can catch up on
- Parte Zero (pre-trip and overview)
- Parte Uno (Piombino Dese and Venice)
It was only a few hours’ drive from the outskirts of Venice to the former capital of the Western Roman Empire, Ravenna.
We’d been to the town before, but last time, it was dark, and cold, and difficult to navigate with our rental car. This time we arrived with plenty of daylight, parked the car once, and did all the exploration on foot. The weather was generally agreeable this time, too — though some fierce winds and a brief rain spell motivated us to spend a little more time under the awning at a restaurant eating piadine for lunch.
Some brief notes:
- We stayed on the edge of the Altstadt in a cool (despite the dorky name) little boutique BnB called "M Club DeLuxe"
- We bought the combo pass for the Basilica San Vitale, the mausoleum, Basilica Sant’Apollinare Nuovo — apparently they don’t offer just the mausoleum and Basilica San Vitale pass anymore, but it was worth it to us.
- Watch out for tourists; there were more than we expected for the off season (second week of September)
- Sarah reserved us a table for a very nice dinner in Ravenna at Al Cairoli: great quality, atmosphere (a table outside on a quiet pedestrian street), and reasonable prices.