Longer days

Summer finally arrived after this long cold winter.  We are already enjoying it, staying out on our lawn or going on the bike. I often ask myself why I still live in this cold and windy country but I really love summer in Iceland. Well, at least on those days when it's not rainy and windy.

I have been rather busy lately, a week long vacation, then my fiancé left me and Bella for two weeks. Now things are gearing up for the long summer days and at the end of this week I stop working office hours and return to working shifts again. I'm going back to the steering wheel for the summer. It's nice trade, a bit of a change while I wait to go on my vacation.

Still Alive...

It's well past midnight and before going to sleep I just wanted to do something completely trivial and finally post something on this blog.

I have spent the last 11 days or so writing over 30.000 words on top of my fulltime job. My wrist and fingers are incredibly sore but it is finished now and I am going to try and never write with such a steep deadline again.

Tomorrow, Bella and family time. Ah, I am going to enjoy that. A bottle of sparkling wine as well.

Sick Sick Sick

My household has been down with all kinds of pests since last Wednesday. I thought I was getting better but no, I had to stay at home from work today due to a really bad sore throat that cropped up yesterday. My son had it the worst, his sore throat turned into an infection and on top of that infection he got an ear infection.

I feel really bad for Bella. She's being a good sport but now she's starting to need her exercise. Yesterday I used the opportunity while giftwrapping two Christmas presents (I'm early this year!) and made her help me clean up in the living room. She's actually really good at it. I really ought to find out how to make her drop items into a container. I confess I haven't done it before because I can't decide what kind of a container I want to use for the training. Maybe it's an excuse to be lazy?

On Thursday we missed Obedience class and today we will miss Agility. I'm gutted! I really looked forward to both.

I have a big change coming up at work this month. I have been asked to be in the school unit from December until March to begin with. That means I will drop the shifts during that timeframe. Weekends off and more family friendly work hours.

Extinguishing Fires

Yesterday I attended a lecture on how to evacuate the building I work in during times of crisis, mainly in case of fire. A part of this meeting was allowing us to use fire extinguishes and seeing how the different kinds of extinguishers work. That part was actually rather practical for at-home scenarios. I own an old extinguisher that the previous owners of my apartment left and it's last checked 2006 so I plan to have it looked at after this event.

The Reykjavik Airport Fire Department hosted the exercises and here's one shot from it, with a Fokker 50 from Air Iceland taxiing on the runway of Reykjavik Airport in the background.

With a family of one and a half child (step-daughter) and a dog, this is one area I'm more aware of in recent years. I would encourage anyone to give this subject a thought. As an Air Traffic Controller a lot of my training was about teaching the right reactions in case of emergencies. A sudden fire is known to cause panic and even more so when you have absolutely no idea what to do. Thus it's always good to have some idea about what you can or should do in case of a fire.

Of course, the first rule of thumb is always to call for help and get people away from danger.

Running

Today was a hectic day at work. With a fairly big day scheduled a neighbouring area experienced some technical difficulties. Everything went well in the end and when the shift was finished I was able to go home and hopefully enjoy a three day weekend. I'm on standby on Sunday so I will at least get tomorrow and Saturday off.

Exhausted after a long day, me and Bella decided to go out for a run. She's a very willing running partner and was bouncing around as I prepared to go.  Granted, we did not go very far as I am testing my body. I also went yesterday after being rather pained earlier this week. After yesterday's run I was pretty good today. I'm curious about tomorrow.

My only complaint is how dark it is outside in the evenings. I need to get myself a light.

OJTI and Greasing the Brain

I returned to work after my maternity leave two weeks ago. It was both pleasant and exhausting. I've been fortunate enough to get a chance to exclusively stay at home with my son for 7 months. It's been a great time but I was ready to get back to reality and start my life as a working mom.

Upon my return I was thrown right onto a two week course to become an On Job Training Instructor, or OJTI as my abbreviation happy profession calls it. I enjoy training horses and dogs so getting a paid course on how to train people on the job was a fun insight and experience. Many interesting lectures and also some roleplaying exercises. No one can become an Air Traffic Controller without putting in the hours on the job and it's the same with being an instructor. The roleplaying was valuable and often amusing but I know that the real learning experience will come if I sit with a student as his or her instructor.

First, however, I must myself sit down as a student. Returning to work after nine months away means I'm not let loose in the centre on my own just yet! Thankfully, I must add. I feel very much like someone who was in peak form but hasn't exercised for months... I'm out of breath just going out! I'm awfully slow but with every hour I put in I can feel my brain tracing down old knowledge and starting to shape up. It's just this awful feeling of knowing I've been better that bothers me... and motivates me. I'm sure this won't take too long!

From Worse to Good

In May I mentioned my pelvic pain being worse than I expected. I was feeling rather depressed but went to see my physiotherapist to discuss this with her. As soon as I met her she was nothing but positive and told me this was nothing to worry about. In short, the front ligaments of my hips had shortened during my post-pregnancy recovery. Apparantly it's not so uncommon as new mothers sit a lot with their newborns. The pain I was experiencing wasn't true pelvic pain and with a few appointments and some at-home exercises I'm doing much much better. I'm not perfect but I can now officially go for fairly long walks.


The next step is joining a gym and getting some work done to build up the muscles that wasted away during the time I couldn't exercise. I'm back to being an optimist and am well below my pre-pregnancy weight. Here's a picture taken of me and Magnus yesterday when he turned 6 months old.

With Bella, I missed out on a Rally Obedience course I've been waiting to participate in for a few months now. Autumn is soon here and then I plan to do an Agility course. I think I'll also aim for the Rally Obedience in the autumn if offered.


My maternity leave is now over and I'm now using my summer holidays until September which is when I start work again. Can't believe there's so little left! A ton has happened since I was forced to quit in late November last year. That's 8 months already! Phew. It'll be fun to meet my work colleagues.

The Yellow Card

It would seem that the day I will be considered unfit to work draws nearer. I was informed that in an appointment I had with my midwife yesterday.

Unfortunately, limping and pain when standing up or moving around is a part of my daily life now. About two months ago I was able to take Bella for 30 minute walks without being off, now walking her a 5-10 minute route near our home usually has me limping or near-limping in the end and done for afterwards. I must confess that most days the past two or three weeks I just don't feel like I can do it.

I quite enjoy my job but it has gotten more difficult since I got pregnant. Another side effect of my pregnancy is excruciating pain in my lower back if I sit for too long. My back just can't handle what's going on. I never sit at home anymore except when I eat but most of the time I must work sitting down. My employer has been helping me find solutions that have kept me fit to work so far, like changing the shifts and shortening them. I am now down to 50% work load and with short shifts my lower back doesn't get time enough to complain. Now all the pain walking, twisting of hips and the creaking (yes, my hips creak like an old haunted timber house at times) is making these short shifts more difficult to endure.

For now, I am fit and capable at work but I admit I will also be relieved when I stop. I can tell that every shift takes more energy to complete than before all this started. I'm usually done for the day after I come home, which isn't the home life I want to be having!

The good news is that Bella is really enjoying to take things or pick them up for me! Especially if I slip her a piece of her feed. She even picked up a sock of mine, which I thought of trying after she came running with it and was preparing to play with it. She was very enthusiastic in taking it up for me but when I thought of using my phone camera to shoot a short video of it she got a little confused and acted like she had no clue what I was asking. So I put it away and then she picked the sock up for me once again.

Me and my fiancé also took her out to let her run loose and had some tasty treats with us. We put some distance between the two of us and called her back and forth. She loved the exercise (and treats!) and got some sprint running done at the same time.

However, after the outing I caved in and am now sick on top of everything else!