Day 9, Level 1 (Wed 17th June): Working from home and lamb shanks

Working at home - that's what today entailed. It's been rather a long time since I spent the entire day in my office at home in Auckland! Since late March my office has been the dining table/laptop combo up at Omaha. Makeshift, but perfectly functional.

Being back home in Auckland, it was quite good to have all my resources (printer, files etc) at hand, although I struggled to re-adapt back to my desktop keyboard (which is slightly different to my laptop). Hitting the wrong keys etc. When you're bouncing regularly between the two, it's easy to adapt. But after weeks of absence, rustiness sets in when you have to reacquaint yourself with the desktop you've used for years but haven't used in quite some time!

My office tonight - you can see how much resource I have going on to refer to.
And this doesn't show the back wall with all the files that contain all the vital info!
No, I'm not a tidy-desk person - far too much going on at any one time to keep it streamlined!
But I do know where everything is. And each piece of paper is valuable and a note, a trigger. Everything in my office is useful - if not today, then one day!

Nevertheless, it was a productive day. With a bit of washing and cleaning thrown in. Oh, that's productive too!

Lamb shanks for dinner - I cook them in the tagine these days, when just doing two shanks (tagine dish not big enough for more, although these shanks were massive). The tagine, as a cooking vessel, is not confined to cooking just tagines - I use it for curries and any dish that requires liquid and slow cooking.

Using a tagine speeds up the cooking and ensures melt in the mouth deliciousness. It still takes time and tlc though - but that's all part of it. I can confirm the shanks were divine!

And can confirm that cooking in a tagine is far better and quicker than a slow cooker, but you do need some hands-on tlc around the cooking process.

LUNCH: Home-made cheese & onion sandwich (love that cheese and onion mix, slightly creamy, with a hint of mustard, and plenty of S&P) - I add lettuce, but most bakeries/sandwich bars don't.

DINNER: Lamb shanks, roast kumara/carrots/aubergines, broccolini - yum.

SHARE-NOTE OF THE DAY:

Working from home ...

It's quite astounding how different a day working from home is, from one place to another.

I've worked from home in Auckland since 2006 and have always enjoyed it, and been pretty disciplined, from the get-go, about being productive. Yes, you can put on a load of washing at some random time of day. Yes, you can meet a friend for coffee. Yes, there is a measure of flexibility. And yes, you can drop everything to go help someone out when need be (which was often the case, when my mother in law was alive). But what better purpose to my life than helping an old lady who I adored!?!? Because I could.

And because, sadly, my own Mum died just after I started working for myself, so I wasn't able to spend that time helping her that much before she passed away. She'd been diagnosed with cancer in 2002 and that was part of my decision to quit the rat-race and remove myself from the general shambles of work environment so I could spend time with her. It was so valuable, but too short-lived. She died 8 months later. Thankfully, I was able to be available to my mother-in-law Muriel for 8 years to assist with everything.

I've always loved the flexibility of working from home, but also fully understood the absolute discipline required if you want to achieve anything. And much of my work has been deadline driven (don't give me time, give me a deadline) and I've had to work to deliver. Just me. I've always delivered. It's not been easy at times, but it's generally always been wonderful.

Working from home at Omaha was without distraction. Up there, I can almost hibernate away. People know I'm away out of town  (or, by now, assume it!) I can work late into the night there without issue when I'm alone. Being a night owl, I work best at night. I don't have to be at an office or in the commuter traffic by some ridiculous ungodly hour that just isn't right anyway.

Even when Michael and I were both up there, working from either end of the dining table, during Level 4 lockdown - we were both highly disciplined and ensconced in our work. We didn't distract each other, no time or scope for that. The only distraction was that jolly 1pm update, which we did hook into most days, for better or worse. We eventually gave it up when it provided no further value.

Back at home in Auckland - so many more distractions, social outings happening (now they can), events and whatnot that are tempting. So many more things at the finger tips, more things to hook into.

Oh working from home at home has many more layers and is definitely not as simple.

So you can see why I'm happy to head north ...!!