At work:
- Didn’t get to interview stage for the tender I submitted to establish a theory of change for a charity through participative methods. (That’s fine, you win some you lose some.) Annoyed at getting the least helpful feedback ever, though: “The selection process was highly competitive, and we ultimately moved forward with other proposals that more closely aligned with our specific requirements at this stage.” That says literally nothing and they might as well have said “we don’t offer feedback”.
- Have been preparing and building my background knowledge for the school sessions I am running over the next 2 weeks. I looooove the creative tools my colleagues have created, which I am picking up to run with the kids. Learning loads and also in total awe of their creative brains.
- Caught up with all my outstanding admin and folders of emails to deal with later, early in the week actually. Satisfying. Sometimes I need to clear the decks of the small niggly things so I can focus on the big thinky things.
- Ran out of brain juice at lunchtime on Friday. I often do anyway, but it’s also been an especially long week, what with working through last weekend on the tender and the associateship EoI.
- Still feeling a bit eep about the thin pipeline of work – but I have a few weeks’ grace now.
Deliverables this week:
- Was meant to write up some thoughts about “psychologically safe spaces” for Mint House Oxford, by Friday, which was already an extension from Monday 30th June – but unexpected things kept occurring and throwing me off. I think the universe is telling me I’m making way too big a deal of it in my head! It’s only meant to be 2-3 paragraphs, but I’m trying to go down the rabbit hole of Synthesising All The Information. I’ll aim to focus on the essential thoughts and write it early in the week. This springs to mind, which I came across on my socials. (It is by GrowthByVisuals.)
Development this week:
- Started putting together a response to an invitation to tender, for the Co-production Lab Wales, in partnership with another organisation. It’s due on 11th July but our CEO who has ultimate sign-off on this was going on hols after Friday 4th, so it was a bit of a rush coordinating with the other people and getting the initial thoughts together and approved before she went off, so I can finish writing them next week by the deadline.
At home:
- Went for a Tuesday evening dip with the group – the tide was out and it was quite a way to walk over rocky and squelchy terrain (yes both at the same time). I scraped my ankle slipping on a rock. It was nice to be in the water at the end of a day of back to back meetings, and I’m glad I found out what it’s like at low tide, but I’m going to stick with high tide as much as possible!
- Did some Welsh study at the normal Wednesday evening class time, to maintain a weekly practice (and I do a few smaller bits in between too, to keep my ear in). I’m writing up my lesson notes into index cards and working through the exercises at the back of the textbook. I now have a “grammar board”!
- Had a big energy crash on Saturday and binged Madame Blanc’s Murder Mysteries. (I do love a cosy murder!) Tiredness (and hormones also, I suspect) meant Everything Was Terrible for about 24 hours.