Getting settled is exhausting!
Moving to another country, settling in, and getting back into the swing of things. There's so much to do! (Plus, a new gaming PC build... & Covid!?!)
Buenas dias mis amigos! Thank you all so much for being patient these past few weeks. I’m sure you noticed my publishing schedule has suffered, and I’m behind getting the latest articles out the door. It’s been so busy here.
Settling in…?
Our main event was the arrival of our furniture and belongings from the U.S. That happened about three weeks ago — and we suddenly found ourselves buried (more or less literally). The moving and delivery team was efficient, unboxing most of it, rebuilding our furniture, and leaving us in a whirlwind of dust and belongings. We spent most of the following week trying to find a place for everything, figuring out what to do with all of our U.S. appliances that won’t run on 240 volts, and calming our cat down (he’s averse to commotion).
If you plan to ship your belongings overseas, pay for the extra insurance. While the coordination was professional and everything arrived on schedule, there was damage. Several thousand euros worth, including a damaged 4K monitor and some irreplaceable artwork. We’re still dealing with the claims process.
Somewhere during that week (or maybe it was the week before) I bought a new espresso machine. It’s kept me going.
Barcelona is a wonderful city. Our friends here keep asking us “what surprised you the most about Barcelona? What was the worst thing?” I have to say there are no “worst things,” except, perhaps, the number of tourists that are soon to flood Las Ramblas and the beaches. It’s already getting crowded — from now until later this fall, it will only get worse.
But there are other surprises. For instance, the apartments and flats here generally have nothing built-in. In other words, you’ll never find a walk in closet and you probably won’t even find a simple wall closet. Our flat is luxuriously large, but there is almost no storage. There are no closets in any of the rooms. It’s just not a thing here in Spain. No cabinetry, except in the kitchen. We’ve had to buy a lot of armoires! (Four, if we don’t count the exterior plastic storage ones that I just bought for overflow).
We’ve also learned that most Spanish flats have small, outdated kitchens. Turns out, at least in Barcelona, everyone just eats out all the time. Cooking at home isn’t a big thing, so if you like to cook, bake, and have a modern kitchen — be prepared to pay for a few upgrades. I do like to cook.
A little fun…
Amidst all the chaos we did manage to get away for one Sunday! A couple of friends joined us to explore wine country: Cava country, specifically. Cava is Spanish sparkling wine, mainly from the Catalonia region. It's also an incredibly diverse wine, bottled in a wide range of classifications and sweetness. On our visit to the winery, our tour guide stopped on a hilltop and pointed to nearly 400 vineyards across the valley, producing in excess of 390 million bottles of Cava annually. All just an hour’s train ride outside of Barcelona.
I’ve also found that it’s surprisingly hard and expensive to buy a new gaming PC. First off, prices are high (largely because of the 21% VAT tax applied to anything that’s coming from outside the European Union). Second, a lot of the brands that are my preference aren’t selling here in Spain. So, rather than buying the latest and greatest direct from Corsair (not an option), I eventually settled on PCspecialist.es. Here, I was able to custom-build what I wanted — at a bit of a premium.
Covid… again
And then, I went and caught Covid. Again. I feel like Covid and I are getting to be old friends. Didn’t need to take the test to know I had it — I know what it feels like. I did take a test just to confirm both the Universe’s and my perspective agree… and, alas, they do.
Now what?
Like I said, it’s been a busy three weeks or so. Thankfully, this bout of Covid seems to have been quick. I’m on the mend. The flat is in order. The cat is content.
And while we aren’t completely settled, at least the flat is ordered enough that we can get on with our lives. Still lots of pictures to hang, a couple of new shelving units to assemble, and who knows how much organizing — but it doesn’t all have to happen today.
Which means, I’m getting back to publishing on a regular schedule! I’m setting a goal of getting back on-track with (hopefully) two articles this week, and again two next week. Here’s a quick teaser of what’s coming:
The next two chapters in the playbook: Domain modeling and context mapping, two chapters that are all about creating efficiencies. I’ll do one this week, and one next. These both lead up to exploring your target state architecture!
I don’t have a title yet, but an article about knowing when it’s safe to proceed to the next step in your project — and when it’s not. This is another one of those “how I consistently deliver more reliably than…” stories.
One more article focusing on the intersection of career development and technology (specific subject TBD).
I’m looking forward to getting back to a regular schedule. Once again — thanks for being patient, and I look forward to hearing from you. Hit that comment button!
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