instants

Overtime

For the first time since I started to work, I am working overtime. It is not so common here, but it is ordered by managers from time to time… Except last saturday when I wanted to do everything but working, I must say I am not really affected by that. Of course, I don’t have so much free time these particular weeks, but after all I get extra money, and soon it will be over. And by working overtime, I feel much more involved in the critical deadlines. It feels to good to have some pressure sometimes… More generally, I should say that I enjoy more and more my work. It took me a few months to get used to the tools and the environnement, but now I feel confident enough to take responsabilities and initiatives. Finding a good balance between being involved at work and get enough free time to do something else than sleeping, I guess that is the real challenge for a starting career !

I like the freedom that is given to IT employees here in Sweden. The notion of “flex-time” seems to be the same in most of the companies: appart from the so-called core hours where you have to be at the office (monday to friday, 09 to 15), each employee is free to schedule its 39,15 working-hours a week as he feels like. So I know what to expect for the spring and the summer: I will work longer on rainy days, and leave as early as possible on warm ones

Posted at 18:23 on 12/02/08 | 1 comment

Insouciance

Samedi dernier, pour la deuxième et dernière fois du mois de janvier, le soleil a fait une apparition. Cette fois, elle été prévue… une fenêtre de 5h de ciel tout bleu que je suivait consciencieusement par météo déjà 3 jours avant. Moi à qui le soleil de faisait ni chaud ni froid il y a quelques années, me voilà totalement transformé par les 2 hivers suédois que j’ai passé et celui que je passe actuellement.

Je ne suis pas le seul, les amis que j’avais convaincu d’aller à la plage pour profiter de cette fenêtre de beau temps sec et froid (température ressentie de -3°C tout de même) étaient dans le même état que moi. L’hiver suédois est long, gris et sombre, et j’a appris qu’il ne fallait pas rater les quelques moments annonciateurs d’un printemps encore très lointain. Mais c’est ce rude hiver qui fait que j’adore la Suède au printemps, alors j’attendrais patiemment…

Posted at 11:03 on 01/02/08 | 1 comment

Music spring !

Copy/paste from my Last.fm :

Jens Lekman (SWE) - Store Vega - 15th feb
The Mars Volta (US) - Store Vega - 22nd feb
Yeasayer (US) - Debaser - 1st mar
Kaizers Orchestra (NOR) - Kulturbolaget - 29th mar
The Kills (US) - Lille Vega - 31st mar
Portishead (US) - KB Hallen - 4th apr
Nouvelle Vague (FR) - Kulturbolaget - 10th apr
Girls in Hawaii (BEL) - Loppen - 24th apr
Explosions in the sky (US) - Debaser - 6th may
Flogging Molly (US) - Mejeriet - 10th may
Pacific (SWE) - Bleginska Nation - 23rd may
Sunset Rubdown (US) - Loppen - 28th may
… Festival(s) ? …
The National (US) - Store Vega - 11th aug