2 years in... slight change of tack

The ‘new normal’ of isolated life continues. While we still don’t have any drastic restrictions here in Sweden and when walking past packed bars and restaurants in the city centre, I wonder for a moment if I just dreamt up this entire global pandemic, life certainly is a lot quieter and in many ways more routine then it was three months ago. I’m now very settled in my new little apartment and within the next week should even have a sofa and chairs to make the many hours spent within these 4 walls that bit more comfortable. I feel like time has taken on its own new pace; you’d expect an empty schedule to drag yet the weeks are rapidly slipping by and when each evening comes I wonder where on earth the past 12 hours went and how we possibly managed to fit in all those social events and appointments before this ‘new normal’ began. I guess  for the many parts, afterwork drinks have been swapped for ‘Zoom’ video calls, group sports replaced by socially distanced runs or online classes and simple tasks such as popping to the shops are now great events that fill a good chunk of the day.

In avoiding public transport, my little bubble was restricted to how far I was willing to travel by foot.   

Being an hour’s walk into town and 30 minutes to the nearest proper supermarket, I was coming to envy those whizzing past me on 2 wheels. Therefore, at the end of April, I decided it was time to join the cycling population. A German girl living in southern Stockholm was selling her trusty old bike so, on my 2-year Swedish anniversary, I collected my new set of wheels from her and pedalled back through the city, enjoying my newly extended bubble. Being able to pedal from place to place meant that Felicity (who also lives alone) and I could reinstate our Monday evening dinners, taking it in turns to cook for one another. Now, given the extra time and a fully functioning oven(!), meals can be a little more elaborate than before, so I’ve been taking the chance to experiment with a range of Ottolenghi dishes and new bakes. The freedom of 2 wheels came to an abrupt holt this past Monday however as I picked up a flat tyre on the way back from Felicity’s. With much guidance from the family, I now have the back wheel off but need to pick up an inner tube before I can (hopefully) return the bike to a usable state and hit the trails again.

Other than Felicity on Monday evenings, my face-to-face contact has mostly just been with Eva, my office mate. To start with we met for weekly lunchtime walks, then included outdoor lunches and this past week I’ve returned to the office for a few days (the extra screen was very much needed) so we’ve been seeing much more of each other. Other contact is provided by video-chat where I spend hours chatting to the family (including Grandma who has now joined the world of Facetime 😊) and friends and have the occasional work meeting with my supervisors.

On the supervisor front, things aren’t going so smoothly. My main supervisor, Benny, only had a fixed contract at Stockholm University but was expecting to be promoted into a permanent role starting this August. Unfortunately, the promotion board decided this wouldn’t be the case so in three months’ time he’ll be made unemployed, a horrible blow all round. On my part, this means I’ll default to having Peter, a Swedish professor who was previously my co-supervisor, as my main supervisor. This, combined with no field work this year, and therefore no new data, means I’m having to rethink what I’m going to do to produce the 4 research papers needed for my PhD. For now, I’ll just keep plugging away at my first one. While the complete lack of fieldwork and field teaching (including a cancelled trip to northern Sweden in September) is a real pain, at least I have plenty of time to write up what I have.

So, that’s it for this month, no new adventures or exciting experiences to report (I do wonder when we’ll be back to those again) but a new mode of transport, a new route for my PhD and plenty of catch ups with old friends. I very much hope that everyone is doing ok back home, and that the old version of normality (or perhaps a new and improved one) can return in the not too distant future.