My family and I live in a small but otherwise cozy attic apartment at the edge of our town. It hasn’t been perfect in many ways, and a few aspects have annoyed us since the beginning, including space limitations imposed by the angled roofs, insulation issues, having to subscribe to two internet providers to beContinue reading “A better home”
Monthly Archives: January 2022
Sending work to co-authors may be the worst part of my job*
Sometimes you have these tasks that you just don’t want to do, and you just postpone and procrastinate. Often, they’re not even things you dislike. In my case, at least, I actually liked the task itself. I just didn’t like finishing it. Today I finished a draft manuscript for my artificial light at night experiment.Continue reading “Sending work to co-authors may be the worst part of my job*”
A matter of time
It was bound to happen sooner or later, but I just received the news that a person close to us, whom I have shared a ride with, and had family lunch with earlier in the weekend, now tested positive for covid this morning. It’s the first positive contact person I have had thus far. MasklessContinue reading “A matter of time”
It’s a small world
In January 2019 – when I was still working on my own PhD – I was selected for a travel grant to come and present my work at the annual meeting of a specific COST Action on plant-microbe-insect interactions, held in Thessaloniki. I was very honored and happy about this, as I had had onlyContinue reading “It’s a small world”
It all starts with a seed
Today was time for the next step in our latest experiment. After leaving the pots filled with field soil to acclimatize for a week, and watering them several times to reach a more homogeneous soil moisture, we sowed our experiment today. I say we, because I was helped today by two wonderful and motivated PhDContinue reading “It all starts with a seed”
It’s a long distance in both directions
When we left the Netherlands and moved abroad to live in Bavaria, we figured that we would be happy anywhere. Home is where the heart is, right? As long as we had the family together, all would be good. A pretty serious mental breakdown after a little more than a month in this new environmentContinue reading “It’s a long distance in both directions”
Was social always this exhausting?
This pandemic is detrimental to my social skills, or at least to the way they affect me and my mental state. I was never the most extraverted person. Not a fantastic person on parties. But I could hold a conversation without problems, and they would often give me energy. I also greatly enjoyed coffee breaksContinue reading “Was social always this exhausting?”
Frustrating
They say the Dutch are a very direct and to-the-point people, especially in conversations. No bullshit. You know exactly what you have. I never thought much of it when I grew up in the Netherlands, but I guess it’s true. I’m probably a good example of a Dutchy that is too honest for his ownContinue reading “Frustrating”
A ten-fold increase in luck!
This is sort of an update on this post of a couple of days ago. No matter how bad your day is, if you get the news we got today, it will always get better. As I wrote a few days back, our campervan died, and needed some repairs with a hefty price tag. Now,Continue reading “A ten-fold increase in luck!”
The good side of breakdown?
For weeks I have been on a zero movement regime in my life. This wonderful regime included taking the bare minimum steps needed on workdays, and if possible, also on other days. I strived for less than 2000 and succeeded on most days where I home officed and would not need to leave the house.Continue reading “The good side of breakdown?”
Robin Heinen 