Ville Vartiainen | UX Designer

Lockdown week 10

Same same but different. I cannot quite believe that the country has been on lockdown, at home as much as possible, for a full 9 weeks. Incredible.

Week 7 – Wednesday

This week feels hard. Going for runs and doing body weight exercises keeps me sane. At the weekend I weeded and cleaned the back patio: arduous work that feels good because you don’t think too much.

Week 6 – Monday

Mondays are always a little hard to get into, but wow I’m feeling it today. Sluggish, tired, a little fed up. I realise that this is only natural.

It’s suddenly nearing the end of the second week of the Easter ’break’, we had a gorgeous sunny Easter weekend with temperatures peaking at 24 degrees in the afternoon. Took trips to the local woods with the kids to play on hidden swings by streams, played some frisbee, hung out in the garden just reading and relaxing.

Week 4 Monday

Slightly gloomy drizzly start to the day, but it then brightened by the afternoon. The kids are on holiday for 2 weeks, so we’re alternating days off.

The usual morning standup was less plucky today, you could see on colleagues faces how fed up they were getting. Last two weeks of working on our project with The National Archives.

UX Designer wanted

Was reading this article about UX Designers in Grafia (a Finnish Graphic Design magazine), and I had to laugh at this because so far in my experience it rings really true. The definition and reality of what your role as a UX Designer can vary a great deal.

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It was my birthday today.

We have spent the past 3 weekends celebrating birthdays with our neighbours, two from our side and one from theirs. During the week we agree a time for meeting up in our back gardens for a glass of Champagne. Usually a Saturday, 5 or 6 O’clock. We pop the cork, and chat over the fence but keep a safe distance. It’s somehow a wonderful new ritual, but awful how fast this has become a reality.

Weekend 2

Spent Friday morning cleaning the house (I work a 4 day week currently). Then in the afternoon I cleared the garage out a little bit, expecting that we must make use of all of our spaces around our property as much as possible in the weeks to come. Ordered a huge Indian take away in the evening.

At least it’s sunny

This week we’ve been blessed with gorgeous sunny skies, as Spring begins to blossom and things start to grow, transforming the immediate landscape around our home. It’s harder to feel gloomy when it’s like this.

1st Monday with home schooling

So it begins.

Yesterday I was folding up the laundry, and there was quite a few of the kids’ school clothes in the mix – jumpers, cardigans, grey trousers…as I was folding I realised that this set might well now not be worn again by the kids. Somehow a little sad.