Catch up weekend

It was a weekend of catching up.

My colleague and friend from Sweden is in Australia for work. He is spending the weekend here in Melbourne so we caught up for lunch. I first met him at a conference in France in 2006. He was about to complete his PhD and was giving a talk about his work. At the end of the presentation, he put up a slide saying he was looking for postdoctoral work. It was a bold move. I offered him a job right after.

My colleague spent several years in Australia. When we first started working together, we both had to get used to the dynamics (he had to learn to be my postdoc and I had to learn to be a boss) but we ended up working very well together and have remained friends. He now has his own Faculty position back in Sweden and his fiance is expecting a baby on New Year's Eve. Things are going well for him.

The last few years hadn't always been rosy for him. He met an Aussie girl when he was here and he was very much in love. She learned Swedish and the plan was for her to move back to Sweden with him. She eventually followed him there – but called off the relationship. He was devastated and it took a while for him to recover. Life can certainly be a roller coaster ride. He is happy now and that's what matters. It makes me happy. He is a good guy.

Apart from catching up with my friend/colleague, I've also been catching up on work. I don't normally take work home but it's exam time and I had a pile of papers to mark. Work has been crazy and there is a backlog. I'm having some issues with one of my current colleagues, which has consumed quite a bit of my time (and led to a couple of sleepless nights midweek). I think it's a power thing. She wants to assert it but is doing so in a way that is entirely inappropriate. She is also doing it in a way that is bordering on being unethical. It is disappointing. I have called a meeting to talk it out with her and have asked for another colleague to be present. I hope we can work towards a resolution. I want to resolve things.