Here goes my first weeknote:))

• Been working on a project with my team for the last one & a half months. Finally, had the much-needed meeting with the CEO on the direction. It went fine, I might say, as majority of the changes got aligned. But on the approach towards AI, we didn’t have an alignment. So, back to drawing board on that.
• Got alignment on converting one of my reportees on contract to fulltime & conveyed the news to her. She has been waiting for it for quite a while & was super happy about it. Felt good seeing her excitement:)
• I have been feeling tired & low on mood for quite sometime now even after adequate sleep & proper food. Decided to get my bloodwork & fullbody checkup done. I knew it’s a good habit to do it yearly but I finally got around to doing it. To be honest, I was a little nervous coz I feared diabetes since I’ve a history of it in my home. But was glad to find the glucose levels normal. Phew!! As it turns out, I have superlow Vitamin B12 & D. Googled the symptoms & the internet gave back all the issues I’ve been feeling for a while - from tiredness, to low mood, to the tingling sensation in my fingertips & toes at times.
• As with many firsts, popped up vitamin suppliments for the first time and I, for no reason, imagined it would make me feel better instantly..like a cold breeze hitting my face and the fog lifts. But no, nothing of that sort happened. I’ll report back next month.
• Gym has been consistent and I feel happier with the weights I’m lifting. I remember struggling with 10kg inclined dumbbell press 2months back, to now that being my starting spot. Our body’s amazing at adapting & I’m glad the routine is helping. Now, the struggle is with 16kg.
• Three friends came over to Indiranagar Wed 10pm coz they wanted to have the parathas at this newly opened cafe, Khao Aur Khaane Do. It’s barely 600mtrs from my house but I was yet to check it out. I had gone there once with a friend but we shifted to another cafe coz there was no seating available & it was super crowded. Thanks to these folks, I finally had my chance with the tasting and boy oh boy, I loved it. I’ve been craving cold badam milk for a while now & they had it. Needless to say, it made my heart happy. Last I had it was during college days 10years back, so the added layer of nostalgia made it even better.
• I also got to try the malai toast for the first time & it was yumm. Got to know from two of my Punjabi colleagues it’s a typical breakfast when you’re running out of time. Take a slice of toasted bread, lather it up with butter, add malai over it, sprinkle some sugar, caramelise it a bit with a hot spoon if you’re feeling a bit of fancyness, and sandwich with another slice of toasted bread. Delicious!!!
• I have been meaning to setup my website & blog for a while now but something or the other pushed it out of priority, majorly procastination. Last week I spent some dedicated effort & that got me fired up.
• Spent this weekend tinkering with the footer & trying to make it feel more expressive. Explored different ideas and happy with the parallax approach.
• Met a friend over brunch at Lavonne. It has almost become a ritual for me to go to Lavonne atleast once a month and order the scrambled eggs with a side of mushroom. To be fair, they’re super consistent with their food & that helps.
• After brunch, we wanted to try a new place for coffee & landed on Project Possible by Beans of Bodhi. The vibes of the place was neo-brutalist and the designer in me loved it. We ordered the Mont Blanc and the Tiramisu Latte. The Mont Blanc was creamy, subtly tangy and not sweet, the way I like it. The Tiramisu latte was on the sweeter side, but as the name suggests, you shouldn’t expect otherwise. I’ll go again to try their pourovers.
• Was craving Picante but most of my friends had already made plans for the weekend. Ended up ordering in some ghee rice, dal, raita, papad from Empire and prawn fry from Meghana as a comfort meal.
• Got some much needed fertilizers for my planter babies and I hope they’re happy. I have delayed it for almost 2months now. Proud that they’ve survived well but I should be doing better here.
• Called up a friend and we ended up chatting about relationships, the kind of people we’d want to date, the life we’d ideally want, the dreams we’d in college and how it has changed over time. We discussed the idea of multi-directional vs uni-directional goals with hobbies and how both lead to pretty different lifestyles. I certainly like the idea of having a routine with a fixed study space but I also have this internal need to try a lot of things beyond my work. But for any given period of time, I would identify with unidirectional goals since that gives me time to focus on one thing and go a little deeper into it. I have tried doing multiple things at the same pace & have always fallen short of my expectations. So, picking a unidrectional goal with some hobbies for variety works better for me.
• Got to know about this company Serendipity Space successfully testing pharma manufacturing in nearspace conditions. It was a good feeling to see something like this happening in Bhubaneswar, the city I grew up in. Deep dived a bit into it to understand why it matters. The idea is to grow better drug crystals which require zero gravity conditions. This cannot be done in zero gravity simulations on Earth because true, continuous weightlessness does not exist here. Earth based zero-G methods only last a few seconds, which is too short to grow pure medicine crystals. Now, this has previously been done in International Space Station but under human supervision and not autonomously.
• I’ve been thinking of travelling to Japan in Oct-Nov. So that needs to be planned & passport needs to be renewed!! Will get the process started this coming week. My Instagram reels have started recommending me places!! Can’t wait.