COVID sucks. it's day 11 since symptoms showed up, and i'm feeling at maybe 70% of my usual self. grateful that there hasn't been any brain fog or more serious complications! the 2 most worrying symptoms at present are lethargy and doubts about my own senses. i have most of my smell and taste back, but the thing is, i don't know if they're the same as they were before COVID. so i'm often questioning if i'm smelling things with the same intensity as before. not only that, i'm also uncertain if things smell the same to me now. it's a little disturbing to think that my scent memory might be so easily affected! on the plus side, at least i'm not heavily reliant on those senses for work.

the lethargy thing manifested itself as me constantly sleeping past my alarm. like, i can stay in bed until 2pm before rolling out of it for lunch. granted, that could be because of the cold weather too, but i find myself sleeping more hours a day on average. i also decided to call in sick yesterday, and from a brief conversation with my supervisor, it seems like i'll have to use my annual leave instead of the absence being recorded as sick leave. normally i'd fight for my right to use sick leave when actually sick, but i have the fortunate problem of having too much annual leave, so i guess i'll let this one go. as it is, i'm already finding it difficult to slot all the leave days into my remaining time here.

one IP firm who'd rejected me replied to my request asking for feedback about why exactly i was rejected. it took a while, but i'm grateful that they at least bothered to respond. their response wasn't really helpful though, as they didn't give a specific area which i could work on. to make things worse, one sentence said "there is nothing in your application that makes us believe that you wouldn't be a good fit for IP" (paraphrased). and my first reaction was "THEN WHY AREN'T YOU ADVANCING MY APPLICATION!!??" it makes no sense! it reminds me of a scene in like a movie or TV show, where the oblivious female lead tells the male best friend who is very obviously one-sidedly in love with her, "i wish i could date a guy like you", and the guy says/thinks, "but i'm a guy like me!" if i had to guess the reason for rejection based on their reply, i'd say it's because of the visa situation. well, i'll thank them for their reply, and casually drop in the fact that my UK visa got approved. maybe, hopefully, that might open a door.

my next workday is next tuesday, which is also the first day of school. i think i should be fully recovered by then. since i haven't been back to the office, i haven't heard about whether the new changes to the schedule have been agreed to by the schools. guess i should go in a little earlier just in case. for now, the plan is to rest up this weekend and try to see if my lung capacity has been negatively affected.

-random thought of the day: Appetite still isn't fully back.-