Week 5
Visa Appointment
I finally made the Visa appointment where I get to submit the documents and do Biometrics capture. Given that I’ve only had to go for two Visa appointments before now and both with a few bad experiences, I didn’t expect this one differently. But I was wrong, the officials were welcoming, open to questions and helpful. I wish my past experiences were something similar and I would probably not feel the reluctance to go for the appointment in the first place.
While on my way to the Visa centre, I met a guy who was also heading there. He mentioned he was there some weeks back and that he needed to get a Visa too. He asked if I had photocopies of my travel document that will be requested. My gut feeling was that, if it is needed, why didn’t they include it in the list of things to bring along? Since this was my first time doing this, I thought maybe it isn’t bad to listen to some advice just when I was a few meters away from the Visa centre.
We finally got the photocopies done and when we got there, it turned out that I didn’t need them after all. I’m not sure if following this kind of advice in the future is a good idea but I’m happy everything went well.
Side Project Fatigue
I’ve been thinking of starting one of the projects I paused but no motivation or strength. I do think I will feel bad if I never work on it. This is an idea I’ve only seen implemented in a way but the solution got outdated quickly and unmaintained. The thought is to remake it with better and more modern features I think will be cool. I’ve had this idea since 2019 and it annoys me I haven’t done so much about it to make it tangible. I’ve been very preoccupied with some aspects of PHPSandbox that need some focus and I think working on something else now might be a major distraction from it. I’ve also been exploring the possibility of working on it in parallel and with lesser priority.
On the other hand, I feel I don’t have the motivation or the strength to pull out an MVP. I’m exploring some ways I could break down the things I need to do and hopefully make this less difficult to start. I really hope to see this done someday.
First paying customer
PHPSandbox finally got its first paying customer and instead of feeling excited, I feel more worried. This has been because I’ve had to think a lot about the survival of PHPSandbox in the last few weeks due to the current circumstances around the running costs. The customer even paid for a full-year subscription! Aside from my worries that this is probably a fluke and the user will probably ask for a refund, it feels good to see someone willing to pay for what you’ve made. For me, this means many more people could still pay for it.
Housing Mail Scare
Around mid-day on Friday, I got an email from the person who is meant to be my new Landlord that they might be rescinding the offer extended to me concerning our new apartment if I don’t respond to the already received contract. I was shocked to see this since the contract being referenced in the email has been signed and sent over the post to the Landlord’s office over 2 weeks ago. I thought, since we won’t be able to move in until the middle of February, getting feedback on the reception wasn’t a big deal until about 2 weeks to move in. If we don’t have feedback before then, the plan was to reach out.
When I saw this email, so many things were flashing through my head at once. Specifically, the thought of losing this apartment, given that we really liked it, wasn’t a thing that is pleasing. Aside from that, it’s already too late to start looking for an apartment in Berlin and we might not get lucky the next time. I immediately reached out to our housing consultant about this, who turned out to also know the Landlord. Obviously, this was probably an issue from the post office or something else I don’t even have an idea of. Maybe we didn’t send it properly? This is our first time sending something by post.
Our consultant got back that everything is fine given his conversation with the Landlord and I will need to send another signed contract to them. I immediately offered I would take it there myself the same day before the closing of business to avoid any delays again. I eventually dropped it at the office of the Landlord and was relieved of the pressure of seeing something I like to slip off my grasp after numerous imaginations of how it’ll feel like living there.
I’m glad the Landlord reached out even before any action is taken. It would have been so different if this wasn’t the case.