Tag: Spring

Brand new

(I had no idea until today that this video was directed by John Cameron Mitchell – who wrote, directed and starred in one of my all time favourite films – Hedwig and the Angry Inch, as well as the fantastic film – Shortbus)

Anyway, hello…
I haven’t written here in ages. I let January and February zip past without even stopping to write down a single goal for the year. I guess this was for a few reasons. A) I found January (and some of February) a bit of a slog in terms of physical and mental health and it was as much as I could do to get up and function in a minimal way, let alone think much about how to thrive B) I was still very much trying to get to grips with my new(ish) job & I think this will continue for a while.

I miss writing though. No-one really reads this blog, but I like the idea of someone stumbling across it one day & relating to something they have read.

So aside from work, what have I been up to?

I took part in my first sportive a few weeks ago which was 28 miles. My official time was 04:37:23 which I am pleased with considering I’d never cycled anywhere near that far in one day (& pretty much in one go) beforehand. I also had a mishap with my chain coming off around 2 miles in and I managed to get the chain back on but I then cycled about 10 miles on the wrong gear set and made things much harder for myself in terms of the energy I was having to expend to go anywhere.

Other things I am up to include obsessing over Schitt’s Creek (particularly David & Patrick), attending my first urban sketching event in Coventry, knitting some socks, reading & slowly getting back into doing some writing for what I hope will become a new zine.

I’ve also been trying to ease myself back into cooking more from scratch (rather than just eating stuff out of the freezer that I shove in the oven). I brought the Green Roasting Tin cookbook by Rukmini Iyer after seeing many people recommend it on twitter. So far I’ve only made the orzo and tomato pasta but I really like it. I brought sweet potato and a butternut squash yesterday so I can hopefully try something else this week.

Right, I think that’s it for now before I forget to post this.

2017 goals – 3 months in

I thought it would be helpful for my own reflection and accountability for me to look at how I am doing with the yearly goals I’ve set myself at the end of each 3 month period.

The house hunt continues. Not at a particularly fast pace because there isn’t much on the market that suits what we are looking for and when we *do* find one – I don’t seem to have much luck at getting estate agents to return my calls. We’ve already lost out on two houses that we loved so far which has quite frustrating and hard but on the flip side, I am getting to learn a bit more about the process and how it all works.

I’ve started having drum lessons. I had a hour long introductory lesson and then have been following up it up with weekly half hour lessons as well as practicing basic rhythms at home by hitting cushions and other soft furnishings. As part of the lessons, I’ve been learning about drum notation and type of beats. I’m just really enjoying the whole experience and it has been fun to see the little improvements I am making each week.

I’ve booked myself onto a 1 day lino printing course at my local art gallery for June. It’s run by local artist Adie Blundell – whose work I have seen before (and been blown away by). I’m really looking forward to this as it falls in a busy time at work for me so it will be nice to take some time out to do this.

I’m now at level 5 on Wanikani. In fact I’ve only just started level 5 – level 4 took me quite a long time and at times I didn’t really push myself with it. I did find it useful to read about how Koichi – the founder of Wanikani studies himself. Him saying that even a small bit of study each day is more useful than cramming every now and then so that’s what I’m aiming for.

Book-wise I’ve ready 25 books so far and my goal for the year is 75 so I’m 1/3 of the way through. So far the ones I have enjoyed most this year are –

Flawed – Cecelia Ahern
One of us is lying – Karen M McManus
The Year of living Danishly – Helen Russell
Beautiful Music for Ugly – Kristin Cronn-Mills

Travel-wise I don’t have anything much booked although my Mum is coming to visit over the Easter weekend and we have plans to go visit some alpacas which I’m excited about.

In terms of everything else…I’m doing bits where I can but also trying to accept my own limitations and need for down time in which to relax from work.