The ‘A4 blank sheet of paper
approach’ to the writing tasks that I still need to complete has been
effective. So far. The individual sheets forced me to break down
the tasks into their component parts and I have been able to produce notes towards
a draft that now look quite impressive. I keep telling myself that, "The most important thing about a draft is that it has to exist"!
I think that my inaction was a
function of having too much to do and therefore doing little or nothing because
I couldn’t decide where to start! This
is a common problem and is sometimes used to justify laziness rather than
anything else! Yes, there are some
problems in the completion of my work that are beyond my individual reach and I
am getting frustrated waiting for a response from particularly unresponsive
colleagues, but that is only one small part and should not really have caused
me to do anything other than write speculatively and wait for back dated permission!
I feel energized by the amount of
work that I have done in the last couple of days and the trick, as ever, if
continuing the momentum in producing drafts of the individual elements that
will be going into the next book. The
next book that I intend to publish has just “growed” (like Topsy) from its
initial conception to become something altogether more ambitious, though, as
there are photographs and illustrations, I am not sure about the economic
reality of its actual publication – perhaps it will end up as a more
substantial form of chapbook. Who knows!
But I am positive about the production
and I am raring to go as far as the last pieces of writing are concerned.
There is something exhilarating about
having three separate books ‘on the go’ and I am hoping that the overkill of
creativity will spur me on to completion!
-oOo-
Our last lesson in Catalan was
something of a waste of time. We all
arrived – some of us on time – and then just sat around wondering where the
teacher was. Eventually I went to the
office to enquire and discovered that our tutor was ill and that there might be
a cover teacher for us. Work had been
set, but no one was found for us so we dispersed to our homes – not before a
few of us had a chat and a cup of coffee (tea) to make the morning more
civilized!
But what I take from that ‘wasted’
morning was something that used to be so ordinary for me. When I found out what was going on, I marched
up to the teacher’s desk on my return from the office, put the books that I had
been carrying down on it and spoke to the class, informing them of what was
going on and what work they had to do.
And, as I was doing it, I realized that this was the first time that I
had been ‘in front of a class’ for a long, long time. Never mind the fact that this class was not
mine, and that I was delivering information in broken Spanish and English, it
was still a ‘class’ and, even in the short period of time that I was out the
front, a period of time that could be counted in seconds rather than minutes, I
felt the old teacher in me stir, and I could swear that my tone of voice changed
the pedagogue of old shook off retirement for a brief moment!
Not an experience, you
understand, to tempt me back to the reality of teaching. Just an interesting brush with the concept!
And now for the Catalan homework,
it behoves me to make the effort as I was the one who told the rest of the
class about it!
-oOo-
Before I go: I wonder how my
watch dealt with my swim this morning.
After my slow warm-up length and gentle warm-up exercises, I now set my
new watch to monitor my achievement and progress. For the last two days I have clicked on the ‘swimming
pool’ icon and later tried to make sense of the bewilderingly complete
information about my efforts.
Today
however, I made things a little more difficult because of my faulty
eyesight. With my contact lenses I can
see distance, but reading is more of a challenge. A challenge that is almost impossible when I
am trying to read a small moisture covered watch face.
I clicked on what I thought was
the right icon, and was passingly concerned at the lack of the 3-2-1 countdown
that usually appears (with vibrations) before I start, but thought nothing of it as the watch face
looked suitably complicated. It turned
out that I had pressed the wrong icon and the watch thought that I was actually
running rather than swimming.
I am assuming that action is
action and the watch will have registered something, but it will be interesting
to see just how the watch processes it!
I have now realized (with my
reading glasses on) that the ‘running’ and ‘swimming’ icons are actually
different colours and that is something that I will have to remember tomorrow
morning!
