My feet are warm but seems like there’s a chance of catching fire.

My feet are warm but seems like there’s a chance of catching fire.

Chinese train stations are, to this British person, a combination of train station and airport. I need my passport as id and instead of a ticket, the platform opens a short time before the train leaves and there are multiple platforms. Obviously because it’s China (人山人海）the station is cavernous and constantly busy. A completely different experience.

I could read the Slow Horses books forever. Some of the lines hit a sweet spot for me that either read it again or have to stop to take a moment and enjoy it. Currently reading the 4th book Spook Street. 📖

Enjoyed this one. Pull ups still not great though.

Enjoying the The Rest is Entertainment podcast - that I watch on Youtube with Marina Hyde and Richard Osman. Always been a fan of her writing so I very much enjoy this.

Haiku #1

Not ordinary
But extraordinary
What are we doing?

inspired by

A busy day at school. Lots of things popping that involved lots of talking to colleagues. I could go home and do more work after working from 7:30-5:00 and it would certainly make tomorrow a little easier. But I need to stop and take a mental break.

Recharge, 2023-2024 – Dries Depoorter

Installation featuring a chair where you can relax and charge your phone. However, your phone will only charge when your eyes are closed.

Via Kottke

That’s a question isn’t it!

I made a list of the things I could do instead of using my phone.

Read, write, draw, meditate, go for a walk, watch tv (without my phone), learn.

The list was endless but didn’t work for me at all. I was looking at it wrong, I think.
After reading about sofa I’ve been much better. I’m doing things because I want to. I’m better at sitting and scribbling the first thing that comes into my head in the Muji fold flat notebook I bought, I’ve been spending some time learning Korean using Duolingo and through talking to the Korean students in my class, I signed up for omg.lol and have been enjoing being horrible at trying to do some to personalise my blog.
Now, I’m doing things because I want to and that’s all. If I do it for a 100 days, that’s cool and if I don’t, that’s ok too. I like this new way of thinking about it.

And screams at the end.

Todays workout was fun. Cardio felt good, maybe one day I’ll push a bit harder. Happy with the pace.

Got Nintendo’s Expansion Pack today so can now play the extra Mario Kart maps but also, a load of N64 and Sega Genesis cough Megadrive games like Revenge of Shinobi.

The kids staring, individually, a screen is bad but the three of us, collectively, staring at a screen and laughing is a whole other thing, I think. It feels different anyway. I am knackered after the weekend. Tomorrow I can go be a teacher and rest a while…

Didn’t buy them but am tempted next time we’re in MUJI.

Just blue shells on Mario was Yumo was a whole lot of fun. It’s like that bike race in a velodrome where everyone goes as slowly as possible but then goes for it on the last lap.

At IKEA to buy a full set of bolts and screws for the landlord’s bed that we lost after we took it apart. Very grateful the landlord went to IKEA!

This was felt good. Was nice to keep moving. Set a pace that I was happy with for the bike. Surprised how good the squats felt.

Had a whiskey and burgers, played Mario Wonder with Yumo - he is really good, played Mario Kart with Elise and Yumo, signed up for a webinar on Enhancing Classroom Talk to support multilingual learners, about to watch Echo with Lyra. All going on!

Searching for Taylor Swift’s Love Story, likely because of The Bear, I found Indila’s Love Story and from there her album Mini World, which I’m very much liking. Finally, some new tracks to add to my 2024 playlist.

Friday, the day I realise I need to stop rushing through the week.

Why am I telling you all this?
Because I have decided that my hand on this man’s back is the beginning of something. I am going to start writing more publicly about my journey with my dad.
I haven’t done so for a long time out of respect for his privacy, and I will continue to care for what I believe he would and wouldn’t want put out in public, and will continue to be in dialogue with my mom and my brother about that. But for the last few months I have been sitting with a question: Is my silence publicly about my dad’s illness, and my experience of it, protecting him or contributing to the silence, shame, and stigma that surrounds this wildly common disease?
I’ve been slowly coming around to thinking my silence is no longer serving me, or the potentiality that putting words to my father’s loss of words, could be healing for others—all the daughters and sons and wives and husbands, the friends and neighbors, who love someone whose brain is fading, whose very essence is shifting, who requires new kinds of communication and care. The experience of my dad’s dementia, for me, has been one of profound loss, and also, it has been the most important experience—right next to birthing and growing my children—of exploring the human condition.

The gift of the fallen stranger - by Courtney Martin

My old biology teacher once said that revising was like spinning plates, you have to go back to it occasionally to keep it spinning. As it is with remembering stuff. It’s always stuck in my head.

I was thinking about it today. I feel that, as an primary teacher there’s a lot to be doing, that is, a whole lot of plates to keep spinning.

Except… I realised that it’s not the same, since each of the things is so different. If they were all plates, then they just need a push in the right direction to keep them spinning.

Except, they aren’t all plates.

I’m spinning plates - and to go with a circus theme - juggling, lion taming, keeping the audience happy, working on a new routine and am jumping between these tasks constantly. And if any of the things I’ve read about multi-tasking are true, it’s not great for getting things done well!

Today I am grateful for living so close to the airport I could take Mum and Dad to their flight this morning and still make it to work on time.

Tomorrow, I will be grateful for going to bed at 9pm - in 15minutes…