August Bank Holiday

I played for a lovely wedding on Friday at Rotherham Golf Club.  It was good to have a busy day as August has been quiet on the work front.  Not great for my wallet, but I've felt the seasonal warmth of a manageably sociable phase and absorbed some cultural and natural delights.  I didn't feel very happy with how I sounded on Friday though.  Everything felt a bit rusty and I wasn't playing on all cylinders by my standards despite a decent amount of practice.  The first thing I noticed was my sound.  It's amazing how quickly those calluses go.  I felt a bit low that evening and decided to recalibrate this weekend starting by putting pen to paper to draw up a schedule for myself and a list of repertoire to be learnt in the coming weeks and months.  That immediately helped me feel calmer.

Then I started the seemingly mammoth task of decluttering my practice room and sorting out several piles of sheet music.  It took some time and I didn't do it all in one go as practice was my priority, but now I have one large empty drawer and all my solo, chamber, wedding and teaching music is in order again.  Just the orchestral pile to tackle when I find a spare hour.

I can't believe the effect this had on my work - I'm more focused than I have been for ages and more able to make sense of the huge jumble of notes I must decipher in quite a short time.  August has flown.  I have some interesting and exciting challenges coming up, and it's likely I will be letting this blog slip temporarily as I meet some deadlines.

The change in weather has got me thinking about how long I can maintain my attic office - it gets pretty chilly up there, so I've already checked my spare room which I used as an office before I started doing absolutely everything in my kitchen about five years ago.  It's nice in there and it has a good view and is cosy in more ways than one, so I'm going to have to keep a handle on any accumulation of clutter.  It feels so much healthier to use different rooms for their actual purpose.  Here I am, typing in the kitchen.  Up I go. 

At 9.45 on Bank Holiday Monday morning I plunged feet first into the pool.  Classes are very popular and if you don't get in quick, they get booked up.  I got a last minute space just after midnight on Sunday night.  I had a lot of energy and worked hard and I felt vitalised afterwards.  There's something about starting my week with physical activity that feels very exciting.  That's going to be a keeper in the coming months as the nights draw in and the urge to leave the cosy comfort of home dwindles with the dying daylight.  The physical warmth I felt after my exertion lasted a long time too.  I chatted with a lady as we were waiting to jump in and couldn't believe it when she told me her age.  She looked fifteen years younger.  She'd make a great focal point for an advertising campaign.  If that's what Aquafit and Yoga do for you, I'm in.

I'm not ashamed to admit I'm back on the hard stuff since the middle of last week.  I'm talking about coffee, obviously.  I lasted ten virtuous sleepy detox days.  Then I got fed up with feeling low and lethargic.  I had a cup of full strength fully caffeinated amber nectar and bounced around with joyous energy, my speech twice as fast and brain on full throttle.  I had another cup later that day and felt the same bubbly buoyant boost.  It didn't affect my sleep and neither did I feel any anxiety, so that's me for the time being - two daily cups.  I've also started monitoring my water intake which was ridiculously low, and have already felt the accompanying benefits of better focus and concentration, not to mention well hydrated skin.  One of my greatest concerns was not being able to go to the loo.  SOZ, TMI, LOL.   It feels hard when you've got a full day teaching or rehearsing to put your hand up and ask to go to the little girl's room, never mind driving.  I don't want to be stopping every twenty minutes to go to the bathroom.  I'd never get to my destination.

My diet is generally very balanced apart from a couple of moments' weakness around sugar.  Was it last week I had an almond milk chocolate bar?  What possessed me?  What made me buy that when I know the only thing that does the trick is 72% cocoa or above?  All I could taste was sugar and I just wanted more afterwards.  Very clever that.  It was a popular nut bar, the usual peanuts replaced with my favourite kernel and that piqued my curiosity.  I couldn't resist it.

Winter has a certain charm with its log fires and frosty snow scenes but I'm more a fan of Spring and Summer.  I know we're at the wrong end of the year when I see fresh figs in my fridge.  There they sit on the shelf, begging me to eighth them up after dinner or slice them into slivers for my breakfast bowl.  I love their pre-Autumnal fruitiness, their delicate seedy pop in my mouth and the divinely luscious purpleness of their plush flesh.  Breakfast has almost become my favourite mealtime.  It's quite an intricate refined affair by now with the addition of linseeds and poppy seeds which give an attractive dark blue tinge of colour, and a buckwheat based cereal with toasty coconut.  It's a big bowl of delicious goodness that gets my tastebuds going in the morning and keeps my energy levels on an even keel and my hunger at bay for up to six hours.  

I was just finishing off my practice this evening when I heard a loud banging at my back door followed by blood curdling caterwauling.  I dropped everything and dashed out.  I knew it was Llwyd.  

We were both shaken when I let her in.  There are two neighbourhood cats that pick on her, the arrogant black and white one two doors down and a new cat on the block, a big grey tabby.  They're both twice her size and considerably younger.  She used to be able to hold her own, chasing off big brutal contenders from her territory, but nowadays she needs a bit of support which I'm delighted to offer.  I liken her scuffles to my Mum having a to-do with someone in their twenties.  There's not much competition.  Life's not fair and sometimes the only option is to hiss, roar and get your claws out.