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Update 09/12
Dec. 9th, 2022 12:19 pmI swear there were more weeks between now and Christmas last time I looked... What is it about this set of holidays which makes time feel so compressed all of a sudden? Perhaps it's just having a concrete marker to bookend a period of time - whereas when three weeks rushes by in July, I just keep going into August without much to show it. Next weekend will contain three Christmas parties, and the Wednesday after that will be my last day of work until 2023!
December feels like it's flying by more than usual this year, because I'm in the application process for a new job for the first time in eight years, which is that weird mix of exciting and terrifying that always comes with major change. I sort of wish I could apply but have it all go at a quarter of the pace, because omg if I get it I will be in the new role by February?! and giving notice before Christmas?! Changing jobs will also probably mean giving up my work-free Fridays where I sit in the pub and write novel and Dreamwidth posts, which I'm not quite reconciled to yet - so there's some hard decision-making to do if I do get the offer. But at the moment I'm thinking, even if I can't have a 4-day week deal at this place, I could stick that out for a couple of years and then revisit the question / move jobs again with that as a dealbreaker criteria. More and more companies are coming around to this concept all the time. It also sort of sucks to think of leaving all the lovely people at my current job - but I can't really base career decisions on that - it just, you know, sucks.
This week, the weather has really caught up to the fact that it's meant to be winter now. I have a weekly breakfast outside at a local café with friends who live nearby (instituted April 2021, when we were allowed to see people again!), and this morning we were eating in 1°C, brrrrrr! I broke out my snowboots, so my feet are nice and toasty, and I'm trusting to layers of clothing to stop me shivering all my energy away in the pub this afternoon. We turned the heating on at home, which has flipped the flat back into sauna mode (it has two options: freezing or baking, regardless of how we fiddle with the controls), so at least I stay warm when I'm working from home.
Writing
I'll be honest, I'm feeling stuck in my current project again. D'oh! This is almost definitely a side effect of not making time for writing for so many weeks - I keep cycling back to this place every fortnight. But last Friday I drafted a bit of the "meet-cute" (it's not meant to be a romance but that's the best term) for my main characters, and this week I'm going to just write a whole bunch of words about whatever and call that a win. I'd say December is always a bad month for writing... but I could say that about so many months.
Sometimes when I write these updates, I realise how many times I just post "oh I haven't done anything" "oh I'm stuck again", and I'm like... Cadi, are you really prioritising this writing thing like you ought to be? But then I think, hey, what's "ought"? I write sometimes, and I have fun when I do, and that's sort of all it needs, right? As much as I desperately want to bring this story to a finish eventually, it's no good if I make it into a stick to beat myself with. Especially in December, a month notorious for containing no free time.
Drawing
I had the final session of my drawing class! We'd been doing a two-session sustained pose, so for this second half of that exercise, I decided I wanted to come out of it with something like a "final piece", and I also wanted to try out different kinds of mark making rather than just focusing on trying to replicate what I was looking at. I ended up with a still life of the model's lower leg and a basket of flowers; I'm really pleased with the effect of the mark making techniques I tried on the basket and the fabric on the floor; the leg itself is fine, and the fabric on the model's chair is also fine - I didn't have as much time left for those as I could have used. But, I finished a piece, and I'm happy with that! even if I am just going to throw it in the bin probably. I'm pretty sad that I don't have any more sessions with this teacher (and, to an extent, this group) - it's been a fun way to spend Monday evenings!
Film
It's December, so I'm watching Christmas films! As I mentioned last week, I don't have a huge amount of nostalgia factor built into the genre (except for the 1964 Rudolph film, which we taped off the TV onto VHS, and perhaps The Snowman and some Wallace & Gromit), but I've decided I want to cram in my favourites (and a few new ones*) this year, and put my membership at the repertory cinema to good use. So far, I've watched It's a Wonderful Life* (1946), Christmas in Connecticut* (1945) and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964); on the cards for the rest of the month I am planning to catch Die Hard (1988), Gremlins* (1984), Scrooged* (1988) and perhaps Home Alone (1990) in the cinema, and I reckon I can find space for The Muppets Christmas Carol (1992) and Arthur Christmas (2011) at home before I go away to family for the holiday.
(It amuses me to realise that this lineup almost reflects the release-year distribution of my "acceptable" Christmas songs list, too: mostly the 80s/early 90s, with a couple of 40s things thrown in, and one from the current century. We're just missing the 70s - what's the movie equivalent of Slade and Wizzard?)
Archery
I've had my first session as a member, rather than a beginner-in-a-class! It was very strange to have so much time shooting (with all the slowest archers no longer present, as they haven't carried it on, and no time out for bits of explanation), but also to have so little guidance/reminder-ing about how to do it properly. I think I was starting to get a good grouping in the middle of the session (lost it again when I got tired towards the end). I need to buy my own equipment soon - perhaps at the start of the new year - and that's a whole awesome, scary world!
December feels like it's flying by more than usual this year, because I'm in the application process for a new job for the first time in eight years, which is that weird mix of exciting and terrifying that always comes with major change. I sort of wish I could apply but have it all go at a quarter of the pace, because omg if I get it I will be in the new role by February?! and giving notice before Christmas?! Changing jobs will also probably mean giving up my work-free Fridays where I sit in the pub and write novel and Dreamwidth posts, which I'm not quite reconciled to yet - so there's some hard decision-making to do if I do get the offer. But at the moment I'm thinking, even if I can't have a 4-day week deal at this place, I could stick that out for a couple of years and then revisit the question / move jobs again with that as a dealbreaker criteria. More and more companies are coming around to this concept all the time. It also sort of sucks to think of leaving all the lovely people at my current job - but I can't really base career decisions on that - it just, you know, sucks.
This week, the weather has really caught up to the fact that it's meant to be winter now. I have a weekly breakfast outside at a local café with friends who live nearby (instituted April 2021, when we were allowed to see people again!), and this morning we were eating in 1°C, brrrrrr! I broke out my snowboots, so my feet are nice and toasty, and I'm trusting to layers of clothing to stop me shivering all my energy away in the pub this afternoon. We turned the heating on at home, which has flipped the flat back into sauna mode (it has two options: freezing or baking, regardless of how we fiddle with the controls), so at least I stay warm when I'm working from home.
Writing
I'll be honest, I'm feeling stuck in my current project again. D'oh! This is almost definitely a side effect of not making time for writing for so many weeks - I keep cycling back to this place every fortnight. But last Friday I drafted a bit of the "meet-cute" (it's not meant to be a romance but that's the best term) for my main characters, and this week I'm going to just write a whole bunch of words about whatever and call that a win. I'd say December is always a bad month for writing... but I could say that about so many months.
Sometimes when I write these updates, I realise how many times I just post "oh I haven't done anything" "oh I'm stuck again", and I'm like... Cadi, are you really prioritising this writing thing like you ought to be? But then I think, hey, what's "ought"? I write sometimes, and I have fun when I do, and that's sort of all it needs, right? As much as I desperately want to bring this story to a finish eventually, it's no good if I make it into a stick to beat myself with. Especially in December, a month notorious for containing no free time.
Drawing
I had the final session of my drawing class! We'd been doing a two-session sustained pose, so for this second half of that exercise, I decided I wanted to come out of it with something like a "final piece", and I also wanted to try out different kinds of mark making rather than just focusing on trying to replicate what I was looking at. I ended up with a still life of the model's lower leg and a basket of flowers; I'm really pleased with the effect of the mark making techniques I tried on the basket and the fabric on the floor; the leg itself is fine, and the fabric on the model's chair is also fine - I didn't have as much time left for those as I could have used. But, I finished a piece, and I'm happy with that! even if I am just going to throw it in the bin probably. I'm pretty sad that I don't have any more sessions with this teacher (and, to an extent, this group) - it's been a fun way to spend Monday evenings!
Film
It's December, so I'm watching Christmas films! As I mentioned last week, I don't have a huge amount of nostalgia factor built into the genre (except for the 1964 Rudolph film, which we taped off the TV onto VHS, and perhaps The Snowman and some Wallace & Gromit), but I've decided I want to cram in my favourites (and a few new ones*) this year, and put my membership at the repertory cinema to good use. So far, I've watched It's a Wonderful Life* (1946), Christmas in Connecticut* (1945) and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964); on the cards for the rest of the month I am planning to catch Die Hard (1988), Gremlins* (1984), Scrooged* (1988) and perhaps Home Alone (1990) in the cinema, and I reckon I can find space for The Muppets Christmas Carol (1992) and Arthur Christmas (2011) at home before I go away to family for the holiday.
(It amuses me to realise that this lineup almost reflects the release-year distribution of my "acceptable" Christmas songs list, too: mostly the 80s/early 90s, with a couple of 40s things thrown in, and one from the current century. We're just missing the 70s - what's the movie equivalent of Slade and Wizzard?)
Archery
I've had my first session as a member, rather than a beginner-in-a-class! It was very strange to have so much time shooting (with all the slowest archers no longer present, as they haven't carried it on, and no time out for bits of explanation), but also to have so little guidance/reminder-ing about how to do it properly. I think I was starting to get a good grouping in the middle of the session (lost it again when I got tired towards the end). I need to buy my own equipment soon - perhaps at the start of the new year - and that's a whole awesome, scary world!
