I nearly didn't post this as I thought it's quite long, but what the heck, I don't have anything else to post at the moment! It's just a little journal.
Monday 1st Feb 2021
Finished my Countryside Recreation assignment after spending the last week on it, literally about five days worth of time. It's two days before the deadline, but I have another assignment due next week and a mock exam, so no rest.
Feeling a bit down and lonely this evening.
Tue 2nd
Woke up, did 10 minutes of qigong and 10 minutes of 'Yoga with Adriene' first thing, which was a nice and good way to start the day. Watched Sunday's 'Self Isolating Bird Club' over breakfast. Both lessons today ended up being cancelled so that was very nice. I switched my laptop on to do a final check of my assignment and submit it, so made a start on the Machinery task we'd been set in place of the lecture, and got most of it done while the laundry load I'd put on was going, but when that finished I switched off the laptop to have the afternoon off after a busy week. Went for a little walk round the woods after lunch. So many snowdrops!
Wednesday 3rd
A friend talking about learning to play the tongue drum has got me wanting to play the bodhran. Have wanted to for years. I looked up how-to videos on YouTube and found one by an Irish musician based in London who runs a 6-week online course, live via Zoom, for £55. Very tempted. I've loved the bodhran for years but any musical instrument is going to be tricky to learn, and noisy! The noise factor is off putting. And would I actually enjoy playing it on its own more than listening to it being played well?
I should make a list of things I'd like to do in my life, like learn to play the bodhran and learn Italian and learn to make certain foods/dishes.
Thurs 4th
Barely got anything done on my assignment today. But I guess something is better than nothing.
1:30am - just drifting off to sleep when my brain decides to conjure up thoughts of getting the vaccine and I'm suddenly awake and freaking out, like actually shaking. Feck off please brain!!! Why oh why can't they be taken orally, why does my phobia have to be needles. Gaaaah! Random thought of memorising a recipe or two, something that I can recite out loud in situations like that to concentrate on and maybe calm me down. Or the colours of Joseph's Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat.
Fri 5th
Usual Friday, full day of online lessons. Did some more practice exam questions, did well, not so great on the long-answer one but realised something I can do to maybe do better.
Saw a video on YouTube of a TikTok sea shanty collaboration. Loved it, very cool! I'd seen a sea shanty craze mentioned but nothing specific on my Facebook feed. I now know that's because it's a TikTok thing. I don't have TikTok, might have to download it just for the sea shanties haha.
Talked myself out of learning the bodhrán, at least for now. 1) I'm doing a full-time college course which I'm still unorganised about and not on top of. 2) I've also started learning to drive, and will resume when lessons are allowed to go ahead again. 3) I haven't even started studying driving theory yet, which I really should be. 4) I've wanted to learn instruments before and have given them up, or not really started learning them in the first place: flute, electronic keyboard, Irish tin whistle. (And actually that goes for more than just instruments.) While learning a rhythm instrument might be different to/possibly easier for some people than a melody instrument, I still have a feeling my success/longevity in trying to learn the bodhrán would likely be no different. 5) I still haven't learned to use the DSLR camera I got last year, so I should do that before doing something new. And there are other things I could do with my free time that I don't. 6) It's a drum, it'd be loud and noisy.
Watched "The Dig" on Netflix in the evening, very good film, and interesting. I don't really know anything about Sutton Hoo.
Saw a video on YouTube of a TikTok sea shanty collaboration. Loved it, very cool! I'd seen a sea shanty craze mentioned but nothing specific on my Facebook feed. I now know that's because it's a TikTok thing. I don't have TikTok, might have to download it just for the sea shanties haha.
Talked myself out of learning the bodhrán, at least for now. 1) I'm doing a full-time college course which I'm still unorganised about and not on top of. 2) I've also started learning to drive, and will resume when lessons are allowed to go ahead again. 3) I haven't even started studying driving theory yet, which I really should be. 4) I've wanted to learn instruments before and have given them up, or not really started learning them in the first place: flute, electronic keyboard, Irish tin whistle. (And actually that goes for more than just instruments.) While learning a rhythm instrument might be different to/possibly easier for some people than a melody instrument, I still have a feeling my success/longevity in trying to learn the bodhrán would likely be no different. 5) I still haven't learned to use the DSLR camera I got last year, so I should do that before doing something new. And there are other things I could do with my free time that I don't. 6) It's a drum, it'd be loud and noisy.
Watched "The Dig" on Netflix in the evening, very good film, and interesting. I don't really know anything about Sutton Hoo.
Sat 6th
Annoyingly unproductive day. But saw a kingfisher! On the walk back from Asda. Not closely, but still cool, not seen one before. Got myself a bunch of daffodils, yay. And ordered curry for dinner, I got dal makhani and only had half so can have the rest for lunch tomorrow, yum. Watched Ocean's Eight and Queer Eye :) Had that sea shanty from yesterday, "The Wellerman", in my head all day.
Sun 7th
I finished my previous assignment last Monday evening, so have had six days to work on the one due in at the end of next Friday, but have got nowhere. I don't know why, it's so frustrating. But I also have a mock exam on Wednesday so I need to spend the next two days revising for that, which leaves me only two more days to work on the assignment. Argh!
Mon 8th
A bit of fine powdery snow this morning. Bitterly cold. I put some bird seed out on the bird table, and some mealworms in one of the feeders. Haven't done so for ages because of the rats, but haven't seen them for a while now. But the new feeder Mum got for her birthday has had a massive hole chewed in it by the squirrels because that's the only place they could get food here, so sadly that's now destroyed. I took one of the other squirrel-proof feeders down to clean it. A red kite flew low overhead while I was out there! The robin got to the food on the bird table quickly. A magpie wanted to, once I was back inside, and jumped onto it but for some reason jumped straight back off, maybe the table roof bit was a bit low for it. A squirrel got there eventually and of course stayed there for ages. A poor little blue tit wanted to get to the food but couldn't.
Tue 9th
Still trying to snow today, fine flakes drifting about, weird dry, hard, grainy stuff I haven't seen before. Doesn't really stick together on the ground, and gets pushed along by the wind like little balls of polystyrene.
The mock exam tomorrow is now an open-book test! Yay, that makes it so much better. I can learn that way. Countryside Recreation session was interesting, not a proper session as the tutor didn't want to fry our brains just before the test; he mentioned a news article he'd seen this morning about lynx being reintroduced to Scotland and discussed that for a while - the positives and negatives socially, economically and ecologically. Said that they hope next year they'll be able to take us to the Knepp Estate! That would be amazing. He also mentioned the recent news about grey squirrel control through contraceptives, which is interesting.
The sun came out as the lesson finished so I went out for a walk round the woods. Sunshine didn't last long at all, but it was good to get out, even if it was freezing. Saw two red kites flying (and being chased by crows) together overhead!
Wed 10th
Test started two unsuccessful attempts and an hour later than planned due to technical issues, poor tutor. Out of 56, I'm only confident on 13 marks. Most of the questions I'll only get the odd mark for, I either didn't complete them or I'm not sure that I answered the question properly. The short 1/2/3 mark answers are fine, but most were "Explain..." ones. I can list facts, and understand things in my head, but I can't put things into words, and being able to do that is crucial to properly learning and understanding. It's half term next week so I'm now halfway through my first year on this course (!) but I'm still unorganised, still not on top of it. I'll spend some time in half term working on my notes, and make myself create a schedule/daily routine/timetable, and talk to the learning support team after the break.
The Confucius Institute at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David is looking for volunteers to take part in a study by practising Qigong three times a week for eight weeks, starting on the 20th. Very tempted. It's something I've been interested in trying and it would get me into the habit of a regular exercise.
Thu 11th
Cute kitty paw prints in the snow on the deck this morning! Plus bird ones, and later some I think were probably squirrel ones.
Didn't get very far with the assignment, so have a lot to do tomorrow to get it done by the end of the day.
Loved "Jay's Virtual Pub Quiz" tonight! One giant connections round. Five rounds of different topics as normal but all 49 answers were linked, and I got it on question 12: all mentioned in Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire". Love that song (although I don't know as much by heart without the music as I do when I'm singing along to it), it was a brilliant idea and I'm buzzing, haha. And of course the song is in my head now when I want to sleep. Got 36 overall out of 50.
Fri 12th
Started my day with dancing! Had to get up early (earlier than usual anyway) as the plumber was coming at 8am. Got up at 7 as everyone else left for work/supermarket and for whatever reason felt like starting my day with some music and dance. It was good :) I then spent the rest of it trying to finish my Heathlands assignment. I got something down for every part of it, but it's unfinished, undoubtedly the worst piece of work I've done so far.
Ooh there's a documentary on BBC 2 tonight on a new discovery about the Welsh origins of Stonehenge! Basically the bluestones were not just quarried from the Preseli Hills but were made into a stone circle there, before being dismantled, moved, and rebuilt on Salisbury Plain a few hundred years later. Will have to watch it! Update: Wow! Fascinating, SO cool, really exciting! A huge discovery that really adds to our understanding. Wow :D
Sat 13th
Sister's moving day! So had a legal trip down to Southampton. I took the opportunity to go for a walk along the beach and around the nature reserve, the route I did every day during last spring and summer and have been missing these last six months since moving. The new moon was a couple of days ago so high tide is around lunchtime at the moment, which worked out well, I went out after lunch. It's nicest when the tide is in. Was bitterly cold still and windy, especially on the beach, but I was well wrapped up in multiple layers and my warmest coat and ended up being out for three hours. Was so nice to be back there, and to get some sea air and watch/listen to the waves. The woods look so different in winter! A lot of scrub/bramble has been removed from the old wartime building foundations so they're fully visible now, including one I had no idea was there. The spot I used to sit, mostly hidden from the path by plant growth, is fully open now. But bluebell shoots are starting to come up! It was cool to go there and suddenly understand more of what was around me, too, from what I'm learning at college. I was able to recognise trees and plants, and noticed there's some heathland-like habitat there, with sandy soils, heather, different types of gorse, and broom. I would have liked to go further into the reserve to the grasslands properly but I've only been that far once and don't know my way round, so didn't want to get lost and be out for hours more. We ordered Wagamama for dinner, I got teriyaki chicken donburi, yum!
Sun 14th
Back to Southampton to finish the move-in. I didn't actually help very much again haha. Rainy today, but thankfully I did manage to get out for another walk, just an hour along the beach late afternoon. The tide was going out and the mud starting to show, but that meant the wading birds were there and I like to see them. Gulls of course, and oystercatchers, some crows, some which - after looking in my ID guide - I'm going to say were turnstones, and another couple of small birds on the shingle, one of which kind of looked like a dunnock but wasn't and the other of which similar but had a black head and a white collar... from my ID guide I'd say they were a pair of Reed buntings, but I don't know if they're found on the coast! There are small patches of wetland nearby, in the woods, so it's possible.
Tired. Half term now. Movie day tomorrow I think!
As for Valentine's Day, I have no strong feelings about it either way. Over the last couple of years I've decided to see it as a day celebrating love, in all its forms, not just romantic love. In the words of the fabulous Jonathan Van Ness, "So today if you're celebrating your friends, your partner, or maybe you're celebrating loving your DAMN FOINE SELF!! They're all valid and worth celebrating ❤️" ...Pancake Day, on the other hand - now that I am excited about! #priorities haha