Hello and a belated Happy New Year. How was your first week of 2019?
The House.
As I’m writing this, a plumber is replacing our boiler, which of course packed in just days after Tim and I moved in to the new house.
So it’s been a cold few days for us.
Nevertheless, it’s taught me to be very grateful for our usual way of life – have you ever thought about just how amazing it is to have hot water on tap? How wonderful it is that our houses heat themselves automatically? How blissful it is to have a hot shower and dry yourself with a warm, dry towel?
I’m feeling very grateful for these little things today.
This is a time I’ve been looking forward to for a very long time. Tim and I are in the house, and things are finally starting to settle down into a rhythm. The only things missing right now are a washing machine (lost by the removals company *sob*) and internet (being installed on Friday *yay!*).
Life.
My plan going forward is to put these blogs up on Mondays, but as you can tell, this week’s is a little late due to not having sufficient internet/spending all my time doing laundry at my parents’/trying to stay warm in the freezing-cold house.
Last year I feel like I made a lot of progress with procrastinating less, achieving most of what I set out to do and generally staying a bit more organised. In 2019 I want to continue all of that, but I want the increased productivity to result in more income, please. It sounds shallow, but my goal is to make more than I spend. I don’t want or need loads, just enough to pay the bills and have a bit left over for a rainy day/doing up the house/getting married.
I’ve signed up for some extra work online – teaching English to Chinese children – which is actually really fun and will hopefully tide me over while I find work as a harpist and harp teacher in York. I’m very grateful to a friend of mine for recommending this to me – you know who you are – thank you babe.
My piano will be brought over from Congleton in the next week or so, at which point I can start giving piano lessons in York too – hurray! I am also starting to give harp lessons online (when I have internet) so that is a super-exciting new venture.
Health.
Another 2019 goal of mine is to prioritise my physical and mental health, I’ve gone back to the beginning with my running and starting to work my way through the Couch 2 5k app, I’ll be practising yoga and meditation regularly and trying to eat as well as I can – nothing too strict but my long-term goal is to have a good, healthy quality of life for as many years as I can. Of course, once our garage gym is all set up, Tim and I can do our strength training in there as well.
This may be the subject of another blog post (let me know if you’d like to hear more on this), but the life of a freelancer can be a little chaotic (just a little), with late nights, early mornings, disrupted meal times etc., so keeping our bodies on a schedule when it comes to eating and sleeping really helps our bodies and our health. So, as I’m reading The Circadian Code by Dr. Satchin Panda at the moment, I’m trying to stick to a regular eating/sleeping/waking up schedule to see if that results in an increased amount of energy. Fingers crossed.
So, that’s probably enough from me for now. I really hope you are well (and warm) wherever you are. Check back next week for another post.
Chat soon,
A x
2 Comments
Hi Angelina!
A long time ago I was searching for nice-to-listen to versions of Handels Harp Concerto. I really liked your rendition on your old youtube channel. It was rythmically stable, flowing nicely and with little artificiality i.e. any overly deliberate phrasing or mannerisms. (I also like a rendition by the then very young and talented Alisa Sadikova).
So, you are into Yoga and Meditation. I am getting in to Meditation. My first goal is to stabalize the state of thought-free awareness. That means one can choose to relax thoughts, while remaining crystal clear and extremely contented. It relaxes the whole body. I rather like Indian classical music as background music to support meditation.
Google:
*Bija Mantra 108 Victoria*
*Raga – Jhinjhoti (Santoor & Flute) By Pt Shiv Kumar Sharma*
*Rajnigandha (Santoor)-Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma*
(I have been told that Bija mantras are spoken “sounds” that represent the essence of chakras. I think that is correct)
Both Shiv Kumar Sharma and Hariprasad Chaurasia (flute) are/were very prominent brilliant and inovative classical musicians. Santoor played by Shiv Kumar sounds suprisingly similar to a harp. Though its strings are usually struck or caressed with stick, they can also be plucked.
Best Wishes
Martin, in Austria
Hi Martin,
Thanks for taking the time to read and comment. Yes that Handel video is from quite a long time ago now! I’m glad that you like it.
For meditation I use the Calm app, which I find really helpful.
Angelina