Dooper

Now that the aftermath of the Trailwalker has settled, it is about time to take stock of the things. The past three weeks have seen me be sidetracked heavily by lots of little issues and events. Right now I still am a bit foggy-minded about going ahead.

My current commitments and goals for the next period will be to run sessions at AIESEC's NZ Weekend Away, plan and execute a Strange Day, reignite my physical training, get my tax and donations sorted and get a solid period of work in.

Workwise, the recent weeks have again been a rollercoaster. The financial year has finished its fifth week but my hours worked weekly have fluctuated from 6 hours (admittedly when I was ill) to a new record this week where I shot past 20 hours for the second time. The bout of statutory holidays was rather annoying and a knock to the income. My goal was to have an average of 18 hours a week but as a result of sickness and stats I'm cruising at a lowly 13.7 hours. Fortunately I've entered a boom zone. Next week will likely top this one and I'm likely to sustain 20 hour weeks for the next 6 weeks. This will be good. A certain client is likely to pay me finally too for the second time, which means I'll actually get to have the money I earned there! How novel!

My garden is taking a breather in between the summer crops winding down and the winter crops yet to emerge. The delight of the week has been chokos - and the shattering of an urban legend that said they had to be paired up (male and female) to develop fruit. This was discovered when mum noticed two hanging in the orange tree that the choko was attempting to smother. We ate one and left the other so that it might be the seed choko for another plant. I thought we were lucky - a bee from a neighbour kindly finding a male plant to do the pollination and didn't expect any more. Boy was I wrong. It is raining chokos right now! Hallelujah. We might have a pumpkin finally growing on our pumpkin plant.

With the house cooling, the mind goes to a rational strategy to survive this winter. A home without insulation, heating, extractor fan (in either kitchen or bathroom) is something of a logistical challenge to live in. There have yet to be hard decisions made as to whether to invest in insulation (we don't use a heater whose heat the insulation would retain) or a dehumidifier (which would chew up the power). I remember the good old days before I lived here. When I visited the house and marvelled at the mildew patterns on the ceiling. I think a few practical habits would reduce the problems and maybe a technological solution too.

Fitness-wise, I'm still planning. Now that my ankles survived the 100km walk, I might try them out on running on a field. I don't think I should try any road running till I have fully strengthened them and any spectre of shinsplints have disappeared. I'm going to continue my achilles tendon exercises and strength exercises on the swiss ball. Other than that, I'll have to consider things one item at a time. Swimming still seems too inconvenient.

A whole lot of peripheral issues don't really need to be thought about - I'd better get back to lesson plans.

Professional lapse

Yesterday marked the first time that I, through negligence, had to cancel a lesson. This blade cuts rather deep for me as I had pride in being organised, being on time and doing my best to solve the problems that my clients sometimes impose upon me. But this time it was all my doing.

Yesterday, at 2:10pm, while I was at my bus-stop, my cellphone rang. I was too slow in answering and missed the call. The number was a client number - a moment's anxiety sent me straight to my diary: I was meant to be teaching a lesson from 2pm. My blood ran cold.

It was a mental shortcut that did it. My lessons on Monday and Tuesday this year had been finishing at 6pm, and all the lessons I have been setting up have been consecutive i.e. if I had 3 lessons, I would be teaching from 3pm-6pm. However, recently my 5pm-6pm student asked to have lessons at 2pm for a couple of weeks, which I agreed to. My diary had this recorded. I sent out the confirmed schedule saying so too. Yesterday, I was to have three lesssons, so to figure out when I needed to be in, I simply calculated back from 6pm 3 hours as per usual: I would start classes at 3pm; I need to get the 2:15pm bus etc.

Needless to say but I'm very disappointed in this lapse.

Charging into February

Sometimes time figures itself out well. The first three working weeks were quiet work-wise and I had time to put my Chinese on the front foot. I've been really proud of the state that I've polished it up. However, it has given me a lot of food for thought in terms of how far I have to go to get it up to the level I want.

Now in the past short week I have really hit my stride with an 18-hour working week (out of a potential pool of 22 hours, which would only happen on an extraordinary week - although last week I could have hit it last week if it weren't for Waitangi day).

And although I had a poor start to the year for my Trailwalker training, after a good walk today I feel like I will be ready in two months for the event. So everything is fine.

Man my proofreading sucks big-time