Senses working overtime #560

1 Week one at Iona College is in the books 

The new kids on the block head off to an official welcome in the gym
(I'm way at the back, out of shot, after the parents of the new girls
with the other 8 new staff members)

An exhausting but rewarding week - learning new names, planning courses, figuring out where to go and what to do. All of that can tax the brain after a six-week break. 

2 Reading: Truman

Truman announcing the Japanese
surrender in the Oval Office.

I'm up to page 467 (of 1,000), nearly halfway. World War 2 has just ended with the surrender of Japan (after the second atomic bomb obliterated Nagasaki).

3 Listening: WTWMC - Fresh finds

We have 60 songs at this stage.

4 Watching: The Brokenwood Mysteries

We've continued to enjoy this gentle way to finish each day, although we need to watch each episode over 2 nights. We're up to season 2 now.

5 Listening: The Frames - Longitude

This has been on high rotate at Maple Grove for the week. Basically, because I put it on and do other things and so miss a lot of it each time.

Overtime: Rosa Parks

Knowing what must be done does away with fear.

Senses working overtime #558

1 Wellington mini-break

Love a mini break with my best girl to suss out regular haunts and have tacos at Hot Like a Mexican!

2 Reading: Joan Didion - The White Album

One of my Unity Books' purchases. Finally found some of JD's books.

3 Watching: Swallows & Amazons (TV on demand)

A recent BBC version of a book I loved from my childhood. Lovely version.

4 Listening: WTWMC - Fresh finds

Two weeks done - so 30 songs in the playlist so far.

5 Reading: Truman

I'm really enjoying this biography (reading a few pages each morning at breakfast). Two hundred pages in. I like him and Bess a lot!

Overtime: Anne Baxter

I wasn't afraid to fail. Something good always comes out of failure.

Senses working overtime #533

1 The feeling this week:

Photo by Eduard Delputte on Unsplash

2 Watching: Alone Africa (season 12)

This one is dropping episodes every Friday so it's a bit painful waiting but, like all the other Alone seasons, it's good quality reality stuff.

3 Reading: Three books

Photo by Celine Ylmz on Unsplash

Full week at school means not a huge amount of time that I can devote to reading, so I am continuing to enjoy Bel Ami (Guy de Maupassant), God Only Knows (David Leaf) and the biography of Truman (it's huge!)

4 Listening: Joe Henderson - Page One

I bought this from JB Hi Fi this week - a perfect album and it was his solo debut! 

5 Reading: Mojo Magazine #377

I'm a latecomer to early to mid period Genesis. Great covermount CD featuring some seminal prog bands.

Overtime: James Clear

"There are many elements of living a good life, but the first and most foundational is to love yourself and enjoy spending time with yourself.

Go do things on your own so you learn to trust your mind and view it as a welcome companion. If someone declared, "Tomorrow you must spend the day alone" the hope is that you would reply, "That sounds like a good day!"

The person who is at ease within finds every other space larger and more enjoyable."

Senses working overtime #530

1 First week of the study break:

Photo by Matias North on Unsplash

2 Reading: Utopia Avenue - David Mitchell

The novel centres on a fictional 1960s British psychedelic rock band called Utopia Avenue. Quite apposite given my recent run down of Pink Floyd's late sixties albums on Goo Goo G'Joob. 

David Mitchell even has a scene in the book where characters watch a 1967 Pink Floyd gig. Fun.

3 Listening: Pink Floyd's Ummagumma 

Specifically, the live sides.  

4 Reading: Truman - David McCullough

5 Watched - Alone: Frozen

Overtime: 

Seek the lofty by reading, hearing and seeing great work at some moment every day 

Thorton Wilder