Finish ab workout and yoga stretching – feels good, a little tired – less than seven hours sleep – dump thoughts and meditate. What thoughts now? With pain in hand thoughts are difficult – when trying to meditate thoughts come easy. Sat by the river with George yesterday – not much time tho but was pleasant, talked about how different countries have different cultures. When it comes to community, family and sharing things. I mostly recall the sunlight on the river. Anyway highlighted some of our differences in behaviour which we all have to accept and understand – sometimes forgive.
Gratitude Journal
I am so happy and grateful to our neighbour’s dog Tangmo who came to visit yesterday morning before I went to work. He was running around full of energy and ran away from Tigger. I tried to get him to follow me out so I could close the gate but he kept running back inside. It made me smile for the whole day.
Yes, today was pretty good too. Spent a good morning at House – drinking coffee, sketching and reading. I feel like I’m on top of many things at the moment.
The best thing about today was helping students with some difficult L and R tongue twisters – it was fun and they didn’t give up.
Started reading Sartre’s Age of Reason and also completed another sketch.
We all have to start somewhere. I was always interested in art at school because it appealed to the part of my brain that could utilise imagination rather than drier subjects that required adherence to some sort of order. Weirdly I did well enough in those subjects though. Anyway, art just felt like the easy pass.
Of course, painting wine bottles and flowers didn’t really appeal and I wasn’t mature enough or my imagination broad enough to conjure anything worthwhile. I think I actually ended up doing more artistic things at home more than in class. Two pieces particularly stick in my mind and I don’t recall doing either at school. My most prominent memory of my three years of art class was finishing off a bottle of vodka and leaving the bottle in the classroom for other people to draw in the future. That was first year of high school – we were 13 years old. 1980 or 1981.
Like the other times I’ve had to draw on my education, such as Maths and English tests when applying to University, I’ve been able to dig deep into my memory and apply myself somehow. So, now I’m sketching when I have the chance and I’m digging into those art lessons I honestly don’t remember anything. What I learned about perspective I got when studying photography back about 12 years ago and watching YouTube videos about pavement artists and force perspectives.
Now, what I really learned, and learned from punk rock and my mother, is about just doing it. Getting on and doing it. When I look at these sketches again I can see the imperfections, the incorrect spacing etc. But when I look with kindness I think, wow, that’s pretty good (for me!).
Rather than set my expectation too high and demand perfection or failure, I choose the middle ground. Do it, finish, move on.
These sketches are from my morning coffee spot, House. My enjoyment with these was due to the very strong perspective of all the straight lines in the room.
First sketch
After making each drawing I gave them to Guey, the owner, and, if working from a photo I took, deleted the photo so all I end up with is a digital file of my sketch. I will do the sketch within 30 minutes, not as a rule but more that I have found the feel and if I went any further I would be getting down into detail that would take it beyond a sketch. Through these 3 sketches (over 3 or 4 days) I could feel improvement each time and they made me really happy and gave me a small sense of achievement.
Second sketch
When I find some more free time and inspiration I will do more but I think I’m done with House now, though they have a cute dog and a challenging garden that would be fun to draw. Hmm….ok – tomorrow!
Gratitude Journal
I am so happy and grateful that I have been able to continue this gratitude journal app every day for more than a year now. I will switch to writing in a diary from now. I am so happy and grateful for the unusual big rain today and the fact that our roof holes that I plugged have held up fairly well – just a few leaks. Our plants will be happy for some water.
The best thing that happened today was being able to read whilst eating my lunch. I was late to eat so there was no one else around.
Other little nice things included many students being smiley and happy with me and trying to communicate as much as they could.
There’s a big storm hanging around today and there’s been a lot of rain. It’s funny – the dull drabness of the sky reminds me of England. Here it is a nice interlude to sunny warm days. In England, it would feel much more oppressive as those days would last for weeks on end.
I am so happy and grateful for all the future dreams I have ever had and achieved. I am hopeful for the future now, for myself and the people around me. I hope that the people within my sphere of influence can learn something from me and my story.
No electricity or water at school today so that was a bit of a challenge. In some ways it meant taking pressure off – because it was a different working space to usual, I relaxed and adopted and luckily the students were willing to enjoy this freedom without exploiting it.
I sat and helped Dew a lot in his class – the work was easy for the others so it meant I could try and help him more – rather than getting upset with him for disrupting the class.
The best thing about today was drinking four fantastic cups of coffee, whilst reading Dostoevsky and thinking about sketching. I’m enjoying sketching at House and just giving the sketch to them. I take a photo first.
These past two days I have been reading more and ignoring my phone.
I am so happy and grateful to listen to Bill Stephenson on the You Don’t Know Mojack podcast this morning. He talked about being in a group of about ten punks at school and reminded me a lot of my youth. His stories make need smile and laugh as I was driving to school. I am so happy and grateful for all the good baristas in the world. I have been in a lot of places where it was difficult to get good coffee so it’s great when you find it.
Say goodbye to your buffoons in power. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
Highly curated, carefully selected and specifically ordered* for your listening edification by world-renowned DJtenzenmen, who has over 1 year of experience in this business.
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Intro and background music by Utotem, Phantom Tollbooth, Daniel Striped Tiger and someone else I forgot. Incidentals taken from the Church of the Sub Genius Hour of Slack.
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Gratitude Journal
I am so happy and grateful for the cooler weather and the bottle of Kavalan that Lekky bought for me a couple of years ago. I finished it last night and felt very good. I don’t feel too bad this morning either. I am so happy and grateful for this first coffee this morning. It’s mixing really well with the leftover taste of whiskey from last night and reminding me of the good time I had last night listening to music
1994ever 