Stop

I'll stop posting for time being until I'll be able to answer myself why am I doing this? What is its aim?

At the end of the AT lesson:



The Christmas Tree is ready.



The most challenging and exhausting 4 months at work are nearly over. I can sense something exciting and joyful waiting ahead...

All on the right track

How this past week flashed by! Monday 6 days ago was quite a day - an intense Sitting exercise in the morning, a good work at school, then the Movements in the evening. But ... by then I already knew that an I'm getting sick, ah.

On Tuesday I intended to stay at home, but because of the confusion with the practicalities of informing the school about it, I missed the deadline, so I had to go to work and do what had to be done. Surprisingly, all lessons went pretty well. At one point the head teacher popped in to my Yr 9 lesson to see how I was doing. She came unannounced, but at the perfect moment, and was quite pleased with my relationship with students. She congratulated me and then I knew that my contract was for sure going to be extended until the Summer.

And on this day my sister has celebrated her 21st birthday!

Wednesday and Thursday at home, off work. Why this illness? Perhaps the current weather and exhaustion after several weeks of work added up to this, probably so, but to me perhaps the most important factor was the recent significant changes I've been going through. The system had to react to this.These are in fact very good changes (which doesn't seem to make the difference). Apart from the illness, everything is going really well.

And on Thursday evening we had another long and engaging talk with Monika (on skype). Wonderful!

Friday: off to work. Send out last minute application for the GC AAD B&I Course in the evening. This felt right- but why waiting until the very last moment? Why this hesitation?

The aims for this course:

- to begin and complete my day with quality and definition (current commitment's aim)
- to connect with the SC/AAD Team at the end of the Morning Sitting and at the end of the day.

Off to Leeds in the evening. Still fatiqued and not in the best shape, so slept through most of the travel. Arrive in Leeds after midnight. Ania collects and takes me home, where the dinner with home made bread is waiting!



Saturday: Sleep in, intentionally. Feel like s^&* in the morning, but recover from this during the day. We go shopping with A & K, then A takes me to Tropical World which is a good place to rest and relax, a kind of nice break I miss these days...

In the evening: meeting with Ania and Kofi's friends.



J & K:



Sunday: One significant dream last night - it only confirmed what I already wished for.

I'm going to collect many books left at Ania's place, including the dream diary. It's time to return to this for now.

8:22 - Morning Sitting downstairs. AAD connection.

A peaceful travel with reading, listening and reflecting. At 12:35 UK time the picture of the dinning room in Sant Cugat suddenly comes in front of my mind's eye - stay with it. It has never happened with such a clarity and force before...

Silence is a blessing.

At home - catching up and finding excuses to avoid getting ready for work tomorrow. Worrying about the amount of work to be done for school, and not doing it is one of my chief energy leaks. Applying the Principle of Beginning & Completion to my work at home seemed to help this evening.

Only 2 weeks of school ahead - doable. Then long awaited visit to Kiel followed by visit to Poland. Great!

Perfect weekend

Great weekend. Got some rest and caught up with some necessary stuff.

The quality of my sleep has improved recently and I feel there's more space available, it's not only job. So good news.

A long Saturday evening with Nika on skype - highlight!

So that was yesterday. Despite going to bed late, this morning I woke up before alarm clock, at ca 9:30.

Sitting at 10:30. Vibrant and fresh, as if done for the first time.

It's been raining a lot today, and it's been quite dark too:



So here's a bit of colour, for a change:




A bit of work in the early afternoon, then later I give myself 2 hours to complete the preparation for work, and then let it go.

So an evening is free for reading (All & Everything) & exercises. Luxury!

Joy. So much to be grateful for.

Time to dezombiefy

It's weekend!!!

Not getting a proper rest on the last two weekends was a huge mistake - come on Mr careless, the camel deserves to be treated bit better than this. The price therefore had to paid, and the camel turned to a zombie few days ago... But the week at school has been completed with quality, and I left the school without any sense of leaving any loose ends behind this time.

Few pics from the classroom:








The head of Maths informed me about the work contract yesterday. As always, in a casual, informal and by the way kind of way:

HoM: By the way, you need to see John (the bursar) to sort your contract out, as it's only until Christmas. Of course if you want to...
Z: Yes, I want to.

Short and to the point! There we are then...

Most wonderful Friday evening at home, a highlight of the week: a long talk on skype with Nika.

And today is Saturday, wake up to the day before 9 o'clock, which is quite something. It's already sunny outside:



11:51 - time for a walk...

The middle

Today is the middle of the term - Wednesday in the 4th week of 7, nice. Keeping the larger overview helps to protect me from some petty concerns I tend to have.

I got the first evidence that the word is being spread in the school of Mr Kaleta being 'hard', to quote one student. The kids are slowly learning that I actually keep my word in following up whatever needs following up. This is good. Cracking some tough cookies one by one is the way to go, it seems. At the moment, most of the crucial students pretty much know what are the expectations and where the lines are drawn. This keeps taking a lot of effort and energy, but in the long term this is really well invested energy, although it's at the expense of other things. I am able to tolerate and accept it for time being, at least the results of this are tangible - with each week, there's more and more space, and right conditions for teaching and learning to take place.

So things are going well.

An afternoon sky:





And there she is - my friend and soul-mate.

The wheel keeps turning...

One friend asked me about this blog recently, which made me reflect on what is its current purpose. I don't actually have a particular aim for this period of posting, actually I don't even have specific time frame for it, I just do it. So it's not really the type of journal I began maintaining after the GC L3 Course. However, it's still useful in its current format.

The last week of work confirmed that sometimes we just need to persist, keep learning from the mistakes for the changes to take place. Another little progress at work, for sure. Also my attitude to it is different, this I can also attribute to some other things happening in my life at the moment. In a nutshell: it's alright.

On Friday I met Kofi who came over to London to help out his auntie with the funeral celebrations. He brought my cds from Leeds, so there's something I can put on the shelves now.

Saturday was quite a special day: an AT lesson with Marianna was particularly good. I suppose not smoking for 2 days already made a difference. Yes, I'm quitting again. This time it's going to happen - can't actually imagine how this attempt could fail...

I posted the letter on my way to the lesson - very exciting!

In the evening: 5 hours (so much for moderation) chat on skype with M - wonderful. Her microphone didn't work, so we typed instead.

And in the late evening - on skype with a friend in need of somebody 'neutral' to talk to.

And today we had the 6th meeting of the London Guitar Circle. It's evening now - back to the beginning point in the cycle. Somehow today it feels new and different... A new week, here I come...

London

Another week gone. It's strange how suddenly I perceive the passage of time differently and so easily got into weekly rhythm. For sure, the last two weeks have passed by quickly, this is subjective.

So what's going on? At school it's the same story: loads of work for Mr.Camel. Some good news: I had been given positive judgement from my formal lesson observation. Then one of my mentors came to see me working and give me some tips. Her job is to help me settle down in the school and see how she can help me. Well, she's actually a drama teacher, and when we met for the first time she asked what kind of help I think I need - to which I said - 'voice projection'. And there you go - that's what she specializes in, and this Friday we're going to have our first session. I couldn't be in better hands.

It's been a good week, but on Friday I left the school without sense of completing it. No good! This unsurprisingly affected my evening and Saturday.

A kind of rest on Saturday, went shopping, continued to read All & Everything. It's been raining for most of the day, so I wasn't very keen on going out.

Then on Sunday we had the 5th meeting of the London Guitar Circle. Quite an event and step forward for our little group.

I managed to do few Russian lessons this week, which is nice, and also watched a bit of movie, but I didn't understand much out of it.

Just before posting I spend some time hand writing the letter to somebody in Poland. I haven't done it for over a year, and it's a wonderful opportunity to express my thoughts and feelings in a more personal way. I needed it.