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.

The 2nd week is on

Unbelieveably strenous week at work. The amount of work on my shoulders was bigger than I could really handle, but reportedly other teachers had a similar experience.

My work with some of the classes is certainly going forward, this is the outcome of work with targeted individuals. There's only one class that seems to be like a rock, being with them sometimes feels like visiting a lunatic asulym, no offence here, that's just how it feels.

On Wednesday I was so tired after work, that decided to go to bed at 8 pm and wake up at 3:30 to catch up with stuff, prepare for the day. I was already up at 1:30 am, my mind up in the associative thinking mode, impossible to switch it off, so after about an hour I decided to get up and get on with work. The keyword is acceptance. The day at work went really well and I was happy with all 4 of my lessons. I attribute it to the energy of effort that was available during the day. Not that I intend to carry on like that, but the lesson here is: accept and go with the flow.

Saturday went well, resting, AT lesson, letting go...

And on Sunday we had our fourth London Circle Meeting. Then in the 'on' mode, preparing for tomorrow.

Today, another week began. In the evening: The Movements.

I keep a daily correspondence with one special person in Poland. This is such a joy.

Spontaneity

A new aproach at work today: 20 minutes Sitting after the lessons in my classroom. The school space gave a particular flavour to this experience. Good - a spontaneous development in practice.

A moment of shifting perspective in the evening: first seeing tomorrow as the third day of the week at work, this week as the first one of this half term, this term as the first one in the year. And perhaps this year is a part of my longer work in this school... Having this larger overview dispersed the clouds of concerns and worries about tomorrow...

It gets dark early these days...

Just briefly

Very restful sleep last night. Partially thanks to the energy of the beginning of the commitment available - centres calm and still.

I noticed something today that is worth mentioning, I guess. The pressures of the day left my body tensed, and my mind in the associative mode. I came back home and did lie-down, which effectively helped to let go of tensions and imagination, inner commentaries actually ceased. With this transition in my personal state my view of the day has also changed. This state that got hold of me in the late morning coloured my experience in subjective and false shades. A view from 'a step back' perspective was different.

An intensive work on March Forward and Note Values exhausted my body tonight, in a good way. Good, my thinking centre 'sharpened'.

Back in action

Back to London yesterday evening from my visit to Poland and Ukraine (from Saturday to Saturday). It was a good one. Although I didn't have many opportunities to rest physically, the most important thing is that I rebooted my poor brain, recharged my mental batteries and feel ready to keep going again. And this morning I caught up with sleep, very nice lie-in.

The excursion to Lviv in Ukraine was the highlight. The City resonated with me from the very moment of my arrival, almost like being at home.

A view of the city from Wysoki Zamek (High Castle)



Rynek Square:



St.Nicholas Church, the oldest place of Christian Worship in Lviv:



The Church in the village my mother's parents used to live:



A close up:



On the left:



On the right:



This is now Ukraine.

As my friend informed me, I left the city in high time. On the day after my departure Lviv was already in chaos, because of the dangerous flu virus. People wearing masks, the city has been quarantined etc. Hope it's not going to be too serious.

In Tychy: touch base with my family, and some friends in Tychy... also make new friends.

MM and MW informed me about next weekend's plans of the Polish Circle. Something is cooking...

Now another 7 weeks of work are ahead. I have a 40 days GC commitment to support me in this adventure, almost 6 weeks of work that provides a challenging context for practice. So, there are going to be several different adventures going on simultaneously, so to speak.

My aim is to begin and complete the day with quality and definition.What does it mean? How to recognize the presence of quality? How to introduce definition into act of beginning and completion?

Well, the answers to these have been introduced to me directly and indirectly in the past few years. However, I'm not going to take them for granted, but rather approach these question with a fresh and open mind, hopefully.

And something that keeps me informed, that keeps me going: A&A readings.

It's All Saints Day in Poland today.