macro

    Falling for Christmas, 2022 - ★★

    There should be a special star rating system for Christmas films. This one was actually better than I expected.

    Beauty, 2022 - ★★

    I liked the style of this film, including the decision not to let us hear Beauty sing. Ultimately it’s a tragedy and felt reminiscent of what I know about Whitney Houston’s life, which left me wondering whether the character of Beauty was based on her.

    Overall, I felt the filmmaker was trying a bit too hard and failed to create any connection for me with either the characters or story.

    Coco, 2017 - ★★★

    I’m a sucker for a film about families and intergenerational friendships.

    Inside Out, 2015 - ★★★★

    Thoroughly enjoyed this. Pixar at its best.

    … slightly concerned the guiding emotions in my head behave a little like those in Dad’s head though.

    Decision to Leave, 2022 - ★★★★

    It’s all in the detail.

    The Half of It, 2020 - ★★★

    Delightful.

    2022: A year in books

    Here are the books I finished reading in 2022. I didn’t set myself a goal, it’s not helpful for me. Instead I prefer to aim to read a little every day. The final count of 18 feels about average for me over the course of a year.

    Of these titles, the standouts were:

    • The Name of the Wind
    • Treacle Walker
    • The Vanishing Half
    • Spring Cannot be Cancelled
    • Great Circle
    Titus Alone The Passenger Roseanna (The Martin Beck series, Book 1) Flight Behaviour Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Level 6 The Fortune Men The Name of the Wind The Vanishing Half Treacle Walker I Didn't Do The Thing Today The End of Eddy The Lamplighters The Locals A Thousand Moons Spring Cannot Be Cancelled: David Hockney in Normandy Great Circle Do Pause Saltwater: Winner of the Portico Prize The Books of Earthsea

    Joker, 2019 - ★★★

    I don’t know what to make of Joker. It made me feel supremely uncomfortable and I don’t know if that’s a result of its brilliance or because it vastly missed the mark. What I do know is Joaquin Phoenix is always intriguing.

    This rating could have been a 2 and could have been a 4, so I split the difference.

    The Harder They Fall, 2021 - ★★★

    Effortlessly cool.

    Miss Americana, 2020 - ★★★

    Watched on Sunday May 8, 2022.

    Bruised, 2020 - ★★

    Watched on Saturday January 22, 2022.

    Ava, 2020 - ★

    Why Jessica, why?

    Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, 2022 - ★★★★

    I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this film and glad I left my judgments aside when invited to see it.

    2022: A year in the park

    I took 12 photos from the same spot in a local park this year. One for every month of the year, just to see how things changed over time.

    What surprised me is how little these pictures really differ, and those differences are mostly down to the weather and time of day the picture was taken.

    January January - view along path through avenue of birch, sycamore and oak trees February February - no leaves on the trees and undergrowth sparse March March - first daffodils breaking through April April - undergrowth beginning to fill out May May - leaves returing to trees June June - blanket of white from seed pods covers path July July - ground wet underfoot and first leaves falling August August - first gaps showing in tree canopy September September - undergrowth beginning to die back October October - leaves starting to turn yellow, with as many on ground as in trees November November - last of greenery on trees with autumn colours underfoot December December - trees bare and leaves on ground starting to decay

    Weeknote 35/22

    My week started with a couple of days off visiting family. On Monday I went to watch The Hundred at Trent Bridge with my sister and her family. My nephews (aged 3, 6 and 8) were beyond excited about their first live sport event (and getting to stay up late!) It was a great day out and our team won both matches.

    On Tuesday we stopped off to visit my aunt and uncle on our way home. We raided their fruit trees, helped collect firewood and went out for lunch.

    The time off over the Bank Holiday meant I had a three-day work week. Here’s what I spent my time on:

    • finishing the set up for our next accountability group
    • running a quarterly planning session
    • research for an upcoming talk on the role of personal development in the transition to self-employment
    • writing a brief and marketing plan for the freelancer away days I’m running later this year
    • a project plan for my next group coaching programme

    Over the weekend, I:

    • watched finals day of The Hundred
    • had a games and pizza night with a couple of friends
    • prepped all the fruit we brought home ready for the freezer
    • visited a friend in her new flat for Sunday lunch
    • went for a stroll at the coast

    Weeknote 34/22

    What happened this week…

    📋 I took a new approach to setting my intentions for the week using three themes; things to finish, things to progress, things to think about. It turned out I had three items under each of the things (I didn’t set myself a limit, but I think that’s something to consider). When it came to review the week I found I’d checked off all the things I needed to finish and spent time working on or thinking about everything else. So I’ll keep going with this approach during September and see how it works out.

    ✅ A bit slow out of the blocks but we finally got everything set up for our next accountability group which starts on 2 September. We’ve switched from monthly intakes to quarterly and are going to spend the rest of this year looking at developments for a relaunch/refresh coming in 2023.

    🛬 I ran the final session of my group coaching pilot on Tuesday. Now I need to collate feedback from the participants and consider how I want to develop the programme for the next group.

    🤔 I spent two days in my co-working space… but was the only one in. considering what to rename it. Suggestions from mastodon: a singularity; a lair or den.

    🔌 We had no Internet at home for most of the day on Friday which threw the end of my working week off course. I’ve done a little bit of catch up this morning (Saturday) to make sure I’m ready for next week as I’ll only be working three days.

    🍻 I’ve found myself drawn into over socialising this summer. This week I’ve been grateful that I’ve rediscovered my ability to politely decline when invited out. I’ve learned my capacity is having things booked for a maximum of two evenings during the week and once at the weekend. There are a couple of exceptions to this rule; hanging out with my buddy and dates with my wife.

    🏑 There’s been a lot of hockey admin this week ahead of the new season. Some people stuff too as we start to consider who will be in what squad.

    🚘 I’m early with my weeknote because this evening we’re hopping in the car to head south and spend the rest of the Bank Holiday weekend with my sister and family.

    Weeknote 33/22

    It’s been a few weeks since I posted a weeknote. You missed out on:

    • a second week of COVID blues
    • a holiday in Scotland
    • the blur of returning to work after nearly three weeks off

    I’m ready to write again now! Here’s the week that was…

    💻 On Monday I got up and hosted/joined my weekly calls to start the week. All was well. Afterwards I hopped on the bus to go into my co-working space. It was the first day in a long time when I felt full of energy and looking forward to getting stuck in to my work. My laptop felt different and when I arrived at my desk it refused to turn on. So I immediately turned around and headed home. The rest of the day was a right off.

    💰 With the help of an IT guy I know, I managed to get the laptop fixed pretty quickly and without breaking the bank. He has recommended that I think about making plans to replace it. Any recommendations welcome!

    ✅ Without my laptop I didn’t get a huge amount done, choosing to focus only on the essentials — calls with potential clients and coaching sessions.

    💡 Spending less time at a screen gave me some space to think about some projects I’ve got on the horizon for freelancer strategy days and a full launch of my group coaching programme.

    📋 I caught up with my co-host of the accountability group to run through our plans for the rest of the year and any potential changes to how we run things. We’re also in talks to develop something similar for another community.

    🏑 On Wednesday I went to my first pre-season hockey training. I’m captaining a side this season and with that comes a lot of behind the scenes work. This week that involved coming up with a solution for pre-season trial games that suited all teams and coaches, and worked with the pitches we have available.

    ⚽️ I played my first wildcard to reset my fantasy football team. While that hasn’t proved successful for this gameweek, I am in a much better place going forward.

    🍻 Now that I’m over covid and my pal is back from her holidays we spent Friday afternoon/evening trying out a couple of nearby taprooms and playing darts (badly).

    🤞 I’m keeping my finger’s crossed that the week ahead holds no surprises or set backs!

    Weeknotes 28-29/22

    ✅ With a grand total of two working days over the past two weeks my focus has been on the absolute essentials; planning activities for my next group coaching sessions, creating worksheets for said activities and preparing to launch my next group programme.

    ⚽ We took a trip to London to see Germany v Spain at the Women’s Euros. While in London we caught up with friends and dropped in to see the Cornelia Parker exhibition at Tate Britain.

    🧟 Izzy came back from a big church event (~400 people on a university campus for four days) and tested positive for Covid. I followed suit a couple of days later. We’ve both had pretty bad cold and flu symptoms and been like zombies for a full seven days. I’m feeling much better (though lacking energy) as we start a new week.

    ☀️ What’s worse than 48 hours of unbearable heat? 48 hours of unbearable heat when you’ve got Covid! Somehow we got through it.

    🎂 We celebrated Izzy’s big birthday in a very low key style — doing our weekly crossword on FaceTime with my parents and eating cake. All other celebrations postponed until we’re feeling better.

    📺 While I’ve been ill I’ve struggled to read for any length of time so have watched a lot of not very taxing series on Netflix; two seasons of Chicago Fire and the first season of Heartstopper.

    🛒 With plenty of friends on our doorstep we’ve had regular food deliveries but haven’t wanted to cook or eat much. Pretty sure I’ve survived on toast, biscuits, ice cream and lemonade.

    Weeknote 27/22

    🗓️ I’ve been feeling slightly apprehensive about the amount of work I have on and the limited days I have available in July. So I was pleased to hear a content migration job I’ve been waiting to get scheduled has been pushed back again. It gives me a bit of breathing room.

    📑 Had a good meeting with a collaborator about pitching a project similar to the accountability groups we already run to another community.

    💭 Ran session three of the group coaching pilot this week on the theme of boundaries. We’re now half way through the programme and I’m starting to think ahead to opening bookings for the next group starting in the autumn.

    ☕ One of the coaching group had to miss a recent session and as she lives nearby we met for coffee and a recap. Made me realise although there are great benefits to being able to run events online it is good to sit alongside someone.

    📋 My main tasks outside of coaching this week have been making sure I’m prepared for the next few weeks where I’ve only got a maximum of two working days per week. I got my newsletter scheduled as well as completing some prep work for other up coming events.

    🦋 I finished reading Barbara Kingsolver’s Flight Behaviour.

    👀 I watched a lot of sport this week (aided by arriving at my parents who have both Sky and BT); most Wimbledon matches, most Women’s Euros matches, England v India T20s and the home nations southern hemisphere rugby tour matches.

    🏏 While I’ve been home, we also went for a day trip to Nottingham to watch my eldest nephew play cricket and I’ve been helping my Dad with various labour intensive two-person jobs in the garden.

    Weeknote 26/22

    It’s Sunday afternoon and by some small miracle I’m here posting my weeknote!

    🪞 On Monday I had a great conversation with Kerry Bertram of Brilliant Thing via LinkedIn Live on the broad theme of reflection. We talked about the power of pausing, creative ways to reflect and the importance of reflection for teams as well as individuals.

    🧈 I spent most of Wednesday livid because the video call software we use for our accountability group had released a pretty major update without telling anyone. I found out about 30 seconds before I was due to host a session that I no longer had permissions to open the room. Thankfully my co-host was on hand to step in.

    📄 Most of my time outside calls this week was spent working on the last few weeks of activities for my group coaching programme. I’ve also been researching launch plans for marketing the next run of the programme.

    🛍️ A recurring theme of my weeks lately has been working in the background on small shifts to my positioning and offer. It’s slow progress but I’m getting there.

    🔗 In the latest issue of my newsletter I shared what I’ve been reading in June in my end of the month link round-up.

    🥗 Izzy and I are giving Weight Watchers a try for a month. So far, I’m enjoying cooking from their recipes (it’s not vastly different from what we’d usually eat, just more moderate portion sizes!)

    👂🏼 I spent most of the week with a blocked left ear which made me disoriented and cranky. I also realised too late that it was really effecting my concentration.

    🐶 We had Aggie staying with us until Wednesday evening. She’s such a treasure it really makes me rethink my hard stance on not having a dog while we’re in the flat.

    📽️ On Saturday night we attended BALTIC is Curious as part of the month-long Curious Arts festival. We saw three excellent short films by women and non-binary people of colour.

    🎾 Most of the weekend I’ve had tennis on in the background while I’ve either been reading or doing stuff around the flat. Watson and Norrie’s runs have been a highlight.

← Newer Posts Older Posts →