Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, 2019 - ★★
I enjoy the interplay between (and performances of) Ridley and Driver, but the rest is a bit meh.
Ocean's Eight, 2018 - ★★
I’d been waiting to see this for so long. Perhaps I built my expectations up too much. So very disappointing.
Paddington, 2014 - ★★★★
Finally got round to watching this and it was everything I expected/hoped it would be. Perfect holiday film.
David Byrne's American Utopia, 2020 - ★★★★
I had no idea what to expect from this… and I loved it! We watched it as part of our virtual weekend away to NYC during lockdown.
Too nice not to head out for a stroll this evening
Just found out a local coffee roastery is opening a shop within 100 yards of my flat. Can’t decide if this is the best thing to happen this week (excellent coffee on my doorstep) or the worst (there’s already a beer cafe so soon I’ll have no pocket money left!)
Waiting for our new sofa to be delivered. Chance of any meaningful work getting done before or after? Slim.
Caught up on Taskmaster last night (S13:E6). Was in stitches at the attempts to record the highest number on a pedometer. As I was 30 mins early for an appointment today I decided to apply the simplest strategy to the task: walking. With 2,285 steps in 20 mins I’d have come 2nd
Tasks that present unexpected challenges then are straightforward to complete once you have a clear strategy and the right tools are the most satisfying. Emma 1 : Sofa 0
Weeknote 20/22
I don’t think I’ve mentioned it in a weeknote before but I start each week with two regular Monday morning commitments:
- hosting a half-hour mindfulness/journaling session
- joining the intention setting call with the accountability group I co-run
Having these two sessions to draw my focus in helps to ease me into the working week.
What else happened this week?
😵 My brain was AWOL on Monday after two days of pretty intense peopling and travel for the conference the week before. I spent the day on easy admin to give myself time to process and recover.
🌊 I took Tuesday off to spend the day with my wife. We went up to Howick Hall in Northumberland and walked a loop to take us out to the coast. I remembered my binoculars; we saw a stonechat, a flight of swallows, cuddy ducks and a heron fishing in the sea
🏑 After our day out I attended my hockey club’s AGM. We agreed a new committee structure, elected officers (I’ll be co-captaining the 2nd team next season), and had a discussion about a variety of options for a new home for the club in the near future.
🎯 I returned to work on Wednesday full of enthusiasm and focus. Both Wednesday and Thursday were super productive. I wrote daily to do lists on my desk pad and just did one thing after the other. For the first time in a while it felt easy.
🗃️ The working week ended with more admin; getting everything set up for the next month’s accountability group, sending an update to participants on my group coaching pilot, updating finances and catching up on emails.
🤸 I spent Wednesday evening on my first GoodGym Group Run. I chose to run to the meet, as well as run with the group to our task location. The task involved helping Ouseburn Trust volunteers to clear a flight of steps leading from Lime Street to St Ann’s. We finished the evening with a four-station circuit session.
🌻 On Saturday I helped a friend in her garden. My job was to dig up a field of dandelions to prepare the grass for reseeding. I was paid in quiche, cake and an endless flow of tea.
🍻 After my day of manual labour I met my wife from work and we did a test run for her 50th birthday celebrations. We needed to test out a local pub to make sure it was right for a large group.
⚽ I rounded off the week following the final day of the Premier League. I wasn’t invested in any particular outcome but still found it emotionally exhausting!