another half a year

Travelling: collage

Last night we watched Mike Leigh's Another Year on DVD. This made a change from the first interminable (because its taking me ages to view them and send them back) series of In Treatment, which I am almost at the end of.

Another Year was enjoyable in the usual Mike Leigh way, although the central character, Mary, was deeply irritating and annoying. However I guess it is a situation we can all relate to: the friend who is very needy, who starts to become unwelcome due to their neediness. Seems all the more poignant when this happens to a counsellor (Jerry, who is married to Tom!) and her internal struggle was clearly portrayed.  And again as a therapist, it is something I can relate to. Interestingly, we are just setting up a veggie garden in our backyard, which is an important feature of Tom and Jerry's relationship (theirs is an allotment). Nice metaphor for growth and sustainable living. As Voltaire said at the end of Candide: 'we must cultivate our garden'.

As it is almost half way through the year, its time for a review of this blog, which records and reflects on my attempt to 'do what matters'. This process will take a few posts I think. My initial thoughts are: firstly, I am amazed I have persisted, and secondly, I wish I managed to write a post more often! I often think about something I want to write about during the week, but don't make the time to do so. I need a more seamless process: its often the downloading of images that slows me down, as I realise it will involve more time and energy than I have at the end of the day. Also the past few weeks have been very stressful and busy with seemingly more marking than any previous year - not sure how this happened.

The next two weeks are still going to be busy, but with more variety and fun! I am driving to Dalby (out West this time) to do a training for another CYMHS team on Wednesday, and I am going to Melbourne for the weekend to see my sister and her mum who are visiting here from the UK. Hurrah! Next week we will be going whale watching and other seaside stuff at the Sunshine Coast. Another hurrah! I am looking forward to all this and may obviously still not have time to post much. But I'm going to try hard to do more than usual.

more later.