Weeknote, 19/12

Bit of a catch-up, this one, so let's call it "month to date".

Knitting:

The Telluride Aran. It goes really quickly when I have time to work on it, but there hasn't been much time. I also had to pause for a couple of days when I realised I had made a mistake with my clever fudging of the pattern to get it bigger on the bottom than the top; it took me a while (and the advice of the knitting group) to get past it. I'm nearly finished with the front. Still hopeful it will be done before the end of the year. 

Going to:

• London, the first weekend in December. I stayed in the Thistle Barbican, which was a nice change but a long way from Putney, where I had dinner with Sib and Mother Hand. We haven't had a family dinner like that for years so it was really fab to catch up. The next day I attended my course, then spent far too long in Waterstone's looking at history books. 
• Bristol Cathedral Choir Christmas concert - third year in a row, and it is always excellent.
• Our Christmas concert - the staff choir did O Holy Night. I only joined the tenors by accident once.
• Tutt's, for Strictly and Chinese, last weekend.
• Bath Christmas market. I bought a star-shaped wreath from the seller who makes dried-fruit-festooned creations. Love it.
• Out in Bath for the end of term. This was a long and fun session, though with slightly fewer people than usual. I think everybody is just exhausted. 

Eating:
Fewer salads and more bread. As the end of term approached, it was all I could do to get my breakfast made for the morning; I'm still rocking the overnight oats because I've learned that anything less healthy than that will pretty much ruin my morning.

Learning:
I finished the final part of my senior examiner course at the exam board (hence the trip to London). It was all about how to run a training course and it wasn't that useful, but it is done now. I need to complete the online modules in the next couple of weeks but then I can tick that off and add it to my CV.

Obsessed with:
My deadlines.
Marking I needed to do but couldn't find time or brain space for.
Sleep - I just couldn't get up to 6 hours during the week. I was surprised by how well I managed on it.
Stalking people I don't like on Twitter and disparaging them.

Entertained by:
I have really enjoyed the Last Kingdom. I was most disappointed to discover it was only eight episodes instead of 10. If I was enjoying my current Bernard Cornwell read (Redcoat) then I would plunge into that series as well.
It's also been a month of Strictly, and the return of Grey's Anatomy and Luther. And I have started watching the Man in the High Tower which seems good.
All TV this month. There was the Christmas concert, as above; but there hasn't been much time to go out to be entertained. I am hoping to see Spectre next week.

Feeling:
For the first half of the month, seriously under the cosh. One chapter was left to go, but I did manage to plug away it it regularly so that it came in gradually, rather than in one big rush at the end (a la chapter 3 - which has just been returned to me with some serious edits required, naturally).
Once that was in, euphoric, and a little lost. What did I do with my evenings before? Shouldn't I be upstairs working?
As of today - just very proud of myself. It was as horrible as I had feared, but I was able to do it. Go me.