Sunday 4 February 2024

2024 Weeknote 5

An exciting work week, because I actually managed to get on top of my workload. I know it's folly to say it out loud but, yey. The A-level marking was hugely burdensome and I finished it very late: it was hanging over me right up until Friday and that made every evening quite miserable, as I tried to force myself to finish it late into the evening. I'm not very good at making myself do late-night marking but I no longer see this as a failing.

The term started crazy busy and hasn't really improved, but this week is (I say with caution) potentially quieter and then it is half term and I'll be in France, skiing. Almost close enough to touch. 

On Tuesday, I went to a lecture from Sathnam Sanghera on his new book, Empireworld. Lizzy and I went together and managed to snag a comfy sofa for the hour, which was a definite win. It was an interesting talk but a powerful reminder that he is a journalist, not a historian: the political commentary was strong. Looking forward to reading the book, though. 

On Saturday I presented at an online history conference, which meant I got a free pass to the lecture from Corinne Fowler in the afternoon, which I shared with Lenin and a delicious pastry from Farro. More aspects of British Empire, I am just lapping this stuff up this year. 

I wound some yarn this weekend for two sweater projects and ultimately cast on the Madelinetosh Dandelion I bought at Jimmy Beans nearly a decade ago, for an Isabelle Kramer sweater, Topolino. I want to knit a Confetti sweater striped in red and grey, but then I wound the red and saw it by the blue...hmm, maybe I want a nice red and bright blue stripe instead. Enough unsurety to pause starting it, anyway. 

Having wound it and cast on, I then spent the weekend knitting hexagons for the blanket. I now have the end in sight, having made a start on all of the different shades I had amassed (I think...I almost fear to look in the stash) and I think I have 26 left to go. It has struck me that if I can manage one per day through the month of February, I will be nearly done. This seems like an impossible goal but, we will see what I manage. 

I finished the audiobook version of Fearing the Black Body, which was good but (as mentioned last week) quite high brow and, if I'm honest, I think she made a better case for fatphobia having its roots in class over race. I started a new audiobook looking at the legacy of slavery in America, called How the Word is Passed, which is a tour of key sites in the USA and how they commemorate the legacy of slavery. I've also been plugging away with The Vanishing Witch which was hard-going to start with, but I've got quite into it now. 

We continue with Better Call Saul and, over the weekend, I started my rewatch of Game of Thrones. I love the difference in production value in the first series - series 1, looking up at that Weirdwood tree which is clearly made of fake leaves, plastic veins at all. By the end of the programme - CGI zombie dragons and Ed Sheeran. 

I keep coming across snippets and bits of information about ultra-processed foods and the advice to aim to eat 30 plants a week, so I thought I would see how I got on this week, without really trying. I'm not sure lemon really counts as it was just the peel, but I was quite pleased with my list. I could have added wheat but I'm not sure that's quite in the spirit of the game. I've also started drinking a daily greens powder, boost up the vits a bit with the ski holidays coming up. 

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