So, tomorrow I start my new job at the college where I did my placement during my PGCE year. I am greatly looking forward to it and yet still have that new job slight anxiety and sickness feeling. I need a lot of sleep to function well and ironically I tend to turn into a bit of an insommniac at times like this, so I am tired to boot!
I am also rather apprehensive that as soon as I go back to work I am going to get ill, my OH has been ill all over the Christmas break, as have the vast majority of my friends and family. I have managed to escape from all of the winter illness, which is not like me at all. Hopefully being in a school enviornment has toughened my immune system.
Normally I don’t do new year resolutions at all, but this year I felt rather compelled to make some life goals for me. But ones which are kind and achieveable, rather than expecting too much of myself. So here they are, with a short explanation:
To run 5K without walking
I have taken up running again and I am making slow, but steady progress and to get back to a level of fitness that I used to have I want to be able to run 5K without taking a walking break. Currently I can walk/run 5K in 40 mins, but I can only run for 20 without a break. So, a gentle, steady practice is the way foward.
To train for, and run, a 10K race without injuring myself
Now, for most people it would be a given that they would want to be in a 10k race and not injure themselves. However I have signed up for 3 10Ks now and each time I have dislocated my hip in the training process. This is because I focus on a goal and just go for it hell for leather, regardless of steady progression. So, I am reading running magazines and paying attention to the 10% increase of mileage a week. Hopefully I will get there without any dislocations. Incase you were wondering the dislocation is as a result of hyper-mobility; which basically means I am too flexible for my own good. Most of the time it is not a problem at all, I just have to be a bit aware of myself!
To have a happy and enjoyable wedding
Hopefully the reasons why are quite obvious! We are getting married at the end of July and it suddenly all seems rather close!
To finish my quilt
My mum is an amazing patchworker and I have seen the work that goes into it and I just don’t have the patience for it at all. Or the attention to detail; however I do like embroidery and the idea of a quilt, so after taking my mum’s advice I have started on making big squares of embroidery and then using patchwork to put them together. The idea being that the embroidery is like mini pictures, which is then framed by the rest of the fabric.
I have just completed the last embroidery square and so the next phase is to start to put it together and then the actual quilting.
I have deliberatley done this project as a ‘slow burn’ and doing the individual squares has meant that I have felt a sense of achievement each time I have completed a square. This next bit, however, is the long haul and I want to make sure that I don’t run out of steam before it is completed!
To do my grade 3 exam in the flute
Music has always been a really important part of my life and I have just started to have lessons in the flute again. Although grade 3 is not very high it is where I am at and I get a great sense of enjoyment out of it. Although I will probably not be able to afford as many lessons as I have been doing, I am hoping to be able to do enough to get through my grade 3 this year.
To enjoy work
After my false start in my teaching career I am hoping that this will get me back on track again to start enjoying the work. Teaching in the Further Education (16 year old +) sector is very poorly paid and you really must enjoy it to do it!
To find additional work
I am very pleased to have enough work to pay my bills, but I really do need to find some other work as well, otherwise I am not going to have much of a life at all. So I am looking for additional teaching work to supplement the hours at my local college.
So, that’s my plans for this calendar year. What about you?
