Revised 6B460 Review
(written in August 2020)
My first 6B460 review was meant to include a review of a visit to
Belfast, but because of the Covid19 Lockdown all my travel plans got altered. I still plan to visit Belfast, but my thinking has led me to plump for a prefered alternative travel goal instead.
1. Enjoy 25 holidays with mum and Amy
I organised our first holiday to Goring in 2006 following a family wedding. After that I organised one or usually two holidays a year for us. In 2020, for our 25th holiday together, we visited Cromer in Norfolk at the end of the Covid19 Lockdown. I look back with fondness at all our times away despite all the ups and downs.
2. Work in libraries for at least thirty years
I celebrated thirty years as a librarian in February 2020,
just before the Covid19 Lockdown, by visiting the British Library’s Buddhism
exhibition. I was pleased I celebrated my three decades of library work with
some style. At the end of March I started working from home. I hope I will keep
working well into this decade.
3. Keep a blog going for ten years
I started my blog in 2013, the year my dad died. My blog is
now seven years old and I have scheduled posts until 2023. So hopefully, even
if I don’t write so much in the future, my blog can keep going for a full
decade.
4. Play classical piano pieces in public for ten years
I started playing classical piano pieces in public in 2010
shortly after starting as a semi-professional piano teacher, teaching my
daughter’s friends. After facing a crisis of venues in 2018, I managed to keep
playing until January 2020. I don’t know how much public (or private) piano
playing I will do in the future.
5. Practice Buddhism everyday
Living through the Covid19 Lockdown has made mindfulness
feel even more important to me. I am getting better at mindfulness, meditation
and ‘il dolce far niente’. I go for a walk everyday and enjoy slow tea and
food, listening to music, watching films, drawing, gardening, reading books and
poetry. I find I am much calmer and try to be kind and patient.
6. Live a good enough life
Luckily we managed to celebrate my mother’s and my
daughter’s birthdays in February 2020, before everything shut. It was a time
when appreciating a slower, simpler life was becoming more of a priority. I
feel that I have done what I could with what I have and hope that will
continue.
