Just back from a quick trip back to the UK. I can't really afford to be away for too long with my teaching. Luckily the half term covered one or two weeks of this jaunt but I needed to pop back on Friday and returned this afternoon. I'll sort of do a similar thing next week.
I would have preferred in many ways not to have done this however it was fine if a little exhausting. Partially it had to be done for boring financial reasons but also it needed to be done just to make sure that the students don't go too long without a lesson from me. I have excellent deputy teachers but really need to show my face if it's at all possible. It was lovely to see many of the students - nice bunch.
Also nice to be briefly home. I had a bit of that feeling one gets on returning of - "oh yeah, London is really a great place" and also similar views on my home (I'm really spoilt where I'm living here in Paris and feared I would have apartment envy!). Ate more than I should have (also a rare bottle of wine) which makes me feel very heavy today.
Popping back to London in many ways also is prompting more thoughts on how I live my life and the various pros and cons. I've so much enjoyed the freedom I have in undertaking this project. It has led to a different rhythm to my days. I also realised how much the first week here revolved around me struggling with various things and trying to get into a rhythm (eg struggling with the french course - I now have settled into that and understand more of what's required of me, also I know that, though I might struggle with something, it's all "work in progress". Similarly the first week I was juggling all sorts of options with the Gallay, which instrument/which crooks and then now that's all sorted so I can settle down and get some work done. The first week I had various financial concerns which were sorted out at the end of the week so the second week that was clearer). The first week seemed full of things that seemed unclear and by the second week they all seemed to have worked themselves out.
It's raining like crazy here in Paris. I've come back and tried to get to grips with "Prenoms Relatifs". I'm unsurprised but you can really spend hours on the language learning - just trying to get your head round something and then put the time in to make it more fluent. I need to make sure that this week I have a look at the Gallay Methode again as the last week there were a few things I thought I should go back to the source for - his thoughts on ornaments for example. In a funny way the more I start to understand about french the more difficult I find reading the Methode. Probably perhaps because you stop "gist-ing" the translation and start getting all tied up with details?
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