Weekly journal - Shaping up to be a good summer

For all of my fellow Brits, especially those living in Southern England within 40 miles of London or so; hasn't it been ridiculosuly hot this week? Though at the time of writing this, it is much cooler at 22 celcius. I can concentrate much better today, my brain doesn't feel like it's being fried. it was so hot the other day, some stuff in the house actually bent out of shape. I kid you not.

I chose to go into iRock's office for those days!

Talking of which, it's still going well with the new job, coming up to week 3 and today was the first payday for me since starting, tax codes are all good and my wages landed in my bank - I always worry about this stuff but it's all setup nicely, very efficiently too, so pleased about that.

Returning to Funchal

We did cancel our original holiday when I was made redundant but have rebooked it. No money was killed in the process, in fact I think we've got a better hotel over in the beautiful city of Funchal, Madeira. I believe it will be our fourth time on this beautiful island but we're taking Tina's mum with us for the trip as she has been recovering very well from her stroke of about 2-3 years ago. Warm climates help her mobility no end. I shall of course be seeking out photos and sounds whilst there, as ever.

We hope to visit some parts of the island we've not been to this time but will hire taxis rather than hire a car.

I am so looking forward to going back on the cable cars there too, a lot of fun an the view you get of Funchal up above is fantastic. We should be able to get up to the gardens that overlook the city and the Atlantic Ocean beyond, such a special view.

A few weeks ago, I thought I was never going to work again!!! I was in such a bad place.

Music

I am trying to play catch-up with some plugins that I have been meaning to get for quite some time both on the iPad and desktop. I hae fancied Omnisphere and Serum for use in Ableton, Logic etc on the Mac. I recently took the plunge and subscribed to Apple's Creator Studio, so that I could get Logic Pro. There are a lot of musical gizmos I fancy getting but I'm putting them all on hold this year, just to get things back on course after all that happened ealier in the year - seems that I am on back on my happy path now and it is all too easy to spend on the wrong things.

Kayaking

I've not sat in a boat since October but have started teaching youngsters to paddle on Wednesday nights which all began this Wednesday. My first students were a couple of Indian boys, one of the two brothers had been before a few times but his young brother, never had kaayaked before but is a good swimmer. So I made sure that they had their bouyancy aids on, helmets on and all the safety steps were covered and then got them to choose thei boats and paddles. It wasn't long before they were in the pool and I waded in around them, showing them how to hold the paddles, and carry out some basic strokes.

It was very rewarding, as only one of the brothers needed much attention, the other lad was confidently whizzing around on the water and the novice, soon started to paddle in a straight line and I was giving him some asistance, leaving him to his devices more to the end. I felt very proud, I could see his mum was watching on from the poolside and she was very thankful at the end.

Teaching is a really powerful thing.