Sunday night chit-chat and sealed pot update

Haven't done one of these for a while and since it just happened to be seven o'clock when I decided I'd like to post something, Sunday night chit-chat it is. First off, here's a photo from this weekend. This was the view from the bedroom I was staying in. The view from the room we were rehearsing in was similar - very hard to keep your concentration when all you really want to do is keep looking outside. Bear in mind that it rained almost the whole weekend so it looks a bit dim and gloomy but I think it's still gorgeous.

View from Haus Hammerstein

What are you:
Reading
The Godfather. Surprisingly to some, I've never read this. In fact, I only saw the film a few years ago. I'm really enjoying it, I have to say, it's an easy read, which is kind of what I need at the moment.

Watching
I've been watching Scandal recently and quite enjoying that. Don't think I'm going to watch much more of anything this evening, though.

Listening to
Fairly quiet here at the moment although not as quiet as it was in the place in the photo above. Just some traffic going past outside from time to time and the sound of the wind blowing through the window in my bedroom, which I really need to get up and close soon.

Cooking/baking
Not a thing. I do have a red cabbage to cook but I'm tired and I'm hungry and I think I'm just going to pop out to one of the restaurants on my street and have a simple meal out. The cabbage can wait until tomorrow (or if I feel a burst of energy after coming back, I'll put it into the slow cooker to braise overnight and have some ready to put into my flask for lunch tomorrow.

Happy you accomplished this week
Just getting through it was good. I find that dealing with grief tends to come in waves and this week was a bad one, when my sister was on my mind almost all the time because it seemed like every single thing reminded me of her and I was never more than a few seconds away from wanting to cry (or actually crying). It was good that I was away singing for most of the weekend, I think. I did manage to finally reply to an email from HR with details on the translating I want to start doing freelance in my spare time so at least that's over to them to deal with now. And I got the hoovering done before leaving for the weekend - as well as the dishes. That's such a simple thing but always feels good to know it's done.

Looking forward to next week
Concert next weekend. Have a day off on Thursday with a few appointments arranged and need to get the present for a colleague who has invited us all to her birthday party next Saturday. Also starting the cognitive behavioural therapy seminar that the counsellor offered to me. The way the practice works is that they have an introductory meeting or two to get an idea of what's happening in your life, how you're doing and all that, as well as getting all the paperwork out of the way. Then you do a short seminar series on how CBT works, what to expect etc. (including exercises to actually start helping yourself, I presume) - the one I'll be doing is eight weeks of one and a half hours. After that you can do further seminars tailored to whatever particular issues you might be dealing with (sleep, stress, bereavement or whatever) and after that you move on to individual therapy sessions, if necessary. It might not be the right fit for all people but I think it'll work well for me at the moment so I am cautiously optimistic that the whole thing will be helpful and trying not to focus on the fact that it involves getting up earlier on a Saturday than I normally have to get up during the week!

Grateful for this week
Growing up with a father who sang all the time and made it seem like the most natural thing in the world to always seek out a way to have singing in my life. I may not ever be as good as he was but I hope I'll always love to have singing as a part of my daily life the way he did.

Bonus question: describe your "perfect pizza"
Very thin, crispy base. Tasty tomato sauce on top of that, but not too much. Topped with cheese that is cooked to just the right side of golden, melty goodness and a couple of basil leaves to impart that little extra something popped on top just before serving. The simple ones are the best.

If you want to join in with Sunday night chit-chat, post away and then head on over to Half-Daily Dozen to link up.

Sealed pot update
As for my sealed pot, well, it has gotten the change from my purse but that's the most it has gotten for weeks now. Only four weeks left so there won't be a huge amount more going into it before the grand opening but I'm still going to take whatever is in it and buy myself something beautiful at the craft show in Dublin when I'm there. And I'm going to enjoy every single second of it. SFT has opened up the sign-up list for next year so if you'd like to join in with your own sealed pot challenge for next year, have a think about what goal you'd like to aim for, head over to SFT's Life after Mortgage and put your name down. Then you have four weeks to make yourself a sealed pot (i.e. stick sellotape around the top of a lid on some kind of canister that has a hole cut in the top LOL) and start saving.