Week 28/2021: the streets of hobart

Week 28: week of 12 July 2021

What did I want to do better this week?

I continued my routine of getting up whenever I wanted to instead of setting an alarm for a stupid time in the morning and getting up really early. It’s hard to really know what affect this has had because I was on holidays and had no pressing need to get up early enough so I could be ready to start work on time.

Nice.

A bright sky over the beach at sunrise
Morning walks on holiday

So, how did that go then?

I think overall, I slept better this week. Most nights I only woke up once during the night. I tried to keep track of what time I woke up but I often didn’t check the time until some time afterwards. I lay in bed most mornings rather than doing what I said I’d do, which was get up if I woke at a half-decent hour. I’d say anything after about 5.30 is decent, as that’s the time I had been setting my alarm for, and it seems to be a fairly common time for me to actually wake up.

I also achieved my 9.45 shutdown every day this week, which has meant I’ve been in bed by about 10.15 most nights. I’m not quite ready to push that back any further just yet but I think that might be my aim, to be in bed by 10.00. If I wake up at 5.30 or 6.00, allowing for time to actually get to sleep, that should give me 7 to 7.5 hours of sleep a night, which I think is getting closer to what I need.

I felt a lot less tired this week and I feel like the dark circles under my eyes have faded a bit. I don’t look as tired. I don’t know if this is because I’ve been more relaxed because I’ve been on leave or because I’m getting more sleep. I guess it will become more obvious when I go back to work.

21 for 2021 update

Annoying undone things (thing 5)

I’m still reading one of the books on the list. I’m struggling with it but determined to finish it. It’s not that I’m not enjoying it, it’s just a more difficult read than other things I read.

I thought about a couple of the other things but I didn’t do anything. I don’t think that counts as progress.

Kramstable’s videos (thing 8)

I worked on the second video I want to complete this year. I’ve worked out how to do a few things I couldn’t do in iMovie, which has made working on this a bit easier and I don’t hate it quite as much now.

My mother’s story (thing 9)

This week I worked on the first section of the story. I’m not really sure how to approach it because it’s not my story and I’m not a biographer but I had an idea last week that sort of makes sense, so I started to rewrite what I’d already written into that format.

I also started to transcribe the interviews I’ve done with Mum so far this year to start filling in some of the spaces in the story. I’m still fairly clueless about what I’m doing but I’ve been doing a writing course that is helping me to understand a bit better how to plan and write a work of non-fiction. It’s been really useful.

The Compelling Frame course (thing 11)

I did some work on Lessons 11,12, 13 and 14. Lesson 11 looked at isolating the subject to give the image more impact, and most of the work was in studying images of photographers I like to see how they achieve this. It was an interesting exercise.

Lesson 14 was a mini-course in itself about storytelling with photography and as I worked through it it occurred to me, not for the first time, how similar the crafts of photography and writing really are. I didn’t complete that one but I want to make sure I give it the attention it deserves and not rush through it.

21 for 2021 summary

  • Things completed this week: 0
  • Things completed to date: 3 (1, 18, 20)
  • Things I progressed: 4 (5, 8, 9, 11)
  • Things in progress I didn’t progress: 9 (2, 4, 6, 7, 10, 13, 14, 16, 17)
  • Things not started: 5 (3, 12, 15, 19, 21)

What else did I do this week?

The streets of Hobart

In 2018, I started a photo project which has become my Hobart Street Corners project. It’s photos on my phone of Hobart’s street corners as they were at a particular moment in time. Nothing special, just documenting that moment. I started out doing it on my Instagram account and in January 2019 I decided to give it its own account.

This week I reached the 500-post milestone on the account, which I worked out means I have averaged a post about every two days for the last two and a half years. I know there are some corners I’ve featured more than others, some I don’t get to very often and probably still some I’ve never documented, but this is an ongoing project with no end date.

The corner of Collins Street and the Hobart Bus Mall, from just behind the Rvers store's neon sign.Two people are waiting to cross Collins Street
My 500th post. Collins & Elizabeth Street, Thursday 13 May 2021, 8.31 am.

I just keep photographing these corners and document our streets as they change.

The Hobart Street Corners Instagram profile showing 500 posts
500 street corner posts!

When did I listen and what did I learn this week?

I’m reading journalist Christine Jackman’s book Turning Down the Noise: The Quiet Power of Silence in A Busy World after Lil Sis recommended it. I really related to this passage

There was no point fighting the ocean. If you were out in the surf, you had to work with it not against it. Dad had taught me this when we bodysurfed together at Sunshine Beach. “Face the waves—don’t try to flee or fight. Read them and decide which you can catch and which you must dive under but accept that they will just keep rolling in around you, regardless.”

It’s funny how angry we humans get when things don’t go the way we expect them. And how self-biting. How much energy we waste in our fury and our recriminations when we encounter yet another reminder of the limited control we wield over our world.

What I’m reading this week

  • Wanderlust: A History of Walking by Rebecca Solnit
  • Turning Down the Noise: The Quiet Power of Silence in A Busy World by Christine Jackman
  • Lion (aka A Long Way Home) by Saroo Brierley

Habit tracker

  • Days I did my morning planning routine at work (Goal = 0): 0
  • Days I did my post-work pack up routine (Goal = 0): 0
  • Days I worked on my art (Goal = 2): 4
  • Days I read a book (Goal = 7): 7
  • Days I did yoga stretches (Goal = 7): 0
  • Days I had a lunch break away from my desk at work (Goal = 0 work days): 0
  • Days I went for a walk or did other physical activity in the afternoon (Goal = 7): 2
  • Days I shut my computer down before 9.45 (Goal = 4): 7
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