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- 23 Feb
My kingdom for a horse!
Over the last week, I have continued with the sketching and also the swim challenge, so with other things in the mix it has been quite a full week.
I have taken a picture of my first sketch of a horse, which I think has come out surprisingly well! We have moved on to portraits now and are following the basics of what Leonardo De Vinci outlined in how the parts of the body and face are equally spaced out from each other, which is fascinating. We went through the basics and when we finished with the portrait, our teacher told us to face the person sat next to us and to draw them. I burst out laughing as thought she was joking! Anyway, after an apology to by sketching buddy in advance, I made a start. My effort looked more like Anita Harris than the lady I was drawing but it wasn’t too bad even if not quite finished.
The swimming is going well and I am pleasantly surprised at how I am getting on with it. My endorphins are on the increase and I find myself looking forward to it. I have noticed the thought of getting to my normal 30 lengths with another 20 still stretching out before me, to be the daunting part but as soon as I get passed that point it seems to get easier each time. Interesting maybe how our brain puts limits on things – so we stick with what we normally do rather than stretching ourselves. It does emphasize the importance of challenging ourselves and setting goals to me.
So 3 and 4 of my 50 continue and I have also started on number 5. My lovely friend Louise suggested I pick 5 books to read. So I started researching women that have been inspirational or had a big impact in their lifetime. As I was doing that I obviously found 5 men that I was interested to read about. So I have chosen 5 of each and here is my list:
• Ann Frank
• Rosa Parks
• Benazir Bhutto
• Margaret Thatcher
• Grace O’Malley (the Irish Pirate Queen)
• The Dalai Lama
• Nelson Mandela
• Gandhi
• Martin Luther King
• Adolf Hitler
I have started with Gandhi and his autobiography.
I also have number 6 booked – to see Swan Lake at the Royal Opera House. Always wanted to go so that is in for April. This coming week I have a photo shoot with a national magazine – I never thought I would do anything like that, that’s for sure, so I will let you know how that goes next week!
