Thursday 18 May 2017

Regaining life and time.....

I have thought long and hard about my blog 'Singing Teaching in Paradise' and have come to the conclusion that since I have retired from a large number of my away activities, i.e. adjudicating at festivals, masterclassing anywhere other than on Paradise, and those odd contracts which crop up occasionally, slowing down my life was a necessity. Over the last two or three years I have found the travel to these events becoming more and more debilitating. I was diagnosed as a type 2 diabetic, which I can control by a fairly strict diet, and I had a small heart blip last October which was a teeny warning to think about slowing down ! The diet is very difficult to achieve when I am away for long periods, and the constant flying was not good for my general health. Actually it is more that on leaving the plane I had to move fast on trains, buses or in a hire car to my venue for work, no time to be leisurely or rest before intense judging or masterclassing. I realised over the last year that I simply could not keep this frenetic pace going - and nor did I want to ! I vowed many years ago, to try and recognise the moment sometime in the future when I awoke in the morning with a feeling of foreboding or dread about what was to come. Thankfully I did recognise this feeling and with the addition of kind chats with family and friends, realised the time for reducing the pace of my life had arrived ! So now I am still teaching on Paradise three days each week, having reduced that from four, and I have made the decision to keep my Song School here, and to keep my wonderful visits to Abbeys. This means I have much more 'retirement' time when I feel much more like a normal person, whatever that may be. Thus the full and vocally oriented direction of Singing Teaching in Paradise no longer seems an appropriate vehicle for my ramblings. Singing and teaching is such an essential part of who I am, of course I will still be recording and commenting upon the music in my life, but perhaps that will be interspersed with more about my travel for holidays, to visit family and home doings as much as my semi retired professional life. I am excited and I am loving some simple things which I have never had time for. I am learning to cook........my daughter would cringe at this moment and tell me make sure my guests 'sign the poison book' before putting fork to mouth ! Well we shall see ! I hope some of my readers will appreciate the wider nature of the blog, and will enjoy the slower pace of the ramblings.....

2 comments:

  1. Wish you all the best with your downsized schedule, still busy but time to enter into second phase of retirement, how lovely and on an island.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Many thanks for the best wishes, I am looking forward to some 'other' life joys !

    ReplyDelete

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