Traveling Ninja Notes: Quick Update

Hi Readers,

I promise I have not been intentionally ignoring you. There just has not been a lot of excitement that I felt was worth sharing. My daily routine is pretty standard right now, with up early on weekdays for work, study in the afternoon/evening. Weekends are mostly study time as well, although I've allowed myself the occasional respite for other things, partly for some much needed mental time-out!

The good news is my study is going well. I am almost a full 6 months in to the program, so a lot of work is behind me, but of course there is a lot more to come. I am unsure how many books/articles/essays I have read to date, but at last count I only have about 30 left to read, which feels pretty exciting! This of course means the long hours of writing, revising said writing, formatting etc are yet to come, but I have already drafted a lot, so getting the reading done will mean I have more consistent work to fine-tune the writing parts.

My recent claim to fame and bit of excitement was participation in the 20 July concert with the Taranaki Symphony Orchestra. They put together a wonderful evening to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the moon landing. As part of this, I was asked to solo, playing Debussy's Clair de Lune. I was honored to be a part of the concert and thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to perform, something that has taken a backseat while I'm studying. Of course knowing I would get to play the big concert Steinway was just a bonus! The concert went off without a hitch though, to a nearly full theater and the review in the paper was brilliant.

Now that the concert is past, my excitement is the occasional trip to Auckland to refresh my library stash and the weekend time I have allowed for work on a baby quilt for a friend that is expecting. I'll share a picture when it's done, it is a new pattern.