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David Lenton

David Lenton

— 2 min read
Reset
Playing Dad at chess, about to blunder a piece.

After the excitement of the last two weeks, I’ve taken a bit of a breather this week, just focussing on getting back to my habits, restarting my exercise regime after a couple of weeks off, and planning some future activities.

I did though begin the week with some active chess study, by playing my Dad on Monday morning before catching a train to London and the start of my journey back to Canada. Unfortunately, despite a reasonably solid opening, I managed to blunder a piece, leading to a swift resignation. So work still needed there.

I’ve started reading through some of Jan Timman’s The Art of Chess Analysis, for some variety. It may help.

I managed to keep up with the piano in the UK, and while there I also discovered my old copy of Czerny’s 101 Exercises, with comments from my music teacher in them. It’s good to know that I’m still making the same mistakes over 35 years later.

I’m still playing it dead slow… and still trying for even

I also found a short piece I used to be able to play, Tarantella, so I’m working on that as well as the exercises now. 

I’ve kept up with the walking and stretching, and I’m currently reading some science fiction as a break from my #52in52 reading list - Hyperion, by Dan Simmons. Very good. It follows a similar structure to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, so now I’m wondering if I should read that next. I’ve definitely read some of it before but I’m not sure if I’ve read it all. Are books that I want to re-read allowed?

More French phrases, from this week’s Duolingo French Podcast:

  • Dans la vie, tout peut changer en un instant.
    In life, everything can change in an instant.
  • La vie est pleine de surprises.
    Life is full of surprises.
  • Ils ont vraiment été là pour moi.
    They were really there for me.
  • Je veux le raconter aux gens.
    I want to tell people about it.

I also posted a new Diderot entry last week about riding my bike around Yelverton with my friends Clive and Peter. It was in response to the question “When did you feel most independent as a child?” - and out on our bike adventures around the village was definitely it for me.

Here we are at the blessing of the Yelverton sign, probably around 1980, under the careful eye of the constabulary. Our reputation proceeded us. I’m in the lead, followed by Peter and Clive.

Elsewhere, the house has also been undergoing a bit of a reset. We hired a dumpster and managed to fill it in a couple of days. Now at least we have space to sort through the stuff that's left.

Not sure what’s happening next on the #52in52 list, but Oliver is arriving on Sunday, so helpfully we can tick off a few things next week.

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