Loving the morning run
on Tina's Journal (China), 30/Jan/2011 14:53, 34 days ago
Post run stretching!After a few days of persistent rain it was nice to get out for a run this morning. The sun made its appearance, brightening and warming up the place. On the whole January has been a sunny month with little rain, however we did have a spell of cold weather with temperatures dropping down to 0C at night and not rising above 10C for a few days last week. I'm sure this helped contribute to many of my students getting bad colds! We are now back to temperatures of around 15C...much better! The weather hasn't been the only thing stopping me from my three times a week running ritual. I have been having physiotherapy on my right shoulder due to a slight tear in one of my tendons in the rotary cuff, so this takes up my mornings! It's not really painful to be honest but my orthopaedic doctor has advised physio. I have to undergo another 10 sessions over the next two weeks! I'm lucky in that the Italian health service is providing this for free with no waiting list and so I got seen to straight away. In my experience the health service has been pretty efficient here especially when it comes to preventative treatment. I am saying this despite the fact that my father has lost vision in his right eye due to a cataract operation carried out  4 years ago that didn't turn out as it should have. The eye surgeon is supposedly one of the best on the island!! Luckily my father does seem to manage  quite well with his one eye, but feels reluctant to have his good eye operated on in the future if required!Later today I have to prepare a test for my beginners class next week to monitor their progress as most of them will be doing the Trinity English Language Exams at the beginning of June. I think they'll do fine. I like the fact that they'll have a certificate for this years course to show what  advances they have made. It's also rewarding for me to share in the process. Hopefully, many of the younger students will probably have more luck getting a job with an English qualification in the future. Work in Sardinia is quite hard to find, Unfortunately, it has been hit quite harshly by the economic crisis...everyone is talking about it'Qui c'è crisi'(Here there's a crisis) people say. A lot of small businesses are struggling right now and we have noticed it locally. Small companies that a year or so ago were thriving, are now finding it hard to continue. Even the private school where I work has less than half of the students it had two years ago. You can sense the frustration in people and it doesn't help that Italy seems to be in a political mess! You kind of have to switch off from the problems that you can not solve personally and enjoy the things that are going well in your life. Meditation, doing the things you enjoy and accepting life for what it is, reconnects you to your soul and stops the bombardment of 'mind stuff'!