new year Archives » Angelina Egerton

2019 Goals – HAPPY NEW YEAR!

8 January 2019 2 Comments

Hello and a belated Happy New Year. How was your first week of 2019?

The House.

As I’m writing this, a plumber is replacing our boiler, which of course packed in just days after Tim and I moved in to the new house.

So it’s been a cold few days for us.

Nevertheless, it’s taught me to be very grateful for our usual way of life – have you ever thought about just how amazing it is to have hot water on tap? How wonderful it is that our houses heat themselves automatically? How blissful it is to have a hot shower and dry yourself with a warm, dry towel?

I’m feeling very grateful for these little things today.

This is a time I’ve been looking forward to for a very long time. Tim and I are in the house, and things are finally starting to settle down into a rhythm. The only things missing right now are a washing machine (lost by the removals company *sob*) and internet (being installed on Friday *yay!*).

Life.

My plan going forward is to put these blogs up on Mondays, but as you can tell, this week’s is a little late due to not having sufficient internet/spending all my time doing laundry at my parents’/trying to stay warm in the freezing-cold house.

Last year I feel like I made a lot of progress with procrastinating less, achieving most of what I set out to do and generally staying a bit more organised. In 2019 I want to continue all of that, but I want the increased productivity to result in more income, please. It sounds shallow, but my goal is to make more than I spend. I don’t want or need loads, just enough to pay the bills and have a bit left over for a rainy day/doing up the house/getting married.

I’ve signed up for some extra work online – teaching English to Chinese children – which is actually really fun and will hopefully tide me over while I find work as a harpist and harp teacher in York. I’m very grateful to a friend of mine for recommending this to me – you know who you are – thank you babe.

My piano will be brought over from Congleton in the next week or so, at which point I can start giving piano lessons in York too – hurray! I am also starting to give harp lessons online (when I have internet) so that is a super-exciting new venture.

Health.

Another 2019 goal of mine is to prioritise my physical and mental health, I’ve gone back to the beginning with my running and starting to work my way through the Couch 2 5k app, I’ll be practising yoga and meditation regularly and trying to eat as well as I can – nothing too strict but my long-term goal is to have a good, healthy quality of life for as many years as I can. Of course, once our garage gym is all set up, Tim and I can do our strength training in there as well.

This may be the subject of another blog post (let me know if you’d like to hear more on this), but the life of a freelancer can be a little chaotic (just a little), with late nights, early mornings, disrupted meal times etc., so keeping our bodies on a schedule when it comes to eating and sleeping really helps our bodies and our health. So, as I’m reading The Circadian Code by Dr. Satchin Panda at the moment, I’m trying to stick to a regular eating/sleeping/waking up schedule to see if that results in an increased amount of energy. Fingers crossed.

So, that’s probably enough from me for now. I really hope you are well (and warm) wherever you are. Check back next week for another post.

Chat soon,

A x

Uncategorized

2015 Resolution Update

29 January 2015 1 Comment

Hello all!

This week’s post is a round up of the New Year’s Resolutions I made for this year, and how they are doing now, almost a month later.

The first resolution was to make this month alcohol free. Yep. Dry January, who else was doing this? How did you find it? For me, it has been mainly quite uneventful. I did have a night off last Sunday so I could have a wee dram to celebrate Burns Night…

…but apart from that I’ve been good. I don’t even miss drinking in pubs – I like saving the money and just drinking loads of water – but it’s hard not having a glass of wine with dinner, or when friends come round with a bottle of wine to share and I’m stuck with Asda Price Low Calorie Ginger Ale (other brands are available). I haven’t really been a huge drinker since my days as a student (honest!) but I’ll enter February with a new appreciation of a glass of wine to relax in the evening.

My second resolution was to have a ‘mid-week weekend’ on Tuesday and Wednesday as I’m usually gigging on the weekend. Well, I’m not too sure about this one. I tried it for a few weeks and dutifully had my days off Tuesday and Wednesday, then the weekend came round, and I didn’t want to work then either! There’s definitely a different vibe on a Saturday and Sunday, treating them like working days just feels wrong to me. So I can’t have Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday off! I’ll have to stick with the regular weekend. I’m working on practising more in general, so having Saturday and Sunday off practice still creates a distinction. Crikey I love my schedules don’t I? Maybe my 2016 resolution will be to stop being so OCD about everything…

So just a short one for you this week. Next week I’ll be telling you about the little gadget I bought myself for Christmas last year – my fitbit one.

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Happy New Year 2015

8 January 2015 No Comments

So here we are, 2015, can you believe it?

This is the third Happy New Year post I’ve done – time flies – so I’ll try and make this one a little different (check out 2013 and 2014).

It’s natural at this time to assess the previous year and to look forward to what we want to achieve in the future. Last year I moved in with my boyfriend so that has been the biggest change. We are absolutely loving having our own space just to relax and spend time together. He probably does 90% of all the cooking, which leads to me eating far too much of his delicious food (carbonara is my favourite – I may steal the recipe for a future blog post, leave a comment below if you’d be interested in this).

Work-wise, things still seem to be ticking along nicely. I’m making enough to stay afloat, woohoo! I’ve started saving 20% of everything I earn, which comes in really handy at this time of year when my tax bill is due.

I haven’t been running quite so much as I used to and have joined a gym instead. I wanted to work more on strength but also I wanted the variety of being able to do things like Yoga, Body Pump and Spinning, then be able to swim and have a jacuzzi/sauna afterwards. I also like doing classes as once they are in your diary you treat them like appointments, so emails, phone calls etc. just have to wait until you get back. End of story. I can’t help it. I just love prioritising ‘me time’. Having already done two classes this week I can’t believe how much busier the gym is! So many people on their New Year’s Resolutions. I miss the old days before Christmas with Yoga classes of six and spinning classes of two!

So now for some resolutions, I don’t want to commit to too much and then fall off the wagon later, but here goes:

1. Dry January

No booze in January. I’m tweaking this ever so slightly and doing January 5th to February 5th to allow for a large family party last weekend. I’m doing it to stretch my self-control, and possibly save a bit of money. In addition to that, I’m trying to lose a bit of weight and I’m interested to see if quitting the drink for 31 days will help give me a headstart.

2. Have a ‘weekend’ during the week

Ok this is an odd one but bear with me, I nearly always have gigs at the weekends, so I’m trialling a system of making Tuesday and Wednesday my weekend – and treating Saturday and Sunday like normal working days. Normal working day means getting up at a reasonable time, and either practising, doing admin, going to gigs or something useful during the working day. Weekends mean sleep in, practise if I want to, go to the gym, go for walks, maybe cook a nice meal and generally potter about. I’ll be reporting back on this after a few weeks. Obviously it won’t be completely clear cut – I have pupils who can really only do Tuesday for example. But we’ll see how it goes. I may just end up binge-watching Sex and the City on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Let’s hope not.

I’m also aiming to publish a blog post once a week (on a Thursday, just in case you’re interested). So watch this space for more musings during 2015. It’s good to be back!

Career

Erm, where’s my time off?

10 January 2014 2 Comments

I hope everyone is settling in to the New Year nicely, who is keeping their resolutions?

So I just looked back to my ‘Week 2’ post of last year. It makes rather depressing reading. I was struggling financially and needed a part time job to tide me over. I felt out of control regarding my earnings and hated living month to month, not knowing if I’d be able to pay rent next month.

Well, a lot can change in a year.

I had so much work in November and December of 2013 it was absolutely fantastic, as well as a bit frantic. I admit I was looking forward to the quiet of January. I knew I’d made enough money to feed myself even if I got no work this month – which happily isn’t the case. I also feel a lot more in control of my finances since using the iPhone app ‘Back in Black’, which I talk about in the post Will We Always Feel Skint?

So rather than wallowing in the lack of work and freaking out about the future, I’m taking a different approach this year. I’m being generally a bit more on it, getting stuff done regarding admin, practice and other life-stuff that needs doing. I’m also using this time to take stock, to think about possible projects for the upcoming year and setting myself some targets. More info coming on those projects as and when… but I’m pretty excited already! So basically, when I thought January would be something of a holiday, I was wrong, it’s a holiday from three gigs a week but there’s still so much to do!

This last week I’ve been playing down in London, but annoyingly I’m not allowed to say what I was doing! This will definitely be the subject of a post around April time so keep your eyes peeled. This photo was shared on Facebook so I guess I’m allowed to share it here, check out the beautiful paper birds:

But that’s literally all I can say at this point, so watch this space!

In other news, my harp quartet have been brainstorming ideas for this year too. 2014 is going to be an exciting year. If you haven’t seen our website yet you can visit it here.

Lifestyle, Music

Happy New Year!

2 January 2014 6 Comments

I’d like to start by wishing all those who visit this page and read my blog a very happy and healthy new year.

I brought the new year in by playing with the British Concert Philharmonic Orchestra in a New Year’s Eve Gala in Buxton Opera House. The gigs I do with this orchestra tend to involve getting the music on the day and spending the rehearsal sightreading, then practising like mad in the breaks and hoping for the best in the gig. NYE was no different. The first half felt like back-to-back harp solos. O Mio Babbino Caro, The Pearl Fishers Duet, Meditation from Thais, it was never ending! These are pieces that I learnt the part for years ago – while at school – for ‘the future’. Well, I’m glad I did but even so the rehearsal was rather stressful. I spent the time between the rehearsal and the concert drinking coffee and note-bashing.

Weirdly enough, the gig itself went really well. Must have been that sneaky practice I did before. Part of me loves these gigs where you turn up and sightread, it means you can’t get stressed before the day because you don’t know the programme yet. On the other hand, I can’t hang a sign on my harp that says ‘I’m sightreading!’ just so the audience (and the players) will forgive my mistakes. Having the chance to fully prepare is obviously preferable.

The concert finished at around 12.30am at which point it was time to drive back to Manchester for a few chilled out New Year drinks (lemonade only as I was driving).

I’ve made a few New Year’s Resolutions, firstly, be less messy, secondly, carry on running three times a week (which I successfully achieved in December – woo!), thirdly, wear dresses more often, and finally, stick to working hours during the day (see my previous post on keeping schedules).

In fact, on the subject of running, here’s a photo from my run on the moor near my parents’ house. It was a gorgeously crisp morning, a little icy, but beautiful none the less:

Career, Music

Happy New Year!

1 January 2013 3 Comments

Firstly, I’d like to wish everyone who reads this a happy and prosperous New Year. And, I also want to thank those who have been reading my blog, and a big thank you to those who leave feedback in the form of comments – or in person.

On New Year’s Eve I decided to take a very last minute trip down to Hampton-in-Arden to see my sister. I’d already had a gig – performing at Sunrise Senior Living Retirement Home in Bramhall as part of their holiday celebrations. I had what I thought was a clever idea that we could sing some carols for a bit of audience participation. This was not met with much enthusiasm, or indeed, singing. Never mind! I tried.

I was actually in Hampton last New Year’s Eve too, in the same pub! That led me to ponder the things that have changed in 2012 for me and my career. My bank balance is probably pretty much the same, I’ve had to change my car (rest in peace Bertie), but what I have gained is experience in terms of gigs and teaching. I just hope it’s all heading somewhere – and that I’m heading in the right direction.

Anyway, moving on! I’ve made a few resolutions – some of them will only begin once I get back to Manchester later this week:

Start running regularly, 3 times a week – I didn’t go for a single run in December so I’m looking forward to getting back into it. I also have the target of the Great North Run to aim for.
Get up earlier Monday-Friday, days are ridiculously more productive if I drag myself out of bed earlier, every day needs to be like that.
Get out of overdraft and start saving – this will be huge if I manage it.
Write in my blog more often! Once a week – even if it seems like nothing noteworthy has happened!

So, what are your resolutions? How long will they last? Do let me know!