Rebound

As the year draws to an end and I look at where I’ve gone and what the direction I’m heading in I realise this may have been a rebound blog.

I wanted to move on from ktandcoffee, the time was right for a change. QuinneyandHyde was a moment of pause, looking back and looking forward. 

As my work thoughts swirled and I started writing regularly to a group of souls, it made sense to collate that writing in a blog. 

Let’s me honest keeping up with one blog was always a challenge so now I realise that there can only be one. 

More than that I should be my whole me. Not parts, split and separate. I bring my whole self to everything I do and I need to bring that online as well. 

I’ve aligned my social media and this is the last moment of that other me. The me that blogged about leaving family and friends to live in New Zealand, that blogged my travels, baking, gardening and reading. Thank you if you’ve travelled along with me. 

So it’s all over to where I’m heading at the moment: 

www.katiequinney.com

The books of August

A heavy leaning towards the work part my life but a good reading month. With that and August Break it was a flowing month of creativity and learning. 

I read the first of Kate Granger’s books telling her story of her diagnosis and treatment for a rare form of cancer and how as a clinician she looked at healthcare from the other side. 

I finally finished Seven Habits of highly effective people, a book I’ve been dipping in and doubling back for about two years. I revisit it with each new role or period to refresh and remind myself of the application of these habits. 

My only non fiction of the month – Paradise Lodge – appealed because of the time period and the age mix but I found even that had more nursing in than I had anticipated. 

Mans Search for Meaning is the ultimate Why book. Incredible and eye opening. I had some of my ideas about concentration camps put aside and eyes opened to a reality that is hard to believe but written and told so you do. 

Red. Yellow. Green

Tea. Wall. Rug. Work. Home. Cat. 

Sounds reasonable. 

Beneath my feet

It rains a lot in Auckland. I may live in a city but if feels like a farm. That’s not a bad thing. Mud mud glorious mud. 

I’m reading

I’ve always got my head in a book and have a few books on the go at a time but this year I’ve got a new thing I’m reading.

Since doing Susannah Conway’s Daily Guidance course at the beginning of the year I’ve started a little bit of tarot and oracle card reading.

Purely for personel use as a way to delve deeper into the situations around me, my reactions and insights. It’s opened a whole new world to me. A world that I always equated with ‘the work of the devil’, I’ve taken a few steps from that veiw and enjoy a regular ritual of taking time for me to read from a different perspective.

The Books of July

Normal service resumed with four books read last month. 

Foxglove Summer is number five of the Peter Grant series from Ben Aaronovitch. Haven’t read them? Have a go. Random, odd, weird, well written and sometimes just daft. All in a good way. This instalment takes Peter out of London and personally it’s been my favourite so far. Was it the invisible unicorns or the smell of summer and accounts of British pubs. A good yarn. 

I always feel a little bit more smart while I’m reading Kate Atkinson. She’s a fairly new author to me so One Good Turn is only the second of her books I’ve read. I love the way her stories are crafted together by the characters. Set in Edinburugh this is one of her Jackson Brodie stories. He seems an ethereal yet very human character who I’m fascinated by.

Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz is the second in his Sherlock Holmes series. I enjoyed the first and this one was okay. Without giving a spoiler this takes you on a search that gently increases. I had a smudge of expecting something more and I wonder if they’ll be a third. 

My current hero is Atul Gawande and it’s simple really. Work in healthcare? Read him. That’s it. Building a case, evidenced, intriguing and human. Fantastic writer. Th Checklist Manifesto builds and surrounds the creation of the surgical safety checklist but is applicable to all checklist or times when you need to get things right. Brilliant. 

Midday

Striding to my next meeting today meant a few minutes outside in a blaze of winter sun. Moving from one building to another my midday alarm lasted out Dolly Parton and I get to plain why I’ve set an alarm for midday and why I have to take a photo. Good job I’ve got a bit of a reputation. 

Sweetness

Thursday’s always seem tough. The little voice telling me not to go to the gym after work was hushed. Work done. Gym circuit done. On the train. Heading home. Sweet As

Handwriting

Arriving home and a parcel awaits. The joy of the familiar handwriting of a dear friend.

It turns out there were two parcels. I sit here surrounded by books and goodies. It feels and looks like Christmas morning.

Leaf

It’s dark. It’s been a long day. But there is life. New leaves. A tiny plant growing in front of me. Life goes on.