My favourite things - this week.

It's been a strange week.  It's been the kind of week where nothing immediately springs to mind - just the kind of week when it's a good idea to focus on the good moments.  It would be much easier at this moment to write about the bits that weren't so great.  Let's see how I go...

1. I finished knitting the bits of the first cardigan I've ever made for myself.  I have a back and two fronts.  I've put it aside for now while I rally my strength to do the next bit (joining the shoulder seams and picking up stitches for the neck and sleeves).  Even though it's not really a cardigan yet, I'm very pleased with my work so far - nice even stitches, the bits that need to be the same size as each other are the same size as each other!

2. A colleague and I emceed a team dinner for an IT crowd during the week.  The room set up was terrible and not what we'd been expecting.  We were in a marquee next to St Kilda Road, so it was noisy.  We had some audio challenges.  In spite of all these challenges we had the 50 guests laughing and mingling and having fun.  This was our brief, so we did well.  We learned some lessons about things to do differently next time, but overall we left a happy crowd behind us.

3.  At the same function one of the guests recognised me from the Glen Eira Strings concert I emceed in May.  She told me what a great job I'd done, covering the long gaps as musicians, instruments and furniture were moved on and off the stage.  It was great to be remembered and acknowledged in this way.

4. On a cold and drizzly morning, my resolve to walk to the office instead of catching a tram wavered.  I looked over at the crowded platform and it didn't look inviting.  There was no sign of the number 1 tram, so I decided to keep to my commitment (as part of the Global Corporate Challenge) and walk.  My favourite moment was when I arrived at the office about 15 minutes later at the same time as the tram.  I was very pleased that I'd used the 15 minutes to have some exercise rather than standing at a cold and crowded tram stop for ten minutes.

5. I've been having some moments of insecurity lately.  I'm co-authoring a chapter in an academic book.  Academics approach things in a very particular way.  We've agreed to produce a thought dump as a first step as we're living in different countries.  To me, a thought dump is a list of points, or a map of points showing the relationships between the points.  One of the team has produced eight pages of what feels like a polished essay to me.  I started to question what I'm doing and whether I'm qualified to even be involved.  I mentioned my worry about this to one of my colleagues in the field after a day of co-teaching.  She looked at me like I was from Mars and said that my approach was respected and that I'm fantastic!  Wow.  I was jolted back to earth and remembered that my points of difference is what makes me and my contribution valuable.  I'm the expert practitioner in the field about which we are writing.  It was a great moment to note.

How was your week?  What were your favourite moments?