My flute that has turned so black :(
I spent my last few hours of 2006 in the kitchen making ice cream. That's how much i love working in the kitchen, but stimes i really doubt how good i can get when i spend proportionally less time there than people who truly love it too.
Xmas in my family is a lot about food. Church friends tradtionally come to my grandma's house every year to have their dinner before they set off to carol at other houses, so each year we spend the whole day cooking for about 40 people? I was thinking last xmas that as my grandma age, the each of us has a gradual growing responsibility. Not everyone welcomes the responsibility, but my mom is certainly quite enthusiastic about it. Isn't it unbelievable that my mom already knows what she plans to cook for xmas this year? Anyway, i was reminded again how pro my grandma is last xmas. I even took a video of her with her chopper and it's amazing how the video couldnt keep up with her speed and was out of sync with the sound recording. She's damn fast and precise! Makes me wonder how long she took to master that skill.
Y'know, i'm constantly reminded of the fact that i'm jack of all trades, master of none. It may not be so bad if i think that my knowledge in a bit of everything allows me to appreciate the skill / genre of art. But it is sometimes painful when i sit before the piano or hold up my flute to realise tt i always play the same pieces. Why do i not improve? Why am i not putting in effort?
Sometimes i comfort myself that i'm still searching for the talent i'm truly born with... something i can do effortlessly.
My recent favourites are baking, ice-cream making and photography. But this time i feel that i enjoy the process much more and perhaps, they require less practice and there's less room for error.
I've always thought i have a trouble with my discipline to practise... It's like i really enjoy learning about the mathematical theory, i just dislike plain, rote practising. I embrace creativity, unpredictability and flexibility, in a way these keep me interested.
The process of learning is just amazing. It links the gap between the unknown and the known and this interests me.
While typing this post, i realise that it could be my plain laziness that's stopping me from overcoming my inertia to practise. Either that or i constantly need to be interested or i want to see the outcome of my input quickly.
U realise？ The outcome of baking and photography is unpredictable. When i send a cake mixture into the oven or when i snap a picture, i do not know how it'll turn out? All i need is to wait for the oven to "DING" or to load the pic on my com to check...
2007, I hope to know myself better, spend more time on things i really like and become better at them :)
Mental note for myself: 记得要拿得起放得下
