Week #16, 19 – 25 April 2021

Monday

On Monday morning, I had my weekly music lesson with my teacher down the road. This week was a violin lesson (I alternate with violin and piano), and I learnt 2 new scales: G major and A major. I think my general intonation is getting much better; now I just need to focus on holding the violin correctly, and watching my point of contact (where the bow meets the violin strings).

After the lesson, I made some delicious chocolate brownies just in time to eat before having my swimming lesson in the afternoon! After swimming, I had my evening maths course with Damian, in which we did some really complicated Further Maths A-Level polynomials and imaginary and complex numbers. I was very tired by the end of today!

Tuesday

The last couple of days have been lovely and warm (the weather has certainly been a little bonkers for a few weeks recently, constantly changing between snow and sunshine!), and today it was hot enough to go outside in a vest and skirt and not be chilly. After having a walk in the morning, I made some notes on Ancient Greek theatre from Tilly’s A-Level textbook. Having finished my Oresteia analysis, tomorrow I’m going to get started on Sophocles (then Euripides will be next on my list, and then Aristophanes). It’ll be interesting to see which of the ancient playwrights is my favourite after I’ve read a few more.

In the evening, I had my physics session with Dave. We learnt about radiation, the different types (alpha, beta and gamma), their effects, the equations you use to calculate them, who discovered them, and so much more! It was a really fun lesson and I learnt a lot, because I haven’t covered this topic in the GCSE textbook yet.

Wednesday

This morning, I got straight to work on my Theatre in Ancient Greece essay-summary-thing. I predominantly focused on how the theatres were built, the mechanical devices used to create special effects on stage, the actors and, specifically, the chorus. The chorus was a group of around 12-15 Greek citizens (the number increased over time) who usually sang, danced and spoke in unison, and provided commentary on the events of the play. There would only be three actors who had to play a variety of different roles during a production; for convenience, they wore masks and costumes that they could easily change to switch roles without being recognised by the audience as an earlier character. All actors in Greek theatre were male, and some had to dress up as women or goddesses to play female roles.

In the afternoon, I moved on to the next text in my Great Books to-read list: Sophocles’ Antigone. I haven’t read much, but it’s currently somewhere in between The Odyssey and The Oresteia on my scale of how much I enjoyed the Great Books I’ve read so far!

Thursday

Having researched which of the Oedipus plays is best to read first, I decided today to stop Antigone and start off with Oedipus Rex. It is such a wonderful play! I think at the moment, it’s probably on a par with The Oresteia, which is certainly saying something. It’s about an Athenian king called Oedipus who learns that he has unwittingly killed his father and married his mother. His mother, Jocasta, kills herself at this news, and Oedipus puts out his own eyes in shame and horror. It’s a pretty gruesome play!

In the afternoon, I started a Massolit course on Oedipus Rex with a very engaging lady called Dr Rosie Wyles, who’s a lecturer at the University of Kent. Then I watched the Bake Off with my mum, and made a mug crumble in the microwave which was… interesting.

Friday

I finished Oedipus Rex today! It was that good; it only took me two days! We started watching a performance of it on telly. I think watching it being actually performed, with real actors and backdrops, makes the play much more real and gives it more dimension than simply reading a script ever could.

Weekend

On Saturday, I woke up and didn’t get out of bed for about 4 hours! Instead, I spent the majority of the morning in bed reading Atlas Shrugged with a cup of tea! Home-education at its finest 👌

In the afternoon, Nanny came round and we watched some of the Bake Off together. My mum made a delicious mushroom omelette for dinner, and then we finished the Oedipus Rex stage production we started yesterday. The acting was brilliant and the whole thing was really engaging and interesting to watch.

The next day, I actually got out of bed in the morning, and finished off a self-portrait I’ve been doing over the past couple of weeks. In the afternoon, Andy and I played the video game Trine for a good few hours (!), and I made a delicious mug ganache crumble 😋😌

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