Settled in Nottingham

So, welcome back to blogging! We have been in Nottingham now for three months and it has gone by in a lovely blur. The apartment we finally found is fantastic - close to the centre of town, overlooking the Trent, with a pool on site. I feel very settled here (even though there are still a few boxes to unpack).

There have been lots of exciting events, opportunities and trips over the past few months. Here is just a taster of what has been going on in the lives of the Wardens:

1) I went to New Orleans! I presented a paper on British holiday camp pro-wrestling at the Popular Culture Association Conference. I had the best time. The conference was good if a bit wacky - Martin Sheen gave a talk so it was also pretty showbiz. I met a lot of super nice people, including contributors to the forthcoming edited book, Performance and Pro-Wrestling (Routledge 2016). New Orleans is an amazing place! I ate some incredible food (gumbos, crawfish, jambalayas) and listened to some cool jazz, including at the legendary Preservation Hall. I visited galleries, took a walking tour and wandered my way round the amazing cemeteries. It was a great trip and I felt quite sad to come back to the UK.

2) I've given papers in Oxford (Avant-Gardes Now! conference) and Manchester (Raymond Williams Now! Conference) - everything is 'now'! - and have played around in some archives.

3) I've watched some cool indie wrestling in Sheffield (ICW - well worth catching them)

4) The end of term has come and gone. I saw some great performances - very exciting, vibrant and risky (in the best possible sense of that word). All the marking is now done (phew!) and the admin is signed off. This is always a pretty terrific feeling.

5) We went to Copenhagen! D and I fancied a proper holiday so we took ourselves off the the Danish capital where I spent five days prancing around castles, wandering through art galleries (sense the theme!?) and pretending to be Birgitte Nyborg. Ever sense I watched Borgen I've wanted to visit Copenhagen - Birgitte is a bit of a hero. It was as lovely as I had hoped. We stayed in this great little apartment in Vesterbro - Air BnB wins again.

And, on top of all this, I've been sorting out the house (everyone will be pleased to now we now have sofas), doing lots of writing in an attempt to finish the first draft of the book by September, attending way too many meetings, reading lots of great books (including Jessie Burton's The Miniaturist which you need to read if you haven't) and catching up with new series of Treme and the first series of Daredevil which is a bit scary than I thought it would be given it's from the Marvel franchise.

There are some exciting things coming up, one of which I'll be able to share in a few weeks (cryptic!). D and I will be off to America at some stage and I am trying to chain myself to the desk for a while to get writing done. Fortunately I absolutely love working at home!

Hope everyone is doing well.
CSW