Thursday 25 August 2016

Festivals, mountains and writing

Summer continues apace chez Warden. So far it has been largely taken up with a trip north and lots of proofing. We spent a week in Scotland, seeing family, enjoying the mountains of the Cairngorms (mostly in the rain it must be said) and doing a bit of Festivalling. Good time had by all! Saw some funky stuff at the Fringe including the truly hilarious Police Cops by The Pretend Men and a brilliant magical cabaret by Ada Campe (aka my friend Naomi Paxton). I felt as if there was a lot more free stuff this year. I remember back a few years when the Festival seemed to have rather outpriced itself. Now you can see a lot of great shows for free, supporting the artists with (hopefully generous!) tipping. Apart from locking our keys in the car in the most remote part of the Highlands (and relying on a magician mechanic who managed to open our car using cushions and a long piece of wire) the whole trip was rather lovely. We even got to eat at the incredible Kitchin. I've wanted to try the food here for ages and it totally lived up to the hype!

Apart from that I have been watching a lot of Olympics. I get rather obsessed every four years. I am not a big Team GB fan (apart from in dressage, hockey and women's boxing) but the whole sporting event is just terrific. My highlight, inevitably, was the Women's Hockey Team winning gold. It was an incredible performance. As a former hockey player it totally made my Olympics and, as a former Keeper, I can tell you that Maddie Hinch is a genius! When not watching Olympic sport I have been staring at a computer screen reading and annotating proofs. It has been a slightly frustrating summer work-wise so far. I have two brand new projects to start but it feels as if I have spent hours and hours reading and editing old stuff. I'm nearly there now. Started the new book chapter yesterday and felt much better about everything.

The next few weeks up to the start of term are going to be taken up with two wee European trips (to Italy and Portugal), a couple of cool events (we are launching our new interdisciplinary dance research group and I'm leading a table at Curve's theatre and higher education conference). Then it is back into teaching and writing. Looking forward to meeting our new cohort of students!

And, perhaps the most exciting news of the summer, I became Reader in Drama at DMU! I am pretty chuffed about this promotion, and looking forward to all the new challenges and opportunities that will appear in the new academic year.

Hope you are doing well wherever you are
CSW