Tuesday 18 December 2018

End of the Year

Well, that was quite a term. The last time I posted was July! That is the longest I have gone without publishing a post. If you are still hanging on in there then 'thank you'. I have been using twitter for day-to-day work updates (that's cs_warden in case you are interested) but have otherwise rather disconnected from social media and things. In the face of ongoing political unrest and fear-mongers, I (like I am sure so many of us) have found that the less time spent online the better. I am rediscovering the joys of reading, watching the occasional film or tv show, and hanging out with friends (we had 20 folks round here on Saturday night for Christmas fun and games!).

However, lots of noticeable stuff has happened so it is probably worth a blog post.

In the past few months I have been concentrating on starting well at Loughborough. I am pleased to say that it has been a great move. I am surrounded everyday by excellence: my colleagues are smart yet friendly (a winning combination), the students are brainy yet open (ditto) and the campus is just a wonderful place to be, especially when the sun shines as it did almost all summer. My first few classes at Loughborough have been fun and I have enjoyed teaching the new material. Publications have been...erm...published and, most brilliantly, the Wrestling Resurgence project (for which I am commissioner and co-commentator) continues apace. I don't think any of us can quite believe that we are now a fully fledged arthouse wrestling company that promotes pay-per-view events. Do check us out if you are interested: instagram or our vimeo pay-per-view account if you want to watch a show (and you really should!).

In other news...we gained a new nephew (welcome to the world, Harry!). I/we jetted off for conferences in Munster, Germany and Columbus, Ohio. We still love travelling around as much as ever. After our two trips to amazing Japan, I have been learning Japanese at night school. It is hardcore but it is also fun to challenge myself in new ways. It is good for academics to make themselves intellectually vulnerable in this way; I am not a natural linguist but am so enjoying it.

And now we are nearly at Christmas. This week I am finishing bits off: completing article edits, spending grant money, planning next term's teaching material. I love sitting in front of the Christmas tree with the lights on as I do this, even when it is dark, grey and rainy outside as it is right now. We are looking forward to a little break in the Warden household. We'll have some days in Edinburgh and then we are heading off to Vienna for new year to fulfil a lifelong ambition of dancing the Blue Danube waltz through a Viennese square at midnight on the 31st.

Wishing you all a peaceful Christmas time and a wonderful start to 2019.
CSW