Goodbye 2011

So, I realise that I appear to have written the last two posts the wrong way round, but it only just occured to me that I hadn't really reflected on all the good things to have happened in 2011. I like a bit of reflection so let me share some of the things that have happened:

We travelled...a lot.
As a Scotsman D is a natural-born traveller. I am less so, often preferring the everyday comforts of home to living out of a suitcase for a week. Actually, given that our family live all over the country, that we enjoy taking holidays and that I am doing a bit of travelling with work, we probably spend a fifth of the year living out of bags. I have no idea why we bother with wardrobes! This year we have had the pleasure and privilege of swimming in the sea in Norfolk, exploring the beauty of the Scottish Highlands (I have to do this twice a year no matter what, otherwise I start going a little crazy - thanks to Charlie and Liz for always being so gracious in opening up their home to us!), climbing the Great Wall of China and wandering through the parks and streets of Beijing, and revisiting our fab friends in Seattle and journeying up to Vancouver and Whistler. If we haven't bored you with the photographs, then you can bore yourselves - check out our photo albums! Add this to jolly weekends at weddings and gigs and we really have been 'out and about'.

We listened to some amazing music
I now feel like a seasoned gig attender. This year I have seen Yes, Iron Maiden (I know, cool huh?), Roger Waters and Whitesnake. In a couple of weeks we are catching Steve Hackett and then in June we have tickets to see the wonderful Bruce Springsteen. There are two guys I still want to see live: one is him. I love how gigs challenge your expectations and bring you into a community. I am very glad to have discovered new music over the past few years, though my heart is still with the folkie tones of Rudsambee!

We explored Lincolnshire
While we don't live in the most exciting place in the world, there is a lot to be said for this county. I love heading up to the farmers' market and talking to my hummus man. The cathedral is still as beautiful as it was when we first arrived. Trips out to Doddington Hall and Uncle Henry's are always so fun, as are walks through Whisby Nature Park or Bransby Horse Home. Yes, it is quiet and sleepy, but Lincoln is a fun place to be.

I watched a lot of theatre
I guess this comes with the territory but I have found myself in darkened auditoriums a lot this year. Other than my students' work, my favourite productions have both been at the Sheffield Crucible: Othello and Company. Both absolutely amazing. Live theatre is just the best, even if I do get a little too much of it on a day-to-day basis.

We made new friends
For us, 2011 was a year of either making new friends or strengthening relationships. We've had great times of intense chat and bright days of waterskiing (there is a picture of this somewhere!). I am very grateful that, even while we are both so far away from our buddies elsewhere, we have made new friends here.

I finished a Book
It has been quite an exciting year work-wise with a raft of new challenges. And I actually finished British Avant-Garde Theatre. It is exhilarating and a little sad to finish such a major project. It has dominated our lives for a long time! And now there are a load of new projects to grapple with! I am so glad to have such interesting work and I'm looking forward to all that 2012 will bring.

There is probably plenty more to say but overall 2011 was categorised by a spirit of thankfulness - for our families, friends, health and happiness. Good times, undeserved.

CSW

January silliness

At this rate you will only get two posts in the month of January! Wow, it has been non-stop so far! As soon as we got back from Auld Reekie, we were straight into final marking and assessment modulation. This is a rather long-winded admin task. Every term it confirms that I am no administrator and renews my respect for those people who are! We are nearly done but I am still online at nearly 8pm awaiting the final marks. It'll all be sorted by tomorrow though.

And then I got sick...again. Actually felt pretty rough this week and now poor old D is a bit sniffly. I have just about recovered. The new courses are coming together nicely and I had some research encouragement from Stateside - new publication on its way this year! Apart from all this, I've been finalising arrangements for the two first year courses I am coordinating. Am excited about both of them!

Last night to celebrate me feeling better and to give ourselves a little time out, D and I went to the cinema. We had tea at Homemade Burger Co., our current fave, and then spent a lovely evening with RDJ and Jude Law in Sherlock Holmes: game of shadows. Interestingly, here is a film that gets better as you go on. It starts rather slowly really but by the final chess game, it is really all quite enthralling. I like what everyone is dong with the Sherlock Holmes' stories right now. The BBC series is very different but equally compelling.

So, as for New Year Resolutions which I promised to share with you, here goes:
Get things in order and keep them in order. I have systems for everything but so often they all fall apart. I would like to have plans/schemes and stick them this year.
Try Zumba. D got me the game for my Wii Fit and, now I'm feeling a little better and have done a new year yoga stretch (ouch!) I feel ready to go. I like to mix up my fitness regime sometimes. This past 6 months hasn't been brilliant as I've been under the weather a lot. Determined to regain the fitness levels I had this time last year.
Read more. It may sound rather odd, given my job and the amount of reading I do each week, but I don't actually do that much 'reading' e.g. enjoying or meditating over a really brilliant book. Hoping to do a little more of that this year.

So, there we go. I'm going to put our Tesco order away - thank you Mr Tesco Man for helping me carry everything up the stairs! To leave you with an interesting image: I managed to eat a whole can of mushy peas on my own tonight. Wow! How good are mushy peas? D and I have very different ideas about fish and chips. For me (North England lass) they are naked without mushy peas. For him as a Scotsman (actually specifically as a Edinburgh laddie) they need salt and sauce. If you haven't tried Scottish chippy sauce then...I wouldn't.

Anyways, on that culinary note I'm off to finalise the marks for release tomorrow, to sort through the shopping and to drink more tea.
CSW

...what the...what?

This was my response to this week's episode of Game of Thrones. Well, we didn't see that one coming! This week has been a jolly mixture of book writing, HEA teaching courses (brilliant - the good folks at CERD are just terrific!) and some lovely play reading. It has been mostly the big hitters of Modernism: Eliot and Yeats. The Book is coming to an end. After the afternoon's session I can really see the finish line.

On Saturday D and I spent all day at home. We even got takeout pizza for tea. What made us so unbelievably lazy, you ask? Well, D was grappling with photographs so you good folks can enjoy our China snaps. He then redesigned my website. It now looks amazing! Check it out. I'm delighted with it. I am also now on Twitter. D has been on this social network for a while now but I have resisted. I am not on Facebook and have some ethical issues with social networks that I won't bore you with. But Twitter feels a little different. I am really enjoying engaging with folks through this medium. Lots of academic institutions now make their announcements via Twitter so it is definitely the way forward. If you are a Tweeter then you can follow me if you go to 'follow me!' on the new website.

Two new China-based films dropped through our doors from Love Film this morning so I'll look forward to seeing them. And we're off to Stockport tomorrow. On Friday night we are going to be enjoying the jolly rock sounds of Whitesnake. I'll write a wee review early next week.

In the meantime, enjoy the week.
CSW

The new and improved Molemaison

Having been writing this blog for a year now I felt it was time for some spring cleaning. Wonderful D took it upon himself to make some improvements and here you have it! The idea is to keep the slightly quirky, personal angle while also including a bit of academic gumph. If you have no interest in this side of Warden life (and, quite frankly, why should you?) then feel free to ignore it. I've found over the past year that my blogging intentions have changed slightly. At first I just wanted to keep our friends up to date with all that was going on. Gradually, however, it has become a place to put my occasional rants/thoughts and to document my own academic experience in the hope that it might help others. So, the blog has now grown with me. If The Book is of particular interest to you then it now has its own bespoke page which will document the journey. I'll update this every week. If you just like photos of snow then you are in the right place! Hopefully it is still really easy to find your way around. Let me know if it works for you.

In other news...the university has taken the unprecedented step of closing campus until Monday. The snow is truly unbelievable here. D and I cleared the car with a broom tonight - we are talking feet not inches! So tomorrow is another unscheduled research day. Today was very productive so here's hoping tomorrow will be just as good.

We finished watching From the Earth to the Moon box set the other night. We've been enjoying this wonderful HBO series for a little while now. It is a beautifully directed and written set of programmes. We both learnt a great deal about 1960s/70s space travel. As a child my uncle and I worked out the distance from the earth to the moon and back and how long it would take us to travel it. I've always loved space travel so this was right up my street. D and I ended up having a hypothetical conversation about whether we would become an astronaut if we could. So now we are on to a new series, Kings. Taking the lead is Ian 'Lovejoy' McShane. It is, somewhat surprisingly, a Biblical allegory, basing the story on the life of King David. We are really enjoying it so far. I'll post a proper review at a later date.

Anyways, enough already! Promise I will post our America photos this weekend. They'll be worth the wait.
CSW

Just so there's something else to read...

...I'll be sending the details of the blog round to friends, family and assorted others, so I thought I'd write another brief post to let you know we are still alive (always a promising start), finishing final exam marking and surrounded by hundreds of flat-pack cardboard boxes and chaos. Moving house is so miserable! The silver lining? A large roll of bubble wrap sits in my bathroom. Popping fun! We move in one week from today so this is, as Europe so eloquently put it, 'the final countdown'.

So, happy new year to all. See you in 2010.

CSW

Welcome friends!

So, welcome to the new blog. After a good couple of years writing sparklingly witty prose for the blog Relative Pitch (Rudsambee Company of Singers) I am leaving Edinburgh behind and moving to the jolly wee (am I allowed to say that anymore?) city of Lincoln in January. To keep you up to date with all our news and views (a bit of assonance there for you folks...let's start as we mean to go on), I thought I'd start a new blog. It will take over where Relative Pitch left off...except with substantially less discussion of the Rudsambeelets, the joys of Jen's innuendo and the delights of Estonian composers.

Posts over the next few weeks may be a bit sporadic as we get set up but keep checking in and we'll get going as soon as possible.

In the meantime enjoy the Christmas season. Wishing you blessings and peace.

CSW