I'm the King of the Swingers

Evening folks,
Having just finished my workout for the night (EA Sport Active on the PS3 - seriously tough!) I thought I'd sit back and write a wee post. Apologies for the lack of news over the past few days. So, I just about finished the 3rd year marking on Friday - a jolly mixed bag. It has been a quiet weekend chez Warden. On Friday night I made popcorn (Amish Rainbow popcorn actually, bought at a wee market in snowy Washington State) and watched The Jungle Book. I have never seen this film so it was a bit of a treat. It is so psychedelic! You could have guessed in was produced in 1967 - a year of free love and too much hash! On top of this, we've done a couple of workouts, watched a lot of darts (Wolfie was victorious in the end), caught up with the ironing and completely reorganised and cleaned my bathroom. The latter is part of my new year tidy up. I'm giving myself a few jobs each week.

This week, however, I'm not going to get a lot of house sorting done as I am off to London for a research trip. I'm leaving a large, fierce Scotsman at home so I shouldn't bother to rob us! I'm visiting a nice wee archive at the V&A. I'm even catching a play while I'm there -  The Country Girl by Clifford Odets. I might even get to Bodeans if I'm feeling particularly adventurous. Looking forward to reading some plays and finding some good photos for the book. Exciting times.

It was great to get back to our church this morning. I awoke to find a lovely Spring day. The sun was shining and it felt as if the Winter was slowly waving goodbye. We saw all our friends and heard some great preaching, as always. I love this time of year, especially after such a hard Winter (weather-wise, that is). So, I think I'll watch the football highlights and then head to bed in preparation for a long day marking tomorrow. You might not get another post until I return from the Capital so enjoy the week in my absence.

CSW

Entering the New Year

Copious apologies for not posting sooner. We only returned to Lincoln last night after a week and a half away. It was good to see family and friends, try out my snowboarding skills and read some jolly books on my Kindle. We only got to watch one film all holiday - Inception. It was just as good the second time around.

At chez Warden the tree is still up and dusty Christmas cards still sit on our coffee table. I am going to 'de-festivize' the place at the weekend. But first I have a few days of hard work ahead. It began today with some book writing, some new book proposal writing (more of that at a later date!), some book reviews  and some planning. I am a mad planner and list-maker so I enjoyed my first hour of the day. And tomorrow I'm off to university to get on with a pile of marking. I'm hoping for some fun essays to read.

While the PDC darts championship has finished, we are now enjoying the BDO version. D affectionately calls it 'council darts' and the standard is certainly a lot lower. But it's all good fun. Both my Stockport boys went out first round though. Boo!

So, as for New Year resolutions...well, I always manage to keep them for about 2 and a half days so I think I'll do without this year. We're pretty contented with the way life is going right now. We've both set wee challenges for ourselves over the coming months. Targets in all areas of life are really beneficial. I use them all the time in an academic context - deadlines and word counts. It is great to branch out and apply them to life more generally.

Anyways, I have washing to sort and D has challenged me to a PS3 rematch. I lost our basketball game miserably last night so am quite determined.

I'll post at the weekend, hopefully with something more interesting!

CSW

Just call me Shaun White!

Today I was mostly taking on the Scottish mountains on my board. I look very cool, calm and collected in this photo, but it was super scary! I am shattered tonight but it was a great day. Our trip up north was wonderful as always. The Highlands are just beautiful at every time of year but especially in winter.

Happy New Year one and all.

CSW

A quick festive post

Alright! So, here I sit with the fam, watching darts having eaten the world's largest helping of bread and butter pudding. Ah, I do love the Christmas period! I hope Father Christmas brought you all you wanted. I was thoroughly spoiled: a couple of 66*N jumpers from D (even though he had already given me a pile of pressies - naughty boy!), some lovely new jammies and Doddington Hall vouchers from the rents, and a Kindle from the in-laws. Goodness! I took my Kindle on the bus today and it was very jolly reading The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

We've spent a happy few days with the family. It was great to get to Carrubbers on Sunday and see all our friends, and we even squeezed in a happy trip to Ocean Terminal yesterday to spend some Christmas money. Tomorrow we are off to Kingussie (weather permitting) for some rest in the snowy Cairngorms. Then, it's back to Edinburgh for New Year, down to Stockport for a couple of days with Mum and Dad and across to Lincoln in time for mad marking week.

And so, back to the darts. James Wade is struggling...

CSW

Happy Christmas from Lincoln

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

Luke 2:11

Here's wishing all our friends and family a brilliant festive season and, most of all, the joy of knowing this Saviour.

CSW

What on earth was that all about?

The title sums up my reaction to last night's film. D suggested that we watch 2001: A Space Odyssey on blu ray. It was on my list of 'classic films I probably should have seen'. As the final credits rolled D (as always) asked, "so what did you think?" Generally I am able to answer this question, but this time I was stumped. About God? Well, for me this film felt completely godless. About evolution? Well, yes, it begins with monkeys fighting with bones but the human race doesn't seem to evolve...it just gets slightly less hairy! About the nature of humanity? Certainly. The 'death' of Hal was really quite upsetting. About Nietzsche? Absolutely! The whole 'ubermensch' business was clear to see throughout and I think this is the reason I presumed it was a godless universe. About subjectivity and perception? Oh, for goodness sake! Anyways, I'd recommend it if you haven't seen it yet. It certainly got us thinking and talking. I think I probably appreciated it for the incredible visual effects and, even more, for its amazing use of music. I guess it is multi-sensory but how that combines with all the philosophical stuff, I don't know - is it a film for the intellectual mind or for the senses? Or both?

I am currently enjoying slow but happy days of research and Book preparation. Today I hit 10,000 words of that tricky Language chapter I keep mentioning. Finally my argument feels as if it is coming together. The problem is that I am trying to argue two, seemingly contrasting things: first, language is vital to our understanding of a British avant-garde and second, that language isn't quite as vital as previous scholarship has presumed. This sort of argument ties me up in knots! But the mist is clearing...

...which is more than can be said for the weather which has hit the UK in recent weeks. We have had some serious frost here and today the snow was back which meant that we couldn't get to a party in one of the surrounding villages. The main roads were fine but with the promise of more snow (which didn't actually materialise) we decided to take a rain check. Here's hoping that all's fine for our upcoming trip up north.

So this evening we had D & M's special Christmas. We have had this exciting event every year since we were married so we don't have to cart presents for each other around the country. Warden Christmas always comes early, always involves something experimental in the kitchen and always means too many presents for me. To celebrate I made Nigella's Mexican lasagne from her new book, Kitchen (we love Nigella and she has rather generously put the recipe online) It's great, easy and it's veggie too! I used half fat cheese so, given that you are really just eating loads of veggies and pulses, it is also very healthy...particularly by Nigella standards. We both did very well. D surprised me with a gorgeous Ugg leather trench coat.

As usual he bagged himself a bargain and I was the beneficiary.

In other news, I recently joined a website called academia.edu where you can post your academic details and make web-friends with others working in your area. But the truly surprising thing about this online community is that it tells you when someone has Googled you! Emails come through to your inbox to tell you as much. Totally weird! It is a great site though and well worth joining if you have any connection with the academic world. Cheers Joanne and Will for introducing me to it!

Anyways, it feels very late but isn't so I think I'll go and have a snooze in a second. We are able to get our lounge really warm but the rest of the flat is colder than cold. Brr...It doesn't make me want to get up off the sofa and walk across the Arctic region that is our hall!

I'll post again over the festive season!

CSW

The start of the Christmas holidays

Today was the final official day of term. We finished off with a jolly school meeting complete with mince pies. I celebrated by fighting through the crowds yesterday to pick up a lovely cardie from Marks - they were on special offer for just £10, down from £35. A proper bargain! The students have exactly 1 hour to hand their essays in and I'm hoping for a couple of weeks of research. I have a pile of books to read and an Introduction to tweak.

We are looking forward to Christmas jollity and, so far, the snow has kept away from Lincoln. It seems to be attacking the other side of the country this time. But there is a chill in the air so what better way to spend our Friday evening than watching the final episode of Kings. We really enjoyed this series. It was beautifully shot and finely acted. It was also really thought-provoking...and virtually impossible to categorise. I love its generic complexity. We couldn't guess how it would end and, with just an hour to go, there seemed to be far too many loose ends. And, brilliantly, they weren't all tied up by the final credits. It was ambiguous and totally compelling. There would definitely have been scope for another series if NBC had realised what a amazing piece of TV they actually had on their hands. But, unfortunately, someone in their wisdom decided that X-Factor/Pop Stars/Celebrity Dancing show would be a better choice. More fool them, I say!

And so we are looking forward to a weekend of tidying, writing and reading. We are off to a Christmas concert tomorrow which is lovely given that for the past decade my December has been chock full of Christmas gigs. This year has felt a little quiet and sad. We are having friends round afterwards which is an excuse for something mulled and some cheese methinks! If you are wondering about my reading list which has been somewhat static for a couple of months then you'll be glad to know that I am also hoping to do a bit of extra-curricular reading during the holidays.

Anyways, enjoy the weekend one and all. I'm off to drink a cuppa and beat D at our basketball computer game. I got close last night...

CSW

p.s. students, you now have 50 minutes...tick...tock...tick...tock...