2015 and we're already halfway in... January 2015

Ahem...Happy New Year...

So, this year, to save me from the regular embarrassment of not updating my blog often enough, I'm going to post a single epistle each month detailing the goings on in the world of the Wardens. I might also post occasional musings.

So what has happened since my last post?
Christmas came and went. It involved us travelling from Lincoln to Nottingham to Stockport to Edinburgh to Aviemore and back again. Despite a bit of illness we had a lot of fun and it was great to see everyone. Dogsledding in Aviemore was a particular highlight but then so was playing Christmas games with our niece.

Since there, here is the news:
 - We are in the process of relocating to Nottingham full time. This has been a long decision but it is definitely the right one. We should be moving in late February and are looking forward to enjoying Nottingham life and being closer to everyone. This also means that the next few weeks will be full of boxes and removal men. Although we'll miss our big old house (and particularly the ducks!), it is definitely the right time. I'll be doing a commute back to Lincoln for the time being and am actually quite looking forward to quiet writing and reading time on the train. I've been listening to the BBC's War and Peace over the past few days and reckon I could get quite into spoken books.
- I've been super busy with research work, including writing two abstracts, an invited lecture and numerous  forms. I'm also up to 20,000 words of the book which is a big relief as I was beginning to get a little anxious about lack of progress. It's my own fault - there are just too many exciting things happening! Last Friday I returned to one of my favourite archives at the John Rylands in Manchester. Pretty super that I can combine work things with seeing the family, including my rather beautiful 10-week old nephew.
- We watched The Hobbit at the Kinema in Woodhall Spa. I enjoyed it, although we agreed that there were way too many plot holes (what happened to those worm things? Anybody?)
- I've finished the marking. As usual a good mix of stuff this term. Looking forward to the forthcoming term when I'm back to teaching Modern European Drama and Documentary Theatre, my favourites!
- I've been reading a lot. I have made a whole heap of New Year's Resolutions this term, most of which seem to be going OK. One of them is reading a whole fiction book every month. I realise that this doesn't sound like very much but I spend all my days reading books about modernism and theatre and tend to neglect 'fun' reading. So far I've actually read two books (Murakami's new one [very strange!] and a rather beautiful if perplexing book by Carol Sheilds called Unless). I'm now on to Alice Munro's short stories. I read a couple of these when I taught Canadian Literature at Edinburgh but I haven't returned to them for many years. The first one was a bit disturbing but amazing. Looking forward to a train journey tomorrow so I can read the next.
- One of my other resolutions revolves around fitness challenges which, as you'll know, I really like! January is always an easy fitness month for me. It's about getting things back on track: light cardio and, this year, loads of yoga. While I don't really go in for the spiritual side of yoga, I really like the movements and the focus they force you to maintain. I'm following some pretty tough yoga sessions D bought me (yoga 'til failure!) but am really loving it. Hoping that by February I'll be ready to ramp it up a bit in preparation for a nice summer challenge.

The next few weeks will be full with term starting, moving house and three new publications all coming out - an article, a book chapter and, on February 15th, Modernist and Avant-Garde Performance: an introduction.

Hoping you're having a great start to 2015. I have high hopes for this year!

And today on Martin Luther King Day I leave you with this:

CSW

Blimey O'Reilly, where does the time go?

For the past two weeks I have had 'write blog post' on my to do list. And here we are finally! Term kinda took over for a while back there. It has been a super busy time but full of exciting things, little trips, fun days out and big changes. So let's go back a few weeks:

Since last we 'spoke' I have taught a whole term of classes on academic skills, dissertation and the musical. It has been a pretty good combo and I've been fortunate to enjoy the company of some lovely, hard-working students. I've been a great Asia gig and a fantastic WWE (wrestling) event. I've been down to London (work), across to Manchester (twice) and through to Nottingham (a lot!). We've had a brilliant if windy weekend up in Scotland with the clan in celebration of Uncle Charlie's birthday and a lovely weekend in Cardiff meeting the newest addition to our family: my sister's (Smelly's) gorgeously cute new son. I've ridden a lovely new young horse called Blossom who is a bit of a handful and watched a collection of great films including both first parts of The Hobbit and Dallas Buyer's Club. Oh, and I've finished the proofs for the new book (out in February), actually written some words of the next book project (relief!) and started work on an enormous new project that will run to over 1.5 million words (not all written by me). And in our spare time we have been (hopefully successfully) house hunting.

So all quiet then! Teaching has now ended and I can launch into some proper writing time...after I've been to meetings in Oxford, completed the marking, taught an MA class and written some new tv programme treatments that is. The weather has cooled down here in rural Lincolnshire and the animals are all preparing to bed down for the winter. The mornings and evenings are darker, and I have to remember my torch for the nighttime walk home. But all is good and jolly. We're beginning to make Christmas plans and are looking forward to a couple of weeks of family, food and general festive jolliness.

I hope wherever you are that life is treating you well
CSW

Political ups and downs, and the start of term

I write this while watching last night's WWE Night of Champions: some good matches so far but missing poor ol' Roman Reigns. The past few weeks have been a time of refocusing and throwing ourselves back into Lincoln life.

I had a very jolly week at the Theatre and Performance Research Association Conference at Royal Holloway. It was a really brilliant conference and I caught up with a lot of old friends while meeting a good many new folks. Unusually the keynotes were absolutely amazing, especially Jacky Bratton's rather spectacular and inspiring call to arms for the theatre history community. We had a wonderful graduation day; the sun shone as it always seems to on graduation day and everyone looked very smart and happy. Last year's third years were a really extraordinary group of talented people and we'll miss them around the LPAC. I've been working on a heap of new and old projects: book proofs, a couple of edited collections and some funding bids. It's funny but just as the new term appears on the horizon, suddenly you realise how many little jobs you have to finish before the students get back!

We've also managed to squeeze in some fun: a lovely day out at the Collingham Show meeting lots of lovely doggies and eating good food, a trip to the theatre to see Time and the Conways (an excellent production despite the brutally long first half!) and the customary wrestling watching.

For the past few months our lives have been rather dominated by politics. Being married to a Scotsman and having lived for six years in Edinburgh, we got rather into all the debates. In fact D watched absolutely everything (not an exaggeration!) on the referendum. And it came and went. I won't write too much about the fallout on a blog but if you have spent any time in our company over the past few days (or indeed follow me on Twitter), you'll know how we feel.

Anyways, Night of Champions continues in the background and I need more tea before University Challenge starts. Hope this finds everyone well. To those it applies to, have a great term: here's to inspiring teaching, protected time for research and Autumn adventures.

CSW

Summer adventures

Well, it's been quite a summer. We travelled for over three weeks, perhaps the longest trip we've ever done together, and I have so many great things to tell you about that I don't know where to start!

We began in Iceland where I finally fulfilled a dream of riding a beautiful Icelandic horse. Wow, they are super speedy but also very comfortable. We also went to the bottom of a volcano (the only place in the world you can do this) and ate at a stonking restaurant called the Grill Market. Next we flew out to San Diego and spent five days at the zoo, Chargers game, pottering in La Jolla and Torrey Pines, exploring the USS Midway and just generally enjoying this amazing and beautiful city. Next we caught the train to LA (actually Burbank) and picked up our hire car. This was the first time driving in the US but D did just great in his massive Chevy Tahoe. We headed up to Malibu where we hiked in the Santa Monica mountains, ate amazing fish, swam in the sea, visited the Getty Villa and drove about enjoying all the little communities that side of LA.

Then we drove up to Topanga and stayed a couple of nights in the mountains in a beautiful, eccentric hideaway. While here we went to the Getty Center, worked out LA style at Burn 60 and watched a performance of Midsummer at the Theatricum Botanicum. We returned the car and headed back to central LA for a few nights for a Dodgers game, a tour around Hollywood and the city, and WWE Summerslam at the Staples Center. Then we flew north to Banff for a couple of days in the Canadian mountains for lots of walking and glacier exploring. We took the Greyhound bus to Lacombe to visit our besties and their sweet family there, and D fulfilled his lifetime ambition(!) by going to the West Edmonton Mall. Then we flew out of Edmonton to Vancouver which remains one of our favourite cities in the world. The weather was warm again (lovely after a couple of freezing days in Alberta) and we took a tour of Gastown, ate amazing sandwiches, watched a BC Lions game, took a trip in a speed boat, visited Granville Island and enjoyed a celebratory last night meal at Market by Jean Georges.

So, just a typical Warden holiday of adventures and excitement. It was such a great trip. We met loads of super cool people along the way, staying in Air BnB homes, visiting welcoming churches, chatting to folks in shops. For the first time ever I have had a bit of post-holiday blues. Usually I am glad to go on an adventure but also glad to get home. This holiday I could have stayed in Vancouver for at least another week enjoying the warm sun and the cool vibe. We've been back three days and I am starting to get used to not having iced tea on tap, not being too friendly in shops and the chilly autumnal weather than has started to arrive in the UK.

This term is full of exciting stuff though so I'm focusing on all that. Plenty of conferences, collaborations, projects, trips. I have completed my term plan for up to Christmas and it is FULL!

Hope your summer was amazing and that you have exciting adventures planned for the autumn.
CSW

Research, sport, research, sport

So, summer has been full of excitement so far. The past few weeks have been full of sport chez Warden: football, golf, cricket. A certain gentleman (D) wearing a Mario Gotze Germany shirt was extremely happy with the final World Cup result.

What have we been up to? We've seen both sets of parents and enjoyed BBQs and just hanging out. Living pretty far away from our families means that when we do catch up it is always super fun.

In other news: we signed off all the marks and students received their results. Happiness seemed to be the over-riding emotion of our third years. We enjoyed our research day away on the 7th. Our department has five research groups: I organise the one on Popular Performance. Lots of interesting projects in the pipeline. And I enjoyed a jolly trip to London to participate in my PhD student's performance project. This was the second time we have ventured out to the Olympic Park to take part in this and we had a great day: certainly warmer than the last time we did it!

Apart from this, we've both been working hard in the lead up to our summer trip. The final weeks of July are all about clearing the decks. Often it means pretty long days. My research summer has been going pretty well. After starting with hugely ambitious plans to write a load, I realised that actually the best way I could use summer was to plan the whole book. This has meant days of thinking where I have been disappointed at my lack of words. However, today I finished my final book plan and I am delighted with it. I really feel I've got a strong project now. Cue relief...lots of relief. I've also been writing short articles, sorting out guest editorships for journals and filling in funding forms,  as well as writing my paper for the TaPRA conference coming up once we're back from holidays. All in all I'm pretty happy with the way the research is going.

I've also spent a good deal of time thinking about future goals and plans. Funnily enough I still work from September to September so am more likely to make 'new year' resolutions in September than in January. I've been enjoying a mixed exercise regime and am hoping to ramp this up in the new term, perhaps take on a really big challenge...but that is for the future.

In the meantime, I hope everyone is having a terrific summer whatever you are doing: a bit of work and a bit of play.

CSW

A great conference

Howdie friends!

So, last week I had the great pleasure of heading down to London and presenting at the British Association of Modernist Studies conference, 'Modernism Now!' It was such a great week of modernist scholarship - loads of lovely folks, some amazing research and a chance to sneak into the British library to do a bit of reading. This conference was all about updating historical scholarship and asking what it has to say to us today. This is one of my central enquiries right now so it was exciting to be at a conference that had this as the focus.

Apart from that, we've had a certain someone's birthday (he is pretty old but won't, unfortunately, ever be as old as me) and I did the 10K Race for Life at Clumber Park. Given that I am still getting back to fitness after my April illness, I was pretty chuffed that I completed it in a respectable (if not particularly speedy) time. It was a really nice place to run anyways.

The end of term came and went. Marks were signed off and all went well. It is lovely to now be deep into research time. I am spending long days reading, writing and thinking. This is one of my favourite months of the year. It is made all the better by the sunny weather, the little family of ducks who are still hanging around, the baby rabbits and (this morning) a bright green woodpecker sunning itself in the garden.

This week I have a few meetings and things, some writing to do and the great joy of the in-laws arriving at the weekend. Hoping for sunshine so we can BBQ.

Hope everyone is doing really well.
CSW

Coming to an end...

Today's emails can be put into two categories: interesting researchy stuff and data processing, marking stuff. This about sums up this time of year to be honest. It's a transition period, moving between different ways of viewing the idea of work. While there are a couple of bits and pieces still to be signed off, term is definitely winding down. The sun is out (most of the time) and I've made various plans and goals for the next few months - lots of writing goals but also some off the wall bits and pieces.

So, what has been going on? Marking certainly, but a number of other fun things. A few films (Philomena was particularly good), some jolly reading (a book about John Bunyan and one about the British Museum), a great conference at the University of Hull (where I took part in a performed reading of a C10th play by a nun called Hrotsvit) and some challenging horse riding.

Last night we had the great joy of heading over to Holmfirth for an Asia gig. Asia were my gateway into rock music some 7 years ago, so I have real affection for that band. They played a really great gig - lots of my favourites. It was, however, so loud that my ears are still ringing now. Put three rock legends (and a new lead guitarist) together and you will always have a loud gig!

So as term comes to an end, all my projects get going. I've got a lot on the go right now - books, chapters, edited collections, journal articles, funding bids, and bits and pieces. I've made some very strict plans for this summer in an attempt to get words down on the screen and not worry too much about craft etc. And it'll all be completed with a sporting soundtrack in the background. We are rather spoilt for choice: cricket tests, hockey world cup, rugby internationals, the World Cup (obvs), US Open, Wimbledon. And my beloved WWE never takes a break. It's rather nice to work to the noises of physical exertion elsewhere in the world.

Hope you are well wherever you are.
CSW