Category: Journal

  • Be back soon

    It’s been a bit quiet here recently. Normally I can blame a spate of radio silence here on a busy work schedule. However my excuse is nowhere near as arduous this time. I’m on holiday this week. After a delightful Easter spent with family (and too much chocolate), S and I have escaped for the…

  • That’s just not cricket

    Oh dear Australia, what have you done? Over the weekend news has seeped out that the Australian cricket team tampered with the ball in their latest test match with South Africa. Captain Steve Smith has been banned for one match and fined his entire match fee after admitting the team’s “leadership group” came up with…

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    Travel real tale: What I’ve learned

    I travel for work. I know that sounds very exciting and glamorous – and it is, sort of. But there are a few moments when plane-hopping round the world delivers the sort of head-shaking, face-palming experience that you get in any other work place. Whether it is a 5am flight out of a back-of-beyond airport…

  • International Women’s Day: 11 pieces of good advice

    In honour of International Women’s Day, here are 11 great pieces of advice from great women. That’s all, I’m keeping it simple because the best way to get the message of this day is through actions, words. But this is a blog, so here goes: “We need to do a better job of putting ourselves…

  • Oh lord, it’s snowing

    “Holy sh*t, it’s snowing.” I imagine that statement was uttered up and down the country this morning. Possibly slightly more in the South, where we are rather more shocked by the appearance of the trappings of winter. You see it is one of the great British traditions: we are always surprised by the snow. The…

  • 19 questions with…me

    I’ve always wanted to do one of these and since this is my blog I figure I can do what I like with it. There is also a bigger point here – two bigger points in fact. The first is that some of the answers to this surprised even me and sometimes it is entertaining…

  • ‘The great laying down of identity’

    I recently started keeping a journal again. I say “again”, I am not really sure if I ever properly kept a journal before. I’ve had notebooks that I’ve written bits down in and I once kept a diary for a whole year of my life to see if anything exciting happened – it did. But…

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    31 things I’ve learned

    I’m turning 31 today. I figure in the last three decades I must have learned something useful on top of the multitude of interesting but somewhat impractical academia. So here goes, I am going to get all Baz Luhrmann on my experiences and see what I can come up with. Take responsibility for your actions…

  • Getting stuck in the office kitchen

    If you work in an office you will be well aware of the perils of the dreaded office kitchen. It is a melting pot of pointless conversations, social awkwardness, passive aggressive post-it notes and magically disappearing milk. Some people use it as a refuge to escape their desk for a moment, but others desperately try…

  • Supporting the Hammers – for a night

    “I’m forever blowing bubbles…” Actually I’m not. I feel like I should admit early that I am not a West Ham fan. My dad, however, is and for his birthday my sister and I had plans to take him to a match. So this evening we wrapped ourselves up, draped ourselves in maroon and sky…