This has been a strange month. I began with Covid. Thankfully Bee was in Iran so she was safe (from me at least). Then I tackled some long awaited decorating. I got busy with some interesting research elements which I hope to publish over the next few months. The weather […]
Monthly book and film lists
94 posts
The month started out with lots of potential, as I had finished my teaching commitments and had lots of enthusiasm about the time ahead. However, we had some shit in our personal lives (damn you, real life!) and I have ended the month with what seems like Omicron symptoms. I […]
The last few years have been difficult for everyone. I am feeling positive about 2022. I don’t have any logical reasoning for this other than I now have a stretch of time ahead of me that is quite open and flexible. I don’t want to establish a set of expectations […]
I was looking in my diary earlier and my entry for this year was almost identical for last year. Christmas was written off because of Covid; I decided against seeing family in case we caught or brought Omicron to others. The academic semester had been insane this year and I […]
It has been some time since I was doing lots of face to face teaching. My timetable has been imbalanced and this semester was a hard graft, especially with the threat of Covid looming. When the work is this imbalanced, there is little opportunity to do much else, so life […]
October was a hectic month of teaching. It has been one of the most intense I have encountered as a teacher, in terms of contact time and the quirks of teaching in a pandemic. I started the month staying in hotels in case I contracted the virus, to protect Bee. […]
I finally set foot back in the classroom for the first time in 18 months. It feels very stupid and inevitable that I’ll be getting Covid in the coming months. It seems that ‘learning to live with the virus’ is code for ‘everyone catch the virus’. There are a few […]
As Covid restrictions eased I had the opportunity of a couple of mini breaks to see family. I got over to Ireland to see family and friends for the first time in ages. It was a busy few days and lots of catching up, but a lovely time. I also […]
July has been a mixture of unpredictable weather, unpredictable sport, unpredictable politics. General unpredictability all round. I enjoyed the football but not the ugly aftermath of the final. It seems our nostalgia for 80s fashion extends to hooliganism and racism. Very disappointing. The national mood feels febrile and tense regardless […]