Week 17

Aaaarrggghhh! Week 17! I’ve missed SO MANY WEEKS. It’s not because I’ve not been doing anything. Quite the contrary. Let’s have a quick run down of what is roughly the last month and see if anything stands out…

Holiday

One of the big reasons for my absence has been my holiday - 8 nights in Tenerife. I’ve already written lots about it so I won’t belabour any of the points here (and I’d still like to offer cautious tomes about globalisation, talk about class and holiday time, bemoan the presence of phones on holiday, and probably offer something a little more lighthearted too). Suffice it to say, the holiday was really fun, the kids had a great time, and I’ve already started looking to see when I can book another one.

Lads Weekend

I got together with the same group of friends who I get together with roughly once every six months. It was one of the tamer get togethers we’ve had but, to be honest, we’re all a lot older than we used to be. While we were at uni, a weekend social wouldn’t be complete without at least one act of mass destruction (usually somebody’s flat) and at least 80% of the group humiliating themselves in some way or other. This time, it was a walk through the Peak District to a brewery, some drinking games and then a curry. The curry was the same place I had my 17th birthday party and it hasn’t changed in the slightest.

Jobs

I checked in briefly with work for the first time since I’ve been away. It was hard to offer anything useful but it was nice to see people. Not much longer now until I’m back so I should start to remember:

a. That I have a job. b. What that job is, and how I do it.

I’ve also done some more ‘home’ style jobs including tidying up a bunch of outside space, doing some tidying, repotting plants and general stuff like that.

Children

Children continue to take up the bulk of my time. Babies who need to get back into their sleep routine, 4-year olds who need to start behaving and eating properly, and 6-year olds who demand constant attention. They’re all great, of course. But hot damn, they don’t half talk a lot of work.

DPhil

I haven’t made as much progress as I should have done here. This is going to be my big push for the next week I think. I’ve got a second paper that isn’t quite submitted and really should be. It needs about 4,000 words stripping out so I can send it to a different journal. That means an awful lot of heavy editorial work on a paper that’s already seen an awful lot of editorial work.

Publishing papers sucks. Doing analysis is great, but papers are so finickity. Sometimes I’m OK with that…you’re being more precise about things. But more often than not I feel like I’m having to be precise for the sake of being precise. I’m heading off objections that don’t exist just in case they might exist in the future.

Conclusion

Look, I need to level with you. I’ve not kept up with blogging my weekly updates but it’s because I’ve been too busy! No laptop and 3 weekends on the bounce either on holiday or on a lads weekend…it’s a lot! All good and none of it likely to fall foul of my primary worry pre-parental leave: that I’d end up wasting my time.