What did I achieve this week?
1. Moved office. Knick knacks are now all in place. Everything tidied and put away.
2. Finally after months of trying to get to it I sent out some letters for the local oral history project Anne and I are in the middle of. When I say “in the middle of” I really mean, ” a thing we started probably 18 months ago and on which we still have a huge amount of work to do”. Still, no progress should be sneezed at, coughed on or even met with a surreptitious clearing of the throat.
3. Chatted with another colleague about the paper we are “writing” together. When I say “writing together” I mean that last year the paper got to a certain point and then we kept setting meetings and cancelling them because I hadn’t found any time to look at it any further. It is now at the top of my to do list.
4. Made a “To do” list ready for Monday. Actually I made two “To do” lists. One is for teaching things and one is for research things. I’ll let you decide which one is more attractive and which one will probably take first priority. I’ll give you a hint. They are not one and the same.
5. Felt like I was starting to clear a little bit of head space for thinking about research. This ephiphanous moment (is that a word?) occurred when I was talking to a friend’s daughter about her assignment on television that she is completing today at what will remain an unnamed Brisbane university. Suddenly I realised how much I missed talking to other people about TV. I hope I didn’t frighten her. She’s only in her second year. I may have got a little carried away.

So it’s not much but it’s a start. In between I spent a lot of time doing my other work, much of which seems to consist of sending and receiving emails.