boing boing boing

Spring, it has sprung, or so they say. Right now things are all about forward movement--sussing out possibilities for after the PhD (what a glorious phrase!), visiting cities and countries I've never seen, trying out new skills.

It all makes me feel very, very springy. It makes me want to hurry the daffodils into full bloom. Right now, the vanguard is looking floppy and straggly, mostly likely due to southern England's return to damp and cold. (Note to readers who don't know me well: this about sums up my understanding of all plant life.) It makes me want to leap off the train and snuggle a frolicking lamb. (And then eat it.) Apparently, it also makes me want to ramble like a big weirdo to anyone who will listen...

Next stop: Luxembourg! My lovely funding body and I will be at the airport this time tomorrow, on our way to a long weekend in Luxembourg and nearby bits of France. I'm trying to convince myself that Luxembourg will show itself off at its most charming in the sleet, wind and rain that are forecast for the weekend. I'm sure that no matter what, though, the weather will be more than offset by the charms of our host, Carine. So excited to feel out my fantasy of living in France, even just for a few days!

The following weekend might involve four days of cycle camping with our friends Stephen and Miki. Then again, the way the weather is looking, it might not. Two years out of four, our Easter weekend cycle camping efforts have ended in sleet and snow and beating a hasty retreat--or not hasty enough, since both times we toughed it out for a night in the tent before slinking home on the train.

Then I'll have another meeting of the minds with my fantastic collaborator Claire Murphy-Morgan, fresh from a week's run of her show Editor at The Albany theatre in London. Onward ho, Recalibrate!

Then I'll be giving a paper at the Performing Documents conference in Bristol--which will involve me introducing myself shamelessly to just about fabulous person I've read about over the past two and a half years. Very exciting! I'm already having nightmares about being fed lots of parsley and poppy seeds and looking like a freak when I speak to them. (By 'having nightmares' I mean 'it just occured to me', but I'm sure I could conjure up a nightmare on the topic.)

And then, at last, I'll have a free weekend...