Day 3 of sitting in very uncomfortable chairs listening to people talk about interesting things. Hoping that today is a revelation...

This week I've mostly been collecting material for my game "Corporate or Cult?" and let me tell you it's a difficulty hard rating.

Calling English a 'rip-off degree' is one of the most blatant exhibitions of personal barbarism I've ever seen. You've demonstrated nothing but the poverty of your own mind.

But, libraries aren't very well protected either...

It was a two walks kind of day yesterday. Today is a yoga kind of day. Distraction is the name of the game right now. It'll all be okay🤞

Been for a walk, now making a proper meal from scratch, these are things I heartily recommend doing right now because while the world is going into darkness and there's not a thing you can do about it, you can distract yourself and take moments of joy from the small things.

Well this book hits hard. Tired of reading the same spooky tropes and guessing what was going to happen, I picked up Lafcadio Hearn's Some Japanese Ghosts from the Amnesty Book shop in Newcastle. Needless to say, it's anything but predictable 👻 #ReadingGhostStories 📚

This reminds me of when someone painted a large phallus on the school field in white paint, and the caretaker just cut out the paint from the grass, so you could still see the shape for ages. Not sure whether both examples are covert support.

Mini week motivation fellow PhDers

Brightened up my day this

My nearest conker tree has had its lowest branches all lopped off before the conkers had a chance to drop. The kids won't be able to reach them easily now. *Shakes head in a melancholic fashion*

Went to a public lecture recently in an old theatre that is now a nightclub. Used to go to the nightclub years ago. It still has the same smell, the same inexplicable heat in the upper floors, the same warren-like structure which meant you lost people regularly. Still the same random eccentricness:

What research! What a story! It seems the statue of the winged lion in Venice may have been a tomb guardian brought from China by Niccolò & Maffeo Polo - &, once in Venice, it was modified to resemble the Republic’s emblem – the winged lion of St Mark ... www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

Well this brightened up my day!

Watched Versailles, The Musketeers, and Marie Antoinette in a row. They are now the definitive versions in my mind, down to the actors who appear in various roles meaning that those characters are canonically related, and there were several men in iron masks. Historical accuracy.

Hedgehog in the garden last night, an absolute whopper I'm happy to report 🦔

Making me think of Cris whose mother read The Communist Manifesto as a bedtime story. He always delivered lectures looking at points well above our heads. Cycled everywhere. Once gave us all a copy of Thomas Hardy's The Oxen at Christmas and read it to us with such reverence.

Lone Canada Goose wandering round a priory garden.

A middle-aged person asked why farmers put so much time and field space into just growing hay and straw. It's harvest time near us right now, and they've lived here most of their life. The same person talks non-stop about investing in alternative currencies. I think I'd like to be alone for a while.

What's the most niche Angel of the North merch or ephemera money can buy? This is a window crystal. #AngelOfTheNorth

Submitted the PhD thesis, went for a walk in the sea, saw a lovely poppy patch (pictured). Little breather before we start preparing for the Viva (start the PGR Summer School tomorrow). #PhDLife #PhDMilestone

Investigative podcasts peaked with "Death In Ice Valley" re: Isdal woman. I've listened to two podcasts back to back which have used the most spurious information prevented as factual evidence, totally obscuring the very important messages about social injustices which were part of it. Infuriating.

Visit to the library yesterday - free book: one of the Reading Agency Quick Read titles, "The Suprise Visitor" by Cathy Bramley. These are great original stories. I know I'm not the target market, but these make great back pack books (emergency reads) 🎒📖 #LoveLibraries

Finished reading The Night Counsellor by L K Pang - a really engaging read. I have been to the library, book group, and book shop today. My book loving rediscovery continues... 📚

It's the return of outdoor reading weather! First couple of chapters of Sara Nisha Adams' The Reading List (2022) - which promises to be a goodie.

The crocs on statues was a marketing ploy. *Screams into the abyss*

A while back I found this amazing business card in Who-Ray in Silver Street in Stockton-on-Tees (anyone not familiar, it's got a bookshop, record shop, gifts, cafe, like a street from a cosy work of fiction). It's embossed, it's amazing, thought I'd stumbled onto a real life detective agency,🧵

Every job targeted to me on LinkedIn is either voluntary or things like "Remote AI Content Checker"... Could cry, will cry.

Weekend #ReadingForFun: Joanne Harris - The Moonlight Market. Waited for this one to come out in paperback as I'm getting older, and hardbacks make my hands and wrists hurt. Anything read for fun should be away from the desk, cosy and snug. Reading in bed also has the added face clunk factor.

Date for submission of thesis agreed - it's time to start dotting the eyes and crossing the Tees 🤞#PhDMilestone

Got a personal response to an application that I had less than a ghost of a chance at getting, acknowledging the application, which has caught me off guard. There will be a shortlist in due course, but for now the dream lives on.

Today, an uplifting talk from @dottyb.bsky.social on imposter syndrome - which really buoyed me up to write part of those applications I felt I wasn't good enough for. It's a refreshing chance when people are open, honest, and encouraging!

Yesterday an Early Career Researcher event was full of stories of competitive and toxic over-working environments, isolation, negativity and doom.

You can always tell something about the photographer from a portrait, it's always a double mirror as much as anything. I recognise that look.

It's amazing how utterly motivated you can become to do a grueling and arduous task, once an even grimmer task looms over you like a spectre of doom.

First bat of the season spotted 🦇

No pressure quite like being part of an interview panel for your institution to possibly receive an important watermark. You feel the imposter syndrome for not being worthy to be there, the gratitude to your institution and not wanting to let them down, but also wanting to be honest.

Really enjoying this book, particularly the sentient fig tree.The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak. #CurrentlyReading

Disassociating from news and current events and following the Elsie Inglis statue story. Now Val McDermid and The Proclaimers are getting involved.

There's notably a lot of mole hills around everywhere we go this year. Anyone else noticed the rising number of #moles?

An exhibition I've had a small part in opens tonight. The Secret Life of Bottle of Notes: Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, at MIMA, Centre Square, Middlesbrough mima.art/exhibition/t...

Today I've mostly been cutting bits of plastic into shapes, and moving things, watching things being unpacked. It's amazing what goes into preparations for an institution exhibition. I got to use a museum-grade mini hoover. I've been trying to not get too enthusiastic about it all.

Absolute travesty that this has rolled on for so long. But it's okay, it's just kids' education and futures at stake.

I'm not saying that my brain is under strain because of the PhD stress and lots of other things, but in today's yoga class I was inadvertently putting everyone else off because I had to think for a very long time which was left and which was right. #PhDLife

Launch of the new exhibition at MIMA in Middlesbrough Thursday 13th March. Some of my PhD Research has a small part to play in this exhibition. Quiet preview from 16:30. Main event 5-7pm: music, artists talks, refreshments. All welcome.

When you're proofing, and you're milling over whether it is a full stop or a comma in the footnotes and references, then you know you're getting significantly closer to the end. #PhDLife

The sunset sky was rather magical when finishing work tonight. #SunsetSky

I think we should all embrace World Book Week 📚 🌍🌎 regardless of age, job etc. Let's all spend a bit of time reading for fun. What are you reading now? What have you just read? What would you like to read? Which book would you like to be able to slip into whenever you want to escape?

Sometimes the algorithm scares me... "I'm in a wheelbarrow, and this time it's personal". Maybe everyone is haunted by that Bergarac reboot add though (as a point of balance).

Ah sweet, I was feeling very old, but there's now a horse older than I am, proper buzzing (about the horse).