Coming down the home straight with just months to go

Dear Void,

Sometimes we get battered around by external forces. You can see these as tests, I suppose. Or as some way to level up. I’ve come to think of them as arbitrary and likely, so you might as well bend like a reed and be moved by them. You end up less battered that way.

Just over a month ago I received an email from the real estate agent saying ‘[o]n instruction from the landlord, please find attached a Rent Increase Notice.’ By $30 per week. $30 per week. In one hit. My theory is that this guy, this landlord (yes, he swans like one), reckoned on a dip coming and is shoring up his investment. Which was where I lived. So, I moved. Now, you might be thinking well, why not stay and pay the extra and save yourself the heartache (I loved living there) and the damage to your body (I moved most of it myself) and see out the last 6 months of your research in comfort. Yes. I mean, yes. But that doesn’t count on my stance as an arbiter of ethical behaviour. And I’d decided that the swanning landlord was showing little. So I moved us to just the cutest little place which, to my absolute delight, is in a block of units with friendly, interesting, creative, communicative people. Therefore, reader, we win!

So, I’m back in the studio. Or HDR hub. Or whatever we call this place. And there is calm and industry here. I don't feel too battered around by having to move. And I'm so please to see my peers again. I have a 3-week research trip to organise for the end of September. And a talk to prepare for when I return which will be part of Rare Books Week 2022 for Fisher Library Rare Books. Details to come, but pencil in 12pm 27 October for a most fascinating talk on Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’s commonplace book. The manuscript was given to Fisher Library by 5th Earl of Harrowby in 1925. This will be of interest to Lady Mary fans, those interested in commonplace books (I'm hoping to feature two others alongside Lady Mary's), eighteenth-century buffs. And my friends :) 

An idea for an image to promote my talk in October.

I've just been thinking about that time way back in May when I was confessing to you that I was uncomfortable with the idea of travel though I often craved it. But since my trip to present at the conference at the University of Warwick at the end of May I've been feeling less nervous about flying, though my fear of same is lingering around in my body ready to pounce whenever I'm feeling exhausted. So, I'm trying to eat well and get lots of good rest. 

I have no advice for new researchers today. I've given some instructions before from the coalface here and here. Today I'm just getting my bearings again and trying to orient myself back to the page (or the screen) to continue working through my thesis by reading and writing. Hey, I do have some advice for new researchers. Read some, then write some, then read some again. Then write again. Etcetera. That's actually not my advice. I stole it from Seneca. I wrote a bit on that before here. And some good advice here from me. I mean, I'd take this very good advice if I were you and if I were just starting, three years ago. I would take my own advice. Including the final point I made here.

Alors, I am once again counting down and in preparation for travel. No passports to organise this time. My flights are already booked. Got insurance for the trip, of course. Feeling safe. 

Thanks for listening, Void.

Jx