Life happens...

So in the past month I have (in no particular chronological or meaningfulness order)

* Been to a celidh (aka barn dance, square dance). I'd forgotten how much fun they are and we're planning on going to more. Unfortunately I'm going to be in the States when the Proms celidh is :-(

* Marked a whole load of exam papers. Personally, the incentive that worked for me (developed over my increasing teaching load over the last couple of years) is chocolate and sweets after so many papers marked.

* Written more than I thought on my thesis. Still having silly blocks over tiny silly things such as graph drawing but its all part of the process.

* Had some interesting conversations with friends. Why is it when you're single people decide to tell you they're interested even if you've known them for 9, 7 or 5 years (and know you're 'involved' with someone)?

* Been travel advisor to quite a few people on Vienna, New York, Zambia, London, San Francisco, Seattle and Portland. I love travelling and sharing stuff about cool places with people so seriously considered just becoming a travel agent.

* Won a prize at a conference for my presentation. Quite a big thing but my non-uni friends don't seem to get how big a deal it is for me.

* Got shocked at how much petrol prices have risen just in the time that I've had my car (less than six months) a 10% rise. Luckily my car does just under 40 mpg and most of my journeys are at around 50 mph but its a bit shocking especially compared to how much petrol is in the US. I can't really complain about the weak dollar as I'll save far more when I'm there this summer from the exchange rate than suffer due to high oil price double impact.