Balance

This week has been good. I’ve finished a report that was starting to feel like a millstone (and at 31,000 words, was longer by a third than my MSc thesis, and more than a third of my PhD), and instead of feeling daunted by all the things that were waiting for ‘after’ I’m looking forward to getting my teeth into something new.

I’ve not been running since I got back from my trip to the UK the other weekend. This was for two reasons;  firstly I upset my knees on fieldwork. I don’t think it’s anything major, they were just having a grumble, and I didn’t have a chance to rest them ’till now. Secondly, I’ve spent most of this week floored by some weird bug that never quite turned into the death-flu the initial symptoms portended. It seems to be on it’s way out though, so I am going for a run tomorrow and I’ll see how I go.

In archaeology-related news, my paper got accepted for EAA this year, so I’ll be speaking in a session about geophysical methods for studying later prehistory, as well as co-chairing our round table on methods for investigating rural sites. It’s going to be a busy few days in Pilsen, but has anyone got any sight-seeing tips for someone who’s never been to the Czech Republic before? I’d like to cram some touristy things in while I am there.

On a similar note, I’m off to Vienna for ISAP at the end of the month and can’t wait to catch up with the usual suspects. I’ve never been to Vienna before (or Austria for that matter), so, same question really! What shouldn’t I miss? We have an excursion to Carnuntum that I am quite excited about, but what about in the city itself?

I’ve just realised that all that comes off as a bit of a humblebrag, sorry. I love that my job lets me do all of these things!

This week has been about re-learning balance. About an aspect of the ‘simply do’ motto I’d overlooked, or got a bit wrong. The flipside is: or do not. I had a mini crisis at the end of last week, about all kinds of daft stuff, and my mum and dad reminded me that it’s important to be gentle with yourself. Do, or Do Not. But don’t beat yourself up for the things you don’t do. Don’t get stuck in a spiral of negative feelings and introspection. Sometimes it’s OK to be shallow and just skim along the surface of things. It’s how I got through finishing the report: I stopped agonising over every last bit, because it’ll be read and edited by the project team. I stopped hating that I needed to do it, and found that once I was actually doing it, I enjoyed it. I’ve had the same revelation about running, but apparently it’s an epiphany I need to have many times over. I’m struggling to pick a photo this week. I had fun taking pictures of the May fair in the city centre this weekend, I fitted into my old boots (and still LOVE them), I was outraged at/covetous of pink Darth Vader t-shirts, and my brother rightly mocked me for instagramming filtered screen shots, but I think it has to be my first picture of the week, which was a letter from the ever-lovely BrightMeadow reminding me I have wonderful people in my life, and that they need to remember to be kind to themselves too.

Kindness #project52 week 20

 

So, be excellent to each other, and yourselves! I am continuing this theme by spending a chunk of tomorrow being uncharacteristically girly and doing moisturising-type-things… I may or may not post pictures of the no doubt hilarious state I’ll be in while face packs do their thing….

Snapshots

I owe you all at least three weeks of  #project52 pictures, and at some point a longer blog about fieldwork and life in general but it has been a really busy few weeks! So, without further ado, here is week 16:

 

#project52 week 16 Birthday Cake!

I was home for 4 days before I went away to Italy again (this time with Matt, for my birthday) – I think I wrote the last blog just before I headed to Black and Bloom in Groningen to pick up the awesome cakes they made me to take to work. We have a tradition where you bring in cake for everyone on your birthday, but I was away for my actual birthday…. and besides, who really needs an excuse to eat brownies?!

Week 17 was spent in Italy with Matt. It was the first time he has ever been, and we had a wonderful time. At some point he’s going to put up the pictures he took, and I’ll post some here, or link to them, but he’s not had time to sort them out yet (over 9GB of images!!). I hardly took any; it was nice to be in Italy not working for a change, and I was too busy taking things in properly to be snapping all the time. I did get a few though, so my week 17 picture is of M at Herculaneum, which was amazing.

#project52 week17 Herculaneum

 

Week 18 contained many things. Again, I was only home for a few days before zipping off again, this time to the Uk for a wedding. It was also Queen’s day / the inauguration of the new Dutch King, and so I went for a wander in the heaving city centre with Olivia. Everything was either orange, or red, white and blue (or sometimes all 4). We went to a roof terrace overlooking the main square for cakes, and even the cakes had little orange crowns:

#project52 week 18 The last queen’s day!

I’ve been so busy for so long it has left me a bit run down, and earlier in the week, a bit blue. But today Inger (my friend and landlady), Steven and their wonderful daughter Oda arrived. How can anyone be sad with these three around?

#project52 week 19 Flying baby!

So I’m off to cook us all a tasty (I hope) curry, and hopefully things will quieten down a bit and I can post more regularly. I don’t go away again until the 27th now, when I head to Vienna for ISAP….

Gone digging (well, not exactly)

Just a short note as I am doing my last minute hovering about the house stressing about whether I have packed enough layers, if the cold weather is going to affect our travel plans tomorrow. We aren’t exactly digging on this campaign- soil research, geophysics and field survey are the order of business until April 16th.

The week kind of got taken over by little jobs so I’m also behind on work, but I guess it will give me something to do in the evenings. We’ll be up in the mountains, staying in a village called San Lorenzo Bellizi. This means that I’ll be unlikely to have even limited internet access so I’ll be out of the loop for a week, though I’ll try to tweet by text. If you need me, you’ll have to call.

Be excellent to each other!

#project52 week 12

A late #project52 post

#project52 week11

This should have been posted over the weekend, but I couldn’t seem to find the time to sit down and write, and there isn’t a lot to say about last week. I felt blue, didn’t go running, and lost faith in myself a bit. I sort-of predicted that last week… But I’m wondering if there isn’t an element of fear of success in there somewhere.

Anyhow, enough with the navel gazing. Last Tuesday was a fun day. I took two of my student assistants out to the local park to do some testing of a pair of second-hand FM256′s that we bought towards the end of last year. We want to do some surveys in rocky upland environments, so we need something light and maneuverable rather than something designed for speedy coverage. I had so much nostalgia- it’s been ages since I worked with Geoscan instruments and their very particular repertoire of beeps and whistles took me back to so many fun PhD (and before) memories.

We were also visited by no less than 15 species of bird (that we could identify) within an hour or so of arriving. It made all of the snow and cold hands worth it.

Snow, sculptures and getting on with things

No great long-winded post today. It’s been a pretty good week (despite a slightly ‘interesting’ brain-day on Tuesday)- I crossed some big things off my ‘to do’ list/heap/mountain. I’ve had a really  nice weekend as well. This is the year of Yoda, which as previously mentioned involves doing more, saying yes and generally making the most of things. I didn’t have any epic adventures this weekend- I stayed in Groningen. But I did venture to my local independent (and awesome) coffee shop (not THAT kind) for breakfast, tried and loved new coffee, went on a huge photography mission and stomp, Skype with my nearest and dearest and confirm a visit from a wonderful friend. Said coffee shop (Black and Bloom) have a coffee and games afternoon next Sunday, which I am going to be brave and go along to. Fluxx (a card game) is a good ice-breaker, and it’s being run along with my friendly local gaming store (who really fit that description).

I also did two long (30 minutes+) runs without any of my usual wailing and gnashing of teeth, a chunk of work on my PhD papers and still had enough time to hang out online with my beloved for a big chunk of today. What I didn’t do was waste my weekend numbing my brain with T.V. or feeling needlessly anxious! So, this week’s #project52 picture is of a sculpture that is odd but rather lovely that lives on the canal-side on one of my routes into the city centre. Posting him and chatting with Sarah about him needing a scarf is what prompted us to fix the dates for her trip, so he’s here for two reasons: 1) I like him a lot and I keep meaning to post more pictures of the art all over the city and 2) he’s a harbinger of good things

#project52 Week 10

I’m feeling really good right now- I went running in the snow this morning without a squeak of protest, and the soup I made for dinner is delicious, even if I did grate myself into it a bit. Part of me is wondering how long it will stay this easy to do all the right things, but a more sensible part is kicking it under the table and whispering to me to just enjoy it while it lasts…