Truly, a new leaf... this time.

This time I really mean it. I'm going to be better at this blogging thing. New leaves everywhere!

Photo by Lindsay Shaver

I'm pleased to say that I haven't been avoiding blog-posting because things have become difficult or because I'm struggling. Things have been travelling along quite nicely, a few hiccoughs maybe, but nothing too drastic.

So, since I last wrote...

I passed my colloquium with no changes required: this was fairly amazing, a huge stress and afterwards a huge relief. It didn't matter that those who had gone before me kept telling me it was "such a valuable process". I couldn't see that until I was out the other side.

I presented at my first conference, The Third International Food Studies Conference in Austin, Texas: this was also amazing and stressful and finally a relief. (Did I refer to this whole process as a roller coaster ride at the very beginning?) I do feel that I'm regularly challenging myself and just getting things-that-I-find-confronting done feels quite awesome. I met some wonderful new colleagues as well then took the opportunity of being in the US to visit some old Peace Corps friends from my volunteering days.

I attended my second AAWP Conference, this time in Canberra where I (again) didn't present because my brain was so busy getting ready for Texas that I missed the proposal cut off. I (again) used the opportunity of being in the area to visit (and in fact, impose myself upon) friends I hadn't seen for some time. (This galavanting about the place is quite fun really.)

And this past weekend I went along to the Deakin HDR Summer School where I got to catch up with some people I hadn't seen since the same event last year and to feel connected again to something bigger than what is happening at my messy desk.

Of course, my desk has become unmanageable again. I'm still waiting for suggestions on how to maintain some semblance of tidiness.

I'm back into the creative writing and have set myself a fairly ambitious weekly plan of 2000 words. I managed it in the first week, then last week was a bust but that just means I've got extra to do this week (and blog posts don't count) so I'll be off to write about Kalaamuddo (Somali noodles).

Somali woman outside her home. Photo by Colin Crowley