It’s been a good couple of weeks. Last time I posted here I was shamelessly procrastinating from essay-writing, and I’m very pleased to say that all three of my Christmas essays have now been submitted. It was definitely a tad stressful getting them finished, but I’ve since been enjoying a bit of normality. I had my standard post-deadline house cleaning session, caught up on sleep, and remembered how nice it was to read books for fun and watch stuff on iPlayer. Happy days.
The Ella work zone. Hurray for schedules, post-its, and the Pomodoro app!
Aside from work stuff, some really lovely and exciting things have happened since my last post. I travelled up to Leeds to go to my best friend Paige’s baby shower – the first I’ve ever been to – and had great fun beforehand making a cake to take along with me. Things I learned:
- Baby showers are fun
- If you need to transport a cake 125 miles, don’t travel by train
All worked out fine in the end, though, and it was a really great day. Valentine’s Day was another good ‘un – Sam and I went to a local pub-restaurant place and had a rather nice four course meal with Prosecco. Yum! Plus my name got pulled out of a hat to be the representative for my course in the 2016 Shakespeare Birthday Celebrations parade. Some happy times to remember and to look forward to :).
A very grinny reunion and a train-transported cake
Reading week came around just a couple of days after my deadline, and I took full advantage of having a week off classes. I did, first and foremost, do a good chunk of reading. (Shopaholic to the Rescue counts, right? Guilty pleasures…!) I got well and truly stuck into The Gap of Time by Jeanette Winterson – a ‘retelling’ of The Winter’s Tale that’s part of the new Hogarth Shakespeare series – and read various other bits and bobs for upcoming seminars. Lazing around reading in my pyjamas was definitely a good way to chill and recharge my batteries.
On a side note, I’ve also officially started my collection of Arden Shakespeare texts. I decided to start off with Macbeth – a play I’ve become pretty fond of recently – and I’ll add more plays to my shelf when it feels like a good time. My Shakespeare nerdy levels appear to be on the increase…
A highlight of my week was going on a Pride and Prejudice adventure with my friend Katie. We drove across the Derbyshire Dales (gorgeous by day, extremely creepy by night) and looked around two houses that had been used as filming locations for Pemberley in different film adaptations. The first was Lyme Park, and the second was Chatsworth House. I can confirm that I would very happily move into either. Providing I could get some decent heating installed… We also stopped off in Bakewell on the way home. Sadly, we missed a great dessert-related opportunity and didn’t sample any Bakewell tart, but there’s always next time!
Chatsworth House – home of Mr Darcy in the 2005 film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice
We’re now into Week 7 of term, and I’ve got a pile of books on Brecht and Shakespeare to get through before Thursday. It’s all good though – I’m really enjoying being able to get on with course reading without having to worry about essays all the time, and Brecht and I go way back. Well, I studied him a little at A Level. Anyway. Curling up with a book on Brecht and a cup of tea sounds like a good way to spend my day off. Au revoir for now!
Ella Hawkins 