Decade

Today marks a (mathematical) decade of blips for hazelh. To celebrate, here are 10 green glug jugs sitting on a wall - and a wee essay (of course...)

I knew before I posted my first blip that I would probably become obsessed with this practice. This is the reason that I delayed the creation of my journal for quite some time, despite encouragement from all quarters. How could I possibly cope with blipping on top of my crazy job with its hideous workload, and a super busy social life? Happily, I eventually succumbed, and ten years later I am still here.

It’s taken a while for me to write today’s post and pop it online. This is because (a) I have been racing to finish a conference paper for a deadline on Monday and (b) I wanted to read back through my journal and view the photographs to reflect on the past ten years in this post. It’s amazing to think that a sixth of my life is now captured here online.

Amongst the mentions of the mundane trivia of everyday life - exercise, minor ailments such as colds, arthritis and insomnia, cooking, trips to the shops, meetings, teaching, supervisions, writing, board games, and catching up with friends - the journal charts some big lifetime milestones. The two most significant occurred in 2018, seemingly a bad year, so we thought, until the pandemic hit us in 2020. These were my breast cancer diagnosis, treatment and recovery in the first half of the year, and then the final decline and death of Daddy hazelh in the second. Another huge ‘event’ in my journal, and one that occupies my thoughts most days, is recorded on 3rd December 2014. On the worst day of my life I accompanied my best friend from university to a hospital mortuary in Bolton to see the bodies of her two sons (19 and 20) who had died from MDMA toxicity the previous weekend.

Much more prevalent in my journal (thank goodness) is news of happy events, including weddings (a half dozen in the past decade), births (including our youngest nephew Freddie), graduations (with 12 PhD students that I have supervised collecting their degrees in this period), and my (and Mr hazelh’s) 25th and 30th wedding anniversary celebrations. I have enjoyed some great opportunities with work, e.g. to undertake interesting and important projects such as a major workforce mapping project in 2014/5, lead my University’s work towards three awards for gender equality that were all achieved at first attempt in 2016 and 2017, and contribute to a major exercise in the assessment of UK research output (REF). I have to admit that I welcome the recognition of the effort that I put into my work, some of which I make explicit here, and some that I do not (like a couple of promotions, and a fabulous job offer that I nearly accepted in July 2019). The most hysterical acknowledgement of my work featured in Pseud’s Corner of Private Eye, as blipped on 8th October 2012.

Much of my international travel in the past decade has been work-related - for conferences, PhD exams, and for joint project work. For example, I have made return visits to countries such as Canada, Ireland, Finland, Sweden, and the US (in October 2012 I was trapped in Baltimore due to a hurricane). My most exciting work trip was to Brazil in March 2017. I was obliged to turn down a few other invitations due to the pressure of other work. The one I regret the most was to Australia. The irony is that I couldn't justify attendance a conference in Melbourne in October 2019 to collect an award for my teaching due to teaching commitments at the start of the new academic year. Mr hazelh and I have also travelled together abroad on holiday since I took up blipping (to Antigua, Canada, Iceland, the Dominican Republic, Finland, France, Italy, and the US), although it should be noted that our favourite holiday destination is the Outer Hebrides, with our bikes and tandem. My other trips out of the country have been undertaken with my book group, which would never have been established in 2015 if not for Blipfoto - 5 of us are blippers. We went Madrid in November 2018 to see a very special picture, and Dublin a year later for an exciting private tour.

Now to my most recent 12 months of blipping... The first few were very hard for an extrovert due to the lockdown restrictions. I was desperate for 17th May 2021 to come round and to be able to hug Paddy and Caitlin in their flat in Portobello, and it was such a relief to be able to see members of the family from further afield in person once more. Mr hazelh’s mother’s 80th birthday party in Arundel on June 1st 2021 was particularly joyful. Work-wise, my main priority has been the research assessment work. This focuses on reading and reviewing outputs (journal articles, conference papers, book chapters and monographs etc), impact case studies, and environment statements, and then discussing these at a range of online meetings, some of which have lasted as long as four (intensive and exhausting) days. Meanwhile I look after my research group, contribute to the management of the School, and supervise my PhD students. I still haven’t cracked part-time working (‘started’ January 9th 2017), and I know that I never will, but at least the extra hours are spent on extremely interesting activities that I enjoy, such as writing.

When not at my computer, I continue to play board games, read, cook (my specialities are soup brewing and scone baking), visit charity shops, write letters, admire/add to my Le Creuset rainbow, go for walks and bike rides, and (best of all) tend my pandemic makeover garden (completed by Paddy and Caitlin on 18th April 2021, and looking great with a full lawn by the end of the summer). With holiday activity severely restricted recently we have managed only a couple of ‘proper’ trips in the past 12 months: our main summer holiday with bikes in the Outer Hebrides (ending with food poisoning in Arisaig on 14th August 2021); a long weekend to ride the Tweed cycleway in July; and a couple of days in Comrie in November. My photography continues to improve, with another win at the parish show, the selection of five of my photographs to be used in publicity material for a professional body, and my shot of a naughty squirrel featured on the BBC web site.

Within the last year I finally admitted that my secret recreational project was Lorna Lloyd’s blipfoto journal. This revelation gave me my most popular blip of all time.  Three of my blips featured on the popular pages at once: the one from my journal, the big reveal on Lorna’s journal on 10th January 2021, and Lorna’s obituary from 11th January 2021. Having secured a small research grant in November, I’ll be setting up a new blipfoto journal on 2nd February 2022 to chart the project to create a podcast series based on Lorna’s writing. I hope that it will have lots of followers.

Thank you to everyone who visits my journals and leaves comments, stars and favourites. As is my practice in similar posts, I will now list the blips that I consider the best since my last milestone.

Snowman in a snowman scarf - 11/02/21
Winter Meadows sunrise in the snow - 12/02/21
Girl in an igloo - 13/02/21
Flowering currant (ribes sanguineum) blossom - 18/03/21
Empty Victoria Street, Edinburgh - 08/04/21
Reflections on the Water of Leith - 23/04/21
Three sleeping cygnets - 16/05/21
Geese and goslings at Lochend Park - 24/05/21
Haircut before and after - 29/05/21
Thames and City skyline from Blackfriars - 03/06/21
Seaside poppies - 13/06/21
Castle Stalker at sunset - 31/07/21
Bikes at the beach, North Uist - 09/08/21
Portobello autumn sunrise rowers - 28/09/21
Leith reflections - 04/10/21
Spooky St Giles - 22/10/21
Autumn hanging garden of Stockbridge - 09/11/21
Autumn gold - 21/11/21
Almost winter sunrise - 22/11/21
Bare branch tree winter sunrise - 06/01/21

As for today, I edited a conference paper and provided feedback on two others. This evening Atlanta came over for dinner and two games of Catan, both of which I almost won.

Exercise today: 1 hour on the exercise bike.