A long silence followed by many words?

A lot has changed since my last semi-existentialist post.

I am now a parent. A postgraduate student thanks to my little degree I did those few years ago. I co-curate a gallery part time. Freelance translator. Temporary receptionist/admin at the NHS services my university schedule permitting.

So stuff keeps happening.

I have been procrastinating whether to start blogging again for a while. Part of the reason is the fact that I am putting a PhD proposal forward and for all I know I may have to go publicly begging in some crowdfunding project to fund my ambition with a promise of returning something to the community at the end of the long three years. I may not have to though but that will depend on many factors.

However, being an overambitious Masters student this year I felt the urge to return to the public-private space of blogging to record the experience for my self and other optimists like me out there. I cannot truly and honestly say I will blog every week or every day. I simply don't know. The truth is I want to, but we so many nappies to change and assignments to write (besides tonnes and tonnes of books to read for my coursework) I cannot promise anything to either myself or my invisible audience.

I find it almost funny how after so many years of drifting in and out of the blogging space, and my writing getting better through sheer power of university education in conformity, I find myself back here. Having seen the rise of the blog and the fall of it into almost oblivion...

Really unless you are an almost celebrity who occasionally forgets to wear her knickers or a well known journalist blogging is more of a hobby for the sake of itself these days. I may be wrong though as quite obviously between the coursework and nappies and what else gets in the way I could be considered backward in modern day culture. That is quite ironic as study of literature, as that is what I do, is all about watching, noting, commenting on the evolution of culture as it is happening. Luckily for me I find myself specialising in the field of days past, of works already written and not still in the nappies of the creative process. Oh those nappies! They get everywhere.

anglophile being a mother does not change her as a being, but it did change her perspective. Anyone who thinks that they remain the same after they have kids are naive at best and delusional at worst. Everything changes. Because your life changes. Your philosophical wanderings in the shower get interrupted with: need to buy new shoes for ...., running out of baby wipes, play group is tomorrow at 9:30am et cetera, et cetera. Those interruptions are infinite at every single minute of your day and it is lovely because besides all those trivial ego feeding missions we set out for ourselves there is one that is almost altruistic and not self centred.

Academic life does not go well with family life and surely there must be plenty of individuals who can attest to that! I have not been to a single complimentary seminar or indeed a student party since the beginning of this academic year and it is ok, I have more fun things to do, like catching up with my reading whilst thinking of all those almost altruistic tasks. Still, my idea is that whilst me being a parent will most likely interfere and interrupt my blogging this blog is not about how to be an awesome maman and rule the world. I will leave that to others. Instead I will attempt to make cultural observations and participate whenever possible.