Chapter 1: Full speed ahead

Up, up, up, and awaaaaaaaaay!

Goooooooooooood morning, afternoon, or evening, wherever you might happen to be!

I’m in a merry mood today! That’s probably because I’ve churned out many more words of book proposal than I thought I’d be able to at this stage. Or maybe it’s because I’ll be heading back into an actual physical classroom in a couple of weeks (though that also makes me nervous, what with ‘Rona not going anywhere). Or maybe it’s the astonishing amount of sunshine we’re enjoying here in Switzerland.

Whatever the reason, I’m feeling like Nina Simone on a good day. And I hope each and every one of you gets to experience that feeling this week!

Go ahead and ask

One of the things you sometimes have to do when you have a bunch of deadlines that are all clustered around the same period of time is ask for a bit of extra time. I really, really hate it when I have to do this—I’d much rather set my deadline and stick to it, and I usually manage to! But there are just sometimes when everything seems to be happening at once.

When that happens, go ahead and ask. Try to be realistic about how much extra time you will need (after all, if asking for an extension feels awful, just imagine how it feels to ask for a second one…or even a third!). Frame your request politely, and go for it. Most of the time, you’ll find that people can be a little bit flexible. At least that’s what I’m hoping will happen when I send off a couple of emails today….

Freaking focaccia

I love baking. I’m good at baking. But I just can’t seem to master foccaccia!! I’ve tried multiple recipes, but I can never get that gorgeous golden colour on top without drying the whole thing out. But I’ve got my eye on a couple of recipes this week: this one, which promises to be ‘shockingly easy’, and this one, which has fewer reviews but 5 stars. Wish me luck (and please do share any focaccia tips you might have in the comments below!). [Update: I made the ‘shockingly easy’ recipe and ended up with the best focaccia of my life!!!!]

A good laugh

I promise I won’t do this a lot (unless you ask me to), but since I’ve been writing about misconceptions regarding the Middle Ages this week I thought I’d share something I wrote for Points In Case: ‘Signs You Are Watching an “Accurate” Movie About the Middle Ages’. I hope it makes you chuckle! And I hope I have another idea for bringing my medievalist work into my short humour writing again soon….

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VB,

M