The past two months have been busy. People tend to say that quite often. It’s a great sort-of apology when you’ve been neglecting aspects of your life. “Oh, I’m sorry I haven’t answered that email you sent me three months ago. It’s been so busy.” But in all honesty, I feel like I’ve not even had a chance to enjoy the few short holidays I’ve had recently, because I was either working during them or as soon as I came back I hit the ground running.

I’ve been battling with my thesis; you know, that thing that is the whole reason I’m in the UK to begin with. I’ve finished one and a half chapters thus far and to be honest, it’s exhausting. By the time I finish my work writing for the day, I sort of don’t want to do any writing for fun.

I’ve also been working on a temporary exhibition for a local museum. So I get through with my thesis writing, I leave my office and take my laptop into the living room and then write text panels and labels and do research on the topic for the rest of the day. So again, writing for fun? Fun? Maniacal laughter ensues.

I’ve also been working on content for my more professional-facing blog. While I love this site, it’s not entirely suited to promoting my professional-self. Don’t get me wrong, I actually look forward to the day when professionalism can include some humour and admissions of weakness. (That’s a topic for another blog post on another day). So yet more writing for not entirely recreational purposes.

The funny thing is, I do find time to play videogames, watch TV and YouTube, and I’ve begun to re-read The Expanse series. So while, yes I’ve been “busy,” it hasn’t entirely been busy with work. I just get to the end of a long day of writing and the thought of producing an insightful, witty blog post seems completely impossible.

The truth is though, I miss this kind of writing. A lot. In a lot of ways, it’s a palate cleanser. I don’t have to check my sources, remember Harvard referencing, ensure I’m maintaining my academic style. In the same way that getting back to The Expanse is brain candy for my reading, writing for this blog is brain candy for my writing. It’s just really hard to remember that when I’ve got another 65,000 words to go for my thesis.