February 2022 round-up

Some days get imprinted in your mind such that, many years later, you can recall, exactly, the moment when you realised that the world after that moment would bear very little resemblance to the one before it. It was like that with the attack on the Twin Towers on 9/11; the attack on the Tube on 7/7; and, now, the scaling up of the invasion of Ukraine, by Russia, on 24/2. I will forever remember that moment in the Eurostar, returning home from a much-delayed trip to Brussels with child 1, when I checked the news on my phone and realised that war in Europe wasn’t something of the past, and that the liberal international order was by no means guaranteed.

Closer to home, February was also my birthday month – a “big” one, for which I had lots of plans, but which ended up being quite an ordinary day. I also went to the Portuguese Consulate, in London, to sort out some issues with my ID card, which could have easily been solved by phone, instead. Child 2 had his cast removed. There was storm Eunice, which brought lots of wind and school closures, just before half-term. And that trip to Brussels with Child 1, which had been delayed for 2 years, because of Covid-19.

On the research front, I made small progress on a number of projects. A few more interviews were done for one project, and paperwork was sorted for another. I also did data analysis for a different project, discussed plans for another one, and secured a little bit of funding for data collection for yet another project.

On the writing front, I had planned to work on one paper, but then got side-tracked by a colleague’s suggestion to submit a paper to a conference. So, I spent my writing time working on that paper, instead. 

On the teaching front, I did some marking at the start of the month. Then, I ran a session on AI and Digital Marketing. And, finally, I held several meetings with a PhD student on the final changes to their thesis. 

With so many bad news hitting our screens, continuously, it is easy to feel a bit overwhelmed. While news-induced anxiety is nothing compared with the suffering of those caught up in the war, it can still take its toll. I recommend that you check my friend Anna’d tips to deal with anxiety, here. At a larger scale, an effective way of helping those displaced by the war waged by Russia is by donating to the Disasters Emergency Committee’s Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal.