enjoying the space

Time and space are wonderful concepts and I am enjoying to the full, the freedom of researching without the constraints that develop through a lengthy project, enmeshing and trapping many of the wilder flights of fancy.
It helps that I have discovered material which I had studied superficially before and discarded for one reason or another and other stuff which I had ignored through pressure of time and in the interests of sticking to a word count.
I don't know why I was so exercised about that word count, since several people who got marks as good as, or better, than mine, seriously exceeded it. Anyway, I should not be bitter, since I managed to get a 1st and ended up in first place.
Another year, another medal - and maybe, a further scholarship, nobody has told me yet. Three in a row should look good on the applications for funding.
I intend to tag along for a 4-day trip to Amsterdam and Antwerp in December, which is all the MA students get this year. I still haven't met any of this very small and select group this year. It should be fun - if cold - because there will be absolutely no pressure on the part of the ex-MA students. I just hope that the current crop don't resent us for that freedom.

Italia ancora

Not speaking Italian and attending a conference in Mantua was a slightly surreal experience, made more so by the fabulous surroundings of the Teatro Bibiena, where Mozart performed his first concert in Italy. A tiny, exquisite baroque jewel set behind a facade that was sheathed in scaffolding, it was less than five minutes walk from the apartment where I was staying.
After four days, we stopped in Bologna for an afternoon's wander around the monumental civic architecture there. It was the feast day of St Petronius (entirely by chance we had arrived on the biggest festival of the year) and the crowds were boggling and the sheer size of everything rather daunting after the minute charms of Mantua (excepting the Palazzo Ducale complex).
Now home again, I must buckle down to work after five weeks laziness. Back to the libraries and archives.