New Year resolutions

Working up a new MA module to teach in the coming semester and a doctoral viva next week (plus starting to write my inaugural lecture on Keith Douglas, inspired by walking into Canterbury from Wye last Friday – echoes of Powell and Pressburger’s A Canterbury Tale and in my mind relevant thoughts re Edward Thomas and Siegfried Sassoon) means conclusion of my Sheppey-based chapter (chapter 2) is on hold for a week.  The priority then is to finish the chapter, then go back and write what will be very much a first draft of CRF’s life prior to joining J.W. Dunne at Eastchurch, before going forward to map out how Fairey and Rees founded the company in 1914-16; after which I can start looking at the post-1915 papers moved before Christmas from the FAA Museum to the Special Collections in the Hartley Library.  The other priority, which should have been signalled in my Christmas Eve round up, is returning to the website.  I really need help on this, not least as what information I did absorb in my four (!) hours of training has largely drifted to the furthest recesses of my brain as a consequence of not regularly practising what I was taught.  In consequence, I have asked for assistance from my younger and hopefully more IT-savvy colleague Dr Matthew Kelly, who attended the training sessions with me (university website have to have a nominated alternative administrator, so my thanks to Matt for agreeing to fulfil this role).  But for the moment I must focus upon the booklet for my master’s module and read what looks like a very long thesis…