The first week of the month I was working as normal, but spent much of the time catching up from the busy July and preparing pieces of work for my absence on annual leave over the rest of the month. Then the first week on annual leave, whilst being at home, I actually continued to work catching up on various tasks and clearing the email in-box a little. My email inbox seems to have got completely out of control recently which is something I just hate – so many emails and not enough time in the day to deal with them properly – hence a massive backlog. The last two weeks of the month were real holiday – two weeks away in a quiet secluded part of southern Brittany in France – a chance to read a novel, do some running along the beach and enjoy some relaxation – pure bliss! 
)
For some months now, I could see from my diary that July 2011 was going to be a very hectic month – it turned out to be more hectic than I could have imagined! For two weeks of the month I was largely occupied teaching and supporting students through doctoral summer schools, one in Ireland, the other at the Lincoln campus. These were both busy, but very enjoyable and interesting weeks. In Ireland the study school was opened by the Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny, it was an honour to meet him – in his opening speech, Enda Kenny stated that it was a ’unique and special week in education in Mayo and nationally’ and that the study school was ‘creative and innovative’ – you can see the Lincoln teaching team with the Prime Minister in this photo -
As well as the study schools, I also presented, with colleagues at two conferences this month. The first was the Higher Education Academy’s national conference in Nottingham where we presented on an innovative project to develop and implement our own Professional Standards Framework for Teaching and Learning in Higher Educaiton at the University of Lincoln. The second was the Joint Social Work Education Conference held in Manchester, where we presented on a SWAP (social work and policy subject centre) funded research project to explore students’ experiences of mentoring children and young people looked after by the Local Authority. These are just some of the areas of work that made July such a busy month – all in all, I felt as though I was hardly at home all month! So, I am looking forward to a chance to catch up and have some annual leave in August!
I managed to get two short breaks during June, which really only came about because they were planned so far in advance. One break was a long weekend to the West coast of Ireland (County Mayo) not only to see some of the magnificent scenery, but also to go to an Imelda May concert. The concert was really brilliant. The second break, at the end of the month was another long weekend, on the Isle of Wight, to visit family and friends whilst also spending some time touring places where I spent some of my childhood.
In between the short breaks, June was a busy work month. I had alot of external examining work, which is the nature of this time of year, including attending assessment and examination boards. I was also, with a colleague, asked to present some research work related to assessment in higher education, to colleagues at Birmingham City University; it was good to be able to share some of the findings and ideas that arose from our work. I am bracing myself now for a very busy July as my diary is totally full with a whole variety of commitments!
