… and I’m trying to address that by heading south, as a migratory bird would do. Writing these lines in Stansted airport while I wait for a flight to take me to sunny Porto for a couple of days.

Since June not a lot has happened… work-wise we were busying ourselves with the usual bunch of research projects, papers, conference submissions – with the little “extra” this year of having to help organising a conference we hosted at Kent, 2CCOCT. My current project has unfortunately experienced a few setbacks, which means that these coming couple of months are going to be quite hectic in order to recover the lost time. Oh well, I do sometimes function better under some (slight) pressure, so I guess I will be fine!

I was fortunate enough to get some mobility funding to head to be able to go to Brest as well to train with Sylvain (as I might be doing some teaching on the foreseeable future). Brittany is a beautiful place, and the OH and I were treated to a fantastic time by Sylvain & his family. The 3-4 days we were away, despite having some work “flavour” to them were a must-needed break! (especially for the OH… 🙂 )

I guess I could say that the regatta season this year was definitely a lot more successful than last year 🙂 Not only have I moved up to Junior in the sweep category (on the very last regatta of the season, and in Worthing too, where I got my first Novice win!) but there were plenty of other events going on. Got a couple of 2nd places in the Junior coxless pair, which unfortunately didn’t continue afterwards… but our newly-formed Junior 4+ crew did quite well. We would have qualified for the finals at the Junior 4+ open in the SCC had it not been for ending up in the heat with the two fastest crews (that went on to win and come second on the final…). It was a brilliant race, the fastest we have probably ever been in a coastal 4+ (probably doing it in a flat lake in Eton Dorney had something to do with that… 😛 ). All in all… I feel that I have definitely improved, and my recent ergos clearly demonstrate it, managed to smash two PBs on the same week (for 10×1:00/1:00r sprints and 6k at rate 20).

Well, I guess that’s it for now. Over and out! 😉