Weekend Reading: In Haste

It’s been One of Those Weeks, and between the marking and the teaching and the various projects I’ve managed to get myself caught up in – oh, and also spending half the week up a ladder trying to decorate my spare room – I don’t have time to write much today! So this is more of a list than a proper post – with apologies, and a promise to do better next week!

In fact, next week I’m going to be starting my annual Classics Christmas Gift Guide – because they’re putting the big tree up outside the town hall, so it must be time! If you’d like to get a super-early start on your browsing, do take a look at some of my previous guides (with the caveat that I have no idea whether any of the items are still available!). Here’s my Gift Guide from 2019, my Clothes and Accessories Guide for 2019 (I forgot about that one!), and some gift suggestions from back in 2018.

This week I’d like to say a big thank-you to all the people who’ve been buying Christmas presents (or presents for themselves!) from my online shop. The proceeds this month are going to Sportula Europe, so you’re helping out the Classics community whenever you buy a dragon! I’ve been adding designs this week, and will add more next week too, including (if I manage to find the time) some Christmas ones. So do keep checking in…

What else…? Well, the Being Human Festival is going on all next week, with all kinds of Humanities-related events. For instance… tomorrow (Nov 14^th) there’s a ‘Greek Mythology Creative Writing Café’, at 11am, suitable for all ages, while on November the 18^th there’s an ‘Anti-Queer-Tea Café’, exploring Classics in relation to LGBTQI+ identities. Do take a look at the programme – there’s probably something for everyone!

Finally… yesterday was a very lovely day on Twitter for #MuseumsUnlocked, because the theme was ‘Rome: Architecture and Images’, so I spent the whole day imagining myself back in Rome! If you missed it, here are links to the collected images:

Part 1: https://twitter.com/i/events/1326635740319657984

Part 2: https://twitter.com/i/events/1326987606199037953

Part 3: https://twitter.com/i/events/1326991383887028226

Part 4: https://twitter.com/i/events/1326996813191258112

Have a scroll through if you want to see some stunning pictures! I wanted to add some, but my last trip to Rome was so long ago that I’ve lost the photographs – and probably the camera I took them with, too!

Oh… one more thing… Bringing together Rome and Christmas gifts – today the new LEGO Colosseum set was revealed. So if you have a spare £449.99 and an awful lot of spare time, put it on your Christmas list. And if anyone feels the urge to buy it for me, I could be persuaded to spend several weeks building it while watching Christmas movies and eating marzipan…