Having a fall: what’s right and what’s wrong in the NHS

Some people fall over: others have a fall. There's an important difference. When you're young, you fall over, and you get up. Nobody makes much of a fuss. Life resumes immediately after a few moments of interruption. When you're older, however, you have a fall. This can be devastating. My father had a fall, broke…

Working the 100-hour week

Academic twitter has been in a bit of a tizzy in the last few days. Mary Beard, who has over 240,000 followers, tweeted "Can I ask academics of any level of seniority how many hours a week they reckon they work. My current estimate is over 100. I am a mug. But what is the…

When the book comes out

publishers, publication and REF...

Dialling 111

Last night we had a call from mum's emergency alarm button people to say she'd fallen and was on the floor. Fortunately we were at home eating our dinner, so whizzed round and were there in an instant. Unlike the previous fall nine months back, she hadn't hurt anything but just couldn't get up without…

Happy World Menopause Day?

Not all women have the menopause

How to chair a paper or a conference panel

In the academic world, at some point you'll be asked to be the chair for a paper or a conference panel. You'll need to introduce the speaker or speakers; keep time; and run the question session at the end. Having had some 'interesting' experiences recently, and indeed over my career, I decided I should be putting…

Caring: when it all gets worse

Back in 2016, I mused here on the difficulties of being a carer for an elderly relative, especially when something unusual happens. Then, it was a planned surgical procedure: last week, it was an entirely unplanned disaster scenario, when my mother somehow fell in her own flat on the day before her 90th birthday party…

Growing old

Last weekend my cousin, who's the same age as me but not yet retired, came to stay and - inevitably - at one point we started talking about being 61. We agreed that it really is very odd being 'elderly'. We're old enough to be lumped in with those in their seventies but we still…

Retirement/retiring, 18 months in… an update

day in a library no longer feels wicked, like it's been stolen from teaching activities. OK, it never should have felt like that, since research was allegedly part of the job, but ...

Why I’m not changing my Twitter ID to include ‘Dr’

In the last 36 hours or so, lots of women I know who use Twitter (and lots of women I only know through Twitter) have added 'Dr' to their twitter handle (their Twitter ID) to make it clear that they have a PhD in some subject; thus, that they are experts. If you’re not on…