Hurray for...

• vets! My little rat is fine apparently, though they want to keep her in over night for observation
• the Brepols databases! Now I have the whole text of Cassiodorus at my fingertips. If only I had time to read Cassiodorus
• late Celtic abbreviations! I need to study these in early English Caroline, which probably means spending years studying Celtic MSS first
• having a research allowance! I think it's all going to go on microfilms this year, mostly of English Caroline minuscule with late Celtic abbreviations in it
• arrogance! I feel like taking on T.A.M. Bishop. Seriously, I'm so fed up with paying lip service to his great work. Yes he pioneered some good stuff but he never showed his working, he just pronounced Sybillinely, and he was quite capable of writing a sentence which could mean either of two mutually contradictory things. He also told what I can only assume were deliberate lies, i.e. when he said that far more English Caroline MSS survive from the tenth than the eleventh century. And when asked once how palaeography was in Cambridge he replied "I've killed it". (Sore point, right now.) Also my external PhD examiner told me off for taking on a topic which Bishop and Ker had previously looked at, even though they had only done very brief stuff on it and I thought the point of giants was that they have shoulders? (I suspect he really meant to tell me off for taking on a topic which he had previously looked at, but heigh ho.) Bishop's Canterbury networks are great but they need another look. Then I want to write a book called "Caroline minuscule script in England". Yay! My PhD supervisor's book got ripped to shreds in reviews for taking on Bishop, even though his every other footnote was about how great Bishop is, so this would not be a fun career move.
  
• also pop music and TV are great too