Hello? Is there anybody in there?

Warm greetings to all new followers of this blog (even if usernames suggest that a surprisingly large number of you are heavily into the supply and fitting of high-quality flooring…). I don’t actually know why WordPress should have chosen this week to give me a boost, as it’s actually really terrible timing; the first couple of weeks of term are always a bit hectic, but on top of that I’ve been writing my inaugural lecture (last week) and pursuing a lengthy and increasingly tetchy correspondence about why I don’t seem to be allowed to share the recording outside the university (this week), plus finishing a short-but-nevertheless-quite-substantial-given-everything-else book that ought to have been finished last month (yesterday).

The end result is that it’s been a bit quiet on here, and things may not pick up for a little while yet, until I’ve caught up slightly on the rest of my ‘to do’ list. It’s the usual problem; I love writing stuff for this blog, but it’s not what I’m paid to do (or at least there are many other things that I am more obviously paid to do), and so it has to take second place. But rest assured that the normal service of rants about obscure misquotations of Thucydides, rambling reflections on German culture and random whimsy will be resumed soon – and I feel another music podcast coming on…