At the end of March 2013 I did something I hadn’t done for many years, which was take a short holiday. You know, an actual vacation, in which I didn’t take any reading (except for the journey, obviously) or plan to go to any medieval sites. I ensured this latter by going to Australia, although there were also other reasons for this and in general one could mark this as part of the turn-around of my life that seems, in retrospect, to have started about this time. I had a lovely time, really liked the country and hope to go again, but this is not a matter for academic blogging, you will immediately see. But I told the estimable Kathleen Neal I was coming to her country, figuring I should try and visit if possible, and her response was: “Great! Do you want to give a seminar?” I should have known there’d be no escape…
A sign of the kind of effort Kath makes for her friends! Poster for my appearance at her seminar
But seriously folks! Obviously I can refuse Kath nothing, long-time commentator here and networker everywhere as she has been for me as for many others, but also it was rather flattering to be asked. I wanted to try out the latest version of my paper about Sant Pere de Casserres, so I readied it under the title “On Stone and Skin: inscription of a community at a Catalan monastery around 1000”, as you see above, and was pleased with it. I assumed no-one would turn up, mind, given that it was out of term and Kath had arranged me as an attraction for two separate universities, as it says there “a special seminar jointly hosted by the Monash Centre for Medieval & Renaissance Studies and The University of Melbourne“. Actually I got about forty-five people coming to hear and see and I’ve rarely been made to feel more welcome. The fact that being on the Internet gives me some strange kind of celebrity value outside Europe will always surprise me—it doesn’t here, I tell you—but it was great fun, I owe all those who came great thanks for being such great hosts, in some cases (Steve) at the cost even of personal injury, and some day I will in fact get the paper finished and into print, I promise…
Mine hosts, at the Old Arts Building, Melbourne University
A Corner of Tenth-Century Europe 
It was our pleasure to have you! Come again some time.
I hope I can! Just need to get my international stardom onto a firmer financial footing…
Am I mistaken or is the ‘no ads upgrade’ only 30 $ per year?
Charles
It’s not too much, but I myself never see the ads, so it’s hard to get a sense of how intrusive they are. The need for more image storage is what’s likely to force me actually to start giving WordPress money…
oh, I wouldn’t describe drunkenly riding a bike head-first into a tree as being a literal personal injury. More a spongy meeting with nature, viewed, as the world turns, by a couple of concerned Catalans, that, of course, made the evening complete.
You didn’t tell me that bit! How beautifully contingent the fates can sometimes be…
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