The other is not just what we are not, but what we can be.

After resigning to the fact that I had to pack up and finally leave Canada after an amazing Christmas and New Year and go back to England, I ended up being stormstayed for an extra week as all flights were grounded in Newfoundland due to bad weather! After a couple of days of living out of a tightly packed suitcase and waiting for 'the call' for an extra flight, I thought to myself "Sod it! I'm going to damn well enjoy the rest of my stay!" and out came the clothes from the suitcase again! It totally made me reconsider 'adverse weather conditions' in England when we had to spend the next couple of days with 100kph winds and -17c snow blizzards!! I could only stay outside for five minutes when I took the first two photos as it was soooo cold!

We saw a totally different perspective of Newfoundland; when the mountains, beaches and everything else was transformed under layers and layers of white snow and the crazy cloudy skies. In my extra week there, I had some more time to think. Now, for those who know me well, extra time to think is not necessarily a good thing, but I had some interesting thoughts and discussions about my research (and life in general but we'll save that for a rainy day - or two) ... mainly about the idea of alternative spaces, the inbetween and ideas of the masculine/feminine/other. That they all have to exist to provide boundaries for the other to exist by that these boundaries have shifted and been blurred by the sociological and cultural shift ... therefore, where are the alternative spaces that I am trying to negotiate and what happens to the construct of gender when they are negotiated? Hmmm ... I also decided that one of the things I was going to do in 2010 was to learn French as my research relates a lot to French conepts and the translation of French ideas, so I will hopefully be able to say more than Bonjour, oeufs and Je m'appelle Jacqueline!

Ive been back now for a few weeks, a stone lighter : ) still relaxed-ish and finally getting back on it ... back to college and teaching again and cracking on with my PhD. Ive just handed in a PGCE assignment as well which I'm still traumatised from and which I've now decided is an acronym for Painfully Grim Coerced Encounter. I did start looking at a wicked art-practice-as-research book whilst I was doing it by Graeme Sullivan (its well worth getting it) and started to think about methodologies and mapping again. I have a plan but I'm not going to say anything until it has (hopefully) started to develop.

I have also finally completed my 9r registration to research which is now with the research panel at BIAD. Yey! Now Ive done all the official things you have to do ... I can get ON IT and start working on the next chapter of the research ... literally, as Ive started to write up (AAAAARGH! scary!) and analyse the textstallation that I did a couple of months ago.

Anyhoo, before I go, check out this amazing blog the big smash which has loads of amazing work by my ace brother Laurence, it rocks! I have three of his pieces of work in my house and they make me smile so much when I look at them : )