Spring seems to finally be here, or at least it is doing a good job of faking us out. I saw some daffodils blooming today, and it has started to be sunny. Plus I haven't had to use my heating at all in the last month. It's still not warm mind you, but it is not as cold anymore.

I got my passport back this week so it's set that I will start my new position on April 1st. Early in April I'll be going to Barcelona for a conference, and then I have three work days off starting on Good Friday. It will be nice to have a bit of holiday coming up. There are three days off in May too.

Otherwise, not too much new going on. I've discovered a classical music series of concerts in Sheffield, which are currently hosted in the Unitarian church in the centre of the city. It's a very old chapel, and the acoustics are really good, so it is perfect for the concerts. I think the experimental theatre where they normally play is being renovated for the next year, so they have moved all concerts to the chapel.

Tuesday I'm going on a folk train, which is a train where people play folk music on the way to a pub in the center of the Peak District. Then they take the train back and play music on the way back too. Sounds interesting, so I'm going with the Academics in Sheffield group.

I have a bunch of assignment due dates coming up soon - two due next Sunday, and then another one two weeks after that. It's going to be a lot of work to finish them all, but once I do it will at least be the end of my taught courses for the MSc, so that is great. It should free up my time to do some other things, though I will still have to do the dissertation. At least with the dissertation I don't have to follow as strict a timeline as with the taught classes.

Thought it might be worth summarising a few key things that have happened recently:

I've been offered a promotion, pending immigration approval so I am waiting for that to come back right now.

I made a really good pizza the other day, which has inspired me to try again tomorrow.

I got to call the police again when someone decided to throw a brick at the door of the job centre across the street. I think the door is plastic reenforced though as the brick kept bouncing off it. The police arrived after the person had left anyway. Then a few days later I was woken up at 2am by a car speeding about 60 mph down my little street and promptly side-swiping another car. They drove off immediately and about 10 seconds later I heard a police car come racing down the street with siren blaring. I imagine they were trying to get away from the police when they crashed but the car must have been good enough to keep driving.

I'm joining a cub scout pack as an assistant leader. They're a great group of boys and girls and I've been helping out informally about 4 or 5 times in the last couple months, but I'm going to make it more official soon.

I went to London last weekend and I had a blast. I got to see Gabriel and a learning technologist I know at another university.

Also my department may be moving to a new building. Fortunately this building is closer and will half my commute to work (taking it down to a 4 minute walk). :)

Last night I stayed up really late doing karaoke on the PS2 at Adam and Sarah's new flat and had a blast. Today I tried to find a decent karaoke option for the wii, but it seems sadly lacking unless you like high school musical...