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I did all my most interesting work yesterday. Today I have just as much today, and it's not nearly as exciting. To help me wend my way through it, I have two lists, of which I have lost 50%. Also, we have a bit of weather on the way in, so until I get my coffee and so forth, I only have 50% of my brain and about the same amount of eyesight. I have put 50% of the postcards scattered all around into a box and I have cleared 50% of the random papers in the loungeroom. This, therefore is a halfday where things can only half happen.

Actually, that's not quite right. The temperature outside has dropped two degrees in fifteen minutes. This means that my body is clever, and my brain is about as functional as it can be under the circumstances. And I just found my reading glasses. This means I have no excuse to put off the urgent work. It may take a while, but everything will get done. I may even find my missing list.

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I mislaid information about my teaching, so I googled it (because I am a lazy sod) and discovered things I didn't know about myself. Apparently I have a desire to understand migration to Australia and that's why I edited Baggage. Six different websites tell me this. I actually *do* have a desire to understand migration, in the same way I have a desire to understand cultural shifts of many kinds (not just through the physical movement of people), but it wasn't actually the driving force behind Baggage. I wanted to understand how other writers saw cultural baggage and how they interpret it - not all the baggage in Baggage was about migration, because not all the writers were looking at it through that lens*.

I'm still curious about how other people see cultural baggage. I need to explore it some more.

I'm teaching a bunch about different kinds of cultural baggage over the next little while. There's a workshop at Conflux (Medieval courtesy and discourtesy is definitely cultural baggage), there's writing women's stories (Thursday evenings at the ANU starting a few days after Conflux ends, though I admit, it's at least as much about writing technique as about what we bring to our writing), and lastly, my Medieval Women course (Tuesdays, starting a few days after Conflux). OK, so that last one is stretching the notion of cultural baggage a bit because it's only partly about cultural baggage. it's also about a lot of other things, all to do with the lives of women.

This week's research is about medieval cultural baggage, but for men. My Friday seminar at Monash is how this translates over into a novel.

I'm not obsessed with cultural dynamics and the materials and thoughts we carry with us and how we judge the world and frame our universe and... OK, I *am* obsessed, but it's an entirely charming obsession**.





*Which reminds me, Janeen Webb is reading Manifest Destiny at Conflux. Be there, or regret missing it muchly. It's going to be a very special treat.

**And if I just link to the teaching, then I don't have to do a special post just on my upcoming courses. Yay!! More time to read review books. My current review book is on Jewish colonisalisation.

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I am taking opinions on a Very Important Matter. Should I get some extra chocolate to give to people who want books signed at Conflux? Or should I just have my normal quantities?