Its a bit too early Saturday morning but I've woken like its a work day. The cat is miaowing for his food because he's heard me, the rats are sleeping (as usual). Last night I got a confirmation email from Palgrave (who I can now call my publisher..ooh!) that they will offer me a contract for the book. I have been encouraged by their response so far but to have it confirmed like this is great - it feels like a great weight has lifted from my shoulders. Mind you I still have to rewrite the thesis, and I'll only have about a year to do so. Still, its fantastic and should help with job searching should it come to that. So now I need to decide what to do about the bullock hunting article. UH don't want it as it is and I would need to do some more primary (and secondary) work to spin that as a deeper study of popular culture. But, this could then be an interesting section of the book so might be worth doing. Then I could take the other part of the article, about the role of the new police in the eradication of the sport, rework it as Pete suggested and offer it to FCH. After a long(ish) summer it feels like the new term is approaching fast and I have quite a lot to do. Next week needs to be a productive one!
No football today, Arsenal are playing Blackburn on Sunday and Cambridge are home to Farsley Celtic on Tuesday night (and I'm going to that one). So today is a day of cleaning and tidying and preparing for visitors tomorrow. We cleaned the rats out yesterday so they smell sweet but I will invite them out for another runabout today as they had a long one while their cage was being cleaned and they seemed to enjoy themselves.
I saved a mouse from the cat on Thursday evening. Cato was whining for his tea and as I went out to him I noticed a mouse on the lawn just a foot away keeping very still. At first I thought he was dead or hurt but when I came back from feeding his majesty the mouse was gone. They live in the cellar I think which I don't mind but I doubt Sheila's too keen so I won't mention it.
Stomach rumbling so time to wake the sleepy one for breakfast