what a performance! that is the best ive seen arsenal play in a long time - superb all over the pitch and a deserved win even if we left it late. i haven't left off my chair in as much joy since micky thomas beat the scousers! i love arsenal!

and cambridge win away at oxford 2-1 to go second in the league..i lurve football tonight!!!

what a lot to do in the next two weeks! this week i have a rush (a rash?) of third years bringing in their draft dissertations for me to look at before the easter break (which is very early this year, the 14th march). on thursday we are being internally and externally assessed as a department (of history) - which means we will be asked questions about our teaching, or assessment, student feedback and all sorts - its going to take all day so we have cancelled most of our classes. tomorrow a new virtual museum project for the second years starts with an actual visit to our town museum: the students will be on virtual placements for a month or so and then be assessed in a sort of 'the apprentice' style interview after easter. i guess its virtual because we can 'place ' more students that way and because it will prepare them for 'virtually' having a job when they graduate

so Lisbon.. on the first day i landed earlier than expected and with lots of people on the plane i knew. we shared a cab to my hotel and i did little else apart from unpack, find the bar and eat a fairly ordinary tuna salad. (oh and watch man city lose to everton on the hotel tvs..). Day two (in a geordie accent naturally) i went up to the university to register for the conference. having done, met some people i knew and had lunch i went sightseeing in town with an ex-colleague i ran into. we had beer in one of the many squares, rode the efficient, clean and cheap metro (basically you can get from one side of lisbon to the other and back for less than 2 euros) we climbed up to the castelo st george to admire the view across the city - as you can see it was pretty stunning

later we found more historians and headed off to a restaurant to eat and drink - food is great but if i didn't eat fish i would have struggled. why is it that france, portugal and spain are so poor at catering for vegetarians? I mean it is 2008 and all you get is omelette; italian food at least allows you to eat some pasta and pizza dishes. it was my only grumble about lisbon which is a fine fine city is so many ways..

more tomorrow but i must return to reading drafts