*Insert generic HOLY-SHIT-how-is-it-June-already-related phrase*

Aaaaand I’m back with all the good things that made my month of May go so swimmingly 🙂 It was a super busy month so I’ll warn you upfront that this is likely to be a long post.

Excellent humans

May was full of wonderful people!

• Early in the month I went to Norwich to visit my friend Jess and her partner. I had a bloody brilliant time, and seriously considered asking them if they’d consider adopting me. Gorgeous house, super chilled atmosphere, amazing food and spending quality time with a friend that I definitely neglected during my PhD – absolute bliss.
• After getting back from Norwich I had a few days in Aberdeen before heading to my third of Rowena Murray’s writing retreats. As usual, I got more writing done than I thought possible in the space of 2 and a half days, and I’m back on the writing retreat hype train. I’ve already booked another for June. Rowena is a powerhouse, and the only person I actively want to interrupt me on a regular basis.
• Aberdeen’s second Soapbox Science event took place as part of the May Festival, and it was another successful event! I love organising these events because it allows me to meet wonderful women doing really cool science stuff that I otherwise wouldn’t get to connect with. Unfortunately I completely forgot to get a group photograph, but all 12 speakers did a fantastic job, and I left feeling inspired and brimming with ideas for my own engagement activities.

  

Cool places

At the end of May I headed to Naples for 5 days with my Mum – it was a Mother’s day present that went some way to remedy the fact that I slept through 5 alarms on actual Mother’s day, and ended up not seeing her at all. Luckily, I think the trip made up for that and I reckon I’ve been forgiven.

5 days of pastries, the best pizza I’ve ever eaten, and lots of mooching about. I had a fantastic time, and would definitely recommend a visit to Naples if you ever get the chance!

At the beginning of the month I also went to see the the musical Kinky Boots, and RuPaul’s Drag Race Werq the World Tour, so now when I grow up I want to be a drag queen. On the subject of drag queens, has anyone been watching RuPaul’s Drag Race this season? The finale was right at the end of May, and I felt it was a bit meh to be honest. I didn’t dislike the winner, but my favourite didn’t win (look how easy it is to not give spoilers!).

Book(s) of the month

• Non-fiction: I’ve got two non-fiction recommendations this month – Kerry Hudson’s Lowborn: Growing Up, Getting Away and Returning to Britain’s Poorest Towns, and Hallie Rubenhold’s The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper. Both are brilliant but for very different reasons. The Five was brilliant as it gave a voice to the victims of Jack the Ripper, you follow each of their lives and it really does focus on them rather than the fact that they were brutally murdered. Lowborn made me cry, and I was thinking about it for days after I’d read it, so much so that I emailed Kerry (the first time I’ve ever emailed an author!) to tell her much of an impact it had.
• Fiction: Tayari Jones’s An American Marriage. This has just won the Women’s Prize for Fiction, and I’m so glad! I’d read a few other books from the shortlist but this was the one that I was really hoping would win. It tells the story of a young newlywed couple that are the victim of racism; it looks at race issues in America from a new perspective. I sped through it and I’d really recommend picking it up if you haven’t already.

Online media

• Podcast: Episode 60 of Alice Benham’s Starting the Conversion – Managing mental health when you’re running a business or growing a side-hustle w/Josephine Brookes. I only recently discovered Alice Benham’s podcast, but I’ve been binge listening to episodes at an impressive (alarming?) rate. This is the latest one, and features Josephine Brookes, a side hustle guru. I don’t want to make Science On A Postcard my full time job; it will always be a side hustle for me, but the topics discussed were helpful and insightful, and I’m excited to use resources from both Alice and Josephine to make the most of the time I dedicate to my side hustle.
• Article: Brands and Activism by Adam Stones for the RSA website. In this article Adam Stones explores how businesses can create meaningful purpose and create change. I read this from two perspectives – 1) as a small business owner, and 2) as a researcher. The article gave me food for thought in terms of how I can make sure that my little business is contributing to the change that I want to see (more on that over the summer!), as well as how I as a researcher, can work with businesses and brands to ensure that the work that I’m doing has the biggest impact possible.
• Article: Let’s talk about the notion of cure by Amy D Robertson. A really interesting piece around the concept of ‘curing’ from the perspective of a patient living with chronic pain, this challenges the notion that a cure should always be the end goal. For lots of patients that isn’t realistic, and fuels feelings of failure and fragility, instead we should be working towards a realistic version of wellness that is agreed by both the patient and their healthcare team.
• Webinar: Science’s Selling without selling out: How to communicate your science. This is a brilliant webinar from Science – it provides a good basic introduction to science communication from lots of different perspectives.

One specific moment

I’m realising that this one specific moment thing is turning into the part of the blog post where I talk about the moment I realised someone believed in me, or I felt I belonged. Last month it was attending my first local Etsy makers meetup, and feeling all warm and fuzzy because my tiny little business is reaching people that I haven’t nagged to buy stuff – incredible. This month, it’s a bit bigger than that. I’ve been accepted onto a fully funded creative accelerator program to help me to gain new skills and boost my tiny business! I’m so excited. Between June and September I’ll be attending workshops and meetups to help me connect with other creative people in the city, and make Science On A Postcard the best side hustle that it can be. I applied for this program late at night a few months ago, and I really, genuinely didn’t think that I stood a chance at getting a place. Now, I’m one of 12 people on the program. I can’t wait to meet the other makers and get to grips with the world of creative business, not only for Science On A Postcard, but for future academic research projects that I have bubbling away in my head.

Work thing

This month has been fab for work things, a few things I’m particularly buzzing about:

• At the writing retreat I mentioned above I was working on a paper from the qualitative work that made up a big chunk of my PhD thesis I’d had comments in the last draft sitting in my inbox since December, and I’d been avoiding it. The retreat was exactly what I needed – a complete kick up the backside to force me to open the document again. I left the retreat with a new draft, which I now have back with a few outstanding comments, but it’s so nearly ready for submission!
• This month I found out the I’d won the Early Career Researcher award in the University of Aberdeen’s Principal’s Prizes for Public Engagement with Research. Last year I was awarded runner up, so this was a complete surprise that I’m very, very happy with 🙂
• At the end of the month I was awarded a bursary to attend the BIG event in Edinburgh this July, so if you’re attending and fancy a chat let me know! I’ll be there on the Thursday and Friday.

Now I’ve written all of that down, it’s pretty clear why the month went so quickly – I feel like I haven’t stopped for the last 4 weeks! All good though, a very positive and productive month. What did you love about May? Leave a comment below and let me know 🙂