It’s been a lovely run but it’s time to retire this informal platform. Not that I’ve had an enormous number of readers or anything, but enough people got in touch over the years that it seemed worthwhile to continue. And it helped me make sense of my path and growth as a geographer, from long before I finished my PhD all the way to where I am now. It’s been fun to document the journey. But it’s time draw the curtain now and move on to other projects.

So here are some of the entries that I particularly liked, or at least those that stuck with me.

It’s a beautiful stadium, but actually Krasnodar isn’t a World Cup host city.

I swear I’m not a spy. This is the tragic turning point in Russia for me.

Part 2 of the spy saga, where some trashy newspapers in Russia lie about yours truly.

Part 3 of the spy saga, where I feature in a terrifying propaganda TV show about spies in Russia.

The trash mountains in post-Olympic Sochi.

Hilarious low budget corruption in Kaliningrad.

Why writing my PhD was like being a plumber.

Organizing a roundtable on uncertainty, resilience, mental health, and gratitude in the academy.

Forbidden from Belarus but then they let me in anyway.

Mapping my moods while writing the dissertation.

Some perspective after I defended.

4 points on the compass: brief mental health advice for PhD students.

I started getting sort of a lot of media attention for my mega-events work.

A new project: exploring mega-event cities after the spotlight.

There’s a lot more of course. Conference organizing lessons, a variety of different publications, some lectures and keynotes. It’s been a good road.

Thanks for reading, ye faithful few. I’ve got so many good things in the pipeline at the moment. I feel very grateful and I can’t wait to share. Onward and upward!