A new WordPress theme, and a new start. After a frantic #blogjune I stepped away from blogging (again). In the intervening months a lot has happened.

Mostly I’ve been travelling – since getting back from Canada, I’ve been to London, Rome, Florence and Italy on holiday; and to Christchurch for the joint Archives and Records New Zealand/Australian Society of Archivists conference.

Along the way I saw everything from backrooms at the British Museum and brilliant figurative sculpture at the Hayward Gallery to the almost overwhelmingly beautiful Botticelli room at the Uffizi and the excellent Peggy Guggenheim Collection on the Grand Canal.

I experienced the sublime and brilliantly bonkers Kate Bush concert Before The Dawn in Hammersmith, and heard the post-bebop house band at the Venice Jazz Club pay tribute to Miles Davis.

I tasted mouth-watering salt beef bagels in Brick Lane, drank pints of bitter, and ate grouse with claws still attached in London; and I made my way through a four course meal and Italian red wine on my birthday in Rome, tried boar pappardelle in Florence and sampled sardines in a Venetian piazza.

I wandered amongst Roman ruins at the Forum, and explored the still-scarred streets of Christchurch.

And I caught up with old friends and made some new ones.

Now I’m back at work, where everything is about to change. I have officially resigned from my continuing professional position at the University of Melbourne, becoming a casual academic as of 1 December 2014. And on 15 December 2014 I officially start my PhD based in the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, also working with Museum Victoria and the eScholarship Research Centre.

Coming up: three years (at least) of reading, researching and writing about museums, archives, collections and context, as well as online systems, community engagement, metadata structures and more. And throughout, I’m planning regular posts here on Context Junky. Stay tuned.