A thread on why research skills gained at university level can be life-saving: 18 years ago my mum told me she’d seen a tick on her arm. I was studying for my PhD in York while she was five hours south of me. A week later she said a bulls-eye rash had emerged around the bite. I couldn’t do much from afar but told her to keep an eye on it. Fast forward a year and my dad phones me in a panic. My mum is in hospital in excruciating pain. She’s vomiting, can hardly speak and is delirious. The doctors fear meningitis so run tests. My dad keeps phones hourly

I’m listening to heart breaking stories of violence, oppression, pain. They’re coming at me from every angle. I think the key is to isolate the problem. It’s a demographic we all know. The power hungry. The bullies. The demagogues. They’re our target. Solidarity is our quest. ✊🏼 I think social media can help. We’re not blind sheep. We can judge whether a person is someone we believe in or not by seeing how they conduct themselves as humans. It’s a weird moment in History. We’re spying on the thoughts of those around us. What a time to be alive?!

Lockdown mind-tricks you can play on yourself to give glimmers of pleasure:
1) put the shower onto hot so steam builds up. Put a few drops of essential oils on a sponge. Turn off shower and stand inside. Instant hotel spa steam room. 2) make up a cocktail of your choice - mine’s a G n T. When it’s complete put in the fridge. Put a box of ice in the freezer. Go away for 10 mins. Come back, say ‘G n T please bar tender’. Get drink from fridge. ‘You want ice with that?’ Put ice in from box. Like being in a bar!

I’ve a confession. Five years ago our friends lent us a cottage in Whitby. Satnav wasn’t working. I’d driven through the night, family were asleep. I knew we were near but instead of turning left, turned right. I went up here. I soon realised it was the donkey track to the abbey! It was pitch black & I’d missed the no entry sign. I slammed on the brakes but was stuck at a 60 % gradient! The car alarm went off & the family woke up screaming. I couldn’t take my foot off the brake or we’d have crashed back into a wall. I had to accelerate. Hill start! Go!

I’ve thought for a while about writing this. It’s difficult as I am a loyal lecturer @UniofOxford . But as I watch the #RhodesMustFall protests I want to share an experience. First off, this is not about race but it is about class, gender, xenophobia & otherness. Secondly, I love Oxford University. It’s not a single entity. It’s a body with lots of parts. When I arrived fresh from state school in Slough I hid from the unpleasant bits while places like @StAnnesCollege @KelloggOx @OxfordConted @EFLOxford supported & embraced me.

Who wants a mini Art History lesson on dating crucifixions? I’d usually do an hour, but I’ll try a thread. There are no surviving crucifixions from the earliest stage of Christianity as his criminal death would be like showing a man hanging on gallows. Instead he works miracles. By the fifth century, as the western Roman Empire has collapsed, the first crucifixion images appear. As chief of gods Jesus can’t be shown as weak or frail. Instead he boldly takes on death and stares out at the viewer triumphing over original sin. His arms and legs are straight

It’s no secret I’m a huge fan of John Ruskin. His ‘Stones of Venice’ formed the bedrock of my understanding of architecture. I’ve read so much about him but never truly understood him until I walked around his home Brantwood @RuskinsFriends. The power of place.... He couldn’t sleep in his bedroom after 1878 when he saw demons at the end of his bed. He’s designed the turret to give a panoramic view of the Lakes but ended up reproducing the layout in the room opposite as he was too scared to sleep here.