I have been away, spending a bit of redundancy pay, having some time out of mind and appreciating how privileged I am to have the opportunity. It is good to ‘stop’ at times, if you can. Spent some quality time on a Greek Island in the Agean Sea and revisited some old haunts in South London. Of course, there is no real ‘getting away’, so that in all forms of respite the mind continues to process observations; generating reflections of, and on, the material and ideological troubles of the social world. An end, possibly, to ‘academic’ life also frees the mind in some ways.