Last spring, I became aware of a very cool entity called the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics. When I saw they had a call out for papers for their Summer School this coming July, I decided to throw my hat in the ring. I haven’t been remotely involved in academia since turning in my dissertation at the LSE in 2010, and am not part of any institution, so I figured it was a long shot. However, I am excited to say that they got back saying that they loved my proposal, and hoped I would be able to come give a presentation in July!

Needless to say, I’m flipping thrilled. Worried that I’m out of my league and going to shame myself in front of a room of seasoned professionals, but thrilled.

After much deliberation, I’ve decided that if I’m going to travel all the way to Oxford, it would be silly not to tag on some other adventures in the area. And if I’m going to go on adventures, I of course ought to bring along my #1 adventuring companion, aka my cat, Aífe.

I’ve thought about where we might go. There are loads of famously gorgeous places I would like to see in the UK (many of which have glorious Instagram accounts). However, my trip over there hinges on Oxford, so it probably makes sense to look for something in that area. And there happens to be one quest I know I would like to tackle there: The Thames Path. It’s a National Trail that runs 184 miles from the edge of the Cotswolds and through Oxford to Greenwich in London (you know, the place where Time began). 

If you’re familiar with our adventures, you’ll know that they’ve got everything: trees! flowers! birds! ice cream! bunnies! bicycles! trains! mountains! castles! boats! planes! rivers! hikes! seasickness! books! naps! art! dentistry! graveyards! cheese! This adventure would be pretty much all of those things rolled into one massive pilgrimage of radness (though hopefully we can give seasickness and dentistry a miss).

The thing is, there’s a few quandaries that need solving if I’m going to make it work. And I only have a couple months to either get a plan sorted, or scrap it. And meanwhile, I have to get together a presentation good enough to impress a room full of experts and lawyers in flipping Oxford. So I’d really appreciate your two cents in figuring this out. If you’re interested, please read on.