This may have convinced me to make an effort..

I’m really sorry, but I just can’t get used to posting here! If you’d like updates from me, I’m on Instagram as lucycoatman

Does anyone know if the computers at the Austrian National Library have PowerPoint? I need to edit my presentation for a lecture I’m giving on Sunday, but don’t have PP and the slides are apparently too much for Google slides to handle/I need to be able to password protect

Look who I found… @johnpaulnewman.bsky.social

Also up for auction is this pastel portrait of Mary Vetsera. Had the chance to see it the other month at a research appointment!

If you want to own Emperor Franz Joseph’s slippers, now is your chance…

dorotheum.com/de/l/9582635/

I need to get good at posting here, I’m sorry. I’m such an Instagram addict. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Came for a Vetsera related meeting, stayed for the art.

Thankfully getting back on track with everything now that I no longer feel like a zombie (thank you, Hashimoto’s diagnosis and meds!), so if I owe you something, I hope to get it to you in the next couple of weeks!

(Sorry for the double post lol, I needed to remove the image I posted from the screen test 😬)

I had a fun morning on Saturday filming my interview for an upcoming Secrets d’Histoire episode in Empress Zita at the French embassy in Vienna! It was really nice to get back into material that I haven’t had a chance to look at for a while.

Alright. Summarised all my notes to have at hand for the Zita interview tomorrow. Feeling less stressed and looking forward to it now! (But not the early wake up call…)

Maybe I’m underestimating my abilities

I know just putting them in German is an option, but it still feels a bit of a shame.

On a different topic - there are a couple of Mary’s poems that I want to put in my book. They’re not particularly high brow, and my German is fluent, but I don’t feel I have the artistic capability to render them well in English, and a direct translation would be weird. What would you do?

Me: writes thesis and publishes on Zita
Me: I am under qualified for this!!!!
…typical

I don’t feel as in this material as I was two years ago, and I’m obviously not as deep in it as Mary/Rudolf/Mayerling. Just thankful my friend will also be interviewing and were allowed to divvy up the questions between us.

Feeling slightly overwhelmed about filming this Zita episode on Saturday 😵‍💫

April 1, 1989: Empress Zita’s funeral. She was buried on the anniversary of the death of her husband Karl (April 1, 1922), who she loved so much.

The future Emperor Karl as a child at Villa Wartholz.

📸: ÖNB

This week was scarily productive for my job, my own research & writing, teaching, preparing for filming a tv episode on Empress Zita… it’s nice to be healthy & motivated again, but I’m excited to sleep and see The Phantom of the Opera for the 40 somethingth time tomorrow… 😅

Kind of obsessed with Crown Prince Rudolf’s picnic set that was auctioned in 2008.

Where else would Mayerling experts meet but in Kaffee Monarchie?

Alright, who signed me up to receive a magazine for over 50s?

Austrian Identity and Modernity Bringing together an interdisciplinary cast of scholars, this volume explores national and nationalist identification(s) in Austria, as they were represented th…

Very excited that this book is out 🗃️: www.bloomsbury.com/uk/austrian-...

Felt more like a Sisi deficiency and nonsense overdose! 😄

Today I experienced a virtual reality boat ride where Sisi was our tour guide and we were going through the sewers of Vienna before flying into Schönbrunn (in the boat) and then flying above Vienna (still in the boat). I’m going to need some time to recover from that.

Born on this day in 1871: Marie Alexandrine Freiin von Vetsera, known as ‘Mary’. 🤍

📸: ÖNB

Hope this means I can get it to publisher this summer. Want it out there now!

A big part of me was irritated that poor health + my job kept me from finishing my book on Mary Vetsera, but I read through things and wrote 5 pages tonight and think the distance did me some good. I feel motivated again and realised there actually isn’t that much left to write!