For anyone watching at home though, I am 4000 words in. Section one (the Maccabean Revolt, arrival of Pompey, establishment of Herodian dynasty) is done, and I'm already working on section two (Judea as client kingdom under the Roman Empire, the trial and execution of Jesus and possibly John the Baptist; with possibly an angle on Jews in Rome under Claudius and Nero thrown in). There's something immensely satisfying about being two fifths of the way through. Probably because I've never written more than 5000 words in an academic paper and I'm still finding research to include.
I badly want to download series two of Rome (what's this I hear about Herod the Great turning up?), but I think I'm going to leave that until I've got the draft of the paper done. Then I can probably relax just a little.
Libby, our favourite lecturer Marcel sat next to me on the bus to uni today. ARGH. Didn't seem to recognise me though, which was good.