Graduation Day!

Yes, I thought books were the only possibly appropriate image for today. I get to put on an ugly bonnet hat, have my thesis topic read out, and officially graduate. Wish me luck!

Some more good news

I found out on Friday that I have been officially awarded my PhD, and will graduate later in the year!

It has been a really long road, and I'm so happy and relieved.

Thank you for all your encouragement over the years. You're the best readers ever. xx

I'm Back!

Oops! An unexpected little blogging break! I had a lovely week up at the coast with The Pal and then my Mum. So beautiful and lovely not to do anything for a whole week. Podcasts were listened to, books were read and risottos consumed. Perfection.

The Finish Line

Image

I handed my thesis in yesterday!! Thank you for all your support throughout - it has been a slog.

I'm pretty adrenaline-y still and I bet it'll take a while to calm down, but for now, it feels pretty good.

If you'll excuse me, I have an appointment with some podcasts, bad DVDs, some new iphone apps and a late afternoon snooze!

I wish you all a wonderfully happy Easter and see you soon.

xxx

Gulp.

Image from the most excellent THXTHXTHX blog. You should really check it out.

I might be a bit absent from blogland for a little while. I've been reticent to talk about it here for fear of jinxing it, but I really am going into the scary tunnel of the end of the PhD.

I've pre-posted a few bits and pieces, and will hopefully be PhD-less when I come back. Which will be incredibly, amazingly, delightfully, refreshingly good.

Thanks always for your lovely comments. It's truly a delight having a blog, and I appreciate it more than you could know.

See you soon!

Hurumph

Hello friendly blog audience,
As many of you know, I am trying to complete my thesis at the moment. While I thought the end of August was an immovable deadline, it looks like I shall (yes, oh yes, again) be working into September and maybe beyond that.

So I wanted you to know that I won't be posting as much for the next short while. It seems hard to think of much else, and feels a bit disingenuous to sound excited about things when I'm really just exhausted and nervous.

Thanks (as always) for your lovely comments. See you soon xx

All a-Jumble

Image

Not to do too much of a self-indulgent post, but things have been fairly chaotic in my head of late. Still trying to calm down from such a hectic few months/years, and it's frustrating that such a calm down takes so long to happen! It's also proving to be quite difficult to explain to people, and the immediate reaction to a finished PhD is, "Oh, you must be so happy! And relaxed!" While the happy part is definitely true, it's still a bit tense - I have results to wait for and a whole lot of muscle memory which is very good at ramping up the anxiety to record highs. I (hope I) will have more articulate thoughts on this later.

Also trying to organise a big trip with the Pal (more soon!) which is proving to be expensive and slightly stress-inducing, but will, of course, be incredible when we get there. So lots to show and tell later, but right now off to the second in my career-path assessment tests. Last week was personality testing, this week it's verbal, numerical and abstract reasoning tests!

Celebrations All Round

Since I last wrote, the feeling is still a little bit odd. I keep thinking "I have to get home to get started on my..." and then can't finish the sentence! Ahh. The Pal surprised me yesterday with a night at the Observatory Hotel which was sensational and the BEST surprise.

The Pal and I spent yesterday afternoon getting full body massages, then had a swim in the indoor pool, the roof of which is covered in stars as if you're looking up to the night sky. Then we got into our fluffy hotel robes (why are they always so fluffy?!) and had room service while watching U.S. election commentary. Swoon! Had a leisurely wander down to breakfast this morning - it all seemed very fairytale. Thank you Pal - you're the best.

Happily, today is also the day in which I draw my etsy-versary prize! I used the random picked and came up with NATASHA! Yay for you, lovely! Have a look in the shop and let me know what goodies you'd like to the value of $20!

Relaxing Crazy

Image

It's been a crazy week. I'm waiting to hear back from my supervisor as to whether my complete draft is ready for submission, which has been quite nerve-wracking in itself. But I've now been waiting for almost two weeks, and I've finally done all the last-minute things I can think of. If I check my bibliography one more time, I will finally and completely unspool.

It's hard, as I don't have an end-date in sight (could be next week, could be next month), so it's really hard to plan anything or feel normal! Haven't really been seeing people much of late - my head's a bit exhausted, and it's strange to be in the limbo of having no work to do, but not being able to relax properly...

So in the meantime, and in a very Kate-way, I have:

1. Read four books in three days, including the very excellent Clockers by Richard Price. (Price also wrote some of The Wire which I'm also two seasons into and completely love...)

Image

2. Watched two seasons of Jeeves and Wooster. Too, too much hilarity - for a little taste, have a look here.

Image

3. Made oh-so-many new badges. It's getting to be a habit, now! They'll be up in the shop soon.

4. Started my setzkasten transformation. Oh la la. Pics soon!

5. Waiting for the next Buffy comic to arrive.

6. Started a brand new secret craft project. More details to follow...

Hmmm. This is what other people do when they relax, right?!

Treats

Image

I've been thinking a lot about how I should commemorate the ending of my PhD. Which is sort of ironic, as I haven't actually finished it yet, but I figure it might be good to have something to run towards, apart from the enormous weight of 80,000 words off my chest, which admittedly, will be rather lovely.

So I've had a few ideas. One was that I refer to myself as The Doctor in the third-person, but I figured that may lose me all my friends much more quickly than doing a doctorate. And it actually sounds much more like a punishment than anything else. (It does have a certain touch of "I'm Toby Zeigler and I work at the White House", to it.) But then I thought about this chair, in all its modernist glory, and figured that would be a pretty cool prize. I could swivel around and feel doctory, and when friends came to visit, I might even let them have a spin...