Tags: research, chocolate, Romania, fieldwork
Date: 12 June 2007 18:37:31
This might be a bit rash, but I've decided to come out in sympathy with the wibsite's very own Tired and Emotional and support him in his endeavour to chuck the chocolate (did you see what I did there? I should be a campaign slogan writer). I know I should eat less. I need to be slimmer, not just for my health (though that's the main reason) but also to fit into my wedding dress, and yet I have no willpower at all. Having now designated T&E as the official voice of my conscience, I shall have to imagine him peering disapprovingly whenever I'm tempted to have a quick peek at the chocolate on display and saying something suitably scathing. I hope it works, otherwise I shall have to trade him in for a newer conscience-stirring model ;)
In other news, the realities of life as a qualitative researcher hit today, when a group of people I was going to interview didn't turn up. Fortunately the other person I was going to interview did come, and we did a very good interview which I'm happy with, and she gave me a couple of names of people which will be really helpful and make me feel slightly less like I'm stabbing in the dark. But I was interested how I reacted to the no-show thing - I realised that although it would have been really useful to have had the interview (and I'll have to rethink a bit of my strategy) I really can't rely on anybody, and so can't set my heart (so to speak) on any one interview being the one that will transform my research from the ordinary into the world-changing. So I have shrugged and am getting on with contacting other people, whereas if this had happened a little while ago I would probably have been wringing my hands in angst and convincing myself that my research is doomed. However, I am doing an observation tomorrow and the organisation who are facilitating it seem confident that I will recruit quite a few respondents from it, so all is not lost. Hooray!
In other other news, although I'm really glad that there is a very good internet cafe 2 minutes' walk from my flat, and I am spending rather a lot of time there (you might have noticed - I promise I'm doing some work here too!), I am getting a bit fed up with the radio station that is piped into the punters' room. They have a playlist of about 5 or 6 songs which are played over and over and over and over and over and over ... it's driving me nuts!