Date: 17 December 2010 20:45:57
I handed in the thesis on Tuesday! It was a very strange feeling (not helped by the fact that I couldn't actually find the way in to the building and ended up hammering on a locked door which was some sort of tradesman's entrance!). On Monday night when I got the 3 bound copies of the thesis out to take a picture and to show HD, I found myself all teary, I don't think I'd realised how much I'd got into it and how much it meant to me. I still think it tails off a bit at the end and I am sure I know what the examiners will say about it (needing more theory thread thoughout the empirical chapters - I guess I'm just not a theorist), but it got to the point where it just had to be good enough in the time left, and what is there should pass some sort of muster even though I am expecting corrections. I will be happy with 3 months' corrections, am not expecting 'just minor' corrections, and it could be 6 months. My supervisor, who was herself an external examiner at another university at the start of the week, told me that really what is required is that I can justify what I did and defend why I did it, and she is confident I can do that.
Since handing it in I feel like I haven't stopped. I still had some essays to mark, which took longer than I would have liked, and I have still had the day job to do. The flat is slightly less of a tip now than it was, HD has done a great job of sorting out the bedroom, and last night we were able to sleep in the bedroom again for the first time in a week (we had had to decamp to the sofabed in the living room as the bedroom was too damp). I have been getting up very early most days to either faff about on the thesis or mark essays before work, so although I had a great night's sleep last night I'm going to need a lot more than that to catch up.
And now I can finally think about Christmas. We've not bought cards as there has simply not been time to do anything about them, so apologies to anyone who was expecting one. Hopefully next year I'll be more organised, and might even attempt another cartoon letter. Apart from a couple of secret santa presents for work colleagues and something for HD ordered from the internet and then not delivered because of the snow I haven't bought a single thing, so tomorrow I am picking up HD's present from the depot and then we are going to have to hit the shops. Mmmm, city centre the last Saturday before Christmas, that's going to be a pleasant experience ....
In other news Dudley (the car) is not sounding very healthy :(