The end in sight?

About 6 months ago I finished my first draft. It’s really cool to look back at all the different posts on here about my thesis and see how it’s progressed, at snail’s pace! I’ve spent the last 6 months working away (and really enjoying it) with the thesis at the back of my mind. Every couple of weeks I’d ping my supervisor to see if he’d read it yet, and get a negative reply. Eventually he owned up to having read it once, then having lost the left the thesis, comments and all, in a hotel room in the US. Grrr. Anyway, chin up and moving onwards, he eventually got back to me with some good comments and a few ideas for how to improve it. No extra work for now, thankfully, just a few aesthetic things to sort out. So last weekend I worked on my thesis. This week I’ve been working normal hours during the day then hitting uni at night. This weekend I’m doing nothing but again, well, I might allow myself a curry and a beer tonight, but then it’s back in tomorrow morning. All good fun, but hope to have it done by the end of the weekend. Not sure what happens next, hope to get the viva done in the next wee while, then the corrections (hopefully minimal!) and then graduate in the summer.

So not much fun for now, but hopefully that’s me on the home straight. Wanted to blog this afternoon because it’s the Grand National, and I can clearly remember being in here this time last year working away on the thesis on a Saturday afternoon. What an arse this PhD is…

Now to work…

What are you up to this weekend?

I thought I’d head out to California for a few days, do a 20 minute presentation and then take some pictures. Which weather forecast do you think is Glasgow, and which one is Monterey? And yes, that is negative temperatures and snow. HA!

On a related note, this weekend I’ll be in San Francisco, next weekend I’m going to London, and the weekend after I’ll be in Paris. Can’t complain.

Back home

And it’s nice. Was sad to leave Turkey tho, Garrey said it’s the first ever time he’s finished a course and not wanted to leave, and he’s right enough. Always feels great getting back to Scotland when you’ve been away though. Just a quick chance to stick a couple of photos up, man that place we were staying was amazing. For those who know it, it’s kind of like going to Dalfaber, but a little more upmarket; it’s sunny and hot all the time, you get 3 meals a day provided, you get given 100 Turkish Lira (about £40) spending money for beer and stuff, the swimming pool is outdoors, there’s a BBQ complete with chef doing all the cooking for you, the place is some kind of weird fort construction with ramparts, massive arches and a flipping amphitheatre, and there are random hammocks everywhere for you to chill out in.