Hey AQ, glad you're feeling a bit better today. Some days are just horrors, when it's all too much, then we need to have a cry, pick ourselves up, and hope the next day's better. And how dare people have fun around you! ;-) Don't they know you're doing big, important work? Glad that the festival's finished tho and hope you can get back to work.

God, what a life, 'eh? Who'd choose this??

Am still dithering over applying for this job. Realised today that if I do apply, I'll need to tell my current employer, to avoid a conflict of interest. Hoh boy - burst into tears on my 3rd day there, took a week off, and now in my third week, I have to tell them that I'm applying for another job...honestly, this all just seems too hard at the moment....when does life get better for all of us???

Hey Matilda, congratulations!!! Fabulous news!! I've known other people who finished their thesis while pregnant, and it's seemed that their pregnancy has spurred them on to absolutely finish before the baby arrives. Wow, a doctorate, then a baby - what a time!! Am sure you'll get used to the idea of being pregnant, and once the initial excitement fades a little you'll be able to concentrate.

And as for your big meeting, maybe just flick thru the thesis again to refamiliarise yourself - it'll come back to you.

Good luck with both!

Hey MaltildaL congratulations!! That's great news! As Sue said, hopefully this will be what spurs you on to finishing on time, imagine how great it will feel to have submitted, and then just have time to prepare for your new baby! IT can definitely be done though, a girl in my office got pregnant at the start of her final year, and managed to finish lab work, have the baby, go off on maternity leave, write up and submit only about 2 weeks past the intended date!! Insane! But you can totally do it! (up)

The stupid fete has finished here so that's good, I can actually get a proper sleep now which has helped, just can't wait to get finished! I'm starting to plan all sorts of nice things I can do when I'm finished as motivation which is really starting to help! Thanks for the words of sympathy Sue, I hate seeing other people have fun at the moment!! It sounds like a tough situation with your job, maybe you boss will be ok with you applying elsewhere though, if you are doing your doctorate I'm sure they know you are going to want to apply for specific jobs...good luck with it!!

Congratulations Matilda, that is brilliant news!! you must be completely over the moon, I know I would be!! :)

Like Sue says, it may give you that push to spur you through to the end. I also know afew people who've done this, and its all worked out for them!

Hope you're doing OK Sue, it does all seem never ending doesn't it, but i'm sure that everything will work out the way it should, just do what you feel is right, go with your gut and i'm sure your partner will be completely supportive whatever happens! Who knows, if you do get the dream job and want to go, then the thought of you going may make him decide that he will come with you after all. I guess you just have to go for all opportunities and see what you get when they all land, make your decisions from there, but try not to worry about it all just now as first things first...thesis!! :( and we are so close.

I know i'm not on here much these days, although don't think any of us are quite as frequent users in the final countdown, but i'm thinking of you all, and am so thankful to have this anonymous place of sanctuary!

Keep smiling (hopefully not toooo manically like this guy) :-s :p

Hi AL, nice to hear from you! Has been ages!! How's your work going?

Well, I did apply for the dream job, and altho my partner doesn't really want to live in that city, he would, for a few years. So, now we'll wait and see!! Have been busy doing job applications, including for non-academic jobs, to get out of the awful town I live in. But need to get back into the thesis and do a million references.

All the best to everyone!

PS Now I can say 'I'm finishing next month' - next month!! Woohooo!

Hey Sue, yeah i'm doing ok, just in the final stages and so excited to be almost finished, but also very tired, exhausted, crabby and just keep thinking its not good enough! But like I said in AQs thread, i need to leave my perfectionist ways behind me and just make sure its enough for pass with minor corrections.

I really have NO faith left in my idiot supervisor, which is worrying as I need to know that what i've written is good enough, but I just keep telling myself he's never had a fail yet. So however annoying he is being, and just seems to be giving up on his career, that he won't let me down at the end!

My partner has just left for Chicago, he's away for two weeks! :( He tried to get out of it, but wasn't happening, so sucks to be left to have to cook, clean etc for myself in the last stages, but on other hand I guess I won't have distractions, just total peace and quiet to get it all done. I'll just have to visit friends for hugs, but it aint the same! :)

I'm glad your partner is being supportive and would come with you if you got the job, keep us posted with what happens.

Right, i'm off to have a look at this discussion and see what garble I wrote at 1am this morning!!

Have a good day peeps! AL xx

Morning folks!
Another day another few hundred words eh?! :) Good to hear your partner could be ok moving with you Sue, these things all work out in the end! I hope the job application goes well! Today I'm feeling a bit crappy, like I've got a cold or something coming on so that's not exactly ideal. I'm all stuffy, sore eyes, achy and sniffly :-( And feeling good and crabby like you Alpacalover! What a pity your partner had to leave at this stage, that's not good having to go without proper hugs! I'm sure your friends will do their best though! And he will be back soon, and you'll be submitted soon and it will be all good!
I totally know the feeling about being worried about work, I've never been too concerned abut the standard of my work, I always felt it was fine and occasionally great, but I'm not a mad perfectionist. However at the moment it feels like what I'm writing is complete tosh. However I heard once that the best thesis is a finished thesis, so that's my aim! Do my best, get it done and fix it up if I have time, if not, prepare for the viva corrections. At this stage, we know we know our stuff, so we just have to relax and trust in our brains to produce the goods.

We are getting there, can you believe it?! This month and next month, we'll be submitted!

Oh NO AQ, that's not good! Get dosed up on something and I say - keep the PJ's on all day! Although to be honest I do that every day ;-)

Just writing the discussion, I want to get the write balance between summarising the main findings but also applying it to current research. But I think my brain is fully saturated and pubmed searches just make me hurt!!! I really don't think my brain can take in any more facts - so its a good job we're almost at the end eh!! I'm really hating this discussion thing though, I want to be concise and direct, and yet have all the right facts and for it to flow and make sense too! ARGHHHH!!

I usually work from home, but think i'm going to go into the lab office to study today as no-one will be in there and if i'm there I just have to read, and can print out papers etc instead of reading them on screen, which I think is starting to strain my eyes!

Also, it means I can print out final versions of all my chapters. I'm usually the most paper conscious person, and never use it unnecessarily, but there is nothing like seeing it all printed out like a book and being able to flick through it! It makes me feel better, like I have achieved something big! (especially now I have a title page!)

Have a good day, and good luck with the words! I ended up writing about 1300 yesterday, but most of it needs editing, just good to actually get the thoughts down on paper, 400 of it was my ideas for future research, which was the least painless!

AL x

Glad to hear we're all going well!! Take care of yourself AQ, avoid the cold. I also have a cold, and have been taking millions of garlic and horseradish tablets, which have made it manageable and I haven't yet succumbed. It's not surprising, our bodies need a rest...

Sorry to hear your partner is away AL...but at the same time, it means no distractions. You don't have to cook or clean for you both - let the housework go, make lots of healthy food you can reheat to keep you going, and settle in...

Well, now the job apps have been done, back to referencing. I knew I should've done more as I went along - can't believe that I only get 3 done an hour for some parts of the thesis...gawd, will be here forever...

how's is everyone on here doing? how far are you with your thesis?

Nervous tonight because I have a 2-hour feedback session on my first draft with Both supervisors....Now frantically trying to re-read the whole of my draft before tomorrow ( 2 chapters to go )

Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to make good plans for when I complete the darned thing!
I want to concentrate on shopping for baby stuff and chosins baby names etc! MUST CONCENTRATE ON THESIS!

Hey Matilda

Be brave and have thinck skin for your meeting with your sups. When I met mine after they'd gone over most of the thesis, I was depressed for weeks afterwards. Their comments weren't all that negative, was just the let down of knowing I still had a lot of work to do...hope they love yours tho and you don't need to do much more!

Hi Jojo. As you can see, we're all inching slowly towards finishing! My complete draft is with sups, and I'm really, really hoping I don't have to rewrite the whole thing again. Am hoping to submit next month - woo!

The feedback was good and although I do have some re-structuring to do it seems to be manageable.
I also have to learn to not "sit on the fence" and be more direct about what I want to say.


Anyway I now have some firm dates....so I'd better get on with doing those revisions and edits!

Best of luck to all those in a similar situation!
M

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Arrgh! :) I went to the shop yesterday without the calming influence of my altogether too healthy boyfriend and bought a big bag of sweets which I've been chomping on this morning and now I've got a big sugar rush! I haven't had this much sugar since I moved over here over 3 weeks ago, it's been all salads and yoghurt! oops!

Apart from self inflicted sugar rushes, I've been really struggling to get this chapter finished. I duno why, I got started on it ok, but as soon as it hit the discussion I just blanked. I can't concentrate on anything for longer than 5 minutes and even when I know what I want to write it's like I can't be bothered, even though I want to. And it's taking me hours to get going in the mornings (hence the sweeties.. :-) ) Got about 4 weeks left to get everything done, I don't see how it's possible but I suppose I can but try! Anyone else finding it difficult to get going or is it just me?!

Good going for the meeting MatildaL too, I've got mine next week and dreading it to be honest! Hope it goes as well as yours!

Mmmm!
I have discovered Baklava ( sp?) Fantastic for a sugar rush!
Also rather keen on Cadburys Caramel nibbles - amazing how I quickly I can get through a bag. So much more luxurious that my undergraduate days when I survived on own-brand chocolate digestives!
Matilda