======= Date Modified 01 Nov 2008 12:06:29 =======
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

A huge thank you to the postgraduate forum team. thanks for creating this wonderful support system, my only regret is i didnt know about this place sooner!
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I want to thank Tractorgirl especially, for her amazing support and encouragent and belief in me - and when i saw her finish it REALLY motivated me. because i kept thinking i also want to be in that position.

Thanks also to Anthropologa, wherever she is, i hope one day we hear from her again, thanks to her for creating this great thread!

To my fellow comrad Armendaf! Thanks for all your encouragement and was nice to have you in the same boat as me! Ruby you kept me sane! thanks for always keeping me company and for your positive support and understanding.

A huge thanks to Miss Spacey, for all her advice and all her help! you are a star!!

Many thanks to Olivia for her kind support and empathy throughout my problems with my sups.

A very special thank you to Walminskipeasucker, for the constant encouragment and support and positive thinking

Thanks to the fellow nocturnals! you kept me awake during those long nights - so thanks for everyone on that thread especially to Sylvester for creating it. and especially thanks to fellow nocture worker Chrisrolinski. and many Thanks also to 404, ProcrastiPro, thecoastman, jennifr.

A very special thanks to the following who helped me when i had my crisis of having to write my thesis and dealing with my sups at the same time: I just went to that thread i created when i first joined, and i am now able to award you stars! back then there were no star systems, so i am now able to give them to you :-) thanks so much to:

Smilodon, sjo4, A116, AmyP, Rosy, shani, Miss Spacey (thank you again! i can give you a star now :-)) jouri, mr_yeast, botanybod ( i wonder where she is now? she was a star!),

A huge thank you to Jojo, for inspiring me with a thesis diary. Thank also to K!!! your words of wisdom helped alot.

its a nice feeling of relief and accomplishment to read my past messages of panic/stress and the things i needed to have done and knowing now that its done.

A huge Thanks to the following for their encouaring, and nice messages left on my diary: and their helpful advice and words of wisdom!! ( have allocated stars to the helpful uses! ;-)

HazyJane, Miss spacey (thanks again!), a very special thank you to BilboBaggins !! Swantje, Ex-student, Cakegirl, clowning81, Longway74, ANG, LadyD, Bakuvia, Celesmai, SillyBilly, Omega_monkey, Botanybod, Liminalplace, Tetrisfiend, Kaymoy, Beverley, Bobby.

I want to give Armendaf and Ruby a star, but realised i cant because we only ever posted here and this isnt my thread. so here's a honourary star from me!! *hands Armendaf a big shiny gold star* *hands Ruby a big shiny gold star*
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So what's next? study like hell for the viva, for the next 2 months. and i'm no longer going to be scared or avoid my supervisors but ask for help for the viva prep, and not feel intimidated by them, or feel like i am bugging them. if i dont understand something thats fine, its not embarrassing, i will learn from it. i am going to study really hard for the viva.

but i am going to take a week off to organise my life, my study room is a bomb site! so need to sort out all my papers and tidy up my bedroom.

fix my desktop computer and get an upgrade, fix my laptop as its super slow. research on how to prepare for a viva- via books/internet etc. organise a meeting with my supervisor to get advice on how i should approach the viva prep. meet up with my friends! :-) start eating healthy and exercising, as i've gained alot of weight! order some dvds as a treat. buy a digital radio, that's my gift to myself for handing in my thesis by the deadline. :-)

but today i am feeling so lazy and tired, i am still in bed! i will get up in abit and start organising and tidying up my life.

Hi Lara, CONGRATULATIONS!!!! :-)

I'm so glad you got it done, what a mammoth feat to get it written in 5 months - I didn't realise you squashed it all into that amount of time. No wonder it was a bit on the hellish side! Yep, definitely stay in bed and do nothing, and all the other nice things you've got planned. Plus a huge rest, you definitely deserve it! btw thanks for your encouragement on this thread too, your experiences have definitely helped me, vile though they may have seemed at times! Well done again on getting it submitted!!(up)

Congratulations Armendaf and Lara! Delighted to hear that you both submitted successfully. All the best for the vivas ahead.

Thanks Bilbo, it's much appreciated :-)

Congratulations Lara!!!!!

I am delighted to hear that all went well and that you are over that hurdle now. Go on girl, have fun. You deserve it.

I, for starters, am having a Halloween party tonight. 8-)

Ruby,

Thanks a million for your message, and for your constant support on the forum. I'm definitely taking time now for rest, celebrate, and getting my life back... in that order ;-)

...but don't worry, we'll be around for you, we still need to get that beautiful graphic thesis done, right? We don't leave PhDers behind ;-)

======= Date Modified 02 Nov 2008 13:18:11 =======
Thanks so much Ruby, Armendaf and BilboBaggins!! :-)

I concur Armendaf's message, we aint leaving you Ruby! we will be with you till the end when you're ready to submit. I am going to start preparing for my viva on monday 10th november. i was chatting to my brother about it, and he said its almost like preparing another document. so i will be here everyday!

======= Date Modified 02 Nov 2008 15:28:44 =======
Well thank you very much, you two! :-)

It would be nice to still see you both, though I'm not sure I'm up to keeping a monologue going on my progress around here, as I'm not great at that! It seems too boring to write about on the whole, though it works when there's a few people around. btw You'd be great at doing a blog Lara, as you're extremely good at talking to yourself on the internet, in a good way, not a mad person's way. I'd read it, if you did one! :-)

Knowing you've both got this far has spurred me on, so I'm just getting stuck in now - I want to submit too! Well, I have to anyway, so not much choice there lol, but I'm getting quite restless to finish anyway and move on to other stuff. See you soonish anyway, I hope!

Congrats Lara and Armendaf! You've just brightened up my Monday morning's work! 8-)

Yep, it's very good news!! Caz, it's probably cheeky to ask but if you're feeling charitable this morning, you could always convert Lara's virtual gold stars for me and Armendaf into real ones - this isn't her thread so she can't, but you have the power!! It would be a lovely start to a grim Monday morning... :-)

Thanks Caz!!!

Awww thanks Caz! that's so nice!

Ruby, thanks so much regarding the compliment about the blog. that's really nice to hear that you think that :-)

i enjoyed your monologues!

i have a 3rd copy of my thesis, but i dont think i will get it bound but instead put it in a folder divided into seperate chapters. that way i can add notes and highlight it and not worry about it becoming messy for my viva but instead, nearer my viva date, get another fresh copy of my thesis printed and bound and neat notes attached for the viva.

i think for now, for the viva prep i dont want to have to worry about being all neat. plus can also add sheets to certain pages with extra notes.

Hi Lara, I'll be interested to see how you end up preparing for your viva, it's all new to me.

My examiners were confirmed yesterday which freaked me out a bit, it seems scary to be fixing them when I haven't even given in my second draft yet. The End is a bit nearer than it was before they were confirmed!! My supervisor said it's good to have experienced academics with a genuine interest in your subject, rather than 'young turks with something to prove'. It sent me into a slight panic, as I also got a long list of things to include in my methodology chapter which I'm working on now. But I woke up with a streaming cold today so haven't done any work really, as my head's too muzzy. It's *so* annoying, as any writing/working day that gets wasted with not feeling well messes up my plans, but can't be helped I guess, you just have to work with it and catch up later. Off to work tomorrow too, but if I feel ok then I might go shopping after work as it's time I had a treat. Yep, maybe it'll help my cold go too :-) obviously not medically proven, but it's a nice idea. Well I obviously won't do any work now, so may as well call it a day and it's the last of the fashion progs tonight, they've been good adverts for studying fashion in London and this country, if nothing else.

Hi,

I just thought that I'd post a quick note to resurrect this thread. I suppose I could also post in the other ones, but for personal reasons this one is my favourite :p

I've made a point of taking things easy this past week after the submission, so I've only done the minimum necessary to catch up with all the things that were waiting for me at work. Other than than I've been an absolute slob. But that's it, today is my last day of laziness. (up)

So, something that I need to do is organise all the papers and books that I have lying around my flat and in the university office. Actually I have to vacate that office now, since I'm no longer a registered student. I'm doing some of that stuff right now actually.

Another thing I need to do is to go back to my data and organise it in a way that it makes sense to some other than myself, since I reckon that is one of the weakest points in my analysis chapter; it's just too messy. Fortunately all the data is on NVivo (qualitative data analysis software) so I only need to go back and pull out a coherent coding tree and some tables. That should be a good start on preparing for the Viva. I'll work on that on Tuesday which I'm taking as a research day.

Lara and TG, I hope that you are having a good break from the PhD work. How are things with you girls?

Ruby, I read in another thread that you were not feeling OK during the week. I hope you are better now. How are you keeping these days? If you tell me when you are at work and when you are working on your thesis I'll make sure to come by the forum to keep you company. Will you?

Best 8-)