Hey Sue,

Thats brilliant, (mince) have a mince pie for all your hard work :) Can't believe you can do 23 toms in a day! It seems like you're coming on very fast, and dream of first draft complete by end of month is still in sight! It will be amazing for you to see one first draft done - big round of applause for you.

Thank you, it has been a productive week in other sense, but not with thesis :( I went out last night with some friends, and felt so old I just wanted to come home and get my slippers on! heehee, I should have stayed in and got some work done in retrospect.
Right, better get myself off here and go get ready for work.
Have a good day all and I will be on here tomorrow evening to account for myself hopefully! If you find me on here procrastinating during the day then please admonish me and tell me to get back to writing! :$

Well, not quite as successful yet again as I had hoped.
I got up lazily yesterday, and decided that I just couldn't sit at my dining table and study all day until I had a decent chair to sit in, I have lower back problems, and by the end of the night kept finding myself walking bent over at 90deg! Therefore, I was very naughty and treated myself to a slightly expensive ergonomic chair!
I then very comfortably sat down to work for a few hours last night, and have managed to write a paragraph or two tonight too. My first results chapter is now sitting at around 6000 words, 37 pages! Is this about standard? I still have some to write for discussion, with about 6 pages so far scattered in mini paragraphs to be put together in a more coherent thread!

Tomorrow morning I am back to the lab to some work for pretty images for this chapter - fingers crossed! and then into work for full shift, also off Thursday for writing, but found out I have to go into work for a business meeting, so very annoyingly this is going to split my day in two and quite possibly ruin any writing flow I might get! :(

Anyway, i'm off to read and relax for abit, pathetic I know but i'm still suffering from insomnia and i'm feeling it today :(
Hope you all ok, and Sue your discussion chapter is coming together nicely! ALxxx

Hi Algaequeen,
It was all quite incidental really, or maybe fate...! During last year of PhD lab work I decided to do some extra stuff with our Generic Skills, did a training weekend for researchers to go and work in the local science centre for a weekend showcasing work and talking about an area of my job i found interesting (designed some models etc). I then got asked by the organiser to do a cafe scientifique as my work is quite popular with the public - probiotics etc!
Through all this i got to know the education manager and some of the staff at the centre, and luckily just as my money ran out for PhD, a job came up in their education team as an officer for primary education. The money in centres and museums is not great, but if you enjoy it and find it as worthwhile as I do then its definately a great job! :)
I doubt anyone in these places would have a problem with letting someone volunteer, or even make some extra cash out of it! All you need is enthusiasm and a bit of a flair for helping people understand things in a way that's relevant to them. Good luck and let us know how it goes! Fingers crossed for you (up)

Hey Sue & others,

It is great to read that you are almost at the end now, Sue, with your discussions chapter in the pipeline, and you must be so happy to have it all together, even if it's not in the final form yet.

I finally managed to get everything together and I printed out my whole thesis for final corrections and proof reading, which I am doing now.. It is superb to see it all in a print form, cheaply bound, but nevertheless all together.. but ahem - I have found already quite a few things that need fixing, small things, but still... But hey, I am getting there and my sup seems happy, too.

So, I just wanted to send some upbeat words of support to everyone who will be submitting in the next few weeks/months - Yay - we can do it!(sprout) Stay positive, always!

Thanks for that Alpacalover, it really helps! There isn't much in the way of that kind of thing round where I am, and from a few enquiries I've made in the past some places aren't too keen to take on volunteers, means more training work for them at the start I suppose...hopfeully all goes well today though, got my meeting in 40 minutes! I also signed up for the society that organises all the public talks, like science cafe sessions etc so hopefully that helps too!
I'm just a bit nervous about admitting all this to my supervisor, with 6 months left I'm not so sure how happy he'll be with me doing extra stuff! Ah well!

As for what I've got left to do....one batch of experiments left, I've got a chapter done (awaiting revisions), a paper coming out and getting round to writing the 2nd paper (sometime...somewhere...somehow!) and then it's getting stuck intot he writing so hopefully it's all going ok.....eeek!

Good luck everyone!

Hi Poppy and AQ

Glad to hear it's going well for you both!!! How exciting Poppy, to have it all together!! Wow - I can't wait to get to that stage!! That's so good, am v. pleased for you that it's coming together so well!!

Things are going slowly for me - I haven't been able to bear the thesis lately, and have been doing a whole lot of other work - referencing, appendices etc - things that need to be done, but which I shouldn't really be doing now. Am not going to make my June deadline as I need to do rewrites still. Writing my discussion chapter has made be realise I really need to rewrite my lit review, and I have a solid 6 inch stack of articles I need to do for that...then there's the context chapter, which I also haven't looked at in 3 years...

So, it's all progress, but there's still so much major work to be done. And now my sup has given me other work to do as well...Oh well. Will get back into proper writing today, chip away at it.

Keep going everyone!

Algaequeen, I hope your meeting went well today, did they offer you any work? I know how it feels about your sup, mine really was abit dubious about me doing these things, but its all about how you approach it! as for cafe science, its a fantastic opportunity and after doing it I was a mile off the ground with happiness and a feeling that i'd done something really good! I really put it to my sup as a great way to advertise our work (including possible recruits for our clinical trials), its great for grant applications to put down your public engagement and outreach, and not many profs etc like to get into these things, but it's getting much more important these days.
It was a real struggle for me to find the time for these things too as I was still doing loads of lab work too! but I thought about it for a while, and spoke to the guy who ran it all, and he was very understanding as I guess they are used to working with very busy researchers! I came to the conclusion that if i thought about it too much then i'd never do it, and there's never time to do everything, so if it's something you really want to do then just jump in feet first and you'll find a way to fit it all in!
As for me, it was the best thing I ever did during my PhD, and it showed me the light towards something that I could see myself doing as a career - consequently moving into this area of science. I had been struggling for a while, very depressed about lab based science, but loving science in general and really wishing I could find something that motivated and excited me. This job gives me the best of everything, as I get to learn about lots of science areas without having to get bogged down into one minute area, I'm starting to remember why I loved science so much when I was younger, and I get to excite kids about it every day now! :)
I am still very careful with my sup, I dont' want to push him away until I have Dr. in front of my name :p! But if you can find a way to fit it in, and angle it towards promotion of your labs work and not just your own, then I would just go for it! The opportunities are greater while you're still in the uni setting as you may find that your uni has public outreach dept like ours do and you can get involved with them.
All the best and if you want any other advice or help then you know where I am!

Well done Poppy, that's brilliant, gives us all hope! And Sue, I hope you get back in your stride too, all these other things are important too so don't be disheartened.
I was in the lab this morning doing some stuff and its very weird to don my labcoat and hold a pipette again - I don't miss it one bit! :-s
hugs to all, AL xx

I've just broken my second kitchen timer......how will I manage to do my 'pomodoros' or 'tomatoes' without it???
It looks like I will have to go shopping this afternoon.

Has anyone found an indestructable kitchen timer to use in their 'pomodoro' technique? I don't want to spend a fortune, but have found that the technique is essential to get me through the writing up!
Matilda

Matilda, try http://mytomatoes.com/ This is better than a kitchen timer as it also allows you to note what you did in the tomato, so you can track your progress. I have this site up for about 15 hours a day, and it works well. You need to register, but that's all, then can start using it.

Thanks Sue

I'm giving it a go....but I keep having to minimise the screen because I have so many other pages open. Then I don't notice it ringing.....is there a way to make the timer pop up when it rings?
Has anyone else used a good online pomodoro timer?

I'll keep persevering with this for now.
Thanks everyone

Hi folks!
Alpacalover, the meeting went really well! The woman was really nice and is very happy for me to come along and help out, she has got a few events coming up that I can help out at and I'm going to ask if I can sit in on a few of the curriculum days to see how that works, plus she seems to know loads of people so she might be able to help with a job at the end! fingers (and every other possible part of my body) crossed! Just have to concentrate on the work now, which has been going very very slowly lately!!
it's good to hear everyone else is getting on good, great news on getting to the proof reading stage poppy! I can only imagine getting that far!! I keep meaning to try that pomodoro technique too, I'll check out that website you mention sue! thanks!

Hi folks!
Alpacalover, the meeting went really well! The woman was really nice and is very happy for me to come along and help out, she has got a few events coming up that I can help out at and I'm going to ask if I can sit in on a few of the curriculum days to see how that works, plus she seems to know loads of people so she might be able to help with a job at the end! fingers (and every other possible part of my body) crossed! Just have to concentrate on the work now, which has been going very very slowly lately!!
it's good to hear everyone else is getting on good, great news on getting to the proof reading stage poppy! I can only imagine getting that far!! I keep meaning to try that pomodoro technique too, I'll check out that website you mention sue! thanks!

Hi,
Good to hear from everyone. Hope it's a good week so far for the fellow 6 monthers.

Sue - did you get to have a bit of a holiday or break at all? Hope so! Don't berate yourself for doing the thesis "chores" of appendices etc....they have to be done and it will reduce your list at the end! Be wary of assigning yourself lots of rewrites and adding detail to sections you've already done a considerable amount of work on - check with your sups first (I was all in line to add masses to my thesis and sups have clearly focused my attention on what is needed for a phd, not what I want ;o) ).

I'm on the last stretch and it feels like eternity. Very up and down, very wierd. Fighting the urge to run away! Far far away!

CG x

Hi CG

Yes, I did have a break and have even been out with friends having fun lately!! So am good at the moment. Thanks for the advice - but I really do need to do the extra, to not only make sure my lit review is up to date but also as there have been major changes in my area I need to detail. Silly me, I chose an area which is really topical and fast moving, so need to update for developments over the last couple of years.

You're so close CG!! That must be so exciting! And a bit weird as well. And also a bit sad, in a crazy kind of way??

All the best. Work hard everyone!!