I just got email from the secretary, REMINDING me that my viva will be next week! This is a total shock as I submitted my thesis about 5 weeks ago and I have never heard anything from the secretary before about my viva date.

I thought she must forget to inform me the viva date!!! I asked her when the examiners suggested the date and told her I could not make it because I am not in this country at the moment. She did not tell me what casued this short notice, but she said she had asked the examiners to postpone the date.

I do not know how she wrote the emails to the examiners and whether the examiners will be pissed off by this. The last thing I want to do is to make the examiners unhappy, as all of you can understand. Is there anything I can do or should I explain to the examiners? It is really not my fault if it is the secretary who forgot to inform me the viva date!

Any suggestions? Thanks a lot.

Well as you are abroad, and only received one week notice, it is certainly not your fault. Maybe you should just apologise to the examiners explaining that you were abroad at the time, and were only given one weeks notice (or if you have their emails, just send them an email). I don't think the examiners would mind, would they?

You could also ask the secretary to explain the situation to them. If she knows she made a mistake, she may just admit it and apologise to them.