Thanks to Auntie Doris, who has just been on the receiving end of an enormous whingeing screed of streams of consciousness from me, the rest of you don’t need to read me whining and moaning. She does have her uses, you know!

What else to tell you? The temperature in my office got up to 30° today, so I gave up and went to the gym instead – I thought if I’m getting sweaty and bad-tempered I may as well be sweaty and bad-tempered whilst actually achieving something, as I’m not convinced my brain ever got out of 1st gear. While I was there I watched the final set of the Williams-Dementieva Wimbledon semi-final (hooray for machines with TV), what a fantastic match that was. I’m glad I’d finished by the second semi though (Williams-Safina) which sounded from the scoreline like it was so one-sided as to be utterly uncompetitive. I predict a Williams winner

I’m having another thesis-related existential crisis (it seems to happen every chapter), though having managed to draw a couple of spider diagrams today I have (for now) decided I know what my thesis is about. This is today though, tomorrow is an entirely different day and I may well have forgotten the point of it by then. I’m getting quite frustrated with it – the stuff I’m writing for journals etc feels like it’s so much better than the stuff I’m writing for the thesis. It’ll be good when it’s all over! By the way, if anyone is in a praying/good vibes/candle-lighting/etc mood, next week a decision will be made about whether or not I can have an extension. I’m working on the assumption that it shouldn’t be a problem (according to my department) but until I hear for sure I will remain a bit anxious about it. If I don’t get it I am, to put it mildly, screwed. If I do get it, then I will feel much less stressed about taking time out to apply for jobs (I’ve got a few applications which need to be in in the next week or so).

Ooh, good (ish) news – I have an interview in a couple of weeks for one of the Open Uni courses I applied to tutor on. As I understand it it’s pretty competitive, but it would be good experience if I could get it. I’ve also (at last) completed my nursing study hours (did I tell you that already, I can’t remember. Actually I think I probably did) so am just waiting for my friend to send the reference back and then I can see about getting some nursing work. Unfortunately I discovered the other day that the nurse bank for Greater Glasgow isn’t recruiting for community nurses at all, but just for certain acute specialities (that I don’t have any experience in, or any desire to work in), which got me a bit despondent, but I’m thinking instead about applying to NHS24 (the Scotland equivalent of NHS Direct south of the border – it’s a nurse-led phone service). Not that I’m desperate to do that either, but it could be something to keep me going for a while till something more suitable turns up.

Tomorrow we are treating ourselves, as what with poorly cars and writers’ block and no jobs etc we could do with a treat, and are going to the Dr Who exhibition at the Kelvingrove Museum. Can’t wait! (will take photos, unsurprisingly).

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Gym

I went to the gym today (first time this year, whoops) and it reminded me why I don’t go very often. Not because I don’t enjoy the exercise (I do, once I’m there), but because it was absolutely heaving with students, and it was nearly impossible to get on any of the machines, I only managed to use half of what I would have liked. What is it with students, haven’t they got work to do?!

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They give money for anything these days

Since starting my PhD two years ago, I have had cause to say “they give money for anything these days” any number of times when reading or hearing about other people’s research. Today I have spent a delightful afternoon reading about Soviet fashion and makeup, and I have to say that although I doubt it will change the world, it was absolutely fascinating and I’m really glad the researchers got their money. Not least because one of them has pointed me to a book I’d never otherwise have known about which could be really helpful for me. And because one of them (the one on fashion), which I nearly didn’t bother with as I thought it was only of peripheral relevance, turned out to lead to a bit of a lightbulb moment for me about a passing remark in a couple of my interviews. I also came up with an expression, inspired by my reflections on both articles, which sums up all sorts of aspects of my research, and which I now want to make sure appears in my thesis*. So that’s good, and I’m happy.

Unfortunately the book that I’d never otherwise have known about which could be really helpful for me is in french. I’ve still ordered it, as somewhere in my dim, distant, sordid (but mostly dim) past I did get A’level french and used to speak it quite well. Unfortunately as I’ve not needed to use it for the past 20 years I’ve forgotten virtually all of it, but I guess there’s nothing like the present to get me back into it.

In other news, I’m off to the gym soon for the first time in months and months. I’m sure it will be fine once I get there, but I don’t really want to. That’s why I’m writing it here, to make myself. Feel free to ridicule me if I blog later that I didn’t go.

* A few years ago, when I was doing my Masters degree, I heard a phrase** (in a different context from the course) which was so Pseud’s Corner I was determined to use it in an essay or something. I never found the right place for it in an essay, but then in an exam question I found it fitted perfectly and I nearly punched the air with delight once I’d included it in my answer. Isn’t it funny how such silly little things give so much pleasure and satisfaction? I think when my new pseudy expression (which I won’t share right now, just in case my supervisors hate it) makes its appearance I shall award myself some chocolate.

** “decentred interconnectedness”. Actually I think I blogged about it, in the very early days of this blog. It still makes me laugh.

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Tutoring

I finally get to start tutoring on Monday next week. This morning I went to the university’s special training for graduate tutors and am currently feeling all inspired and imagining myself as the most inspirational tutor these students will ever have. No doubt on Monday I will be moaning for England about how rubbish it is and what a pain and how much it’s distracting me from my research.

Getting a bit stressed about the flat. We’re currently going through all the legal hoops, and in the meantime my financial advisor has been a bit too leisurely for my liking, although he has finally started to get his finger out. If all goes to plan, a provisional picking-up-of-keys date is 9th December.

I’m off to the gym. I’ve just started going back to the gym after a couple of months of inactivity and general lardiness, and it’s absolutely killing me.

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