Fear and Loathing in Andalucia

Hello, hello! I am back from my travels; pointlessly brown, rested, re-stressed and, yes, I have already panic-bought some petrol. Although really this last task was a very sedate affair. I fancied a bit of panic but no, we queued politely, bought some petrol, paid and drove off. Well, DB did, I bought chocolate. That was a panic. A fury of girl, running with a fiver toward the chocolate counter is not to be sniffed at.

The holiday was just fantastic. Lots of barbecueing, swimming, some beach time, walking and drinking of gin and tonic (to ward off the mossys of course). What is the reference of 'fear and loathing' then one may ask? Short answer: The Family. I generally get on very well with mine but that is probably mostly because I am the older sister and always get my way so am apparently oblivious to simmering malcontent. Until yesterday. I was put firmly in my place and in no way was accepting that, so needed to retort and nearly had passive-aggressive WW3 in the plane on the way home. We were practically making continuous snarling noises but unable to completely explode. I was quite upset; I am not one for confrontation and generally avoid it but this was fairly unavoidable. Anyway, shan't say more but today I am a wee bit shaken and confused dear reader. And sleepy as always. Catching up with the week's tele... Big Brother mostly... yes, yes I am that highbrow.

And the PhD... I had a letter from my Sup regarding the transfer meeting and my progress was labelled as excellent! woooooo! Am chuffed to bits. I am taking this weekend off to get over the jollyday blues then on Monday I am going to start work again. Get out all the notes for chapter four (my next chapter) and work out my preliminary reading list. On Tues I am going into uni to do an eye test for someone's research (£36 for the priviledge, yay!) and so will go to the library and get me books at the same time... If they chuffing have any. Then I shall do some kind of plan. I need to get this chapter draft down by the middle of July, then need to work out my methodology for the f/wk! Arg, time is going to go way too fast. Before I go away at the end of Sept I need to have two more chapter drafts down. Then when I come back I will be off and away.

I am interested to know: does anyone else find that when people ask what you do they are mostly terribly underwhelmed?! I mean, I don't expect any fanfare of excitement or owt, but I was asked a couple of times by my ma's friends 'what I do' so I generally say I am at uni, then if they ask again then say a PhD in bla bla bla. And they are all politely interested and then ask the killer question 'so, what will you do with that then?'. AHHHHHRG!! This course is four years long! Longer than many jobs my friends have had. I am funded too, I am a worker! THIS is what I do!! I am a researcher! Why is it all so about The End?! Bah. I know they think I am a glorified spongeing student. Well I am not. So there.

Sulk over.

Oh, also, I killed everyone who dared challenge me at scrabble - on a real board and everything. Better get on facebook and check my scrabulous games... Back to the real world eh?!

x J