Sunday

Hello hello. I hope weekends are going well?! Not doing too much work?

I am having an ok weekend. Not great - I have been a bit preoccupied with work and unable to properly relax. Yesterday I ended up re-writing a plan and realised that this chapter is going to take so much longer than I wanted it to. At least another couple of weeks. This is really bad, because the longer I spend on this chapter the more I eat into methodology chapter time and the more stressed I feel about what the chuff I am going to do when I am playing at being researcher in TN. This is not good. As a consequence of this thinking I ended up rather a little stressball come ten o clock last night and was running around in my head wondering about storage prices, getting my overseas fieldwork allowance in time for my flight money, saving up for flight money in case said allowance doesn't arrive in time (my ESRC contact at the uni is a willo' the wisp. Impossible to trace), learning language and realising it just isn't going to happen because language materials are scarce, moving and packing, our car is dying but we only have two months to go and an MOT in the interim, where to live when we get back from TN... methodology... Stressssssssssssssssed!!

So DB took me aside and plonked a glass of wine into my hand and we chatted about TN and the move into the wee hours. So today I feel better but a bit tired and dreading work. I am going to watch the Shipwrecked final and eat some eggs and toast, work for a couple of hours, go to the gym for an hour and then we are going out for a roast dinner carvery... YUM!!

I think I have decided this morning that I have to not take this chapter so seriously. I have realised that I need to introduce the chapter much more slowly and deliberately - at the mo I just dive into the meaty bit - and this was making me stressed yesterday as it will take ages. But today I am like, who cares? Get the gist of your arguments down and a thread of the principal contention running through it, a rough intro and conclusion and then leave it. As long as when you come back to it next year with little memory of what it is all about the content and argument and analysis is there, just needs a neater intro and tightening up, this is the main thing. So I feel less stressed. I was getting a bit perfectionist back there.

I am way too excited about my roast dinner. Way too excited.

Am training for a half marathon btw! I don't know if I already said this. I went for a very lazy 5K yesterday and am doing the race on the first Sunday in Sept. My exercise regime is starting to be very uninspiring and I am nervous about piling on PhD pounds so this seems like a good thing to do. Am excited! A lot of running is needed though - four times a week according to my wee regime! Arg! I will take trainers to cornwall with me. (Whether I go out or not though - different matter).

Am off to laze around in front of beach-tele.

x J