A happy fieldworker - at last

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had the most amazing new years eve, on a beach with throngs of other people, and not another whitey or tourist in sight. They were all holed up in the fancy hotels but DB and I, being the explorers we are, made no plans and went with the flow - which was the beach, with kites and stalls and fireworks (dodgy ones), policemen with sticks, boys overloading cars (with themselves) jumping around and shouting like it was the millenium. It was grand! Such an atmosphere!

Anyway, I hope everyone had fun times wherever in the world they happen to be...

I was chuffed to bits as well, because I went to bed last night relaxed in a way I have not felt for weeks. I came to realise yesterday a very basic fact - that I can only do in this time period what I can do. And so, if I am in site one and can't leave after 6 weeks but should stay to find out more stuff - I shan't. But I shall work like I am leaving after 6 weeks, I shall work really hard and be really thorough. But I won't work like this is the *only* time I have, like it is a be-all-and-end-all deadline - it is this deadline that has been the cause of all my paralysis. After I have finished with site 1, I shall move to site 2. In the meantime I shall travel and chase up interviews and meetings. If needs be I shall go to SL and try and get an extension. If I get one, grand, if I don't I shall come home, get a housey (rent), chill and analyse my results so far, and then we will come out again (DB super keen to come out again, he's having a fabulous time so it seems and saving money along the way. Hurray!) toward then end of next year. Job done! I shouldn't worry so much. I don't know why I was worried so much! In a big dark vortex of stress and worry because I didn't really consider coming back as an option. I had until the beginning of April unless I get a new visa - which I may not be able to do. So I had no clue how to squeeze the work into the timeframe I have allocated (due to said visa), yet no confidence I would be able to stay for longer. If I allow for the option of returning to TN all of a sudden I have so much more room to breathe, to work, to de-stress, to enjoy myself here and go with the flow. This has made me so happy.

I am such a simpleton, I know. It is glaringly obvious, yet when you are in the thick of these things sometimes it is hard to see what is staring you in the face.

Also, it is always wise to bear in mind that this is a blog about a normal, not overly fantastically clever person, doing a PhD. I get confused easily in a world of intellectual giants.

And with this in mind I am relaxed and happy to go to Goa tomorrow! Am now considering what to eat for luncheon... curry?!

x J