Thesis diary part II

Don't expect me to post every single week but I'm feeling crap tonight and writing this helped me so here you go...

Day 10

Omg it’s already double digits where has time gone.  I’ve got about 7000 words written, for some of it I cheated though, as it was mostly copy and pasted from one of my two first year reports (don’t ask). I go to the lab bearing Swiss chocolate as a gift, talk to my boss, colleagues and discuss stuff with the rotation student. I also attend my weekly R session, which goes a lot better than last week (alcohol is evil). Can’t say I manage to write a lot of words. At 6:15 pm I leave the lab to attend a ceremony for student-led teaching awards. I was shortlisted for “innovative teaching” – I guess those crossword puzzles I make for the students were well received.  Unfortunately I don’t win so I go home very upset (I really like winning).

Day 11+12

I take another weekend off (such a rebel) and go to Brighton with my fiancé. (slowly getting used to this word). We have a lot of fun sightseeing, eating food, sitting at the beach, eating more food, wasting money on arcade games on the pier (£10 spending limit tho!) more beach (including drinks) etc. I have a panic attack about my thesis every 2h or so but manage to hide this from him fairly well I think. Overall it’s a super lovely weekend.

Day 13

I catch an 8 am train from Brighton to London Victoria and sit in a totally unglamorous Starbucks and write. It’s fairly productive as the Starbucks is empty and crap. I then get the tube to St Paul’s to have lunch with a friend I made at the conference I attended in March (See my relating blog post). We buy shoes for her at Topshop. I then join her at her lab near Barbican and do a very productive couple of hours at her office. I then go for a swim at the nearby Ironmonger Row Baths – highly recommended! I get in for free with my Better gym membership from Cambridge and the hairdryers are free – both these things make me very happy for some reason. I get to Clapham Junction at 8 pm where I get a Doner Kebap with a dear friend from undergraduate times. We then sit in the Jacuzzi and discuss my potential hen do and just generally have great chat and I forget about my thesis for a few hours which is great.

Day 14

I wake up at 5:30 am due to the lack of curtains in my friend’s living room. I feel dreadful. I stay at his flat for a couple of hours, doing solid writing, such that I can get an off peak train back to Cambridge. I work on the train. I go to lab and have a chat with my boss. I really need affirmation. As soon as I leave his office I feel stressed out again. I FEEL SO STRESSED. In the evening the German girls come over and we watch various Youtube videos about this guy who has Tourette syndrome. By various I mean several hours. (for German speakers: it’s called Gewitter im Kopf)

Day 15

I get up early to mark students’ work before heading to lab for 8:30 lab meeting. I discuss stuff with our rotation student. I mark more work. I stress about figures that need some analysis. I feel awful. I read some very interesting things about antigenic variation in African trypanosomes. I read equally interesting articles about epigenetic silencing of PfEMP1 via lncRNAs. I then go and teach that stuff to my undergraduate supervisees. I get home feeling crap because I have not written a single word today. I try gardening therapy (aka I do some weeding). Still crap. I empty the dishwasher, take out the bins, tidy the bedroom. Still crap. I update this blog and watch Made in Chelsea. As soon as it’s an acceptable time (aka past 21:30) I go to bed. I really need to do more writing.