Day 44
I get up earlyish to do a few hours of work before spending 90min at the pool swimming 4K with the Corpus team. It’s exhilarating. Full of energy I cycle to lab to discuss a bunch of experiments/results with our rotation student and deal with a few histology requests etc. I then proceed to panic about my thesis and spend a few hours making figures. After dinner we watch “Chernobyl” but I fail to fully focus on the show as I want to make another figure for chapter 5. WHENWILLITEND?!?
Day 45
I did not sleep well due to a nightmare in which slugs ate all my brussels sprouts. Pathetic I know but I really could not sleep. So work in the morning is slower than I want it to be. Nevertheless, I kind of finish the discussion of chapter 4 and make a figure. In the afternoon I catch a train to Kings X where I work at Giraffe for another couple of hours before meeting a dear undergrad friend for dinner and a biiiiiiiiig catchup, involving a fair amount of prosecco.
Day 46
My head feels slightly heavy in the morning but I manage to do a few solid hours of work before an intense 5K swim in 95 minutes followed by team lunch. Pumped from all the adrenaline I get a lot done in the afternoon until at 5 pm I head over to my friends’ house to get ready for Homerton May Ball. We need over 2h to do make up hair etc and I’m very pleased with the way my creepy clip in human hair looks. We then queue for nearly 2h in a very unglamorous location (next to the bins) until we finally get into the ball. The college looks magical with all the lights and the food is delicious. The drinks are, sadly, very watered down. We chill in various tents, enjoy the “Kettenkarrussell” and stuff our faces with burgers, mac and cheese and donuts. As the night progresses, the temperature drops and due to a lacking alcohol jacket we transform into blocks of ice and decide to leave before the ball ends. At home we chill with some tea before dropping into warm beds.
Day 47
I wake up in my friends bed feeling tired. We eat pancakes and I then cycle home, feeling awful. I decide to sleep for another 2h and then get up to do some work. Sadly I barely manage to plot some mutation frequencies in R. I then meet up for a coffee and catchup in town before doing some writing and finally going back to my friends’ house for a currywurst feast. Shortly after 9pm I leave because I struggle to keep my eyes open. At home I watch 20 min of love island (feeling slightly basic but hey ho) before escaping into the land of dreams.
Day 48
Having slept 11 (!!) hours I feel pretty fresh. I have breakfast, play games with George and his friend and then head over to the pool. 4k were planned but nobody shows up and I lack motivation so I only do 2. Back at home I work on my thesis for the rest of the day, with skype calls in the breaks. I don’t feel good. There is still so much to do. These figures are taking hours. This is dreadful.
Day 49
I crash. I feel awful. I cry all day and only briefly find peace when George and I go for a picnic in the park. As soon as we get home I feel stressed again.
Day 50
Still awful. Can’t do anything. I do work. But it feels crap.
Day 51
I have a mediocre day. In the evening George’s sister husband and cousin come over and we have a fun evening which makes me vaguely happy.
Day 52
I feel bad. I manage to spend lunch with my FSIL and FCIL but the rest of the day I feel bad.
Day 53
I go for a decent swim and lunch with my FSIL which makes me happy. I also get fairly good feedback about chapter 1 so that puts me in a good mood which is important because it’s the Corpus May Ball tonight.
Day 54
The ball was a blast. Spent it just wandering around the college grounds with drinks, food and beautiful people, chatting, laughing, ball pitting. What a night. And the hangover isn’t even too bad! I was able to forget the thesis stress for a whole night and it felt so good. Now back to work.
Day 111
Time flies. Or rather, time has flown. And I’m flying tonight. Argh. It’s 20:22 in NYC, or 1:22 am in London. I am sat in the budget part of JFK Terminal 1 (it's seriously budget, the seats are all ripped up and disgusting), waiting for my Norwegian service back to London Gatwick. The past weeks saw me crash over hearing about my last chapter that “just because the ingredients are good does not mean you want to eat the meal”. Ouch. I guess you can cook something pretty nasty even if all the veg is organic. I personally prefer GMO produce but anyway. Some lab members are now so scared of my emotional breakdowns they look seriously scared when they are about to present me with criticism about my thesis. But I can handle it now. Seriously. This process has truly helped me grow. Speaking of growth and large things, turns out the final product (Almost final – waiting for a final check by the seniors) is actually nearly 60,000 words and 240 pages long. It feels big. So I guess the question that you’re probably asking is: Why did this paragraph begin with a mention of NYC? Well. Having basically finished writing my thesis I have just spent a glorious staycation on Long Island with someone who can finish my sentences. With whom I can spend days and days with and it is just never enough. A week full of Years and Years, shopping, Nitro cold brew, Dominion, Ligretto, duck fat burgers, game of things (this busy hole) and just existing. I am sad to be leaving (In fact I am crying right now but I guess that’s old I cry all the time) but at the same time I am so grateful for the memories we’ve created. Grateful to have such wonderful friends. (Detailed post on the whole experience may follow later). As I get on this plane, scared to death as always, I am excited for the coming week, in which I *may* submit this thesis and which marks the 1-month countdown to my first **postdoc interview**. Exciting times. God I hate flying.
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