Daffy's 'a nice cup of tea cheers you up' diary

Cheery_Daff

Yep Greenval, that''ll probably be what happens!

Just turned round and faced the scary thing by opening emails One from supervisor about conclusions chapters saying 'I'm afraid I think this needs a fair bit more work...' Apparently I need to be firmer! But I've gritted my teeth and read his comments, and I don't think there's anything toooooo horrid in there, and I've got the whole weekend. Yawn. Going to be another difficult one sadly, but I will have the entire weekend and only this one chapter to do, so fingers crossed...

Yawn yawn yawn!

Anyway, back to work

redsquirrel80

Well done for braving the emails - better to know what you have to do than to not know. You'll get there, you are definitely on the home straight now!

By the way, I think it's amazing you manage to work on the train! I tried to do some reading and emails on the way to/ from a conference the other day and I found it really hard to concentrate and not be travel sick! Any tips from an expert?

MrsMoo2U

As squirrel says, well done on opening the email. At least you have had time to ponder it rather than reading and having to get stuck in straight away. It is probably not as bad as you think once you get started.
I often work on the train squirrel. I have discovered that sitting backwards stops the sickness if you see what I mean. I mean backwards to the way the train is going not backwards to the work, that would just be ridiculous. Although I can never work on a pendolino train - too fast and feel sick without even trying to work on one of those. On the plus side it gets me into London much quicker.

Cheery_Daff

I quite like working on the train I often get a lot more done than when at home, simply because there's nowhere to run to :rotfl: I much prefer to go forwards though As for being travel sick, no idea I'm afraid, I don't do travel sick on trains (wouldn't really be able to read on the bus though). I do lots of looking out of the window Better if there's a table too - all squashed up with laptop on knees isn't good! Other than that, maybe you just need to get used to it? I travel on trains rather a lot these days, and it doesn't bother me like that. I find it's quite easy to tune out other people too. Sorry, that's probably not very helpful!

Had a good chat with workmate on the way home, culminating in her suggesting, like some kind of genius, that I take tomorrow as annual leave and spend the day phd-ing. Why on earth didn't I think of that?! New project is only just up and running, so missing a day at this stage doesn't matter at all. And I've already done my two days on the old project (there's plenty to do, but they've had their two days from me this week!).

So tomorrow will be annual leave, and I'll be heads down tackling what's left :T :T Just need to stay positive, and that's where you lot might be called on :j :j

Not long got home tonight, so I'm having a cuppa, tea is cooking, and I'm going to sit down with Mr Daffs, who has been somewhat abandoned of late

(oh, and I've realised I'm not paid tomorrow after all - it's the last day of the month, not the last Friday, so I won't have a shiny new pay cheque to distract me tomorrow! :rotfl: probably a good thing really! :rotfl:) xx

Lemon_Tree

boo to tomorrow not being payday. Thankfully it's mine.
yay to a day off work even if you do have to finish your PhD but you're almost there and can spend the rest of your holidays completely at your leisure

Cheery_Daff

Thanks LT

Well, here I am, nose streaming, throat aching, and all not-quite-raring to go Woke at 6.15am and couldn't go back to sleep, but I'm up and dressed and in front of the laptop now. I'm going to take a deep breath and go through the comments my supervisor made on the conclusions, then reply to his email reminding him how long I've got left, and telling him I'm taking today off, and when it gets to 9am I might give him a ring and have a chat about it.

I'm spending too much time with my head in the sand about this, and it's making me feel worse! I've avoided speaking to supervisors, I've avoided telling the examiner when I'll be giving stuff to him to read - partly because I don't know - but all that's happening is that I'm too scared to open my emails in case there's one from him asking when I'm going to send stuff.

I'm scared that when I DO send it he'll say he hasn't got time to read it (he hasn't really, it's officially due in on Wednesday but there isn't much I can do about that now!), or tell me off for not having done it sooner, or read it and tell me the whole thing is rubbish and I haven't got time to sort it out.

Altogether, I'm a bit of a gibbering wreck! Not like me at all. So I just need to find a way to get through these last few days, and I think it's going to start by stopping being a wimp, pulling my head out of the sand, and ringing supervisor when he's got to work.

Will do lots of popping in here too - probably to moan

Karmacat

Oh Cheery! Deep breath, lots of cough syrup and paracetemol, just do things one by one - have you made a list? Head in the sand definitely feels worse, I can relate. Do one thing and come back on....

Cheery_Daff

Thanks KC :T

I've got a hot water bottle, I've emailed my supervisor and told him I'll ring him later this morning (he's not there yet), and I've taken a deep breath and gone through the changes he thinks I need to make. I've made all the small ones :j :j (just changing words here and there to make things clearer)

I've also changed all the bits that need something doing to them to be highlighted yellow :rotfl: No idea whether that helps, but it's made me feel better, because when I scroll through I can see that most of it *isn't* yellow and therefore can stay as it is

Some bits will actually need writing, so that's slightly misleading, but I'm all about positivity today :j :j

So - next task is to go through the chapter again and make a list of exactly what needs doing :j Tiny little mouse bites today... :j

Cheery_Daff

Right, list done :T :T This is pretty much how we stand at the minute with the chapter sections:

Section 1 - small tidy up when rest is done
Section 2 - draft form, needs writing
Section 3 - couple of paragraphs need rewriting, couple of minor structural changes
Section 4 - couple of paragraphs need moving or taking out, needs new introduction
Section 5 - needs restructuring, couple of new bits adding
Section 6 - needs restructuring, couple of bits need major rewriting
Section 7 - concluding paragraph, needs rewriting

So, that's the plan, one section at a time, and one little subsection within that at a time :T :T Easier said than done, I'm sure, but feels more manageable this way! Mr Daffs has just woken up though so I'm going to take him a cuppa :coffee:

redsquirrel80

Aw hope you can keep the cold at bay and get stuck into it - good idea to take a day off to dedicate to it.

The different views on train-working are useful - I might have to do it now and then but not a regular thing, but I'll try out different directions etc if I can.

Have a good day x