Hard to believe, but the end is in sight (again). Revisions to the thesis have been (really) grinding along day in-day out for the last few months, but now the end is in sight. The data section is complete, comparative chapter draft should be finished by end of day (fingers crossed). Then it is a matter of working through the whole thing from start to finish tidying up and revising  small parts that were put off or abandoned before (not too many, thankfully).

BUT, by the end of the day the heavy lifting will be done and the thesis should be ready to go back for a look over in early Feb before it faces the examiners again.

Would like to say that I will be sad to see it go, but that would not be true. With two papers pretty much in the bag and another two planned, the data gathered during the project has proved to be very worthwhile. At this stage though, I just want the thesis itself to be sitting on a shelf gathering dust while I dissect and rework its component parts into new smaller more manageable configurations. May even distill it down into a paper on its own when able to face it again.

Also sent off a lightly revised version of a paper that was turned down last year (did not fit scope of targeted journal). That one too has been hanging around for a while getting on my nerves, waiting for me to face it again. Good to be free of that for a while, now just need to wait and hope that it passes muster.

Other than that, there is not much new to report here. Still looking for work, try not to think about that when not actually doing it given how unrewarding the process is. Awaiting first draft of Asturias case study from collaborator and hoping is good enough to go ahead with paper, feeling pretty confident. Pestering some NGOs and trying to get response rate for survey to a respectable level. Planning to bring another one on local elections out from storage as well pretty soon. These are just some of the things that fill my waking hours, until P gets home from work.

The days are starting to lengthen here at last, summer is on the way. Winter is a good time to hunker down and do some work, but it is still rather draining sometimes. Look forward to being able to leave the door open and laze around outside in the garden. The coming of spring also requires that we start thinking about what we are going to be sowing and planting in our little vege patch. Having not grown anything before (other than the odd chilli plant) this will be interesting and exciting, but am sure that P will keep it on track.

Alright, time to get back to work.

[In case you wondering why I don't post so much lately (apart from being busy), I do not like the new WordPress interface. Is free though, so that is ok.]