The thesis has been submitted for reexamination. Put it in the post on Saturday morning after picking up from the printers on Friday afternoon. It has been a very long and trying process revising and expanding on areas of significant weakness and am hoping/expecting that it will be suitable. Was strange to see it in print after working solely on electronic copies for over a year, seemed much more substantial (was 325 pages in final count). Now we settle down and wait a couple of months for the outcome and the final (minor) revisions to be made.

One thing happened on Friday that could have proven disasterous. Caught the tube from Bank to Clapham South (to get the bus to Streatham) on Friday after picking up (paying the ransom for) the thesis and stopped in a supermarket. The aim was to grab a drink and a paper for the last stretch as I was a little dehydrated after volunteering until the afternoon and then rushing across the city to get the thesis and come home. On the way into supermarket I saw a guy with a box of donuts (12 or 13) and was interested. I am not mad about them, but a donut is a nice treat occasionally. Anyway, being distracted by this and the self-checkout I walked out of the store without the thesis and got as far as the corner before remembering and running like a madman back to collect it. Fortunately it was in a cloth bag and had not moved from the point it was left. Phew. Mentioning the episode to P in an e-mail she responded that it “Probably represents a projection of your desire to distance [your]self from it.” Truer words were never spoken. The problem is that in distancing myself it would have inflicted new trauma given the expense and time involved in printing. It is gone now though.

Saturday saw me in Croydon picking up my glasses. Having not worn glasses for a number of years (five or six at least and even then not regularly) it was a bit of a change to suddenly find myself returning to the shop into which I was gently co-erced the week before. The pickup was smooth and all looked good. The frames are plastic and a little chunkier than the last pair I had, becoming accustomed to the new look with time. When I walked out of the shop into the sun, crowds and noise of the shopping area it was a little disorientating at first. The new glasses brought everything into sharp focus and for the first few minutes screwed with my depth perception, having slightly blurred distance vision smooths out all the cracks and gaps in the pavement. Also strange to be able to see every face that was coming towards me. The sense of disorientation was heightened when I ventured into two department stores looking for a donut store found the previous weekend. The first was the wrong store, but the second was successful. The problem with large department stores in shopping malls (other than the obvious fact that they are large department stores in shopping malls) is that the exits are never obvious and being a little disorientated made the experience even more difficult. Lets just say I (P was working, so I was solo) was glad to get on the train back to Streatham Common.

So, now I find myself temporarily freed from the burdens of the thesis and able to get on with some other writing. Still awaiting reviews from a journal and have not been able to elicit a response regarding the likely timeframe (other than “within the next eight weeks” a month or so ago). Also concerned that copyright form I posted for another article may have been misplaced as the electronic record has not been updated. Such are the joys. For the meantime I am getting down to work on paper involving organisational development that I indicated would be with the journal for review (following initial comments from the editor) by July. Then there is the conference paper to be delivered in October that I promised and another paper that has been on the backburner for too long (need to communicate with co-author on that one). At least I have things to be gettting on with.