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Cinnamon and chestnut rolls with mascarpone frosting
Homemade cinnamon rolls are truly the best. Today I’ve baked American-style cinnamon rolls with chestnut filling. They’re very moist, fluffy and flavourful and have creamy frosting on top. I adapted a recipe, The Best American-Style Cinnamon Rolls, by adding chestnut purée (about 100g) and a little bit of cocoa powder to the cinnamon filling. For… read more
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Week 140: The upside of a limited social life
During my PhD programme, I’ve become less sociable – and it’s getting worse towards the final year. I know a couple of PhDs who worked in a lab for fixed hours, were very punctual, stopped work at 5:00 pm and went out to socialise. I work from home, shut myself in a room when I’m… read more
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Never too early to prepare for the viva
I’ve recently read What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami and found his story fascinating. His tone of writing is brisk and has transparent honesty. Also, I recently flicked through the book Stepping Stones to Achieving Your Doctorate and am reading about preparing for the viva. My favourite guidebooks on… read more
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Weeks 138 and 139: One month’s work
On Friday, I submitted my working drafts of Chapters 5 and 6. Writing for 30 consecutive days was a fairly long challenge, and the last five days were very intense. I crossed out the date on the calendar before going to bed every night, which filled the whole of August. What a sight! Between January… read more
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Week 137: Raw data
Two weeks to go until my next deadline. I’ve been listening to my data – audio files I collected last year – to finalise the transcripts that go to the appendices. It feels so different to hear my interview questions and their responses now. The participants were frank, added jokes between their narratives, and gave… read more
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Chocolate buns
Initially, I intended to make Swedish cinnamon buns. I found a nice recipe and got some crucial ingredients: ground cardamom, cinnamon and pearl sugar. But eventually, I replaced the cinnamon filling with chocolate, as Luca does not like cinnamon, and he asked me to use Nutella instead. The recipe I chose was Swedish Cinnamon Buns… read more
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Week 136: Writing a findings chapter
After two days of intensive work as a translator in London, I got back to my thesis writing this week. I was excited to finalise my findings chapter and was planning two weeks to complete it. But it’s been a slow start, going back and forth between the previous chapters to make the link clearer.… read more
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Weeks 134 and 135: Summer holiday
I am writing this post in a hotel room near Kensington Gardens in London, after an eight-day holiday in Sicily. This was probably the first holiday that I indulged in during my PhD. In a villa in Sicily, we had a very limited internet connection, and I had a zero chance to open my draft… read more
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