PhD diary

Last weekend, Luca and I thoroughly cleaned the floor, window glass, handrail and furniture on the balcony. It’s a very small, cosy space, so the clean-up was finished in two days after a broom, a short-handled brush, cleaning cloth and cleaner arrived.       Now, we have coffee on the balcony chair in the read more

I’ve just sent the final text of my thesis to my supervisors for their final check. This weekend and probably next week, I will be waiting for their approval of my first submission. For the past two weeks, it’s been all about ‘inspection’ of the final text – working with my proofreader chapter by chapter, read more

For the past few weeks, I’ve been making final revisions for the first full draft of my thesis. I’m reading through the draft again and again and amending for presentational and stylistic consistency. I’ll miss being a PhD student after I’ve submitted it, even though I’ve tackled the same topic for as long as four read more

I had no chocolate eggs or hot cross buns for the Easter break, and I was stuck at my desk all day. But, on Easter Sunday, I finished editing Chapter 1 at last, which means I’ve completed the first full draft of my thesis. I will never forget the feeling of my body and mind read more

I’ve completed the rewriting and editing of Chapter 3, and today I sent my supervisors revised Chapters 2, 3 and 4. The literature review and methodology chapters are closely connected, so it was essential to validate the theories’ positioning. I have gone back and forth between Chapters 2 to 7, and the actual order I read more

This week, I’ve had both good and bad news. I’ll start with the bad news first. A month ago, I applied for a postdoc research position. The position genuinely excited me, and I enjoyed writing my application for it. I haven’t heard anything about my application over the last four weeks and therefore thought it read more

I cannot believe how quickly the global situation has been changing over the past two weeks. The impact of the coronavirus pandemic is likely to last for the long term. We are trying to not waste supplies, and apart from a minimum preparation, we don’t over-buy. From reading current reports on the situation in cities read more