Well, I handed in the dissertation almost two weeks ago, and have spent the time since then de-stressing and preparing for the PhD. I’ve spent some time tidying our study, clearing away the reams of paper lying everywhere, and finally got round to throwing away most of my undergraduate engineering notes (me, a pack rat?!)
The PhD is due to start with induction on Monday; after much prodding of universtity admin I seem to have completed all the registration I can do ahead of time, apart from (what else?) getting my grant payments sorted, something that will take priority when I arrive.
I don’t actually get my formal MSc result until the exam board meets in mid-November. This is slightly annoying, as I technically have a conditional PhD offer, but my supervisor should have seen the dissertation by now and he hasn’t raised any issues – in this case no news is good news. I’m not entirely happy with the dissertation as submitted; another week to let it mature and add more analysis would have been nice, and another month would have allowed me more time to look at more materials at the National Archives, but it should do. I’d like to think about getting some of the info published somewhere, but I’ll have to discuss this with my supervisor, as I suspect it will need serious re-drafting. Anyhow, onward!
Thrust Vector 