Time I think I wrote another chatterings.

Leaf in the Gardens at Dunham Massey,
shades of autumn

Well Dad survived surgery, and he went to join Mum at Shawside at the very start of August, Basically so that he had time to recover somewhat before they went home. Dad lost track of time somewhat so we had to keep reminding how long he had been in Shawside. After barely a week, he was sure he had been there a fortnight. Anyway just before my sisters birthday and at barely a fortnight they came to their own home. 

We put in someone to come in every day, partly to clean, to be around while Mum bathed twice a week and to also give them some social interaction each day. We also organised for them to order meals from Wiltshire Farm, for them to give an order to Help the Aged for Sainsburys  (you phone it through rather than do it over the internet) and also for an alarm to be installed. Mum and Dad have very assiduously since been finding reasons to get rid of the help. I think, the daily person in might have continued longer, if she had not surprised Mum and Dad one Sunday before they were up. It left Mum feeling very uncomfortable. The installation of the alarm was not done well. They succeeded in almost cutting through the phone line. Ruth, thankfully went around and sorted so the phones were work. Dad eventually got his computer man out to fix the computer. They are now back in full communication.

However,once Mum was is Shawside I did find time to get on with my thesis. So when at the end of July I saw my supervisor he felt I could still submit by the end of October. However to do that I needed to get a decent/proof copy of my thesis to him by 16th September. For me getting from Second Draft to Proof draft was very intense. On one level all the corrections suggested by my proof readers needed to be dealt with. On the other there was still quite a bit of sorting out what was being said and getting it clear in my hear. I needed for instance to draft an abstract. The thesis has a limit of 80,000 words, the abstract is 200. Condensing the central ideas into 200 words was challenging to say the least. I could have done it in 500 with ease. Then there were details to check such as the Bibliography. I spent two whole days just working through nearly every single reference and checking that I had the right information in the Bibliographic database and then making sure I had that information in the Bibliography. Finding out that I could not easily include originally published  information and so had to produce the Bibliography and then manually add all that information was a pain. However not half as much a pain as would have been doing the Bibliography from scratch by hand. It went on for twenty pages when I had finished. That is not all the books I read towards this thesis, just all the books I referenced. Were I to try and include all I read then it would be twice that length. There is a couple of books that I may need to include, but the vast majority of the rest were interesting excursions that helped my exploration, but not necessary to the argument.

Anyway despite printers malfunctioning and post offices being closed I got it posted on Thursday morning by special delivery. It has at least been signed for, and I hope that it gets to my supervisor by tomorrow.There is a slight snag in that I sent it to his official address at Birmingham and not to the building where his research office is. I never know quite how to deal with University post. Sometimes is all seems to go through a central office, at other times individual buildings get deliveries. So I am hoping it has got there. 

When I had got it off in the post I took sparkling wine and snacks into work that afternoon. It seemed the right thing to do. When I formally submit I will be in Birmingham, I will be in Birmingham for my viva and I expect that when I finally send in bound copies I will also be in Birmingham. So this was probably the one time people in work would be around to celebrate. I now see my supervisor on 2nd October and then it is my head down for submission. I just hope that neither he, nor my final proof reader finds major problems with the thesis. I am aware of a lot of niggles that need sorting and suspect that there is some expansion of the conclusion, but I hope that on the whole everything is good enough for a doctorate.

This last weekend I have been over to my parents. I was officially bringing the car back plus it was my Birthday. Yesterday worked well, I arrived just before lunch time having done a shop at Waitrose so as to bring something over for today. The journey over was pretty smooth although the traffic delay at Hollingworth was bad, not the worst I seen it, I can remember delays right through Glossop but still pretty bad. However though busy the M60 was pretty straight forward. We almost turned around and went out so got to Dunham Massey for lunch at the restaurant. They are building a new visitors centre there which looks interesting. I suspect we would still go out to it. Afterwards,we went for a walk around the gardens. Well a bench crawl around the gardens. In fairness to my parents they had been on a walk to the local shops that morning.

Today Mum and Dad were tired. Although Mum cooked a roast chicken for lunch and we ate it, Dad went up to bed shortly afterwards as he was that tired. Mum was also showing signs of tiredness and when I got in this evening and run back Dad and Mum had gone back to bed.