A Very Good Week.

So, as I'm sure everyone has heard by now, this Sunday marks the end of A Very Good Week for me. A blow-by-blow account probably isn't required, but I'm going to give you one anyway.

I was given about 3 weeks notice on my viva and in that time I did, on average, nothing towards my viva. With this in mind I decided to go up 5 days early to prepare. So I drove up on Friday (loving the long drive btw) and had a pretty calming meeting with Paul, in which he taught me how to derive the Braggs equation for the 3rd time and generally made me feel better. Que a montage of me studying hard in various locations over the weekend, interspersed with shots of me reminding many people why they were glad I left in the first place (in particular Cameron, who isn't even in my team but who had to change his PC password once because I kept messing with his background.)

At this point I feel I should mention the awesome Scotland-themed party the newly-wed Chris and Louise threw for me on Saturday night. With the help of Dean and Lou's little sister (only mildly confusingly also named Fiona) they attacked me with all things Scottish in a hope of reminding me why Scotland is great. Well, it sort of work, in as much as I will now always remember Scotland contains awesome people like Lou, Chris, Fiona & Dean, even if the rest of the place kinda sucks. Also Chewin the Fat is amazing. End of.

So we role around to the morning of the viva. They make you sit in an office while they discuss what's going to happen, then they invite you in to sit around this massive table. They each have a copy of your report, with post-its sticking out and notes all over it, enough to make anyone panic. And then they (they by the way are my internal examiner and one of the worlds most renouned crystallographers, Prof Alex Slawin, and my external examiner Russell Howe who is probably world renouned at something) open up to page one and start asking questions. "cant you explain this in more detail?" "why did you do this?" "how does this work?"  A full 2 hours worth of questioning before they make you sit outside for the most nerve racking 5 mins of your life before inviting you back in. And the next thing you know you are being shaken by the hand and told its all over, you have passed. And with flying colours too. Best presents report he's ever read says Russell. First A-grade pass she's ever given says Alex (spot the subtle boasting from the author here). Later Alex emails to say you don't have to do corrections if you don't want, but i feel having come this far I  might as well do the job properly. So with a glass of wine on one hand and a laptop on my knees I sit on Lous sofa that night and do the most work iv done in 3 months, correcting all 100 pages in one evening.

Next day I'm sat around watching it print when the phone rings, and I'm sat on the stairs in the main stairwell when a woman from HEROtsc tells me they would like to offer me a job. I'm so excited I start jumping around the corridor. It's not until later I realise that iv just completed 4 and a half years, and £25k worth of education and I'm super excited to get a job less skillful than the one I left to go travel New Zealand in 2007. How ones world changes.

The rest of the week pass in a bit of a blur. I have to pay my £50 'graduation tax' finally (i had been putting it off in the hope I might fail and not have to pay) and I do the long drive back on Tuesday. I pick up Tim on the way, as its Jonis birthday, and we all sit up late playing poker and looking forward to a peaceful summer in which we all have crap jobs but at least no one has to worry about paying the rent.

The weekend was also rather fantastic. Went to see the Avengers on Saturday, a great film. And saw Simon Amstall live tonight curtisy of Jonis parents as his last birthday treat. Very very funny, hope he's out enjoying Nottingham tonight.

Quite sad to go back to my boring life tomorrow...

Standing on the precipice of the end..

Gosh, I can't believe its been nearly a month since my last blog. Quite a lot has happened in the month. I am currently sitting in Louise's living room (thats in Scotland) with my thesis on one side and a notepad full of scribbles on the other. This is because my Viva is tomorrow morning. (for those of you not in the academic world a Viva is a type of oral exam in which you have to defend your work to two academics who work in a similar field, but who arn't directly related to the project). I am feeling pretty nervous, it was the outcome of my last Viva that started the thought processes which ultimately lead me to give up my PhD in the first place. But I think my feeling less confident it probably a good sign, I was seriously under prepared last time and I didn't realise it. This time I'm more prepared. I'v been in Scotland for 4 days now preparing.

For Information: The Viva is 10am tomorrow morning, it will last approximately one hour and I don't know when I will be home from Scotland. If its gone well I may be required to stick around to get my thesis fully printed and bound. I'll announce it to the world when I know.

In other news there are now 2 French guys living in my house. They are exchange students and they are staying with us for 2 months (until July 5th). So far they have mostly just been very quiet and keep themselves to themselves. We keep trying to encourage them to hang out with us, but they don't seem particularly interested. This does have the advantage that I sometimes forget they are even here, although it feels a little odd.

On the job hunting front, things have slowed down a little in the last few weeks, what with the Viva and all I'v had to focus elsewhere. A company running a call centre called HeroTSC have left me hanging for nearly a month now, which is driving me mad. They keep saying they are processing my application, and that I passed the interview but they are gathering data. Ugh, frustrating as hell. I also I have properly registered with a recruitment agency who specialise in getting jobs for graduates in sales, so we shall wait and see what comes of that.

And thats everything thats going on in my life right now. I promise to keep anyone who cares up to date via facebook. and I PROMISE, PROMISE when I get a job, posting it on facebook will be the first thing I do, so for gods sake, stop asking!!!