Really the Last Supervision!

Sometimes you get things wrong. My previous Supervision was actually my last supervision before submitting and today I had a pre-viva supervision. If this sounds different to last time then that is because the time between submission and viva. Firstly it has been longer about four months as opposed to just six weeks last time. Secondly there has been a lot of difficulties with the arrangements. So much so that there is a Small chance that it will be cancelled on the day itself. The reason being that my external examiner may not, for legitimate reasons, be able to make it.

Today I overslept, partly due to waking with nerves in the middle of the night. I did set my alarm but did not really register it until half an hour after it started going off. It is one of the dawn simulators and I am such a light sleeper that usually the click of the bulb starting to glow wakes me.Not so today. l did not realise how late it was until notices for the day started going off on my phone. However, I realised that I had plenty of leeway built into the day. As it was I got to the station in plenty of time to pick up my ticket. I then discovered that the train before mine was running late. The question was whether l caught it or waited for mine. I decided l had the time and I would risk my train being held up by the late train. As it turned out the delay was negligible.

Birmingham New Street is in the final stages of its transformation which meant I was disorientated again and there were workmen everywhere. Still found WH Smiths were selling Graze products including protein nuts and as I was not feeling like lunch this was a useful substitute. I then caught the train out to University and set about finding the ERI Building which took me down the road by the hospital which is lined with horse chestnut trees. It is the conker season and inevitably I picked up a pocketful. As I was ridiculously early (12:30 for 2:00 meeting) when l found the ER1 Building I walked past and went on an explore. Well, sort of, the next building l encountered was the Computer centre which I had 'visited about 3 years ago for work. So I had obviously been in the area before.

Walking on past l encountered Winterbourne House and Garden. The opportunity to sit quietly in the garden seemed to be ideal so I paid the entrance fee and went in. They have a popular restaurant but the quiet of grass and big trees were more important to me at the time. There is also a path from the garden to a large pond with ducks on. Most ducks were at the far side and without binoculars I could not identify the actual species. There were a couple of coots nesting near the path. I also found the loos so used these t prepare for the meeting then realised it was a quarter to two and I needed to get back to the ERI.

I arrived at the ERI building at about 1:55 pm and got to the meeting place about five minutes before my supervisor. He had not booked a room but, fortunately, it was the week before pre-sess so no rooms were booked! That meant we just went into the first available room. I think that Martin had realised by the time that we got to the supervision that quite a bit of my being awkward was actually strategic rather than me just being contrary. The talk was mainly on the discussion for my viva including the need for me to have to know pretty well what my corrections were as if the examiners went beyond that I had to pull them back in line.

That does not mean that I have a lazy two weeks although I was pretty quick on answering questions today. I need to be up to speed on the major thinkers in my thesis. I need to know my thesis and I need to know what correction I have made. It was also clear that while the thesis was there, there is also work that needs doing before the whole work is publishable. Quite often in a book that is a book of the thesis there is a ghost of the thesis hanging around. Here I am going to have to exorcise the ghost rather more thoroughly as there is new material but it is only becoming accessible now which means it cannot go into the thesis.

Finally, I gave my supervisor a secondhand book. It was one of those occasions when something had come into my possession and I knew that it was destined for someone else, I was but the carrier. Oddly when I normally get these I pass them on as quickly as possible but this time something stayed my instinct until this supervision. The passing on of the book today did more than it would have done earlier and I was right about my supervisor valuing it. 

The supervision over and me feeling happier about my viva than I have done for several weeks, I went to Costas and got myself a meatball wrap and a soya latte before catching the train home. The train home was busier than I was expecting but then I do not normally get the train on a Friday. 

So twelve days to my viva!

The owls in the pictures are  the two of the statutes that are part of the Big Hoot that I saw today.