Supervision May, reporting from a hot humid Birmingham New Street

Well, I have had supervision today, as usual it was sunny  (mind you it is exam season so my supervision can’t claim sole credit) but the trains have been interesting this time. My train to New Street was fine and on time but the train before it had not arrived at Sheffield when it left and may have been cancelled in which case I pity the people due to get it as they were not redirected to the train I was on. Then there was problems with the train from the University to New Street, I got on an unannounced train and I don’t know which of the delayed trains it was. The trains back were equally mixed up, leaving New Street, they merged the 17:03 with 18:03. Fortunately we had a train manager who always has a good sense of humour (this is not the first train I have caught where he was the manager), he went around giving arrival and connection times to everyone, in the form 7:30. He then stopped to say he meant pm and he thought it might even be today.

Things are beginning to fall into place, I now know it basically takes two months to write a thesis data chapter when I am working properly. I submitted a very raw draft of my second data chapter. This is about two months after my previous chapter reached this point. Of course it would be nice if they took slightly less long. The last couple of weeks have been really tough intellectually, the pulling together of the theoretical ideas that fit within the chapter is hard work, often involving several false starts and quite a bit of going off in different directions. However when you get the right bits to give an analytic structure  it is very exciting, as suddenly you start to see the shape and outline of what is coming. I suspect that the feeling is something like rock climbing in that you feel the excitement of each hand hold obtained as you start to realise that you are making progress towards the cliff top. The other thing is it is only this last week as I finally began to pull the relationship to tradition that I realised that I was actually writing the lead into my next chapter.

When I realised my next supervision was not until July I broached with my supervisor about what my next stage would be. The answer is that I am likely to be able to go to writing up status either iin September or October but to do that I have at least two more chapters to write, the last placement chapter which is on worship and the tradition chapter. This means I may or may not pay some full fees this year. I am going to have to sort out how that works, and because of this I may well prefer to pay in instalments this year rather than straight out. However my supervisor agrees I will be fully submitted by this time next year.

The Edgebaston Campus was interesting with more students sitting on the grass than in the computer rooms, which was fine by me as I could get a machine and check out a lot of papers quite easily. Actually the computer rooms were sort of the right business for me. Enough students to make them look used (the Uni should take its photos of people working this week) but not overcrowded as they often are in main term times.

This month I have to redraft my current chapter (I will probably do this over the Jubilee weekend) and I am also attending the Reformed Spirituality conference at Westminster. I will also start drafting the following chapter which has its own challenges. I am going to struggle somewhat to balance it against the other chapters as I am aware that though I participated much in worship I also found that I was reluctant to make notes. I am going to have to start by trying to make notes on the things that are important.