It seems that my last post struck a cord with people. My stats haven’t shown that many views for a while (35 yesterday in case you were wondering… yes, I’m that popular. *sarcasm mode off*). Anyway, in all the confusion and mixed up feelings I completely forgot to mention my good news… I got the provisional result for my dissertation yesterday (subject to approval by the exam board). I got 70%! For my non-English readers… that’s actually good! Yes, I know it’s 30 whole percent less than 100, but if you bear in mind that you can’t actually get anything about 85% it puts it in perspective. Plus I was only aiming for a pass, which would have been 50%, so I’m happy. The mark becomes official on 5th July.. hopefully it won’t change too much, if at all, then all my marks will be added together and I’ll find out what I’ve got for the whole degree. And at some point in November I’ll finally get my certificate. For now, though, I shall sit back and relax, safe in the knowledge that my Master’s is in the bag and I don’t have to do any more assignments… at least until the next time I decide to inflict an OU course on myself. By the way, if anyone was thinking of buying me a gift for my birthday in August, OU vouchers are always appreciated 😉 (I jest, of course. I’m not even going to be in Germany on my birthday this year). Right, I’m off to spend some time with my boyfriend now. I started a ten-finger typing course this morning, which ran from 9 – 12:30 (and it’s every Saturday from now til 24th July. Woe, woe, woe) so the only thing we’ve done together today is weekly food shop. Not much fun. Enjoy the rest of your weekend everyone 🙂
Tag: dreaded dissertation of doom
A work in progress
Thank you all for the lovely comments on my last post. I bet you thought now my dissertation is over I would have time for my blog again. Yeah, me too. But once the dreaded dissertation was handed in the whole moving thing took over every single minute that I wasn’t at work. The new flat is very much still a work in progress, but we’ve got the bedroom finished-ish (painted, skirting boards put on, bed put together) and today is official moving day. This will be my last post for a while. Once the computer is unplugged and taken away I will no longer be able to access the Internet. I’ve arranged for my contract to be transferred to the new place as of tomorrow, but as far as we can tell the connections in the flat are all wrong so somebody is going to have to come out and provide us with something to attach the modem to. No idea when that will happen. I will be back then anyway, whenever ‘then’ turns out to be.
For now I shall leave you with some photos of the bedroom, the island of calm admidst the chaos. (Trust me, you don’t want to see what the other rooms look like… furniture and boxes piled in every bit of the living room and dust sheets all over the place to catch falling bits of paint! We shall have our wrk to cut out to get everything looking semi-decent before my visitor comes on the 31st…)
The End!
I finished my dissertation last night!
It took me til nearly one o’clock in the morning, by which time I’d been sitting in the same position for so long that I could barely move my neck and everything else felt stiffer than a plank of wood, but who cares. It’s over and this all that matters! I only got about four hours sleep the night before as well, and I’m now so tired I actually feel physically sick, so once I’ve eaten my baked potato (which is currently still in the oven) I’m going to celebrate my new found freedom by going to sleep. Preparations for the move shall have to wait til tomorrow!
Nothing to say, but I’m saying it anyway
Hmm, another new week. I seem to have entirely missed most of last one. All I remember is that it involved working like a mad woman all day then returning home to work like a mad woman some more, but this time on something that I’m not getting paid for. And all this while trying to recover from my monster cold. I’m all better now though, I’m sure you’ll be pleased to know. And the dissertation is moving forward. I even managed to have some fun at the weekend, which is something that hasn’t happened in a while. On Friday night Jan and I went out for a meal then some cocktails with a friend. It was 2:30 by the time we got in and I was up again by 9:30, but the reminder of what it’s like to have a real life made up for the tiredness.
I also started putting some things in boxes on Thursday evening. It wasn’t much, and my place is still as chaotic and crowded as ever, but it’s a start. Somehow actually starting to pack things away makes the move seem so much more real. I’m hoping we’ll be able to get the keys soon, then we can go in and do some measuring so we can figure out where to put what. We already have a list of things we need to do – and buy. I think another trip to IKEA will be on the cards fairly soon. Not until after payday though. My university are now demanding money from me again. *sigh*. Thankfully this is the last installment, so hopefully they’ll leave me alone after that. Unless of course I have to pay for the privilige of having my certificate sent out to me. That is a bridge that shall have to be crossed when I come to it though… I have to pass the dissertation first!
What’s the time Mister Wolf? Apparantly not dinner time…
I love my boyfriend very much, but there are some things I’m hoping we can sort out rather quickly once we start living together.
Like his weird ideas about time for one…
To me, it is quite clear that some time between six and seven at night, it’s tea time (or dinner time if you prefer. Whatever, time to eat anyway). Given that I have my lunch somewhere between twelve and one, meaning by 6 pm it’s been at least 5 hours since the last time I ate, I’d consider that fairly reasonable. Jan, however, is incapable of being home from work that early (apparantly he’s only productive in the afternoon/evening) so we agreed on a compromise – I would have tea ready by 8 pm, he would either be there to eat it or heat his up later. It was a good system, it was working. Then the deadline for the dissertation started to creep closer. I was told that I should now be using my time after work to work on the dreaded D-word. Note use of the phrase “I was told”… as in this was not my idea. I was not to cook any food. No, Jan would do that when he came in. Oh, and he also promised to get home earlier so that we could actually eat at a reasonable time. Sounds good, no? And it would be if it worked. Clearly something, somewhere is going wrong though. Because if his plan was actually being put into action as stated we would not have eaten at half past ten last night. And I would not be sitting here now – at ten minutes past nine in the evening – listening to my stomach crying out for food. And this despite the fact that Jan called me at 20 past 7 (almost two hours ago!!!) to say he was just going to pick his laptop up from work, then would do a bit of shopping and come home to cook. If this didn’t happen all the time I’d probably be worried something had happened to him…
Actually, if I wasn’t so hungry I would probably still be worried (even though it happens all the time). Right now, though, all I can think about is whether I’m actually going to get anything to eat tonight.
I think I preferred it when I had to work on my dissertation and do all the cooking…
I should be celebrating…
We have the contract! It’s here, sitting on top of Detolf, waiting for us to read through it, which will happen later this evening once Jan returns from playing football with his friends. We met at the flat to pick up the contracts, so I got to see it again. It’s still as nice as I remembered 🙂 Jan even admitted to me that he’s excited (I asked if I could have it in writing!) and of course I’m overjoyed. A flat with my boyfriend! An actual home together. I thought this day would never come. So it should have been a day of celebration. Instead I’m sitting here attempting to work on my dissertation while nursing a spectacularly awful cold. It started yesterday with a sore throat and a runny nose and today has progressed to constant sneezing, aches and pains, a head that feels like it’s full of wet cotton wool and a nose that’s sometimes blocked, sometimes running. Not that it matters which version it chooses – either way I can’t breathe properly! Oh, and I’m also freezing despite the fact that it’s quite warm today. But apart from that I feel fine.
I need to get better by Monday. My colleague is off next week, which leaves me as the sole English translator, and there’s lots of work to be done. Anyone know any quick fixes for a cold? And please don’t say sleep… dissertation, remember?
Remind me why I’m doing this
So far I’ve written just over 2,000 words which I may or may not actually end up being able to use in my dissertation. I need 15,000 words, or 13,500 at the very least if I make use of the “you can be 10% over or under” rule. Then there’s the literature review which I haven’t even started, or indeed thought about, yet. And the deadline is 11th May – which means I have to get it finished before that because it needs to be printed, bound and sent to England. To say that I’m panicking would be an understatement. Unfortunately panicking doesn’t give me any more of a clue what I need to write, or give me any extra time to do any writing. What I really need is a clone. Preferably a clone whose brain works better than mine (I wonder… does an improved version of myself still count as a clone?). The clone can write the dissertation and I’ll go to work, do the housework and continue to look for flats for the boyfriend and I. Sounds like a plan, no?
Can someone please remind me why I wanted to do a Master’s?
Taking the easy way out…
I’m tired today. And once again stupidly busy (flat viewing this morning… then home to laundry, dissertation. Now it’s almsot time to cook tea…). But I feel bad that I’ve been neglecting my poor blog again. So I’m taking the easy way out with a meme that I meant to steal from Hails ages ago. You know you’ve been busy when you haven”t even had time for a cheat’s post! Ah well, I’m doing it now…
A. Attached or single? Attached. Although I prefer to think of it as “in a relationship”
B. Best friend? I don’t think I have one. I used to have one, but then my sister moved up to my dad’s and most of my friends suddenly realised they liked her better. Anyway, I live too far away from most of my friends now. And the people I know here are mostly just that… people I know. Three of them I would refer to as friends, but best friends? No. They already have one.
C. Cake or pie? Right now definitely pie. Preferably meat pie. I miss pie! And pasties. Why do German bakers not do pasties?
D. Day of choice? Strangely I think right now it’s Monday. I love my job (even though it’s stressful and tiring at times), Monday is early enough in the week for exhaustion not to have kicked in yet, and it gets me away from the dreaded dissertation of doom which is currently taking up every minute of my weekend that isn’t spent on housework.
E. Essential item? Train ticket, to get to work.
F. Favorite color? Red. But don’t tell my family, or they’ll buy me so much red stuff I’ll get utterly sick of it and never want to see it again. That’s what happened with my old favourite colur (purple). My old bedroom at my dad’s is still full of purple candles, purple ornaments, purple items of clothing. Aargh!
G. Gummy bears or worms? Sour worms.
H. Hometown? Mostly Karlsruhe. Although part of me still thinks of the North East of England as home (I know that’s not a town but I just can’t bring myself to call the actual town I spent my teenage years in “home”. I was too pleased to get away from the place!)
I. Favorite indulgence? Eating ice cream on a cold day.
J. January or July? July. I love the summer (despite that fact that it hates me) and January is all dark and cold. At least in July I still get to see some sunlight… in January I leave for work in the dark and by home time it’s dark again.
K. Kids? Love them. I always wanted three, but with each year that passes the chances get slimmer (and my Grandma’s pleas to be made a Great-Grandma get louder…)
L. Life isn’t complete without? Friends, love and travel.
M. Marriage date? Possibly never.
N. Number of brothers and sisters? One sister. Two half brothers (who are not related to one another). All younger, although in the sister’s case nobody believes it.
O. Oranges or apples? Oranges I guess, although I prefer satsumas… which you can’t get here.
P. Phobias? Moths. Ugh.
Q. Quotes? Lots. I collect them. In fact, I have a whole page of them. If you really want to see a quote go there.
R. Reasons to smile? I love my job and soon I’ll (finally) have a flat with the boyfriend. Once the dissertation is handed in the smile will get bigger.
S. Season of choice? Spring, if it’s warm. I love summer, but it hates me (I get sunstroke reeeally easily). Autumn is nice for about three days (when it’s still warm and the trees are pretty colours), before turning grey and miserable, and Winter means Christmas which is not the favourite holiday of my family.
T. Tag 5 people. No. Anyone who wants to do it may feel free to tag themselves.
U. Unknown fact about me? Umm… what haven’t I already told you? No idea. Tell you what… anything you want to know, ask and I’ll write a post with answers. (And now it’s going to be really embarrassing if nobody asks anything…)
V. Vegetable? I’m not good with vegetables. Most of them make me feel sick. But I LOVE aubergines. Which is probably strange when you think about it…
W. Worst habits? Biting my nails. I’ve been trying to stop for years! Also, sarcasm. And an inability to stop buying books (curse you Amazon!)
X. X-ray or ultrasound? Huh?
Y. Your favorite food? Potatoes! Mashed, roast, baked. As chips, in soup. Prepare them any way you like, I will eat them.
Z. Zodiac sign? Leo, the lion. Which makes my birth stone tiger’s eye. Much better than my month birth stone, which is peridot.
Confuzzledom 