I don’t feel like I have made much progress recently, but that is only if you measure progress in words and not ideas or fieldwork. Since last posting I have completed another visit to the museum with a group, got contact details for three more family visits after the holidays, am definitely volunteering again next term, been out teaching with some second year undergrads, read a huge pile of articles on diversity and scoured the census data for the last 40 years looking at different patterns.
I am very conscious of my mental and physical health so have been making sure I am taking time out for me. But often this feels like laziness. Tonight I have had a long hot bath, writing this is giving me a little sense of direction but I am aware that this is not me reading or writing. But it is me thinking…(is that too far-fetched?!?). My topic is never far from my thoughts, this morning I ended up in a conversation with a taxi driver about the migration of Ugandan Asians to Leicester!
The full time job has been very much full on, but with the end of term imminent I decided I needed to take my annual leave and have an actual solid block of time off. So as of Friday I will be running away from my work desk until January. As we all know this does not mean that the PhD work stops. I have my plans, I am going to focus on that diversity area, properly analyse the census data and write an article about it, this will also add to a thesis chapter.
However, I will be maintaining my Christmas traditions! I will eat my weight in food on Christmas Day and I will walk it off on Boxing Day. So, roll on Friday!
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