"Can't you hear me, S.O.S.?": TLG's PhD study blog!

I might not be online much in the next few days so: I wish all of you and your loved ones a very Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy, prosperous and successful 2019!

Merry Christmas to you too

I might not be online much in the next few days so: I wish all of you and your loved ones a very Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy, prosperous and successful 2019!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year to all my blog followers! I hope 2019 treats you all well and is a good year

Met up with main supervisor again before she heads off to India for fieldwork. She'll be coming back via the UK in late Feb, on her way back to California. In the meantime, we will probably Skype.

Am feeling a bit down on myself coz I haven't done anything productive since my conference at the end of November. Lots of family stuff's been going on... Having a study day with friends today though (if I can wake up on time ), which will hopefully prove useful



No PhD-related NY resolutions for me but am very much hoping this will be a better year for me

How far are you from wrapping it all up?

Very far in terms of official end date, haha! What with shifting from FT to PT, and then my retrospective interruption and a course extension, my new end date is 13th Feb 2023!

That said, both PhD supervisor and I want it finished before then. I've def got enough fieldwork. If I had no health problems and were motivated, I could probably submit at some point in 2020 (I write fast when well, without compromising the quality. Oxford was good for something at least, lol ). But given my mental health, the aim is more for Sept 2021, which was when I was meant to finish the course having gone PT

Oh bloody hell, haha!

It seems like you have a good handle on it though, from following what you write in here. I reckon it'll be done sooner than you think

I do hope so I started in September 2014 so this whole PhD malarkey is turning out to be "bare long tings", as my sister would say

Same time as I started mine (well, Oct 2014)! I was well sick ofit by the time I submitted in Sept last year. I enjoyed it overall, really, but in the end it was a case of not seeing the wood for the trees

I'm dreading the editing stage tbh, I think that will drive me absolutely bonkers. I can well imagine people get sick of their PhD (topic) in the final few months I try not to listen to ABBA too much, so hopefully I'll still love them by the end of it all

Editing is easily the worst, most laborious part. The day of submission, I sent and received back like 11 edits to/from my supervisor. But it is worth it in the end, and the smug feeling you have jsut from finishing the bloody thing is hard to replicate, haha.

I still love the guy I wrote about, so ABBA are safe, i reckon

Ah glad to hear you still love your guy! That gives me hope

11 edits on the day?!?!?!?!? But yeah, def worth it in the end, I imagine!

'Change this sentence' 'Actually, change this one, too' 'Oh, while you're at it, add this, and mix up your operners in the introductory chapter' - all that sort of dull, lastminute stuff

But both me and my supervisor are pains for that stuff, so I expected it. I also had a 30 minute argument with him about how to phrase the title

Meep! Glad it wasn't unexpected at least

That reminds me, I really need to come up with a better title for my thesis at some point My chapter titles and their subheadings are all ABBA lyrics or at least ABBA-related (e.g. quotes from band members) but the actual thesis title itself feels a little dry

You have to get a lyric into the title!!!

Oh I do have one, dw! Title is currently "Thank You For the Music": An Ethnographic Study of ABBA Fandom in the Twenty-First Century I'm disappointed that the title isn't witty, short/punchy or alliterative

I think that's quite good as it is!