So, I am 36 days away from having to hand in my MA dissertation, and 29 days away from the date I want to actually be finished by (so that I can have it printed and bound.)
Currently I have written 1994 words, my word-limit is 17,500 but I'm not going to push myself to hit it, I'm going to aim for 16,500-17,000 and think myself damn accomplished however many words I actually write. My plan for this week is to write around 1000 words a day (fitting this around shifts at work and bits of research I'm able to do), then regroup on Sunday and examine how far I've come and if I have reached 8994 words by then I will be so pleased. I'll have written over 50% of the whole thing and I can look down the mountainside rather than up at the sheer climb ahead of me.
I knew when I started my MA that the dissertation would be the hardest part for me to cope with. I disliked the entire process of my undergraduate dissertation - I had a very disinterested supervisor, and it put me off ever doing a dissertation again. I don't think I've been in contact with my supervisor enough this time around either, but a big part of that is because I'm an idiot who doesn't want to be seen to be bugging people all the time (even though I know that's what supervisors are for.)
All I really want for this piece of work is to be something I can be proud of and something I can pass my MA with. I don't know whether I should really be aiming for some lofty scholarly ideal with it as well, but at the moment all I really want to do is pass!
Sunday 31 July 2011
Saturday 30 July 2011
Meeting the Grandparents: Part the First
I had a long day at work today; we're extremely busy because it's summertime but also because one of our local competitors has closed for 18 weeks for a refit, so all their customers are coming to us instead. I'm certainly not complaining about the rise in trade, it can only be a good thing, but phew it does tire me out at the end of the day!
The best thing about today was going round to my grandparents' residential home in Llanfairfechan for a barbeque! I persuaded my boyfriend, B, to come with me (until today he'd only met my parents and my brother) and meet my Nain and Taid (Welsh grandparents). I'm so glad he agreed to come, we had a lovely time.
We missed the actual barbeque because it started while I was still at work and I wanted to go home and change first, but we arrived in time for cake and some wine, so all was well.
Nain and Taid live in a lovely residential home called Llys y Coed in Llanfairfechan. It's organised into private flats, with their own kitchens & bathrooms etc..., but there's a communal sitting room that residents can use and a residents' restaurant. My Nain and Taid moved there after becoming a bit unsteady on their feet (they're in their 80s), and they have loved every second of living there. There is such a nice community spirit among all the residents and the staff are so friendly and don't intrude at all. Residents can choose how involved they want the staff to be - my Nain and Taid just have someone pop in to see if they're okay every now and again - and you can choose to have your meals in your flat and cook in your own kitchen or eat in the restaurant with the other residents - most people choose to have their dinner together because it's like dining out with your friends every day.
B and I had a really nice time. I haven't seen Nain and Taid in a while because I've been so busy with work and dissertation, but I'm going to have to make more of an effort to go and see them, I've really missed them. B and I caught up with them while they were sitting in the sunshine with some of their friends (98 year old Mr Jones, Mr 'The Headmaster' Evans, Mrs Evans and a lovely lady called Annie, who held my hand and admired my garnet and opal ring and said that B and I would be engaged soon! That was a surprise to both of us!) Taid insisted that B and I had to try some of the cakes that were for pudding after the barbeque and tried to get us to drink sherry (we both politely declined and had red wine instead!)
It was nice listening to them regale each other with stories; most of the men had stories from where they were during the war or mischief they got up to, Mrs Evans was telling me about her Canadian boyfriend who she met when she was in the WAAF. Apparently he looked just like Clark Gable and he was extraordinarily handsome, but he was much older than her and 'unsuitable', but she said all this with a twinkle in her eye!
I always enjoy spending time with my grandparents and their friends. It's easy for younger people to forget that older people ever had a life before becoming parents and grandparents, but the more I spend time with my Nain and Taid and their friends, the more I appreciate the stories they tell and that they were my age once and having similar experiences to me. B was really impressed with Llys y Coed too; it's a really lovely place, it feels more like a halls of residence than a typical 'old people's home', and the residents and staff treat each other really well. In some residential homes the staff barely connect with the people they're looking after, which takes away dignity from everyone.
Time for bed now, I think. I have another early start for work tomorrow morning. Goodnight from me, B and the residents of Llys y Coed, growing old disgracefully :)
The best thing about today was going round to my grandparents' residential home in Llanfairfechan for a barbeque! I persuaded my boyfriend, B, to come with me (until today he'd only met my parents and my brother) and meet my Nain and Taid (Welsh grandparents). I'm so glad he agreed to come, we had a lovely time.
We missed the actual barbeque because it started while I was still at work and I wanted to go home and change first, but we arrived in time for cake and some wine, so all was well.
Nain and Taid live in a lovely residential home called Llys y Coed in Llanfairfechan. It's organised into private flats, with their own kitchens & bathrooms etc..., but there's a communal sitting room that residents can use and a residents' restaurant. My Nain and Taid moved there after becoming a bit unsteady on their feet (they're in their 80s), and they have loved every second of living there. There is such a nice community spirit among all the residents and the staff are so friendly and don't intrude at all. Residents can choose how involved they want the staff to be - my Nain and Taid just have someone pop in to see if they're okay every now and again - and you can choose to have your meals in your flat and cook in your own kitchen or eat in the restaurant with the other residents - most people choose to have their dinner together because it's like dining out with your friends every day.
B and I had a really nice time. I haven't seen Nain and Taid in a while because I've been so busy with work and dissertation, but I'm going to have to make more of an effort to go and see them, I've really missed them. B and I caught up with them while they were sitting in the sunshine with some of their friends (98 year old Mr Jones, Mr 'The Headmaster' Evans, Mrs Evans and a lovely lady called Annie, who held my hand and admired my garnet and opal ring and said that B and I would be engaged soon! That was a surprise to both of us!) Taid insisted that B and I had to try some of the cakes that were for pudding after the barbeque and tried to get us to drink sherry (we both politely declined and had red wine instead!)
It was nice listening to them regale each other with stories; most of the men had stories from where they were during the war or mischief they got up to, Mrs Evans was telling me about her Canadian boyfriend who she met when she was in the WAAF. Apparently he looked just like Clark Gable and he was extraordinarily handsome, but he was much older than her and 'unsuitable', but she said all this with a twinkle in her eye!
I always enjoy spending time with my grandparents and their friends. It's easy for younger people to forget that older people ever had a life before becoming parents and grandparents, but the more I spend time with my Nain and Taid and their friends, the more I appreciate the stories they tell and that they were my age once and having similar experiences to me. B was really impressed with Llys y Coed too; it's a really lovely place, it feels more like a halls of residence than a typical 'old people's home', and the residents and staff treat each other really well. In some residential homes the staff barely connect with the people they're looking after, which takes away dignity from everyone.
Time for bed now, I think. I have another early start for work tomorrow morning. Goodnight from me, B and the residents of Llys y Coed, growing old disgracefully :)
Thursday 28 July 2011
Creation
Although I've kept an intermittent LiveJournal before (Deccaboo), I've never really kept a blog and my LJ updates are sporadic - I don't think I've updated once this year, bad me!
I don't really know what I intend this blog to be - I have lots of seemingly disparate interests and not much time to pursue them - but I will make a concerted effort to update!
I'm currently writing my MA dissertation - In September 2010 I started my one year course in Information and Library Management at LJMU, by this September I will have handed in my dissertation and should really be looking for a proper job in the world of librarianism ... I should be anyway! At the moment the library job market isn't particularly huge in the UK because of the recession, but *fingerscrossed* it will start to pick up soon.
Some of my favourite things are books (I'm including my Kindle, Ziyal, in this), dolls, photography, shoes, tea dresses, pearls, lace and polka dots. Above all those things though, I love frogs! Frogs are above and away my favourite animal.
I have a large collection of dresses and shoes, but I really can't help it! I started an unsuccessful shopping ban on January 1st 2011 - I did alright for a few months and then university deadlines suddenly got very stressful and my resolve really crashed!
I have a collection of cameras, some point and shoot, some SLRs. I don't always have the opportunity to go out and play with my cameras as much as I'd like. My main cameras are my Nikon D-40 DSLR, my Nikon Coolpix S220 and my Ihagee Exa mini SLR.
I collect Asian Ball-Jointed Dolls (ABJD or just BJD most of the time) and some Asian fashion dolls - at the moment I have five BJDs, a floating head, one Dollfie Dream, a cat BJD, a Dal, a Momoko and a Unoa Sekiguchi Fluorite. I've always like dolls, action figures and miniatures, so it should be no surprise to anyone who knows me that as soon as I found out about BJDs I would want one of my own! Some of my dolls can be seen on my Flickr.
My current dolls are;
BJDs
Volks Megu - Mafonwen Enku
Volks FCS F05 head - Mefyswen Enku
Volks SDC Kurt - Klemens-Ruprecht von Klessel
Volks SDC Kurenai - Melangell Shigeta
Volks YoSD Yuh - Mari-chan
Seed Dolls Inkling - Fflur
Camellia Dynasty Wong cat - Arthur
Volks Dollfie Dream
DD OpH01 - Momoko Jones
Dal
Magical Pink Chan - Bella
Momoko
Day Off Delight - Nicola
Unoa Light Fluorite
Victorian Lady - Imogen
I'm currently writing my MA dissertation - In September 2010 I started my one year course in Information and Library Management at LJMU, by this September I will have handed in my dissertation and should really be looking for a proper job in the world of librarianism ... I should be anyway! At the moment the library job market isn't particularly huge in the UK because of the recession, but *fingerscrossed* it will start to pick up soon.
Some of my favourite things are books (I'm including my Kindle, Ziyal, in this), dolls, photography, shoes, tea dresses, pearls, lace and polka dots. Above all those things though, I love frogs! Frogs are above and away my favourite animal.
I have a large collection of dresses and shoes, but I really can't help it! I started an unsuccessful shopping ban on January 1st 2011 - I did alright for a few months and then university deadlines suddenly got very stressful and my resolve really crashed!
I have a collection of cameras, some point and shoot, some SLRs. I don't always have the opportunity to go out and play with my cameras as much as I'd like. My main cameras are my Nikon D-40 DSLR, my Nikon Coolpix S220 and my Ihagee Exa mini SLR.
I collect Asian Ball-Jointed Dolls (ABJD or just BJD most of the time) and some Asian fashion dolls - at the moment I have five BJDs, a floating head, one Dollfie Dream, a cat BJD, a Dal, a Momoko and a Unoa Sekiguchi Fluorite. I've always like dolls, action figures and miniatures, so it should be no surprise to anyone who knows me that as soon as I found out about BJDs I would want one of my own! Some of my dolls can be seen on my Flickr.
My current dolls are;
BJDs
Volks Megu - Mafonwen Enku
Volks FCS F05 head - Mefyswen Enku
Volks SDC Kurt - Klemens-Ruprecht von Klessel
Volks SDC Kurenai - Melangell Shigeta
Volks YoSD Yuh - Mari-chan
Seed Dolls Inkling - Fflur
Camellia Dynasty Wong cat - Arthur
Volks Dollfie Dream
DD OpH01 - Momoko Jones
Dal
Magical Pink Chan - Bella
Momoko
Day Off Delight - Nicola
Unoa Light Fluorite
Victorian Lady - Imogen
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