Confirmation of Candidature

I completed and passed my Confirmation of Candidature yesterday. It went pretty well and though the panel raised some concerns about the number and selection of research sites, I felt that they were voicing my own thoughts on this matter. They provided some very valuable suggestions. I'm glad I recorded the meeting on digital voice recorder. I was concentrating so much on the presentation, the questions from the panel and the proceedings in general that I would never have been able to take coherent notes as well.

This morning I slept in for the first time since starting my PHD. My dog was pretty happy about that and slept blissfully under the doona without stirring until I eventually rolled out of bed at about 10am.

I'm not feeling quite as exposed today as I did last night, a feeling I always get whenever I deliver a verbal presentation or do something personally challenging that involves a public performance. Fortunately, the panel was very supportive and encouraging and the proceedings, while formal, were not clinical.

I know I need to address some of the problem areas of my research proposal next but I think I might give myself a little breather today...go food shopping, clean up the house a bit, return an overdue library book, read the paper, admire the built-in wardrobes, that sort of thing.

I met up with two of the staff of my old business on Saturday night. It was so great to catch up with them and talk and feel that our lives are still connected but in a new and reinvigorated way. It was very meaningful to me.