and it is the end of another week

time seems to be flying at the moment. I can't believe it is already the middle the June, wasn't it just my birthday? Oh well, must have been longer ago than I keep thinking. Anyway, I have been trying to work on this one paper for so long, and now I am finally making some progress. Earlier in the week i got about a page and a half done in one day, with all the adding and taking away things so that was quite good. Today was a good day as well, I think I have got about 2-3 pages more done, and I think I may have found my flow. All of a sudden I was getting ideas and things seemed to sound OK whereas before it was always that I would write something and then have to delete it as it was pretty much just rubbish.
I've also been thinking about what should come next. A post-doc position would be nice, so I can write up a bit more of my thesis for publication once I am finished with the examination. I came across the ESRC Post-doc thing, which is exactly what I want. Get a year employment at a university and write up the PhD thesis with publications and also attend more conferences and learn a bit more before even attempting to get a job somewhere. At the moment my publication record is nowhere near good enough to get a job at a university... so that needs work in any case. The major problem is that I really don't want to move away from Exeter at the moment. I feel quite settled where I am and I haven't really felt settled in a long time, so this is very nice. So at the moment the only plan I have for when the PhD is done is hope for the post-doc in the business school in the marketing department. Yesterday afternoon I downloaded the notes to help you fill in the application form for this job, and it is evil. Well I guess you have to put in some work if you want them to fund you for a whole year for any research trips and other expenses plus a job... but still it is a really nasty application form, and you need so many supporting documents. Nightmare, but I will have to do it...
But the main worry at the moment is who we can ask to be my external examiner once the time comes. I am already terrified about the whole experience, but nothing I can do about it. We all have to go through it sooner or later.