Has half of my PhD gone, vanished into history forever? Never to get back those wasted hours?

Is half of my PhD still to come? Exciting times? Stresses? Many chapters still to be redrafted? The printing and binding? The viva? The graduation robes?

Well both are true, March 2010 marks the halfway point. While I don’t in theory need to end my PhD in 18 months time unless I am ready to submit, but I will run out of cash by that point. So it is in my interest not to go too far beyond September/October 2011.

I do feel like I have come a long way in the first 18 months at least. I admit that a lot of the learning has been rapid during my time in Lisbon. I have realised my own naivety, had some of my suspicions confirmed and found no evidence to support other ones. If I look through my previous blog posts I will see lots of different experiences over the past 18 months, particularly the presentations, the teaching and the academic networking. I have enjoyed those 18 months, but I don’t quite feel like I am halfway to a PhD yet!

But the serious business starts now… I’ve got 100,000 words to write and every word has to be perfect and it has to all add up to a doctorate!

Naturally the time ticking on my PhD, and my time in Lisbon (less than 4 weeks left here now!), has kicked a bit of urgency into my day-to-day routine. However, while no-one should be working too hard on a Saturday night, I haven’t been working relentlessly today. I’m coming down with a bit of a cold so I have had to work in short bursts. Writing a few emails, doing some work on my paper and thinking about the overall course of my PhD, punctuated by watching videos on Youtube, Facebook, eating, checking the football scores, talking on the phone to Mum and Dad, and, of course, blogging!

Since my last post I have enjoyed myself, both relaxing and working. I have conducted a few more interviews with people involved in Portuguese foreign and defence policy and I have also had a look round the Portuguese national archive at a few records relating to Portugal’s role in the Marshall Plan in the late 1940s and Portugal and EFTA negotiations in the 1960s. It was good to handle some old documents, although impossible to decipher the handwritten notes scribbled onto various contact cards at dinners!

While my girlfriend was here I made sure I lived the high life, lots of drinks and nice dinners in restaurants. While I shall revisit a few of my favourite haunts alone again before I leave, the bulk of my dinning has been, and will continue to be, in the University of Lisbon canteen. For a mere 2.20Euros I get a bowl of soup, a main meal (choice of either meat or fish), a dessert/fruit/yogurt, a drink and a bread roll. Now that’s not bad! And there are five canteens and the menus are on the website, so you can choose what to do go for well in advance. This is a good thing, but when you see there is something you like and you look forward to having it all and you arrive at the canteen to discover that the canteen is closed because of the public service strike you get quite annoyed! This happened to me on Thursday. Now, I really like bacalhau a bras, and because of the saltiness of the fish it is quite addictive. So Thursday night I was wondering round looking for a restaurant doing that dish. I got what I wanted in the end!!! And it was good!

Right, I’m off to give my nose a good blow and probably have an early night. I need to be on the top of my game again by Monday morning for my next interview!

Will blog again in a week or two!