While it is customary to start the year with copious amounts of optimism after a refreshing Christmas break, the arrival of 2011 has only filled me with doom! The sheer mountain of work which lies ahead for me this year is scary and the reward of probably not getting a job at the end of it fills me with even more despair.

Some months ago I listed several reasons to be cheerful about my life after England were knocked out of the World Cup. Now the English cricket team are basking in the glory of retaining the Ashes, which I really did enjoy staying up late to watch over Christmas, the sporting glory is at odds with where I find myself in 2011.

Doing a PhD is a very isolating experience, this can be a good thing but is more often than not quite a bad thing. You need to be cut off from the world to focus on writing and nobody really understands what you’re doing and it’s always difficult to explain to them even when they are genuinely interested or bothered about what’s troubling you. I return to Newcastle again on Monday and am actually looking forward to being in my own little bubble again – this time without the distraction of teaching.

My first task is to get my theoretical framework sorted once and for all. Then I can begin to draft my two case study chapters. I then need to rework my theory chapter and my institutional chapter and put my thesis together. I will be presenting to the School of Modern Languages research seminar in February so will have to prepare for that and I will continue to do the plagiarism checking for the undergraduate modules in Politics and Sociology. All of these things will be enjoyable, but I need the time to do them in! I need to find the time and to really get going on these tasks which will not be easy. For this reason my slight nervous twitch on my eyelid has returned, something which has not bothered me since the days of school-leaving exams. I know this work is what I wanted, I just wish that I could get it all done and felt like I could actually do it.

I want to get on and get my PhD finished more than anything, but to do it in the knowledge that there is now no money in higher education to fund lectureship appointments or postdocs means that I’m going to get to the end of my PhD journey only to find that I cannot take it anywhere and that’s not my fault! While I understand the challenges faced by the government and the universities this particular reality is very hard to take and utterly demoralising. And when austerity measures really kick in over the course of 2011 it will create a real misery atmosphere in higher education and the wider country. A tough year indeed!

I shall of course not neglect my blog. Whether it be to update it to share with the world any particular high points or successes, or to blog to procrastinate doing any work, or to really take out my frustrations on the keyboard, as I have done here, I shall continue to keep you updated on my progress throughout 2011. Let’s hope that, although it will be a tough year, some rewards lie at the end of it!