What a busy week!

Well, what a manic time so far!  Last weekend  we were in London at a concert for Stan, and watched his band play. Then we had to drive back to Blandford via Andover to take Hannah back to school and Salisbury for a hospital test. I reckon there should be some way to limit the amount of things that can stress you out at any one time!.
I am currently waiting to hear about a operation to repair a defect in my stomach that I have had for 7 years and had the privilege of having a Nerve Conduction Test! As I have been losing feeling in my leg for a while now and they have only just discussed the idea that scar tissue may be the cause! Anyway,this is a very strange experience were they stick small needles in your extremities and you can watch them move without you being in control. I came out of it feeling like I had gone for a run, but did not get to enjoy the rush afterwards!!
This week I also had to go to Royal Holloway University to see man about a van!! Actually it was to discuss research opportunities, which went quite well, I thought. Though if people were made to have an easy life, I am sure that I got lost on that road or was never given the map! Because so far everything I have tried to achieve, in my life and studies, always seems to be done in a very long winded way. Since starting on this journey to have an academic career, it has not been easy. I spent the first 2/3 of my BA in a hospital bed and spent my MA trying to catch up, especially as I had done my first degree in a department that had no experience in my research field that I decided on.
So for my PhD, I decided to divert my ideas yet again, staying in the same field making it more interdisciplinary. It was then I found that yet again, the University I chose is not as integrated as I first thought. So, I may be on the move; I just have to choose more carefully this time! It would be great if there was an easier way to understand the many ways you have to make decisions and how they affect every part of your career just by what university you do you first degree at. I f I had known then at the beginning what I was going to choose for my dissertation and was able to choose my university because of that, I think I would have been having a whole easier time now.
But that is not the way things go! The plus side is that you become great at networking and having the confidence to talk to many of your peers you may not have done before.
This week I am presenting a paper in Glasgow at a History of Nursing conference. Yet again I am very nervous, as these  people  definitely know more than me on the subject of nursing. I am hoping that being invited means that they think I might know what I am talking about! Because sometimes I feel that I do not know what I am talking about. You spend so much of your time in your own head trying to resolve the research you have found that it is only when you speak to other people in your field of research that you see whether you have cottoned onto it properly. Having a topic that is interdisciplinary means that you have to do this on as many levels as fields you are working with. It is not surprising when you miss things.I picked up a book this week that discussed many minority groups that came out of Europe in the period I am looking at and there are a couple of large ones I had not considered!
If anyone knows where I can find information on Irish refugees who nursed please comment!!
I think I have now managed to distract myself from writing this presentation enough now so TTFN!!

My First Post!!

Hi All, as the title says this is my first post and I hope not the last!! I though I would start with a few things about myself. I am a very busy mum and wife, who works and is crazy enough to do a PhD on the side. I want to be able to share my experiences and thoughts with the world and hope that I can take some people on my travels through my crazy life! I am originally from Canada and have lived in the U.K. for 18 years now. I came here as a young and naive 19year old (the people who can count keep the age to yourselves!!)  Some could say they have been long years, but I fell that I have had a great time and many opportunities that I might not have had back home. My husband is fantastic and supports me in all that I do and as a family unit we are always there for each other. All three of us! Not only am I Canadian, but also I am a army wife as well, my husband is a musician with the Corps of Army music and is a terrific Bassoon player in my opinion!!

I live away from my family for half the week while I study and work at Brookes and it can be very hard. It is not fun being away from home and family but I am aiming to achieve great things and I feel this is my opportunity to do something that will be good for me and my family in the long run. Many things have happened in my life and I may even post a bit of it on here, but I know that I have had a good life and hope for many things for the future.

I have set this blog up so that I can write,  not only of my PhD experience, but my project , what it is like to be a "mature" student and my life. All practice makes perfect right? Hopefully it will be interesting to some people who will follow me on my journey and discuss it with me.

That's all for now folks!!