The courier package arrived Tuesday lunch time and resulted naturally enough in all sorts of confusion. After a very long 48 hours, some things are clearer. The final paragraph asks that I return the signed contract by the 19th October along with a short letter stating that I had submitted my thesis. Since my thesis was still coming together, this caused no end of panic. Late last night (Wednesday) after far too many hours awake, I sent an email to my supervisor saying that the switching experiment and spectro-echem were not going to make it into Chapter 4. This had been bugging me for a very long time, and I finally had to take a stand and draw the line. We talked about it this morning, and while I know he is not happy about it, what's done is done. On the up side, despite spending many long and complete fruitless hours sitting over at Laser Physics, I came back and managed to tidy up the remainder of Chapter 4. I need to add a small amount to the conclusions and I can hand it to my supervisor. Chapter 5 is also quite close to it's first complete iteration but needs some more work. I feel much more confidant (and a lot more tired) than I did a few days ago.
Wednesday night was the SCA meeting, and it was very cool. They had Sabine in and she is a silver-smith, so in about 3 hours we all got to make silver rings! I like silver jewelry and particular if the piece means something to me, so I enjoyed that a lot.
I have an appointment with my Psych tomorrow, where I hope to get a letter from her explaining my situation. I'm a bit worried about the visa application because of some of the details which vary between my passport and the visa-form. I'll also get one from my Doctor to back it up and pray that they'll go easy. If they say "Ok", that will then be the most joyous day so far…
Another reasonably hectic day, I gave Chapter 4 to my supervisor and made progress with Chapter 5, which should be ready to hand over to my supervisor on Monday. The only thing which is worrying me is the number of incomplete microanalyses. They can be turned around fairly quickly one I have the complexes on hand, it's just making the damn stuff which is more difficult. I had my psych appointment this morning, and despite the fact that I must have seemed a little manic, she wrote me out the necessary letter. I have an appointment with my doctor on Tuesday for the same thing. I spent a few hours at laser physics working with this switching experiment which was fairly unfruitful, but at least the end is in sight. I still haven't been able to find out what the opening times for the US embassy are.
I guess this is one of those quiet moments where you say "Wow, I actually am living through my finest hour". Back in July 2000 when I achieved so many seemingly amazing things in such a short time period, I guess I never thought much about it, but now that I am about a week away from finishing my thesis (which has taken almost 4 and a half years) it's rather amazing to grasp.