1 out of 12

That is how many nights I will be spending in my own bed! 1 out of the next 12! Which isn't very many, but there are lots of things to do, and none of them are in Leicester!

I'm currently on a train to York with three bags and an A1 poster! The poster is proving itself to be a rather annoying travel companion, I chose not to invest in a cardboard tube so it's my own fault!

In York tomorrow I will be at the NRG BESS meeting, which will be great! Next research generation BESS has moved forward so much since we formed back in October!! It will be great to catch up face to face with people and make future plans!!

After the NRG BESS meeting tomorrow, Tuesday and Wednesday are the BESS annual science meeting. Knowing where I'm at with my PhD and knowing what I want to get from the meeting is making me really excited for it. At last year's meeting I felt a bit out of my depth, but I've got a bit of a game plan this time. I know who I want to talk to and what i want to know! So I should hopefully come away from the meeting with some exciting ideas and new inspiration!!

After BESS I'm off up to Edinburgh to meet Olivia, my best friends brand new baby girl! Too exciting!

After Edinburgh I get my one night at home before galavanting off to London on Monday! I'm off to the British Ecological Society's policy training workshop! I've got lots of reading to do before then, which will help me pass the 400 train hours I'm putting in! I don't really know what to expect from the workshop, but I'm excited for it!

I'm then back up North for family things in Lancaster!

All of this is exciting and cool, but I'm going to have to put in a few hours of work here and there! Which is that bit of added pressure I love!!

I'm travelling backwards on the train so should probably leave this now so I don't get ill on the nice man next to me!

Alas, no relevant photos so I have included my favourite photo of the queen!

Bye x

It's been aaaaages.

...and ages and ages!!! But I'm back to blog!!

"What has been going on?" I hear you cry?! Not a whole lot of things, but those things which have been going on have been all consuming!!

Firsts things first, I had my 12 month review. This review is to assess whether I have done enough work, and if the work being done is PhD level. If it isn't I get downgraded to a Masters, and luckily, as I already have a Masters, I managed to pass and I am now officially a fully fledged PhD candidate! Brill!

I have also launched my questionnaire, which I have had a massively amazing response to! So far I have had 47 people complete it, which is insane!! The data coming out of it is so exciting, and I will dedicate an entire blog post to the fun things! I promise they'll be fun!

I also have two MSc students who are going to be supervised by me. They are doing projects that will hopefully lead into a paper that I'm writing alongside my supervisor.

So, PhD wise that is where I'm at. I'm also off to the BESS annual science meeting on Sunday night for 3 days, which will be fun!!

All the pictures are of the crafty crafty things I've been doing. Crafty things soothe my soul!!

So, that is an update, and from now on I won't neglect this.

TTFN