It's In!

The dissertation was handed in about 10am on Friday morning.

Later that day, Jonathan obliging did a victory dance in honour of this great event. Being a little shy of 9 months old, he doesn't really understand that in this dimension (unlike Pylea) children are not obliged to engage in dances to express their parents' emotional state. So, he made a good effort to fulfill what he thinks are his filial duties.

It was an excellent victory dance. It was quite complex and moved through a kind of latino phase before emerging into a final hip-swivelling, energetic jig, which aptly expressed the immense joy the removal of this load has injected into our lives.

So impressed were we by his efforts, we have contemplated renaming him Numfar, but that might be confusing.



Thank you to those of you who have been praying for us. There were moments during the week when it looked less likely that it be finished in time: like when it took Mark almost a full two days in the last week to recover from a trip to the library! The final sprint was an all-night affair involving both of us, accompanied at various times by Jonathan (who had a bad cough and kept waking up). But by 8am, it was completed and bound and ready to go.

Mark's supervisor was quite pleased with the final product, which was particularly encouraging given that Mark has been ill for almost all the time he was working on it. It also means we are still slightly hopeful that we may be able to stay at Oxford. In any case, we now have a few weeks to rest and recover before Mark does the Viva in early October and we find out what the future may hold for us. Mark has blood tests on Wednesday, but is feeling much better. And made his first real Dad joke on Sunday. (But then, he's been making Dad jokes for some years; only now it is legit).

We now turn to the long list entitled: Things We Need To Do After The Dissertation Is Submitted. JMB

No longer do the dance of victory, Num... no, um, Jonathan!