Ready.

I wonder how long this little lot will last me?

Whew!

So, so much crammed into one day. My mind is buzzing. Hopefully last night' slack of sleep will mean I get to sleep easily tonight despite the amount of excitement going on in my brain.

One of my fears was actually meeting other PhD students. I had this image of me being the youngest, most inexperienced by a long shot in a room of ultra-intelligent academic types. As it turns out they are all normal, friendly, down to earth people. Some of whom shared the same fear! Definitely a mixed group but hopefully that will make for a stronger support network.

Tomorrow we start really getting in to looking at some of the processes involved so that will be when the reality of the PhD itself really begins to hit, I expect.

At the end of the day I had a quick dash in to town to make an orthodontist appointment. My orthodontist seemed genuinely pleased with how things are progressing now (at last!) and it was a wonderfully easy, pain free appointment. The end really, really is in sight.

As dad is currently in Edinburgh for a meeting I was able to spend some father-daughter time with him this evening. Always a treat. We went out to dinner (Pizza. Hut-not somewhere I would normally go for on an orthodontist day, that's how not painful it was!) and then dad helped me with stocking up stationary supplies . Finally a wee trip to Ikea to pick up a more back friendly chair than the one I currently have. Farewells said and I was dropped back to the flat with leftover pizza & a bag of goodies sent up from mum.

Add in bumping into various familiar, fond faces throughout the day and you have one relaxed, happy Mim. God is good :)