The Good, The Bad and the Ugly....

It has been a while since my last post.

Since then I have been working diligently at uni  on my research. After a run of good luck, a brick wall that was holding back my research has been smashed!!!!!!

Great news!! Other pieces of work are also slowly but surely generating results as well. 

Still i refuse to take this for granted, science can have a habit of lulling you in to a false sense of security only to suddenly stop playing ball.

Uni Gym.

I have been beasting it in the gym as well. PROGRESS HAS BEEN MADE!!!

At my last body MOT, my weight had gone up a little (bad) however I had finally lost some fat!! In fact, since we started doing measurements it is now at the LOWEST it has ever been. Dropping half a percent. Not massive, but a very real and positive step in the right direction. All of my measurements show i am definitely gaining muscle and shredding!! WHOOP!!! The news gets better. My blood pressure is now normal!!! Granted it is on the cusp of what the medical profession call normal, but I'll take all the positive points that i can!! Since having the body MOT i have stood on the scales and they have indicated a small loss too!!! Extremely happy about this. 

When it comes to gym life, it is not lifting super heavy weights (I can now manage to squat 70kg - more than i weigh!) or big extravagant results that matter, it is the small improvements that i find to be significant. These small steps prove you are capable of change and spur you on to greater achievements. 

THE C WORD

From reading all of the above, you could be forgiven for thinking my life is nice and rosy right now. And I have to admit on paper, it isn't bad at all. But of course, life is not perfect. 

The volume of work, constant small pieces of misinformation, having to triple triple check everything, a supervisor that is a pro a not answering emails, undergraduates that believe your sole existence is to be your supervisors secretary/their minion, to clean up and re-stock after them. Yup. Feeling a shade annoyed and overwhelmed. 

Add to that.. Everyone else thinking they know YOUR limitations. Honey, I don't know what limitations are! But when they did their PhD, that was all they did. That and nothing else. They assume this is what everyone else needs to do, sitting on a committee is 'crap' and 'you need to focus on your work', you wont have time for the gym or judo, because you are doing a PhD. 

So much negativity. Truth is, if all i did was my PhD, then i would be really unhappy, i have never been the type of person to solely focus on one thing, i enjoy having hobbies...i might not always enjoy sitting on committees, but it is a good experience. 

One of my favourite quotes.

Let us face it, we've all experienced situations like this. 

So yes, i'm a tad annoyed. But then came something to really blow me out of the water. My Dad has been diagnosed with the big C.

CANCER

A word that one ever wants to hear. Luckily it is prostate cancer. I say lucky because recovery rates for this are really good. We are waiting for more tests. So for now I will say no more, other than it is a shock. 

If you would like to know more about prostate cancer, please click on the following link: http://prostatecanceruk.org/