Category Archives: Purely Academic

As the name says…purely academic

Sometimes…

28 Tuesday Nov 2017

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Sometimes I get scared.

This scared that I’m referring to is a unique kind of scared. Not unique to me but certainly not the same kinda scared as that kind when you eat seafood at an unknown restaurant, or the scared you feel just before you jump off Lion’s Head to start paragliding.

It’s the kinda scared when you feel excited but extremely fearful at the same time. Because it’s the “I’m growing” kinda scared. I can equate this scared to the feeling when I discovered I was going to be a mother the first time, or the time I left my permanent job and decided to be my own boss. With both those experiences I was frightened so badly that it felt as if my sphincter muscles went into spasm, causing the bowels to release with the result of me soiling my pants (that’s euphemism for a word we all know). I was scared shishless.

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So that’s how I sometimes feel now when I think about where I am on my journey. Not regretful, not remorseful. Feeling a little brave, sometimes a bit worn, tired and lonely but still strong enough. Feeling a bit small, but not insignificant. I need to grow.

These thoughts came about because of the work I’m doing on my PhD – this blog is mainly about my PhD journey after all. But a PhD doesn’t happen in isolation from the rest of one’s life. Besides the PhD, Life is a christmas trifle of events, experiences and feelings. And this is where things get muddy and confusicating in my head.

Fact – the PhD is merely a tool for me to serve a purpose. Like the work I have and do, also only a tool for me to serve a purpose. Or the friendships and relationships that I have – a tool. Even my role as a mother – simply just a tool. I get confused between these tools and my true purpose. My true purpose is to love.

When I give myself enough space, then I remember it’s all about balance. My purpose is my foundation and as I go along building my castle, I sometimes forget about my purpose. I build walls and structures that I either knock down some time later, or they were so structurally unsound that they collapse by themselves some time later anyway.

If I am too focused on the PhD, then I forget about my journey. My splendid beautiful journey, this adventure I am on, called Life. And then there are the times I forget about my purpose – because I am too taken in by Life and the wonderous distractions it has to offer. That’s when this “scared” has an important function. It serves as a reminder for me balance it out. Stop, breath, reconnect the dots and realign.

When I’m feeling that kind of scared, if I go quiet then I hear the little voice inside of me telling me that I can do it. Urging me on. I was created for my purpose – so I have everything that I need, no matter how high or daunting the mountain before me seems.

My mountain at this moment is this model I’m creating for the South African pharmaceutical industry – like for the country. Yah it’s all relative, so to some people that’s like meh whatever, it’s only big in Bronwyn’s mind. We all have our own perspective. To me it’s responsibility, and it is potential. It can be huge. It can be brilliant. And I’m the one in charge.

So I’m scared. I know what I must do. I feel it, but fear grips at my heart. But I’m embracing this scared. I am embracing the uncertainty of what I see and what logic based on facts and probabilities dictates to me. It’s time for me to ignore that. It’s time for me to trust my internal GPS again. True story, it never lets me down.

 

Could this be?…

23 Thursday Nov 2017

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So I couldn’t sleep earlier. Had a couple of things on my mind. I’ve just managed to get two tickets for the HSBC Rugby Sevens finals in Cape Town on the 10th… and good tickets at that, but I can’t go because I already have tickets for Majozi at Kirstenbosch. Also I’ve been to Sevens twice before so I’m feeling kinda meh about it anyway. While tossing and turning I decided to rather go to Majozi and donate the rugby tickets to my kids’ school to raffle off at their Food Fair happening on the 1st December.

Then I grappled with thoughts regarding one of my M students who is rather battling at the moment. She is making progress but very slowly. Her writing isn’t always coherent. I think the thoughts and ideas are in her head, but she battles to articulate them academically. That’s something I think all postgrad students – including myself, can relate to. So typically after reviewing just a few paragraphs, I’ll often send her work back to her to rewrite, after having made some changes myself but then eventually deciding it’s actually is her job – since she’s going to get awarded with the Masters Degree afterall.

I feel for her though. It’s an uncomfortable struggle because it’s been almost three years now and she still hasn’t hit the sweet spot. I think there is still hope. I firmly believe just a few more steps and it will come together for her, however I also think she is losing faith. The truth is, there is nothing I can do about that. It’s a fact of life, a philosophical stance I just started adopting but should have a long time ago actually…. sometimes things are just out of one’s control. It’s better to let it go. She has to decide to motivate herself. This is not my monkey to carry, so I am not going to try to hold on or control it.

So then I just tossed and turned thinking about nothing in particular for another few minutes before deciding bugger this, I might as well just get up and work for a bit. My own work has also been progressing – also slowly – but steadily. The end goal has increasingly been coming into focus. The past few weeks I’ve had really solid ideas, and this week it felt to me as if I made ‘first contact’ with what the final product of my work should look like.

I’ve been collecting all the bits and pieces, so tonight just before I attempted to go to bed the first time I printed a process flow of the pharmaceutical manfacturing process so that I could map my thoughts directly onto that printed page later. I’m glad I did, because as I sat down earlier I literally scribbled all the bits and pieces of information I had onto this page, and then used coloured pens to connect my thoughts. It was then that I started seeing what my model is going to look like 😍.

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My supervisor will more than likely want to string me from my toes for openly blogging about my research findings, let alone posting this picture – but I’ll take my chances because I’m feeling rather stoked. And I’m pretty darn sure this makes very little sense to anyone but me in this very rudimentary format. I’m just so proud and happy it actually finally seems like ‘something’ that can work! Loads of work still ahead but let’s take this moment and say ‘Three cheers to perseverance’ Hip Hip hurray. Hip hip hurray ….and the last one Hurray! ☯️👏🏾🥂🍾

Pleasure, derision…. amusement? Bring it

24 Tuesday Oct 2017

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Yeah me gots to laugh. If I don’t laugh then I’ll probably become depressed, and hay nah, that ain’t gonna happen.

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So I’m in Durban for a few days consulting with my supervisor. Landed at the airport armed with two bags of books, laptop, tablet, bare minimum clothes, wearing jeans and red chucks – no stilettos even though I’m here for work! 😱🤔😔 Hmmmmn …something about my mood and this trip.

Gosh, this PhD journey is a tough one but thankfully now and then, I’m blessed to be able to see the funny side. Like today, supervisor asked me why haven’t I finalised Chapter 1. This confused me. See I wrote Chapter 1, sent it to her over a year ago. She looked at it, made a few comments and basically told me it was crap. I made a few changes and I agreed, it actually was crap. Very crap. So I parked it temporarily.

The work wasn’t focused. In my defence, who on earth actually really knows that they doing when they start anything? (This is why I feel for my own masters students. Being a student myself makes me a little bit more compassionate when I work with them).

Anyway, I went on with rest of the work, have drafts of the next few chapters. I figured I would go back to Chapter 1 once I knew what I was doing

Today she says there was nothing significantly wrong with Chapter 1… I is “like what?” (There is though – biggish crater sized issues with my Chapter 1 – which I can fix but only now that I am more focussed and have a better understanding of the problem). But I was certainly not going to correct her. ….Smile and wave Private… Just smile and wave. 🐧 🐧 🐧 🐧 👋🏾 👋🏾

Fellow students out there, keep your faith. Don’t lose heart. Academia is an upside down place. There is a reason we started this in the first place. Sometimes, most of the time on the journey we forget why we even started – well I do. It’s a comfort though knowing that besides being challenging, ‘learning’ is an interesting space to be in. Some days enjoyable and stimulating, some days sad and downright bitterly lonely – especially if you doing research. But every now and then a day pops up which is just so incredibly funny. Cheers to those days!!!

.***I actually realised as I wrote that, it probably sounds odd to people not so familiar with research. Generally, as is the nature with research, you learning all the time. So when you start whatever you write will look like rubbish by the time you finish your final chapter. This because you know more after actually doing some research! But you need to start somewhere. Sounds oxymoronic I know. My truth though there is no person that I know, who did not go back to make changes to their Chapter 1 after they finished writing the final chapter. It’s just the way it is.

Bringing it home

29 Tuesday Aug 2017

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So that’s what I’ve gotta do…

You must forgive me, because this blog post is very similar to one I posted less than three months ago, when I told the story of the time I got 21% for my first test in Quality Management Systems. But I guess it’s just because I’m still going through a rocky patch in my life when I need to keep reminding myself to get up and go on.

See data gathering for my PhD is turning out to be a nightmare of note. Masters was tough… my friends all know 2011 was the worst year of my life. The year I got divorced doesn’t even compare to the year when I wrote Masters. And this time it feels tougher – in a different way. For my Masters degree, I had the data, I just did not have a methodology. My current situation is that I contacted each one of my target population personally (numerous times) and of the 30 pharmaceutical organisations, I’ve only gotten data back from 4 thus far! A sinking feeling if there ever was any. I just don’t have the data to even consider any methodology. But I have no choice but to just persist, and do whatever it takes to stay positive.

Thing is, I know why I want this PhD. It’s for very personal reasons. Over the weekend I thought about it again. I know that I will add more value to the people, …my students, my colleagues, my business partners and even my family and friends once I have this degree. I’m going to make a difference, and this degree is going to put me in a better position to do that. So quitting is just not an option.

And so I sat outside in the courtyard at campus yesterday and had a smoke (SHOCK horror Holly har Bronwyn!!!! – I hear Shaun swearing at me) Yes I know I quit for three years and I will quit again Shaunie, I promise. It’s a crap habit. You know that I know. It’s just tough right now. Besides work being a monster, my personal life has been on a rollercoaster this year too. A failed relationship earlier in the year and recently another romantic encounter spun me like a top… but thankfully the uncertainty around that is over now. My friends who know me well are saying “Yeah that sounds right“. No such thing as mundane when it comes to this chic.

Anyway getting back to the point. I was observing the students around me, all a bit nervous because they are all writing midterms exams now. And it reminded me again of a pivotal time in my own life, which started the 16th September 2010 when we wrote Stats 4 midterm exam. See, when we started studying Stats for the first time, it was scary but most of us got through Stats 3. Then enter Stats 4 and you’re filled with false confidence. Not entirely false confidence, I actually studied. In particular CUSUM and EWMA (Side note: Now that I lecture Stats 4 I sometimes make a joke with my students and tell them if I ever get two female puppies again I’ll have to call them CUSUM and EWMA…because that’s what it’s like).

Long story short(er)….We hashed that Stats 4 exam. It was a bloodbath. Blood, guts and snot actually. In the history of all the exams I have ever written, I never ever felt like that in my life. What a royal mess. I took two days sick leave because I was literally nauseous after that paper.

But life goes on. When we got our results only 12 of the 183 in our class passed. I barely scrapped through with 50%. It felt awful. But after licking my wounds during the midterm break my survivor mode kicked in. I needed a Master’s degree to get a lecturing job, so failure was just not an option.

I decided to find out who got the highest marks in class, and I decided that I would befriend that person. My quality friends thought it was hilarious strategy but I just calmly invited them to “Watch this space”. So when “top marks student” arrived in class the next Wednesday night I sat down next to him and I told him he was going to be my friend. He was probably in shock because I can’t remember him even questioning when I gave him my number and he gave me his. His friends were also gobsmacked but hey the strategy worked out well! Between his group of friends and my group of friends we killed the next few Stats 4 assignments by swopping notes and helping each other.  And on the 23rd November when we wrote final exams, I blazed through that paper. I don’t think I stopped to even breath. And I passed Stats 4. Not with a distinction – I got 70%. But at the end of the it all when I graduated I was awarded a B Tech Quality with Cum Laude honours, and the Dean’s Merit Award for being the person in that year to obtain the highest marks for that degree.

So I don’t know how yet…. but I know I have to bring this PhD degree home. And I will.

With a pink hotel, a boutique and swingin’ hotspot…

27 Sunday Nov 2016

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“Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone. They paved paradise and put up a parking lot”

I am simply loving this Counting Crows song. Playing it on repeat. We have just finished our first week of exams at CPUT – successfully! Thank you Jesus. True story,a few weeks ago I really did not think we would be able to salvage any of the 2016 academic year. Small mercy. As last week transpired, we all waited with baited breath. Everyone in flight mode on stand-by. I traded my high heels for flat shoes this week. Some colleagues used public transport to come to work – not wanting to risk their cars being burnt by student protesters, if unrest flared up again. As Monday became Friday the uneasy peace settled. With every exam that was written we started breathing easier. I think we actually, yes might actually just get through this.

We would be fools to believe that we are not going to still feel seriously severe repercussions due to the extensive and violent #FeesMustFall protests. For now the violence has dissipated and we left with trying to put the pieces together again. But it will be years to recover completely. I do not think we can even start counting all the hidden costs.

As we were preparing for exam, security was a giant concern – not only for staff but for students too. Someone hit the nail on the head amidst the uncertainty during our preparations when the comment was made, “Now after the protests, CPUT does not even have the money to hire special security to ensure safety during exams“. Because of the protests, the ultimate reason for the very existence of the university was compromised. Short sighted gains for long term impact. Yes they paved paradise and put up a parking lot.

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A week and a half ago I was really angry. CPUT is historically the poor cousin of all the universities in the Western Cape. Yet a quick google search will reveal some sterling minds and work have come from CPUT – Fsati is one example. See: http://www.cput.ac.za/blogs/fsati/

But sadly in the past two months, the overriding impression that has been made in my mind is that there are a  number of CPUT students who want to cripple their own university. In one podcast of a student mass meeting I heard, a CPUT student leader was telling his followers that they should go as far as even disrupting essential services, namely Tygerberg Hospital when it was discovered that the hospital granted permission for exams to take place on their premises. Admittedly I have remind myself, to convince myself that this radical sentiment characterizes the minority of CPUT students. I’m not incredibly proud, but will also admit that in my seething anger last week, a part of me wished, and felt that justice would be served if the university could no longer operate at all. What if there was no CPUT… and then what? Little by little they were breaking CPUT down. I don’t think they stopped for a moment to think they were going too far.

I guess we could say they are just students – they don’t know better. I do however feel that each one of us has a voice inside of us that tells us, if you have something valuable then treat it with appreciation darn it. Value it! There might be justifiable reasons why you feel things are not going your way, however you need to value what you have. Don’t take it for granted. Perhaps the students will still learn. Hopefully they have already learnt. Hopefully CPUT has learnt. They should have taken a harder line with the students from the beginning. But what is done is done.

And so the unrelenting human spirit continues. We pick ourselves up, we dust ourselves off. For some more difficult than others, but we have no choice but to take all those broken pieces and start again. Marking underway, exams underway, and we start planning again.  Next year will be tough, but it will be a new year – a chance for a fresh start. I’m proud to be part of CPUT. ly476p43

Then lastly I have some happy news to share. I will explain details in my next blog. Because the details have not yet been finalised, I cannot say too much as yet. But I can say that it is related to the PhD, and it is really big news. It will entail a great deal of input and sacrifice from me, but if all goes well it is another blessing that humbles me and makes me say out loud, Our Father is faithful. Having a meeting tomorrow at 14:00, so I might post about it next week or the week after.

Building my castle

20 Saturday Feb 2016

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Ello my peeps, it’s been another long stint since I’ve posted but again been preoccupied with life, been building my castle.

Started the year running. I spent New Year’s day and the days following working flat out. All good, all good. There was a reason. The reason was I presented my proposal at DUT on the 6th February (earlier this month). Before that I attended African Doctoral Academy from 11 to 22 January as well. I have a much better handle on qualitative data analysis and ATLAS.ti now. What an amazing tool uh. I’ll have to do a special blog post on just ATLAS.ti one day.

As the time got closer to the presentation, I started progressively tensing up. My neck eventually went into spasm…I am such an idiot. I do it to myself. But I kept chipping away at it. I even got as far as having a pre-pilot interview (aka a lunchtime chat) with Dr Abofele Khoele. Heaven knows I am so indebted to him. I don’t have words to entirely express how grateful I am for his valuable insight and input. He helped me chart the direction and built my confidence before the presentation. I hope that one day I will be able to pay it forward.

So then came the actual presentation and I nailed it. Kachow…kachow kachow..ching ching CHAhing! That morning the earth moved. Literally. There was a tremor in Durban measuring 3.2 on richter scale that morning – true story. And I didn’t even need to defend because no one challenged my work.

So then when I got back home, I designed the pilot questionnaire (here I’m grateful to Robin for always being so supportive and listening and being the logical voice even though it has nothing to do with his work), completed my ethical clearance forms, informed consent form and final tweaks to the proposal and off I sent it for HDC (Higher Degrees Committee) review. In other words, sent it off to be “marked”. If all goes well, my supervisor expects I will get approval in March but she told me to start writing my chapters in the meantime. Starting with Chap 1….tomorrow.

As I typed this, it strikes me more and more that doing a PhD is something one cannot accomplish on your own. The final thesis may have my name on it, but there will be many “nameless” contributors. I wonder……I wonder if I shouldn’t write a list of contributors, just for interest sake. Have it on record somewhere, maybe publish the list on my blog after I submit the final thesis. Just the name and what the person helped me with. I might just do this. It would be interesting to see how many people actually are part of the PhD development process.

And then I took my minions to Sun City for some QT time…fun in the sun

A rather painstaking affair…

06 Wednesday Jan 2016

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I guess it feels more real than ever before now. It certainly feels more like Masters than what it ever has since I started the Doctorate.

I am finding myself putting the teeny pieces together, slowly, tiny bit by tiny bit. And it’s like a gazillion piece jigsaw puzzle! I’ll be wasting my time if I rush or if it doesn’t make sense – so there’s no point in writing rubbish.

So to ensure that I don’t write rubbish, the sequence goes a bit like this:

  1. Look at my research questions
  2. Say a quick silent prayer that I actually finally have approved research questions!
  3. Scratch my head and rub my temples
  4. Put the kettle on to boil water for coffee
  5. Sit down and think really hard, if this was a story that started with ‘Once upon a time…’ what would catch my attention? hmmmm
  6. Scribble a very rudimentary story line down
  7. Repeat steps 4 to 6
  8. Decide on an argument to start with, something captivating…decide on the words, then google the words to see who said something like that
  9. Type that sentence
  10. Reference it. Spend 10 minutes looking for the university reference guide again
  11. Once I find the university reference guide, go boil water for coffee again
  12. Add the reference to my reference list
  13. Decide on the next supporting sentence
  14. Reference the next sentence
  15. Put the words of the counter argument into google because I feel it needs to sound balanced
  16. Make the coffee
  17. Start reading about the counter argument
  18. Stumble on an interesting new word in text. Decide to look up on that
  19. Start reading an a different but related topic
  20. Check Facebook
  21. Read my work again and think to myself ‘What on earth am I doing?’
  22. Change the structure of the first two sentences
  23. Read my work and think to myself ‘I got this, I know what I’m doing!’
  24. Fix the mistake I made in the original reference
  25. Read my work and think to myself ‘I don’t have a cooking clue what I’m doing!’
  26. Type the third sentence
  27. Reference it
  28. Check my blog and pluck my eyebrows /or take a shower/ or water the plants and drink some cold coffee
  29. Start with step 1 again
  30. Repeat a gazillion times

I am sure after the gazillionth time in hopefully about two years from now I will be sitting with a absolute beaut and masterpiece 😍

As long as I keep this up of course…

On a slightly different note, Happy New Year everyone. May 2016 be an auspicious one for you all. I will share that my new year started off well as the minions and I accompanied the parentals on a tour of Robben Island this weekend. Long overdue for us. What a magnificent enriching experience. And the cherry on top was lunch with the rest of Femilyum after the tour. Boy it’s great to have the minions back home! Happiness prevails.

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till later Peeps….gots to get back to step 29

Stuffs and Stuffses

09 Wednesday Dec 2015

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Hmmm well, I don’t ever want to post long boring posts but again so much has transpired since the last time I posted anything . In fact, when some of the events happened I was just gobsmacked, and I didn’t have words to express what was going on. But I’ll make an attempt and try my darn best to be as brief as possible.

CPUT… Where do I begin, Fubar?, maybe that sounds rude, but by gosh golly darn it holly har. Then we were writing the 9 Nov, then student protests postponed it to the 16th Nov, then more student protest postponed it and lecturers were chased out of our offices . The campus was vandalized. We were told to stay away from work, then told to come back and just before we went back, we were told to stay away again. Then we went back, then the student forced lecturers out of the our offices again. We were told exams would be the 24th Nov.

Then students flooded the exam venue. Police descended on the campus. Student protested in a very threatening way, sticks in hand. Police shot at them. I witnessed this, heard the shots and saw the smoke, the police running with riot shields and helmets. I left the campus. I cried. I spent time trying to placate my own students who were justifiably angry and upset and frustrated. After that my back went into spasm, and that night I developed a migraine of note. I reckon I had a half a bottle of rescue remedy drops, four panados and four relicalms. I should have just had a half jack of whisky. My balloon deflated. I half heartedly stagger onto campus every now and then. I refused to dye my hair out of defiance – I’m weird I know, I need some time, but I’m hopeful next year will bring some renewed vigour. We hoping that final exams happen next year from 11 Jan to 22 Jan – that same time that I’m registered to attend the African Doctoral Academy Summer School. What a Bugger-up…That’s the summarized version

PhD Matters…Moving on to nicer things, through it all I managed to make contact with my principal supervisor at DUT. And she saw my work and she gave me feedback already. Big smile. Dr. Shalini Singh is on the ball. Step in the right direction. Her comments didn’t sting as much as Prof Moll’s did because most of them are because I have never consulted with her before. However, more than that the happiest of happy news is I am registered for a DPhil: Quality Management, and not a DTech Quality. It’s just a name difference, but quite frankly I much prefer the DPhil: Quality Management! She is coming to visit us at CPUT for two days next week for our first proper consultations with her. And we have been summoned to attend a Post Graduate meeting in which we will have to present our work, with a Gantt Chart to the rest of the Post Graduate students. Yes, yes indeed, moving along nicely, I dare say.

My Dad’s 60th Birthday…

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Death by chocolate, My handiwork

And Robin’s Dad’s 93rd Birthday…

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Rob’s dad asked for a ‘Blonde’ for his birthday…and smart kids like Rob and I figured out just what to do, to make sure that he got his birthday wish – some more of my handiwork

Finally Movies under the stars…The minions and I and our friend Sara watched Armageddon at the Galileo open air cinema at Kirstenbosch. Lovely, lovely experience. I would highly recommend it for your to-do list this summer. Tickets are R79, but for extra R20 you can get a blankie and a chair and you can either  buy food and wine there, or take along a picnic basket.

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Looking cool with my blue shades

 

Couple of other fun stuff we have planned. Cape Town Sevens this weekend and a trip to Robben Island early next year…School’s out and summer holidays are here…Let the fun begin

Happy Day

05 Thursday Nov 2015

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Feeling blessed!

Feeling blessed!

So this is a picture of the group that went to Mont Fleur, the publishing workshop I was so desperately keen to get onto. I’m feeling so blessed that I had that opportunity… It was everything was I hoping for and more.

I will have to write a whole separate entry on the wine farm itself, Mont Fleur – it was breathtakingly BEAUtiful. The very last farm on road, nestled in the middle of the Stellenbosch Mountains – a perfect recluse for writing. And yet, it is interesting to note that even in this wonderfully beautiful and potentially distracting scenery, every member of the group was very focussed on or absorbed in their work.

For me that environment added to the experience. I loved being surrounded by like-minded people. Everyone was so completely ‘into’ their research. My experience was that every participant added to the overall learning experience, and it was such a privilege to be part of this group who willingly shared their knowledge from their own personal experience and journal articles as well as whatever else they could during our workshop. For example, doing a quick crash communal training/learning session on Atlas TI was not part of the programme, but after a full day, after dinner, about half the group met in the conference room again to share knowledge on Atlas TI.  Who does that? Only nerds I guess ..♥) I love being a nerd. The support that I was given as a young emerging researcher during this workshop was invaluable. And it’s not only going to add to my research projects, but also to my supervisory skill. Their support, through me, is a support for my students.

I’m loving the word ‘conceptual framework’…because I think I finally understand it. Confidence is what this workshop gave me. That’s why it was invaluable, Confidence cannot be bought.

However my bed beckons me now…2 minutes before midnight. I shall blog some more about this again, but in order to avoid any unnecessary risks of turning into a pumpkin and what not, I bid thee night night dear fair readers, sleep tight and happy dreams to match my happy day.

Fake it till you make it…

13 Sunday Sep 2015

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Being rather brave indeed, I am.

Publically stating something like that. But it is true. Some of the greatest accomplishments that I achieved were things/heights that were unfathomable and it started with a random wild thought. Things I wasn’t supposed to be able to do. But I started working toward the unthinkable and pretending to know what I was doing until I figured it out.

Most notable example was when I started lecturing Stats. In the beginning every week I would re-study the content of the course. Sure I passed Stats 3 and Stats 4, not to badly even. I think 88% for Stats 3 and 70% for Stats 4. But I sure as hell was not competent, enough by my own standards to present the subject when I did! The students in those first classes will probably agree with me. I love you Mr. Russel (my lecturer), for giving me the chance to prove myself. Because that’s exactly what I did. Extensive hours of studying, then writing notes, and doing worked exercises each week up until minutes before I presented class was what it took to pull it off – Faked it till I made it.

Well now see here, I’m doing it again! I was just accepted to attend a highly valued CHEC Course on ‘Writing for Publication’. Oh MAN. I’m so grateful! The department I work for is going to pay for it, and there are renowned Professors from all the CHEC Universities in Western Cape (UWC, UCT, US and CPUT) facilitating on the course. I need to publish, and all help, every little bit or big bit, is welcomed with open arms.

So to get on the course I needed to write an extended abstract, and I didn’t exactly lie, but I can neither confirm, nor can I deny that I might of, or might not of written what I intended to do in a way that might of, or perhaps might not of made it sound like I did it already, Perhaps, Maybe. Something like that.

I wrote about my quantitative data – and that I do have. However I might have mentioned qualitative data as well – which I don’t have yet. ‘Yet’ being the operative word. But bugger it. I’ll get the data!, and I really don’t know how, but some time between this month and the end of next month I will also learn how to analyse qualitative data 🙂  Yeah that sounds about right.

Bottom line my abstract was accepted. So I’ll be packing my little red suitcase and off I’m going to Stellenbosch for 3 days in November to learn how to write even better than what I do now. What I do know is hard work pays off. Sometimes I  get burned. But 8/10 times I get it right. The other 2/10 times… well I either learn something or I have an excuse to have a uhmmm cough cough dinner club pity party.

Fake it till you make it Baby