The end is nigh

It has just been brought to my attention that nearly a year has passed since my last post on here, what a lot I have to catch up on. I must admit that writing doesn’t top my list of fun activities right now, given that much of the past twelve months has been spent writing and re-writing my PhD thesis. However, as of last Friday I am now thesis-free as I sent it off to be evaluated by the first of many examiners. All being well, this means I should have a printed copy in my hands at the beginning of 2024, ready for my defense in February, marking the end of this nearly six-year adventure.

 

Despite the work on my thesis nearing its close, the coming three months are unlikely to be a period of calm. With the end of my PhD comes the end of student perks, such as cheap student accommodation, so back in March Emil and I bought an apartment for which we get the keys next week (photos here: https://www.fastighetsbyran.com/sv/sverige/objekt/?ObjektID=2708158&Digitaltflyttkort=1F992911A5226FCD). This means much of November will be filled with moving, decorating, and furniture selection. 

Along with new accommodation, finishing the PhD means I need a new job, which I’ve been a little eager in sorting. Therefore, come 1^st December I will be employed at the Swedish energy company Vattenfall, working within the area of onshore wind. Until March this will be at a rate of just 50 %, giving me time to finish up my PhD before fully submersing myself in the wind industry.

 

Given my aforementioned current distain for writing, I will let my photos guide the rest of this post, providing an overview of the previous year through snapshots and summaries, starting out with our trip across the pond in December 2022. 

Chicago

In December every year there is a huge conference, where around 25,000 geoscientists gather in a selected US city to discuss their research. In 2022 the selected city was Chicago, so Emil and I decided to make a proper trip out of it, with 6 days in Chicago followed by 3 days in New York before flying back for Christmas. During the days in Chicago, I attended the conference while Emil worked from the hotel and explored the city's culinary scene, scouting out the best spots for us to try the famous deep dished pizzas and pickle topped hot dogs. In the evenings we reunited for some joint exploration, one evening fulfilling Emil's childhood dream of attending an NHL ice hockey game and another tracking down a Lucia concert in the Chicago's Swedish quarter - so sweet to see how excited some of the Americans were to be a part of this tradition. All in all we enjoyed our time in Chicago, we tried some delectable food and for me it was amazing to be part of such a big event in the geoscience calendar, but we wouldn't go rushing back to this city. 

New York

New York on the other hand, we could have spent another week here and still been in awe. It was like stepping into a Christmas film as everywhere we looked there was another iconic site from a Hollywood hit. As ever, much of our focus was given to the food highlights, walking as much as we could to work up an appetite for our next bite. Top bites include the pastrami sandwich at Katz's deli (the one from When Harry met Sally), a slice of proper New York pizza (beats the Chicago deep dish by a mile), and a classic salmon and cream cheese bagel (I do believe that the NYC water really does makes a difference). Between our munching we ticked off the tourist hotspots: Brooklyn Bridge, Central Park, the Statue of Liberty, the Top of the Rockefeller Centre, and as a bonus the Empire State Building was perfectly framed by our hotel room window. It was a full-on few days in the bustling city which really put us in the Christmas spirit, ready for the festivities the following week. 

Christmas

Sadly, festive moods were not the only thing Emil and I acquired on our trip. Someone on the journey home kindly gave us a dose of the flu, so my Christmas was spent in bed, waving to the family through the door and keeping my self tucked away from the celebrations both in Coleshill and up at Grandma's. Luckily I was at least able to slot in a meet up with old school friends who I hadn't seen in three years before the flu caught me (top right photo). 

Monthly swims

In January this year, Felicity and I decided it would be fun to submerse ourselves in icy water. During the following adrenaline kick we figured it would be a grand idea to make this a monthly thing. So far so good, we have managed at least one dip each month, sometimes in glorious sunshine and 20 C water, and others in an ice hole as drizzle falls around us. Now, we have just two months to go, but arguably the toughest of the year as the water is now frigid and we haven't yet seen the sun this month...watch this space!

A brief UK visit

In February, I made a brief trip to the UK for some belated birthday celebrations with family and friends. The top left photo is from a family meal at Pluma in Amersham and the others are from a tour bus afternoon tea with some uni friends in London. As expected, drinking tea and prosecco and eating cake on a wobbly tour bus making its way through central London's traffic is a fun and messy experience and of course, it was me that managed to knock a glass of prosecco across the table and into Rachael's lap...oops!

Skiing with the Watts cousins

Back in March, Tom, Libby, Lewis and I had a great, if a tad warmer than would have been ideal, few days skiing in Les Menuires. 

Putting Emil to work on my final field campaign

At the end of May, I had the final field work for my PhD. This time Emil was drafted in for the role of field assistant so he got an all expenses paid trip down to Småland in southern Sweden, where he was put to work digging holes and writing down rock measurements as I shouted them to him. 10/10 great field assistant, would recommend. 

Swimrun

Along with our weekly dips, Felicity and I returned to our summer sport of Swimrun, this time finally taking part in an organised event. The race was a short but hilly one (4 km running and 1 km swimming overall) on an island in the centre of Stockholm. It happened to fall on one of the hottest days of the year, making the initial 1 km run in a dry wetsuit incredibly uncomfortable but meaning the transition to the cool water was very welcome. In the end we came third out of the women's teams and thirteenth overall which we felt was not too shabby for our first race. (In the left photo, I'm the one in mid air and Felicity is 'standing' on the water just in front of me).

Jannie and Filip's Wedding

At the beginning of July, the hosts of our usual cray fish parties, Jannie and Filip, got married just outside Stockholm on a lovely sunny day. It was a great fun, energy-filled celebration. 

A train trip to the UK

By chance, Emil had a work meeting in Amsterdam just a few days before we were due to be in the UK for Grandma's birthday. We decided to take this opportunity to make a trip out of it. Therefore, in mid-July I had a solo day exploring Amsterdam while Emil attended his meetings. After a scrumptious dinner we then hopped on the bus to Brussels where we spent the night before taking the Eurostar over to London the next day. This gave us about 6 hours of exploration time to stroll through Brussels' streets, visit the EU parliament (a great anti-brexit advert), and have some classic Belgian French fries in a park while sipping on Belgian beer.  

Steve's show: Glory Ride

Emil is now fully convinced that Karen and Andrew are just making up the whole 'living in New Zealand' thing, as in both summer 2022 and now summer 2023 we have managed to time our trips perfectly to catch them in the UK. This time we met them along with Simon and Lisa for dinner and a show, featuring the one and only Steve Watts. It was great to see a good chunk of this side of the family and we thoroughly enjoyed seeing Steve in Glory Ride. 

Grandma's 90th

One of the highlights of 2023 was Grandma's 22nd birthday, for which the family gathered near Helmsley for a proper Yorkshire celebration. We had a great fun few days exploring the North York Moors, relaxing in the comfort of the delightful farm cottage, visiting Whitby for a true fish and chip supper, and throwing a Yorkshire themed party, complete with flat caps. Emil's not going to be forgetting the trip any time soon as he still has the scars to remember his cycling session with the guys, from which he returned covered in blood after numerous tumbles off the course. Despite the scabbed hands, elbows, and knees, it was a really enjoyable trip and so good to see all of that side of the family, without the flu this time. 

Other summer activities

Back here in Sweden, summer was filled with long evenings down by the lake and plenty of walks in the surrounding parks; a trip up to Skellefteå to meet the Burman's and celebrate Siv and Steffan's birthdays; and my final teaching session, driving students around in the torrential rain for five days about three hours west of Stockholm. 

Miscellaneous 

To round things off, I include here a selection of my most common photo form: Emil with food, and a few random snaps from across the year taken around Stockholm. I should also note that I'm not always the best at capturing moments in photo form, so some events, such as our trip to Gothenburg back in May, Steph and Elliot's Stockholm weekend in August, and Siv and Steffan's visit this summer are missing here, in the future I'll have to do a better job as photographer or ensure I pinch other people's pictures right away!

So there's my past twelve months, outside of thesis work and apartment buying. All being well, the next time I post on here will be the last as I round off my PhD journey and start my next adventure in the world beyond academia.