Thesis update: it’s with the binders

5 am – wake up in a cold sweat, dreaming of corrections I need to do right now. Think about it. Turns out my dreams are right, so haul myself out of bed and put the kettle on.

9.10 am – queueing in the rain with about 150 other people waiting for the British Library to open.

9.30 am – get into the library, collect Ruch Muzyczny vol.5 (1961), look up those last damn page numbers I need.

9.45 am – heading back home

10.30 am – home, start printing

c12.00 pm – realise that in the recent shuffling around a subheading in Chapter 4 has migrated from the top of one page to the bottom of the previous page. Also, the chapter is a whole page shorter than it was two days ago, requiring renumbering of subsequent chapters and of the contents page and list of illustrations.

1.00 pm – put three copies of the thesis into three box files (c1,000 pages total), step outside into a hailstorm to head off to the binders.

1.02 pm – boxes are already getting pretty wet, step back inside to grab some plastic bags to wrap everything in.

2.00 pm – arrive at the binders. They are absolute stars and their website is hugely reassuring for those of us who get stressed about all the details. Seriously: London postgrads, these are the people to go to. They’ve done my blood pressure the world of good today.

2.15 pm – meet my girl for a late lunch – or, rather, some overdue carb and sugar loading.

4.00 pm – back home.

Here’s the stack-of-papers money shot you’ve all been waiting for: