Request

I’m pretty much back into the routine of going to the office daily. Zade and Mama are settling in too. Finally, I'm able to see clearly the significance of my research project. Another one of my abstract has been accepted for a conference in Melbourne. When I opened my e-mail this morning, I got a note from the one of the editors of a technical magazine, asking a few questions about my research development as he wanted to feature my work in an upcoming issue. I was feeling good. Things are not that bad after all.

Then my sv came in to my office and pulled up a chair. I wonder if this is going to be another discussion about where I’m going with this research. I explained to him about what I wanted to do next with the controller of the actuator and the problems that I needed to address. After listening to my explanation he said that is where your PhD is – overcoming the hurdles and challenges with controlling the actuator. Pheww. I could finally breathe easy now.

Then he dropped a bombshell. He made a request that I can’t refuse. He told me to pursue it even with me giving tons of excuses. Now he’s sending me off on a wild goose chase. I sure wouldn’t be able to concentrate on my work with this hanging over my head. I’m predicting more sleepless nights ahead. Just when I thought that everything was going great!

Back to Work

We got back to Melbourne on Monday after almost 2 months in Malaysia. And thankfully Mama is here with Zade and I. Zade has been feeling much better about returning here once he found out that his Mima was coming along. I’ve returned with mixed feeling. Happy that we had a great holiday back home, relief that my chapter here is at the last stage, insyaAllah, but sad of the prospect of another year without Danial here by my side.

Life has to go on one way or the other. I should start moving and change to higher gear if I want to go home. So I’m back at the office and I have set up an appointment with my SV to set the next course of action. To my surprise he popped into the office before confirming the appointment. Well might as well get it over with. After the usual round up of what has been done thus far, he put forth a question that would cause me to dwell and guarantee some sleepness nights. How would my research add to the body of knowledge? It must not be simply an application or modification of knowledge or methodology. It must go beyond providing a solution to the problem. And bla bla bla….

I didn’t know how to answer those questions. Atleast not when he caught me off guard. Never was an impromptu speaker. So now I’m taking some time to ponder and re-examine where I stand. There goes my plan to start work on the controller this week. Well there’s always next week.