I'm back.

To my blog: Where have you been? No space in my life for a few lines. I can’t believe how much time has passed since my last entry.

My progress: I completed more work for my thesis in the last six months than I did in the whole preceding 18 months.

New skills: I learnt to master the text-based data analysis software that I need to code my interviews.

Historical breakthrough: I recovered 40 transcripts out of 49 that I had saved on disks over 8 years ago. It seemed more like divine intervention than luck considering how dusty they were. You can’t even buy those disks at computer swap meets any more. Revisiting the past was an unnerving experience. I transcribed a few more tapes at surprising speed. Only 3 left to go. The elderly couple laughed and chatted through my earphones from beyond the grave. They are now listed, along with 12 others, in a column headed 'deceased' in my summary table of interview participants. Thank goodness I did those interviews. It’s valuable data. Surreal. I have truly retrieved irretrievable data.

My current task: Rewrite my literature review. You have some good themes but it’s too long, was my supervisor’s feedback. I have to reduce 80 pages to 20 pages. Shorten your sentences, she said. Use broad brush strokes. At least she recognised it as a work of art. Actually she’s doing me a favour because it will be more readable in the long run, if anyone survives long enough to read it. I noticed that a thesis can be much shorter and simpler these days. A good thing too.

Physical breakthrough: I went on a bike ride, the first one in over two years. I dusted off my bike, pumped up the tyres and installed my new gel seat that was still in the packet I bought from K-mart 18 months ago. I rode a circuit of the bike track near my house. The sun was so low in the sky it almost blinded me. I had the presence of mind to wear my sunnies. The paddocks were brilliant green, dotted with grey-green clumps of bush. In the evening glow the silver-grey construction against the horizon looked more like a space station than a suburban shopping centre. The wind froze my face, my legs hadn’t forgotten how to pump up hill in low gear but my lungs heaved like an old pack horse despite sucking in a double dose of Ventolin. It was exhilarating. I’ll do that again soon.