'To dig one’s own spade into one’s own earth! Has life anything better to offer than this?' [Beverley Nichols]
Thesising, getting one's hands dirty digging up research, weeding, pruning, growing, seeding, watering and prancing about in one's own post-doc project sandbox and real gardening out there in the open air has a lot in common. I dallied with the idea of applying for a real-life job as a consultant writer at a railway 'Firm' as my dear departed mother would have called it. He has a 'post' at a 'Firm' all allusions to fixed stable structures. Well, I think perhaps I will dabble in the spading my own earth bit, first. The point is, that it is an awfully difficult decision to make and at the same time a frightfully easy one. Well, first you have to have a friend called Neil. Some years ago when I treated Neil of the glen who had a fresh air observation on most things, to a treatise on the postcolonial misery of Lankan history and utter charm of its characters, he stated in utter faith that I would always work on something extraordinary. Now this compass has