gold brocade coats and dissertation completion

So, I handed in my dissertation at 415pm on Monday, 16 August 2010. Exhilarated like anything, because. . I am officially not a student any longer! Well, at least till the Doctorate starts in 2011. I am officially done with Cambridge (academically) too, and now it's time to hunt for the next place to stay in, visa extensions, work, etcetera etcetera etcetera. Amen. Immensely proud of my masterpiece (since I am convinced by what I wrote), I decided to play a bit and present them as part of this post, having edited it about twenty times since I handed in my first draft and spending eight hours collating+arranging nine pages of references (which is quick, by the way). Spanning fifty years of developments in an unexplored field, I felt like an information archaeologist cum information architect, piecing together information that was barely available into 20000 words finally whittled down into 17539, running around the UK conducting interviews with radicals and prisoners. Quite an experience, and the next step is to hunt for a publisher since my supervisor thinks it should turn into a book. Well, at least something to remember my stint here by. In the meantime I have been busy for the past few days and finally managed to do a 16-hour sleepfest last night. The blogroll's also been updated, to those whom I mentioned I'd link.

These are my only shots in front of the Institute, where I studied at. Taken on the day Kris and I went to hand in our applications + the day D moved back to the UK for good :) . Speaking of photographs, it's funny how I was mourning 'no more Lulu to take photographs for me' (she's the one who trained me to become the full-fledged camwhore that I am) and out of the plane, scuttled into the medical room at Heathrow (I swear they are mean to us foreign students) I met K! A freelance photographer! Also going to Cambridge! Staying in a college almost next to mine, this marked the beginning of a very unlikely friendship between a girl like me (let's not get into details) and a pastor. But life is strange. Oh, the photos of the building itself were taken from my classmate Richard. He takes the most amazing shots of places, and I take the ugliest photographs of anything. Ever. Like I told K-- who was beyond-stunned at my lack of photographic capability and who doubled over in laughter at one shot that I took of her that looked like a decapitated head-- the only thing that has ever stressed me in Cambridge is taking photographs of her. Haha. (And the last shot is just because. . I love the coat).

Photos of me by Kris Chong; photos of the Institute by Richard Yang.

Bebé gold brocade coat; Marble Ink handbag; bag chain from Celine; vintage & Diva rings; Primark socks; Bally boots.