Bootylicious…pun intended.

After my experiences last year, I expected the occasional delay during my PhD journey and perhaps this was the catalyst behind having a research proposal, a thesis committee meeting and receiving ethics approval just four months into my PhD.  However, even I didn’t anticipate my current road block to PhD progress, being in a moon boot for a stress fracture for the next six weeks!!

My current, ‘bootylicious’ state, puts me in a bit of a predicament because my campus is hilly. To borrow a phrase from my family, it’s “nanny-goat country,” not the most ideal place to be nursing a stress fracture or wearing a moon boot.  Consequently, I’ve put data collection on hold for a few weeks, at least until I get my sea legs. If you’ve ever worn a moon boot you’ll know what I mean. You have to use a sort of rolling motion to walk and getting from A to B takes more effort than usual. In the meantime I have a week’s holiday and I’m hatching a plan to make data collection as easy as possible.

It’s weird to be on holidays but it hasn’t taken too long to get used to the idea. Yesterday I went shopping for a friend’s birthday present and today I went to the movies to see Snow White and the Huntsman. These were my first real forays out and about since I was ‘booted’ and they definitely taught me a few things, aside from the fact that Snow White and the Huntsman is actually a really good movie. First, you cannot go anywhere fast or far in a moon boot; second, stairs are a nightmare and third, people tend to stare or commiserate with you. Yes, it’s all a bit of a nuisance but it’s worth it because it’s helping my foot. As to the people who stare, I didn’t even notice until someone pointed this out to me, I was too engrossed in navigating my way around!

It might sound a bit cliché but I think research is like a butterfly in flight, you’re not always sure where it’s headed and it takes some interesting detours along the way but it usually arrives where it was supposed to in the end. So, I’m not too stressed about this delay with data collection. Hopefully with the progress I’ve made so far this will be just one of those interesting detours.