It's done! My Masters composition folio was submitted on monday afternoon. Not sure if I believe it just yet. I'm sure I'll be very relaxed not having to fill every available minute with study. The last two months were insanely busy. If I ever do a PhD I want to remember just how taxing the final stage is, and to give myself more time to work on it, if possible. In the last week I ate little, didn't have time to cook, clean or exercise, and only got around 6-7 hours sleep a night. I studied 10-12 hours a day. I worked even when I was exhausted, because I knew I had to. Anyone who says a Masters degree is easy or pissy or no longer relevant has no idea what they are talking about. I know from this experience that a research Masters is a huge amount of work and is very difficult to do well. It's a massive leap from honours.

Anyway, I learnt a lot about formatting and consistency and conventions of formatting and style. I also learnt that I should have kept a card file of references. Though I kept notes and word files throughout, thinking that "I can do this properly later" really doesn't help when you're in the final stage. Sometimes it took me 1/2 to 1 hour to properly locate a reference on the web, which was a big waste of time really...

So, it's done. The music is really good and I'm very happy with it. I think it's a varied folio and demonstrates a range of skills and style, which is a good thing for a Masters. I'm looking forward to getting the pieces performed now...

A took the photo of me above just after I'd handed the folio in. He bought me cupcakes and champagne, gave me the Wonder Woman Series 2 DVD, a wonderful card that he'd made, and took me out to dinner at De Los Santos. It was lovely to be treated like this! Thankyou Mr S!!