Welcome and thank you for joining me on this adventure. For the newbies, you can catch up on previous post: first blog post, second blog post here, third blog post here, fourth blog post here, fifth post here, sixth post here, seventh post here, eighth post here, the ninth post here, tenth post here and the eleventh post here.

This was a wonderfully refreshing week. On Monday morning, I managed to send out a revised draft version of the proposal to my informal review committee. I could then set off to the University of Bern in Switzerland with a weight off my shoulder. I’m glad that I could pass on this weight onto the shoulders of my generous friends and colleagues who agreed to read through the proposal and offer their review. I did go back to the drawing board of the budget table as I needed to finalise the numbers in order to begin the university internal process – i.e. routing. I had a great time in Bern on top of whose hill I could see the Alps in the distance. There was a metaphorical epiphany I experienced: the Alps represent the final polished proposal I will submit. The distance between where I am standing and the Alps represent the meandering path of dealing with review feedback as I walk the path towards the peak moment. I got back from the metaphorical mountain peak of rest in Bern to the lowlands of Wageningen feeling refreshed and excited for the next steps of finalising the proposal.

At end of Week 3, many of the goals set from last week were achieved: I sent a fresh revised draft on Monday morning to another set of my informal review committee for feedback. I had a wonderful ‘off-time’ from the proposal during my trip to the University of Bern in Switzerland where I gave an invited research seminar presentation and a guest lecture to MSc students. I didn’t manage to make the GANTT chart of the project timeline nor did I make any progress on illustration. Now I have had a set of at least 9 pair of eyes read the draft proposal and offer me their feedback. This set of 9 set of feedback is like an unopened gift box. I am yet to read through them all and look forward to handling them with care. My proposal is fragile but the constructive feedback in the unopened box are also fragile.

Goals for Week 2: 1. Open all boxes of feedback and work through them 2. Revise the proposal and bring the word count into the required range 3. Develop GANTT chart and illustrations. 4. Keep making progress bit by bit

The adventure continues…see you next week Friday for the next instalment of the #NWOVididiaries blog post.