painless?

I had supervision yesterday. By all accounts it was a painless affair. I've been in the UK for just over a week. Everything is strange but familiar. I'm in a conflicted space where I want the more familiar context of South Africa but am in a familiar context anyway. I got some really detailed and informative written feedback from one of my supervisors last week. I spent most of my time since then working through the comments, reading over the chapters commented on and making notes about my response to these comments. So going to supervision felt almost redundant? Maybe I held back a little trying to ease myself into the now unfamiliar face-to-face setting. I was clear I wanted to come out of this engagement 'alive' (that is a rather dramatic interpretation) and in many ways I achieved my goal. However, at the end of it all I couldn't help thinking - 'ok!, so I traveled more than 10 000km for this?'

We did however, talk about submission dates and the game is on. Two months to the final draft - well it's the first full draft my supervisors will see, but the plan is that this will be their final comments before submission. I don't think this date and the finality of it all has finally sunk in just yet. We also talking about my expectations about the outcome of this exercise - I won't be disappointed with a 'pass with substantial amendments' result. We joked about the pun/irony around me saying 'I'm only interested in submission' and how my supervision experiences have more than doubly prepared me for any examiner's feedback. Things have shifted, in a good way. I'm pleased. They won't feed me to the lions intentionally and as I have always known - they have my back. I'm pleased and reassured. Now to finish the darn thing!