Time flies when you're out of your depth

I have just finished what I think I can safely say has been my hardest PhD day to date. I'll admit, I didn't necessarily start the day in the right frame of mind, courtesy of last night's A-League soccer final viewing at All Bar Nun transforming from an intended 2 pint, home by 8pm evening to a 6 pint, home by 1am affair. It was a good night though. Today, unfortunately, needed every brain cell I could muster.

It's not like anything disastrous happened, or even anything particularly bad. It was just one of those days where I felt completely out of my depth. This is perhaps something that those of you who dabble in the fine art of mathematics every now and then may relate to. You have a problem to solve, and you know there is a nice solution, but you realise that the required knowledge for obtaining that solution goes well beyond your own expertise.

At first you think, ok, wikepedia time, as you try to cram a semester's worth of differential geometry into a couple of hours. Of course you soon realise that this is not working, and you are more confused than ever, which leads you to the next natural step - ask the supervisor. I did this at approximately 2pm this afternoon. I have just returned to my desk - it's 7.40pm! The scary thing is that I thought it was about 5pm! I was supposed to play netball at 6.50pm.

Unfortunately, despite all the time spent on my problem, I am still feeling well out of my depth. This is compounded by the fact that I only have a few weeks left to write the paper that this work will be included in, and so have little time to get my head around some pretty advanced topics. I actually feel a bit sick when I think about what needs to be done.

In any case, today is very much over, and I am thankfully off home. All of this research bullshit is very much tomorrow's problem now.