Intermediate submission accepted!

Yesterday evening, I received the following email:

Dear No'am, 

I am pleased to tell you that you have passed the Intermediate assessment and can proceed [with your research]. There are still issues to be addressed, especially concerning Methodology.

Obviously I am pleased with this news: it means that at last I can enter the penultimate stretch of the doctorate - actually performing the research - but for some reason, I can't get excited about it. It's not the 'issues to be addressed' comment which worries me; it's probably my current health situation (sleep apnea and bursitis) which is causing me to be somewhat diffident and apathetic.

Unfortunately, my supervisor is going on holiday today for two weeks; he has asked the administrative manager to send me the research committee's feedback but this may take a few days. I will assess my position after reading this material so I can't really comment on what my next steps will be. In any case, the holiday period will soon be upon us: the Jewish New Year will be on 2 October, after which follows a three week period of holidays interspersed with work, so it won't be worthwhile contacting anyone during October. 

I remember that I completed most of the literature survey during the same period two years ago, back when I was full of motivation. I have to try and recover that motivation, which got lost during the long period of making only minuscule progress.

See here for some thoughts about the submission.