feeling really good about my progress just now!

 Not only is my thesis nearly done, but my beloved primary supervisor is looking at it now, and has had good things to say. "You have a really good piece of work here" and  "Excellent abstract", plus a suggestion for one more sentence which really makes the whole thing even better, and it didn't take too much work to par it down to make the new thought fit, either.

For anyone who wants to see it, the abstract now reads:

( abstract )