Just getting back into the gym thing. Usually go early in the morning ca. 7 am and spend and hour there with the weights. Sounds too early for some but as there's hardly anyone there you can do your full circuit without waiting for a possible queue to die down. I went a few times in the afternoon but there were too many people just standing around the equipment in their finest gym outfits but not wanting to do anything to break a sweat, strange....

Mia, would you want the dresses after a bunch of hairy men have worn them? :-O

I'll see if I can send them down to Soton, could be an early Christmas present...

About 8 cups of tea and coffee a day usually but if I'm writing then possibly 10 or more.

I'm tired but that's only becuase I've only just got back from China and I have jet lag (my body is telling me it's 8 hours later than GMT).

Normally I'm not usually tired but that's because I drink an absurd amount of coffee and consume a ridiculous amount of chocolate (granted, not the healthiest of diets) :-)

My department has organised a department party with entertainment, if it follows the trend of the last few years, it'll involve some of the male members dressing in drag. I just wondered if anyone's department was doing anything, especially anything original?

Being from the southcoast, everything's north for me.

Is this pedantic? Possibly, but as PhD students, we're trained to be critical, spot flaws and fix them :-)

Although it is annoying (it's happened to to me), on the flip side it means you are thinking about your project on the right level. If you've one good idea, more are sure to follow!

So Mia, you'll be rushing to see the new Harry Potter movie with Alan as evil Professor Snape then?

Originally from Southampton but currently studying in Nottingham (great place, despite the negative media perspective including that rubbish 10 worst places to live which was on Channel 4 a few months ago)

My lab specs make me look like a red haired Harry Potter (although I'm missing the scar....)

Wow!!!! Feel Mia's wrath!

Fried chickens feet I can handle. Beijing duck is delicious but the one thing I can't go near, the fried ducks head (bill and all) - which is availble in the Shanghai Uni diner - I usually pass this very quickly and try the chicken and fish dishes...

I can't wait to get back to the UK and make lasagne, I'm really missing pasta. Unfortunatly it's not available at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University; but at least I'm sampling the interesting cuisine here... Chinese cusine is interesting; highlights how much food we waste in the west.

Just to echo the previous posts, the work you're doing is for a good cause so, although it's not easy, rest assured that this work can help alleviate future suffering. I personally would be worried if you didn't show empathy for the dogs - that would simply be cold. Sympathizing with them is not a bad/nor weak thing. Good luck with your research. Take care.

For the past year I have been consuming an unhealthy amount of coffee and read a lot of papers starting with some very broad reviews (which are great at directing you to specific individual papers), coupled with some basic experiments. My project has been fluidic, changing with successful and unsuccessful experiments.

As the year progressed I gradually read more and more specific papers, although I still read quite a few loosely related papers because some ideas are transferable. Although my project started with no specific question, which did unsettle me at first, I have come to enjoy the freedom it has allowed me to develop the project into one I enjoy and can develop (with my supervisor's help of course :-)