Ok now that I have seen your response, like I said I really think you need to get the truth out there, because to be3 honest, I think the whole dept would surely know about this by now (not to scare you) but thats how things work...Go to your student union advice centre in the morning and seek further advice from them and like I said, set things straight with the head of school too. It seems they have clearly taken the side with this other boy, if your supervisor is saying things like stay away from him, so I think you need to set your supervisor straight on no uncertain terms and if you have already tried to do so, express dissatisfaction that they have not been more supportive to you, the 'victim' in all this...

Aside from your responses, if this person phsically touched you in any way, no matter how slight, then it is a serious criminal matter...If I were you I would have gone straight to the authorities...

That said, at this point (again assuming the violence was tottaly on the other persons side), you need to SPEAK UP and DEFEND yourself ASAP...if this other character has assaulted you and then gone 'crying wolf' to the supervisor to cover his back, then you need to get the real facts out there NOW, write a very formal email to your supervisor and Head of school stating the events and urge that you want it dealt with immediately and investigated. If you don't speak up, the supervisor and probably the rest of the department will forever have this view and your chances of being kicked out are probably quite high (it doesnt take much to find a necessary justification on academic grounds to fail your next upgrade in May if they so wished)...

Hey Scared!!....ok this seems like a pretty complex and difficult situation, but the main thing now is to keep calm and proceed carefully...

Few more details, please might be easier then if I can help you I will try my best!!:
1-First of all, when you said this character 'helped' you with your work, how much did that involve?
2-What exactly did this fight involve, so there was no physical contact from your side? Was it the other person totally? Was either of you involved in verbally abusing the other?were there any other events leading up to this either in person or via email etc or was it totally out of the blue??
3-Not that it is totally relevant, but out of curosity, you said the other person was male, are you also male or a girl?
4-Does this boy also share the same supervisor as you, or are they just friendly with them? and are they a phd student also, or postdoc/member of staff? Did you have a good relationship with your supervisor prior to this?

Hey Sneaks!!! Glad to hear you are doing well!!! Not sure where Frankie has gone???? Nope, I haven't gotten started today yet- about to start now actually!! I got a piece sent off to an editor late last night, so satisified with that, I have just been relaxing all day, eating lots of chocolate and crisps and reading the sunday papers online etc!! So planning to begin now and get some more reading finished today and then finish off by making a detailed plan of my work schedule for the next 7 days...
I hope you managed to get all your work finished today Sneaks, see you tomorrow!!(up)

Yo!! just checking in today, so I am finally happy with my progress today as its been a bit slow this week, so im flying through my work today (I think its my adversion to ''conform'' spilling over, as I work better at the weekends and during the week, when everyone else has gone to bed, rather than 9-5!!). Planning on working for a few hours more tonight and planning on working tomorrow as well. since I need to make up the hours before I go home for christmas where my chances of getting anything at all done, are zero!

Looking forward to watching the x factor final later tonight online!!! I would like Alexandra to win, as I think she has the right attitude, work ethic and of course talent! Though I have a feeling it will be JLS actually. Much as I love wee Eoghan, I think there would be a public outcry if he won, since hes not really in the same league as the other 2!! :p

Today's progress= must try harder!!! been a bit distracted this week with some worries, and I think this has spilt over into my focus for my work. Going to try really better to detach myself from such things when I am working, though I have always struggled with this!! Looks like I am in for a weekend of work again to make up for it! So I will be back later this morning!! over and out....

P.S Sorry I cant help you BUG (lol) with your people gathering ideas as I have never done this before!! Is it a speciifc group of people you need or will just random students do??? maybe monetary incentives would help to get people on board, if your dept can help you with this??!! I'm guessing there must be a number of similar phd students in your field and your department who might be able to help you with strategies for this?? Anyway sorry I cant be any help on this as havent got a clue about this!!

Oh my Gosh!!!! Sooooo I got up very early today and left to get the bus (the Uni is out of town) but little did I know there was yet another stirke going on with the roads blocked (seem to happen on an almost daily basis where I am!!!),so I thought I would hang around for a bit believing the roads would soon be open and get some coffee in a cafe near the bus stop. I then proceeded about an hour later to wait by the bus stop, did a bus eventually come? NOOOOO. So I was then losing patience at this stage 3 hours later and flounced off in a huff, deciding to walk back home again- of course I had no sooner started walking home than the bus flies by!!!!!! (arrrgghhhhhh I hate murphys Law!!)....

So I have now lost over 3 hours of working time (that wouldnt be so bad, but the thought I could have had an extra 3 hours kip is worse since I only got 4 hours sleep last night!! lol.....ah well I suppose there is no point spending any more time crying over it now....so with a new sense of purpose I am going to work really hard for the next 8 hours or so!!! and on the plus side at least I can make tea to my heart's content now that I am working from home!!! :p

Just realised I hadn't 'checked in' today...progress today has been pretty good, I worked for 5 hours straight reading some useful cases and materials, though have not done any work in the last couple of hours- so planning to read for another hour or 2 in bed now, cause its freezing in my apartment!!

I'm hoping to get up really early tomorrow and try and ease myself again into the 9-5 pattern that I managed a few days last week, which has been proving pretty difficult to get into this week so far, I suppose it takes time to overcome my nocturnal working patterns of the past few years!

Good to hear you achieved part of your goals yesterday Sneaks! Hope to hear from you soon!!! :p

Hey!!! Sounds like your on a mission today Sneaks- good for you!!! And how are you getting on Frankie, haven't heard from you in a day or 2!! see this is accountability in action!! lol

okkies, I was rather lazy yesterday...oops didn't end up achieving what I had initially planned!! Didn't get much done apart from reading a few pages, I think I knew that when I got up yesterday morning this would happen, I was just in one of those 'moods' and I was totally exhausted from working all last week and throughout the weekend. So I'm pretty much ok with that. In the past few months I have sort of rationlised an agreement in my head, that as long as I achieve my goals around 80% of the time, then I won't beat myself up tooo much if I have any momentary blips like yesterday...lol... Though I am hoping that I think as a result of this accountability thread, I will raise that to around 90% of the time by holding myself to account a bit more!!!

So today I have been working to catch up on the reading I was supposed to do yesterday, and tonight I plan to write a short written piece to secure a research job (probs around 1000 words I think)...So its all work now!! I hope I can do it, I have been a little distracted in the past few days, by a man of course!!! He has been checking me out in the past few weeks and supporting me in debates with fellow academics (with other from opposing views!!) and so we finally had an opportunity to speak a few days ago...and well he is pretty fanciable, I'm usually more interested in deep thinkers than looks, but this man has it all!! he is sooo hot and charming and arrogant in a 'i know im good, but he really IS' type way (anyway, just thought I would get that off my chest lol, not that anything would happen of course as I am strictly very against cheating and would not ever do this to my boyfriend, and anyway I will be back in the UK in a few weeks! but its nice to dream hmmmm..though it does make concentrating on the work more difficult!!!!)

anyways, off to make some tea and back to work with no more thoughts of the man...

Bit late posting today, as I have also been catching up on emails, but to friends!!- I am really terrible at this,I wont email anyone for months and then suddenly do it all at once!! so for the rest of today, I plan to work from now until around 10 tonight and get those dreaded chapters read that I put off yesterday...not feeling particularly enthusiastica about it though, feeling a little tired today and its Tuesday!!! lol....so think i will get some tea and biscuits at the ready before I start...

So how did you both get on in the end Sneaks and Frankie?
p.s. Frankie, I think its still a good effort even just to get some planing done! Even if the 'concrete' work hasn't all materialised today... one of my fav phrases, 'if you fail to plan, you plan to fail!'...8-)

ok.....so not my most productive day ever, but I have said Mondays (and Tuesdays!) are just not my thing...Once I got over the paper I was so relieved that I had a few glasses of vino and well haven't recovered sufficently to be able to read the chapters I had planned to read...ah well, must try harder tomorrow! lol anyways im off for a very very early night!!!

Hey Sneaks and Frankie!!! Wow thats a pretty impressive set of goals for today Frankie!! Good luck, and let us know how you got on later tongiht! accountability is the way to go, I think!! Sneaks, yeah that was the song!! love it so much, its relaly infectious and a great 'pick me up' song to dance along to at home!!! and no, I'm not doing my whole phd abroad, just this semmester (wish I was though really!! but boyf wouldn't be in favour!! lol)...anyway hope you both achieve your goals for today...

As for me, I was snuggled up in bed reading for the past few hours as its bloody freezing though not I have dragged myself outta bed I am pretty chuffed with my new dress I bought yesterday, so I'm prancing around posing in it!! lol...but Im going to take myself off to Uni in the next half hour and once I get my paper done later this afternoon, I am then going to take it easy for a few hours then I plan to read 2 chapters of a book I am supposed to be reviewing (not going to bother with book reviews anymore, though i get freebie books and keep chummy with the editors but I think it takes up a lot of time- though this particular book is very much directly relevant to my research...)

P.S I just have to say further to my previous comment about sometimes getting a little depressed- in terms of sometimes you just wanna hear tv in your own language when your feeling down (much as I love the different culture, experiences and opportunities to learn the new language that I am now exposed to!!) , but I have to say, since I left the UK to go abroad this term, I have seriously developed a new found higher level of respect for international students who come to the UK to do a PhD in a non- native language- seriously, not only in terms of the academic achievement in itself, but I really think to do it, you personally need to be mentally strong and have a considerable level of guts and courage to do it-no mean feat!! not sure I could do it!!