Hi guys,

I have actually experienced this for other things (prep school, PGCE, health problems etc) and found that people will NEVER care about what you want them to care about. However, there are ways to make sure they either ask the right questions, or at least stop asking the ones that get on your nerves...

The way I have done this to this day has worked amazingly well: I try and have everyone I want to talk to in the same room at once to begin with (saves time). Then I make a VERY lenghty talk about how it hurts when they say this or that, and how it actually feels to go through this or that, etc. I overdo it as much as possible, giving WAY too many details about everything, being as over-emotional as it gets, and making my speech last until they all literally beg me to stop (even my mother).

Oh well, Golfpro, I'll keep an eye open... in case there is an unknown player on the field

Also: no offense, but I think you could aim for much better than Rooney

I cannot but agree with the above response!

I don't know, it just doesn't quite make sense to me: knowing that a PhD means you'll spend a minimum of three years working on one topic, should it not be the topic that determines whether you'll apply for a PhD at all?

I'm a prospective PhD student (in English) and it's definitely because of my topic that I've started to apply here and there. I am actually so into it that I've decided that, PhD or not, I'll write that thesis, lol. It's not like I can dream, as I'm not a native speaker, to get a job in academia with it anyway. The PhD comes in only because I fantasize about being able to do this in 3-4 years full-time instead of 10 or 15 part-time.

I'm afraid if you go the other way round you may well be signing up for a few years of hell... I can't swear as I'm not into the thing yet, but it seems logical

:( Sorry to say but I agree with Jouri and Golfpro.

I take great care of my things or the things I borrow from others, and when lending, I expect everyone to do the same.

"Hypnogogic hallucinations"... good to learn what they're called, I've had this for as long as I can remember. I often hear music, like my head is playing a CD

Gee, happened to me once. My neighbours threw in a party at 10pm on... a Sunday. I was to be up at 5 am the day after (to go to school, teach, and be assessed) and two of my housemates were to be up at 6 (trainee nurses, learning how to get blood samples, no further details needed I guess).

We called the police at 2am after going to the neighbours' FOUR times, and the police wouldn't turn up. Said we had to complain by the City Council and... neighbours might get their stereo equipment confiscated!

I ended up calling their landlord the day after (whom happened to be ours too), and I don't know what he said to them but that proved REALLY efficient...

Tsipat - it's hard to tell without hearing the sound, but could it simply be that your PC overheats?

"I try to mark the 5, 10 and 15 minute marks on slides of a 20 minute presentation, and can gauge yourself accordingly."

THAT actually sounds like an excellent idea, I will tell her to do this and also bear it in mind for whenever it could be useful to me again.

"I think this is harder to do if you read a paper...in fact I don't know how you would do it."

I totally agree. I did that myself for my first undergrad presentation in English (a matter of confidence I guess, I would never had done that in French) and found I had to rehearse it all like 20 times to make sure I stuck to the time allowed! What a waste of time...

Anyway, many thanks for your answer Olivia

"I have got this down to a fine art, where if I have x number of minutes, I go that long, and no less and no more."

I'm impressed. I have always had problems with this actually. When I was teaching in secondary schools, I could never stick to my lesson plans in terms of timing. Now I have to help a student do a presentation lasting 10 minutes, if she stops 50 seconds under or goes 50 seconds beyond, she will lose marks! If you had any tips on the matter I could pass on to her Olivia, I'd be more than grateful...

Just showed this thread to my boyfriend

He says if there's a message hidden in my showing this to him, I can forget about it and I have time to do two PhDs before sending "le" message again, lol. I guess this is what I get for being with someone who's quite a bit younger - not that I mind!

But about him giving up his career to take care of our kids one day, he says that MY career is more important than his, and that for as long as he works at Tesco's.

Gee, I love him

(Sorry if this hardly seems serious, he's just made me laugh so much, I wanted to share...)

Duh. You have to go to the Cricketers. They play jazz and it does not have the stereotypical setting, but it is the closest to an Irish pub I have found in Cambridge. The landlord is Irish, and would be more than happy to make you an Irish coffee I reckon.

Quinns is indeed fairly disappointing. The one time I went they were playing reggae and they were out of Guinness!

Well, I can't wait till tomorrow either, to read your account of what has happened. I feel really glad and relieved for you you got hard evidence to not only protect yourself, but also denounce her. Well done

I've a friend who's 28 now and her hair is all grey and white. Dead sexy. She first found white hair on her head just before her 20th birthday... I thought it's actually not a big deal, external signs of ageing, as they do not necessarily betray... your age ;)

I am a lot more worried about the health-related things though. Like, I've been having lower back pains on a regular basis for the last two years, and all my aunts and uncles went like "well, you're good for it until the end now, and it worsens with age". Sweet Hangovers don't seem to get any better with time either. I can't drink half as much a I used to when I was 16. But maybe THAT is for the best...

Technically, you do not need a MA in translation specifically to work as a translator in the UK (if that is where you want to work). A former housemate of mine currently works as one, he did a MA in French and German (- he's English). He got the job straight away, but was asked to start learning a third foreign language. That is, his fourth language in all.

It bothers me to say but I think that with only one foreign language, you may struggle bad to get a job as translator. Epecially as competition must be fierce for Spanish. For the MA, I believe you may have to have at least two foreign languages and some background in linguistics... Then I just assume it is so! Probably you should check a few universities entry requirements and all, and also job ads, simply enough. Hopefully you'll prove me all wrong!

Good luck anyway :)

Hi Olivia

Are you not entitled to NHS support and all? As a student I would expect you are, in which case I assume you could get new glasses for a fair price ( - I'm not 100% sure though). If I were you I'd have my glasses sent over from the US though... happened to me once a few years ago, and when it came to reading for/writing my dissertation, I thought I was going to die after a few days... Had to call and beg my mum to send them asap, I was getting terrible headaches...