Thank you, Chuff. I'll check that out.(up)

I'm using Word 2010 to write up my thesis. On the whole, it's not too bad but it does have some annoying bug bears. For instance, the whole page landscape and portrait formats. If you're doing a table in landscape, you can't just (to the best of my knowledge) make on particular page landscape. You have to turn them all into landscape format from that page forwards and then, on the page after, set it all to portrait again - ad infinitum. Page margins can be a pain, as can justifying the text. I almost wish I'd learnt how to use LateX back in the early days - it may have made my life simpler.

Thanks for the comments, everyone. I've had a think about it, and it's not all doom and gloom. I'll have a modest income while I write up, which should help to cover my outgoings. Living where I am, there are quite literally no jobs. So I doubt I'll be getting anything during this period, which may take me away from trying to write up. Then, once I have my PhD (wishful thinking), I can start looking for research jobs in earnest.
There's little point in going to the job centre since you can access the database they use from your own home. They're also not specialists like some recruitment agencies are, and the advisors become somewhat jaded and apathetic as a result of some of the scallywags they have to deal with.

Yep, I hear you in an analogous sort of way. My work is based on the NHS as it is now, but the NHS is set to change very dramatically in the near future, which sort of makes everything I've done redundant. So I have my own herd of rhinos to dodge with the exception that they don't have £ signs written on them like yours. With mine, it's 'no more clinical governance'.

Today has not been a waste because I've done corrections for 4 of my chapters.

Take the job. If you don't want to be considered for academia and research, it really isn't worth the effort (unless you're doing it for reasons such as self-fulfilment). I did what you're thinking of doing. I was offered a job in the NHS but thought I'd do a PhD instead. Now, I've effectively ruled myself out of a NHS post and a stable job, have very little money and am struggling a bit. The way I see it, it's probably better to do it the other way around. Accept the job, do it for a while and, if it's not for you, try and get a funded PhD instead. I know that if I had your current choice again, I'd go for the job.
Suppose you start the PhD and you regret the decision to turn down the job? Good luck with whatever you decide.

I'm now officially registered as unemployed. To be fair, the job centre advisor was a nice chap. He's given me 13 weeks to find a job as a researcher, and then I'll have to find anything. So, that's essentially 13 weeks to try and get my PhD wrapped up then. It was quite funny really. I explained to him that I'm hoping to get a PhD if I pass my viva and he just automatically assumed that I can do any technical job. So, he did a job search for me and it went something like this:

"Ah, there's a job here for an aeronautical engineer. Shall I print it off?"
"I'm not really qualified to do that, sorry."
"Okay. There's one here at Leeds University...research fellow in the Department for Built Environment?"
"No, I've got to do something relating to health."
"Are you willing to relocate?"
"Yeah, but I'd have to get some money behind me first."
"Well, there's a lab research assistant's job down in Plymouth. £24, 500 [whistles], not bad money is it? What's the difference between a senior research assistant and a junior research assistant?"
"The senior research assistant probably has more responsibility."
"Right, you see, I'm learning new things from people everyday."
It essentially went on like that for half an hour. The only downside to claiming Jobseeker's is that I have to go to a job club every 2 weeks or so...ughhhhh! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6e4Zuw5sPU

I've got my fingers crossed for you, Sneaks. I hope it doesn't descend into nepotism.

Good luck!

I have recently seen Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps. Gordon Gekko is back, but mainly at the back, because you don't see much of him in the film. The funniest bit of the film is at the beginning and then it all gets very boring, very quickly. Shia LaBeouf is the new protege this time, though Charlie Sheen, aka Budd Fox, makes a smarmy appearance about half way in to the movie to let everyone know how rich he is (he doesn't have a PhD though:p).
The main problems I found with the film, include Shia LaBeouf (this isn't transformers, so get lost!), Oliver Stone making 3 vanity appearances in the movie (erm, get back in your director's chair!) and the general lack of any serious plot. It's about the onset of the wall street crash in 2008; Gekko wants to get close to his daughter again but doesn't really but does; Gekko manipulates Shia LaBeouf, who is marrying his daughter to try and get close to her; Gekko succeeds and robs millions of pounds out of her trust fund; Gekko become stupidly rich and successful once again; Gekko seeks redemption by giving the money back to his daughter. Then it ends. So, yeah, pretty straightforward really.
Would I recommend it? I'd answer that by saying: how desperately do what want to procrastinate?

Today has not been a waste because I typed up my Internal Evaluation report in one day- and have just sent it off.

I don't put anything in my hair at the moment because I barely leave my house with all the work I have to do. I would recommend Bryll Cream styling wax though. You just use a tiny bit (pea size) to style your hair and it lasts all day. The tub that you buy lasts at least a month or two as well, so a cost effective investment. Don't go for Fish styling wax. Although the hair styling product of choice for the modern day metrosexual, it doesn't wash out very well and you end up with more wax on your head than you'd find in a beehive. I wouldn't recommend using gel either. Cheap gel because, when it dries, it leaves your hair rock solid so you end up with a modern day Roman soldier helmet. Expensive gel because it's essentially a rip off.

If you scan each document, you can use a 30 day free trial of Abobe Acrobat 9 to perform optical character recognition on the forms and turn them into text. Then, you can use Google Translator, which is really rather good and free, to translate your documents into the desired language. So, you can get good quality translation at no cost and it should only take you about 2 hours.