Hmm, having looked at the categorical choices given in your question, I think you should re-gift it - it makes good financial sense. Afterall, no offence to the homeless man, but he might be a diabetic, he might have no teeth (or he may do but not after eating all the chocolates!), he could sell it for drugs or he may be mugged lugging all the chocolates about. You can't chuck them in the bin because all the packaging will need to be separated out into paper and plastic and the chocolates may be composed of chemicals that do not break down safely in the environment, so you could end up being fined by your evil council for 'elf and safety...sorry, that's the Daily Mail in me. And Eska, I know for a fact that chocolates cannot be locked up securely in a safe - you know you'll end up eating them in the end - I know I would anyway (even if I have to get back into the safe using a blow torch)!

This year's new resolutions are: get my PhD thesis submitted before the end of 2010, feel good about myself by exercising and eating well, sort my sleep patterns out (I need to be disciplined and regimented if I am to get it all done in a year), really find out what I am going to do with myself, stop reading the Daily Mail and then feeling really self-righteous and angry about bin collections, get a car of my own... and hopefully get 5 stars.

I've taken a few days away from my work and have been thinking about what I can do when I get my PhD. I think I'd like to do academia in another country, go to a different place and just start again. So, bingo, another New Year's resolution.

I honestly don't think there should be an issue with doing a PhD at an ex-polytechnic. The relationship you have with your supervisor is, as I'm finding out, key to the success of your PhD. The supervisor you describe sounds like a good 'un, so I'd be very tempted to work with them. On top of this, provided you produce a good PhD and get some publications in good journals, the institution does not matter (what I think anyway). Some of the top researchers in my field went to ex-polytechnics. Besides, some of these academics at red brick institutions can be really self-important and jumped up whip-cracking monkey drivers, who are only out for furthering their own career (a sweeping generalisation, I know) and 3 to 4 years at an institution you're not going to be happy at with a supervisor you don't get on with, even if it's the University of World Leading Academic Excellence, is a long time. A PhD is, after all, a piece of independent research that could be examined by one of these academics from an a classier establishment.

Thank you, Rick. It's not a bad, because I'm fairly sure ITV will show Star Wars reruns again :-)

My body clock is all messed and it's been like this for a while now. I don't really sleep at the moment and my work is not going as well as it could. I'm finding this time of year really hard and missing what I used to have. The past 2 festive periods were just really nice, but I'm by myself this year and not used to it. It gets me down because everyone else seems to be really looking forward to it but I just want to get it over with. So I just lie in bed and wonder what I could have done better to prevent this.
I've popped a few Nytol so forgive my ramblings. I'm a bit sappy and probably weak, but definitely not a weirdo.
I'm going to make a New Year's resolution or two. I'm going to make an extra effort with all my friends, be as helpful to them as possible and try never to lose touch - that's what mobiles are for. I'm also hopefully going to find someone special and have a nice family one day. Oh, and I'm not going to be naive about things and just try not to dwell on things past, as what has happened has happened. I've just got to toughen up, swallow a spoonful of courage and realise that, despite 6.5 billion other people and counting, I just have me an my thoughts and they are what I should rely on and try to look after more.
Do you ever find yourself in situations where you sense that you just don't fit and you shut your gob because you realise that there's nothing you can say that won't seem strange of stupid? Like now!
Anyway, just wanted to get that self-indulgent whine off my chest.
Have a (bit of a) relaxing and fun Christmas everyone, and best wishes for a productive and successful 2010 too. (mince)

Keenbeen, Methodspace has a very nice mixed methods research group that you can have a look at and there appear to be a lot of like minded people on it that you can discuss ideas with and share papers on the subject. Here is the link (http://www.methodspace.com/group/mixedmethodsresearchers). Also, I know we've gone past Halloween, but there's a scary paper to read regarding the use of mixed methods here: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/documents/174130.pdf

Enjoy :-)

haha, Maria1! Have you ever done a vanity search on Google images, which basically involves inputting your name and then hitting enter to see how attractive other people that share your name are? I know it's sad and weird, but an it can make an interesting form a procrastination. The first page of my Google images search has a lot of men on with bald heads and double chins...an unfortunate condition of the men who share my name and a sign of things to come? I hope not!

Thank you for the input everyone, I'm probably just worrying unduly about things. When you start to read through it, it does sort of come back and I've got stacks of notes I can go over too. Such is the demands of mixed methods. I sort of wish that I'd just stuck to a qual or quan study now. Ignorance just creates extra work in the end.

I just tried looking for myself with this (not out of vanity!) and there's nothing on me out there on the internet. Like has already been stated - Google is much more effective for stalkers. In fact when I Google my real name, Malcome Bradbury Weinerhausenschmuck (close but not that close to my real name), I get a list of all the research that I'm doing and a conference I attended too. This could, I suppose, put me in a dangerous position if there are any highbrow and dangerous stalkers out there.(gift)

I'd like to finish by the end of next year - by whatever means possible. I've got 1 focus group, 20 cognitive interviews to conduct, and then about 50 or so responses I need for a form, qual and quan data analysis and then I can really write it up.

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Right, I recently had a meeting with my supervisory team and, the loves that they are, they have informed me that I have to begin writing up as I continue to collect and analyse data - so an intense 9 months for my poor brain. I have done stacks of writing, much of it s**t, and I'm sat here now realising that I have forgotten much of it :-( I've been so intensively focusing on one aspect of my research that a lot of stuff that I used to know has just gone out of my head. So, I can't re-write it because I don't really understand it, and I don't feel that I can spare the time to begin intensively reading again to fully understand it, so it's catch-22. It's definitely been a down day for me today because of this.
Does or has anybody else found themselves in this situation? I don't suppose I can naively suppose there's a simple solution to this?

Have to agree with Eska there - those pinky-purple ear muffs really go with the bright red Santa coat. I'm the most disorganised and fatalistic member, and probably the biggest tea drinker of everyone. I'm probably also the youngest member of the forum to be most like an old man in my attitude and outlook (not that I'm in any way offending old (nay, mature people to be extra PC)). God, I'm starting to brag now, but I'm also the the member of this forum who most secretly desires to be a Citreon Saxo driving, raving party animal with one of those super-load exhausts, on my car, that boy-racers have. Weird, I know, and totally against my current ascetic, monk-like existence.