I don't really know: I might try and get some more information. I don't think it's very high end, though: it sounds more like littlewoods catalogues or on an advert for specsavers rather than London Fashion Week or Vogue!

Wow, that's quite weird: I got a message on my myspace from a talent scout/modelling agency yesterday saying they were looking for eye models in the north east and they'd seen my photos on my myspace and were interested in me. Apparently it's for eye make-up and glasses and stuff. I was thinking of answering just so I could see people double take when I said I was a part-time model!

Well today actually went quite well! I got a fair amount of work done and feel quite proud of myself. I tried the garlic, honey and lemon (no ginger in the house unfortunately!) and I'm not sure I would recommend it: maybe the ginger might help take the taste away? But regular hot drinks and painkillers have been good. I'm about to go off to bed with more fruit tea now, and hopefully get a good ten hours of sleep Thanks for all the information and advice!

Thanks guys: I've been having lots of hot fruit tea and healthy food, and I just had a nice long shower. I gave my first conference paper at the weekend, so I think I'm having a bit of a post-stress meltdown now!

I've caught a cold and feel like absolute crap, but I have to write 2000 words by Monday, so I can't just collapse for a couple of days. Does anyone have any recommendations for cold remedies? I'm currently ibuprofened up to the eyeballs, taking cold and flu tablets with paracetemol and decongestant, and inhaling lots of steam. My boyfriend had it first and it lasted about three days but I don't have that kind of time! Please send help :(

I think at least part of this is funding: only 25% of applicants in my subject (English) get AHRC funding, and that doesn't take into account non-EU students who can't even apply. One reason A and H students take longer is because the majority are working part-time and self-funding. I think it's a miracle we manage to complete in four years, frankly.

I don't know if this will be any comfort to you, but most people I know have spent at least a couple of years after finishing their PhD (admittedly they've all done English: mock all you like) teaching on short-term contracts in multiple institutions at once, working minimum wage part time, and trying to write for publication in their spare time. You're not a loser or a failure. I agree with Otto to a certain extent; if a post-doc isn't appearing maybe you should look for some teaching work, because at least you'll be affiliated with an institution and you'll be getting relevant work experience.

I really need to get rid of my internet connection I think! I'm really bad at napping, but I wonder if giving myself easier work to do in the daytime, rather than just procrastinating and then getting the fear later on might be the answer. I'm really ruled by my body clock: I can only get a decent workout done at about 5pm, no matter how hard I try to train myself for the morning.

Can you go anywhere with your laptop where you can't get wifi access? Or go with a pen and paper and do some free writing? If it's just procrastination then that might help, but if you're having serious issues with being unsure about the direction of your work or your motivation, a chat with your supervisor might be in order.

I'd be ok if I could just shift to working at night, but it's doing 9-5 at work three days a week that's causing my problems. I really want to find out why I can only work at night: is it that I have the guilt of a whole day's procrastination behind me, or because the busybusy distraction part of my brain gets too tired, or because it's dark, or because I have motivation to work (I often do "if you reach the next 1000 word mark then you can go to bed..."? I kind of want to trust myself not to do any strenuous work all day for maybe a week (like just organise my notes or my bibliography) and then only start hardcore work at 9pm and see what happens.

I'm having serious issues regulating my work time. My thesis seems to want itself written between 10pm and 1am, and I can easily churn out work during this time, whereas during the day I'm easily distracted, demotivated, and fuzzy brained. This would be fine if my part-time and teaching work wasn't happening during normal office hours three days a week. Is there any way I can retrain myself? At the moment I just don't sleep much on days when I'm working, but this makes working in a call centre even more hellish than it is to start off with!

It is hilly! I live on top of a big hill, but I am also one of the only PhD students I know who's lost weight while I've been studying! The thing to bear in mind is that, at the moment, Durham has WAY more accommodation than students, so you can pick and choose where you want to live if you live out. Are you starting in September, Yamato?

I'm studying for my PhD at Durham. As far as colleges go I'm a member of Ustinov (the default option for postgrads), but I virtually never go there or have anything to do with it, and I am also a pastoral tutor and member of the SCR at St Mary's.

Your decision will probably be influenced by whether you want to live in (I didn't), and to what extent you want to be involved in college life (I didn't really care either way). If you're coming from far away and won't be able to look for accommodation, it's probably better to go for Ustinov because they can guarantee you a place in halls with lots of other postgrads, and it's not a massive hassle to move out if you don't enjoy it.

What are you going to be studying?

I recommend layering your clothes as I find it a bit chilly in the reading rooms and they won't let you take your outdoor coat in with you. Also, brush your hair before you go and register, because they'll take your photo for the card there and then!

We got told we should have business cards for ourselves to take to conferences. I wanted to have "Alicepalace: Heaven is a play on words" on mine because I'm working on literature and the afterlife. My friend's doing Middle English and she wanted "The Chaucer Enforcer." But yeah, we have regulations for the colour and typeface for writing the uni name (no lime green comic sans!).