Any plans for more lab coats? Different colours perhaps? (I quite fancy a bright pink one...might deter potential lab coat thieves!)

Possibly it helps to have someone who understands exactly the stresses involved in a PhD i.e. why you sometimes (often!) have to work in the evenings and at weekends and why you can't take leave at crucial times. However, it obviously can work if one of you isn't mad enough to have taken on a PhD (my boyfriend hasn't got a first degree and I like to think we're doing ok!).

Hi Jen

Please don't worry about it, it happens, sometimes things just get on top of you and the stress finds an outlet [be glad that we are girls and can have a good cry, if we were men we'd have to punch a wall or something ;o) ]. I'm sure noone will think badly of you, as David said it just shows that you care about your work. Hope you can have some fun at the weekend and try to forget about the work for a day or two.

Take care

Ann

I really like their treacle toffee...yum!!!

I'd swap a Topic for those slightly gritty Galaxy 'truffles' any day! They need to speak to the people at Thorntons and find out how to make a real truffle! ;o)

I didn't make a Christmas cake last year as was writing up over Christmas (literally, was carrying around 2 laptops on Christmas Day!). Planning lots of baking this year to make up for it!

4oz plain flour
Pinch of salt
1 level teaspoon baking powder
1 level teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 level teaspoon of ground ginger
1/2 level teaspoon of mixed spice
2oz butter
2oz sugar
3 tablespoons of golden syrup

Sift flour, salt, baking power, bicarb and spices into bowl. Rub in the butter and then add sugar. Warm syrup (easiest to put jar (minus metal lid!) into microwave for a minute or so) then add to other ingredients. Mix to form a stiff dough. Roll into small balls (about 10) and place on greased baking tray. Bake at 200oC for about 8 minutes.

The balls will puff up and then flatten a little as they spread out. Monitor closely when the biscuits have flattened, spread out AND have visible cracks on the surface. Remove from oven when the surface is quite golden but the cracks are paler. They’ll still be very soft and you need to leave them on the tray for 10 mins or so to cool and firm. During this stage the biscuits will flatten a little more. Takes a few attempts to get it perfect but they are yummy even if you accidentally go past the chewy stage!

Hmmm...don't know about that...but I am using a rather pre-historic version of EndNote so cannot speak for the latest version. What is cool, however (if you're a biomed type of person) is that you can download references straight from PubMed into your Endnote library (literally hundreds at a time if you want). It must be possible to this with other reference databases too but I've never tried.

I like the line;

"Fortunately, it landed on the tortoise..."

Can't have been too fortunate for the tortoise! ;o)

http://www.indybay.org/news/2005/01/1718758.php

You probably won't need to buy your own copy of Endnote, your Uni licence should cover your use, ask the Librarian. With EndNote installed you will have extra options in the drop-down menus in MS Word. One of these is to " insert reference" (that you have pre-selected in your open EndNote library) directly into your word document.

How did your meeting go, BTW?

I have a gorgeous recipe for crispy on the outside, chewy in the middle ginger biscuits if anyone is interested, proper Cornish ones like my Grandma used to make!

[I'm in the kitchen at the moment (wonders of wireless internet) making my Christmas cake!]

Quirky is good but mugs/pens/post-its are always welcome too! How about a set of graded stress balls for each stage of your PhD i.e. golf ball sized for first year through to beach ball sized (or space-hopper!) for final year? ;o)

My PhD was funded by University money (rather than research council or grant funds). However, I was employed as a Research Assistant so my situation was slightly different to yours. I would have thought that your bursary would have increased each year (if only in line with inflation). Why not ask someone in the post-grad office at your Uni?

[That Moomin episode sounds terrifying! I saw a horrible episode of Thomas the Tank Engine a while ago (with my 2yr old nephew) about a mean boulder that hung around on a cliff edge waiting for a train to pass underneath and then it would try to crush it! It was most disturbing!! :oO ]

Sure, hopefully your supervisor would need less persuasion to pay your expenses for a one day meeting in the UK. It's when you want to jet off to somewhere exotic that you need to pull out all the stops and produce a collection of impressive abstracts! :o)