I'd love to own my own home, for two reasons - one is that renting feels insecure and getting things like repairs done is just a constant battle with an agency that never want to pay out for anything (took them 11 weeks to fix my broken heating last winter!), and the other is that my partner and I can't live together at the moment because he has a mortgage (negative equity) on a flat that's too small for 2 people. If we could get a mortgage together we could live together. But it's not currently possible on either of our incomes.

If renting was more like on the continent, where tenancies are more secure and tenants have more rights, I'd be perfectly happy to rent forever. But that's not how it is here in the UK, so yes, eventually I want to buy something, just because otherwise I'd be in a different financial position to the norm in our society, and that would make me nervous about e.g. provision for retirement.

Thanks Skig. I don't leave for the conference until Sunday but am starting to get nervous now! But the few days I'm having afterwards in Amsterdam should make up for any stress :-)

Yesterday, I managed to make good progress on my data analysis and know what I want to include in my conference presentation. So today is all about writing the presentation. My supervisors said they'd look at the Powerpoint and give me feedback if I sent it to them before tomorrow morning, so that's the plan now.

Good luck with all your work everyone!

Oh, what a difficult situation for you!

I have to say, the behaviour you describe does remind me of my own brother - who is fairly immature, selfish, slightly spoilt by parents - although the target of his mood swings tend to either be himself or the world in general (immigrants, benefit cheats, politicians, bankers, the tax office, etc, it can get pretty unpleasant at times) rather than the family. Different targets, maybe, but it does sound very familiar otherwise. And with my brother, the problem is fairly extreme depression made worse by smoking cannabis (actually, skunk, which is of course stupidly potent stuff) and also some other health problems (mainly epilepsy-related). But the depression stems from him feeling trapped (his health issues mean he can't work at the moment and has had to move back in with my parents), and this is where I see the greatest similarity with your brother.

That doesn't make his situation any easier to deal with, but it does sound like there might be external causes - frustration at university etc. The difficulty is getting him to address those issues (and even if they aren't really the cause of his bad behaviour towards you and your parents, it couldn't do him any harm to address those issues!) It took my brother a very long time to recognise he had any problems at all, but now after lots of encouragement he is seeking help.

In terms of your own situation - I'm afraid sometimes you have to be a bit hard and self-protective. It'll be extra difficult for you as you live in the same house (if there was any way you could change that I'd take it if I were you), but his problems are not yours to solve. That's not to suggest you should be unsupportive or unsympathetic, but it won't do anyone any good if you end up suffering or not achieving as much as you'd like because of his behaviour - it won't ever be recognised by him or anyone else, and is likely to be buried anyway once he's sorted himself out, so it would only end up causing you resentment. So anything you can do to distance yourself from the effects of whatever he's going through is only a good thing, and you mustn't feel guilty about stepping away from the situation to focus on your own needs and your own ambitions.

A really difficult situation - I hope you find a way through it.

Morning everyone, you all sound very busy and productive!

Today, I'm continuing with my preparation for the conference presentation. I also need to email the two organisations hosting my study just to keep them in the loop/keep in touch with them.

Thanks, Naturalme and Cindrella, I'm looking forward to the conference now!

Today, I will mostly be continuing with sorting out my conference presentation. I'm also going into town to sort out bits for my trip, like buying Euros (or euro, or whatever the correct term is!!)

Good luck with the work, everyone!

Wow, the thread really has been busy! Hope everyone's getting through the work okay today.

Supervision meeting done, and my supervisors were lovely and supportive and had lots of suggestions about my conference presentation. Completely exhausted now, don't know why. Going to write up my meeting notes then go home and have a relaxed evening and early night, and hopefully feel better tomorrow.

PS - did everyone realise that today is Talk Like a Pirate Day? So - erm, ahoy landlubbers! Avast, me hearties! Shiver me timbers! etc etc :-)

Hah, thanks Skig, that hasn't worried me at all.... :p Actually, I know it'll all be fine, if I do actually get my act together this week!

Sneaks, I keep remembering little things I need to do before my conference too, like collect my rail tickets and get some Euros! Maybe I'd better make a list...

Hah, these made me laugh too. I was temping a few years ago after being made redundant, and the temping office had loads of (non-parody versions!) motivational posters in clip-frames on the wall. There's nothing quite like being offered ten days of minimum-wage brain-numbingly tedious work by someone sitting under a poster telling you all your dreams are within reach if you just keep trying!

Good luck, Skig, hope you manage it okay!

I'm off to my conference on Sunday, so this week is all about getting some results to present and sorting out my presentation. Trying not to be too scared - I mean, there's four other sessions on at the same time as mine (it's a huuuuge conference) so maybe nobody will come to mine anyway...

I have a supervision meeting at 3pm to talk about the conference presentation (my supervisors are so lovely and supportive!) so by then I want to have a good summary of what I've found from the data so far, a rough version of the PowerPoint slides, and a plan of the other analysis and stuff that I'll get done this week.

Good luck, Sneaks. With a list like that I usually start with the quickest items, to get some easy wins and make the list shorter!

Today, I will mostly be testing hypotheses. First job, to decide which hypotheses need to be tested for inclusion in the conference presentation.

Oh yes, most definitely!!! :-)

Ouch, that sounds like a lot of work, Sneaks, hope you can cross a few items off that list nice and quickly!

I'm back from doctor's appointment and am now in a very good mood, because it's pretty much definite that I don't have cancer. Yay!!!! I do have to go into hospital for some kind of oscopy though, boo!! Don't know when, or what it will involve, or even if it'll be in or out patient. But at least I can stop thinking about that for a little while. :-)

Back to the data now for the rest of the day.

Morning everyone! Hope we all have a productive day!

I'm going to be carrying on with SPSS and data analysis stuff today - I need to make lots of progress. Also have doctor's appointment so that's going to knock some time out. Oh well, has to be done.

My head's spinning too - I've done about twelve hours straight on my data today, so I'm stopping now (starting to get a headache!). It's all been boring formatting of SPSS and preparation for proper analysis, but it had to be done. Oh well, more tomorrow!

Good luck to anyone still working today!

Morning everyone! Hope you're all refreshed and get lots done today.

Today I am ploughing on with dealing with data. And I'm not going to get distracted by other things either, it will be a productive day, dammit!