It looks like you will have to visit London or Manchester to get a look at a copy.

It took me nearly three weeks.
Only joking! It's hard to say, I would say that I now (after 6 months) understand the area I am working in fairly well - but it's only a tiny area and anything outside that is just nonsense to me. I know a postdoc who feels similarly!
This is in mathematical sciences, though, and seems to be very different to what most other people on here are doing. There was no need to read extensively, design or plan methodologies etc. it was pretty much starting to produce results in the first few weeks.

although you aren't going to do anything, and that's up to you, you still need to watch your back - it would make sense for her to undermine / accuse you as much as possible, just in case you decide to talk in the future.
You could make notes (times, places, exact words etc) of all the incidents, so that if you ever need them then your memory of events can't be called into question. I would also be tempted to have an mobile phone / mp3 player or something to hand that you can set to record surreptitiously.
It's all very shocking, though!

There is some information on their website, apparently they support about 120 postgrads per year. Maintenance payments are £7190 pa outside London, and £9270 inside.; unless you are over 30, in which case they only pay for fees. They spent £2.2m in maintenance grants and £7.1m in tuition fees, which does suggest that most awards are fees only, although they are all means tested.

Only applying for existing projects could severely limit your options, if you know what you are interested in then you should just get on with writing research proposals and applying.

You can apply for a PhD at any time, but some of the deadlines for funding will have already passed (e.g. Durham) and others will be approaching.
Have a look at the institutions you are interested in, and see what deadlines they have for studentship applications.

wibble

Only you can decide if it's right to leave, although there is no reason to quit just yet unless you have something better to do instead (particularly if funded, you can always turn up, read Viz and collect the stipend!).
Regardless of the PhD, you may as well look after yourself - eating properly is something that is entirely within your control; taking positive steps may help with the depression.

You may not necessarily get a useful reply, it very much depends on the individual (some are very helpful, some play 'hard to get'). However, there is nothing stopping you from writing a research proposal and applying anyway.

There is a regular football game in my department, lecturers / phd / undergraduates all play; including some women - but I had to ask around to find out about it!
What about squash or racketball? You should be able to find a squash court to play on, it's a fairly popular game in this country. You only need to find one person to play against, and mixed games aren't a problem.

I don't think anybody wants that sort of account, but some people just have to take what they can get.
What about citibank? They mostly do online banking, but do have some offices in London. They should be a bit more capable of dealing with US customers.

As I understand it, Citrix just allows you to run other programs remotely.

The way it works here is that the programs that you want to use are stored on the university's computers, and they also run on the university's computers - you just use Citrix over the network / internet to give you a graphical window to that program.

It's obviously not as responsive as running the programs on your own computer, but you don't have to worry about licensing / installing / maintaining / backups etc.

I have worked in the pub before now; if it's fairly quiet, and you buy a drink, then the bar staff shouldn't mind - but I would ask them first. This may not work in places that are popular with students!

i am also looking 4 nice and sincer educated girl as my G/F

The Sex Discrimination Act does cover discrimination in access to education.
They really ought not to bring it up, but people often don't do what the law says, and it probably would help your case to explain your situation.
Although, personally, I don't think that anybody should give information about their family plans - doing so makes it more difficult for the people who don't wish to answer.

As it's still early days, I like being able to go off and learn about all sorts of new things, as long as I think it will help my research.
In a workplace you are usually told what computer systems / programs / languages to use; I am free to look around and see what might suit me best and take some time to learn it. I'm also sure that developing some new skills will make me more employable.