I phoned up for feedback today and the woman knew nothing about my application (her name is on the letter) and said it would take a week to track down feedback (they're busy and she has no support staff-the tone of her voice really suggested she couldn't be bothered with a little matter like this).

I'm sorry, hope it all gets better soon. It's tough enough just doing the PhD on its own! Cyber hugs.

Was/is there no freezer in a nearby lab? We've had to move stuff around the department before.
That is a really devastating thing to happen, you may be able to get a small extension on your PhD though. It is partly the nature of research that your purified protein will get lost on a column, or will get munched by proteases, and all your lab equipment will break down when you desperately need it. That's my experience anyway!
Monkey me I'm just speechless about your post, the poor PhD finding that out!

That does sounds rubbish. My interviewers have at least been courteous/professional and I've known what to expect. My main gripe is waiting 2 weeks to hear about an interview - for 2 jobs! It just draws out the stress.

I hope you're pleased rather than dissappointed. Mine went surprisingly smoothly and was just under 2 hours as the examiner had to go back home
I had spent weeks (years?!) worrying and it didn't feel like I had anticipated. The examiner was nice!

I felt surprisingly flat after the viva (drop in adrenaline?) but have been very smug today and have been annoying my OH with cheesy phrases/puns/observations involving the word "Dr". I had a nice meal and some drinks, and got some nice presents from my lab. The actual viva went smoothly and both examiners were really nice so that I could talk easily. The external is a pioneer in her field (and a woman prof) so it's nice for her to read my thesis and say nice things even if it's not strictly her area. I'm hoping to do medical writing or work in the pharma industry.

I'm now Dr CC!
I have minor corrections on typos/diagrams and not actually the science

My supervisor said I should choose words carefully
1) research terms can be specific and
2) It's better to say you are investigating the proposed theory that..., rather than saying you are trying to prove that...

A prof told me I should say I don't know, be confident if I do know, and give short answers rather than floundering about so the examiner can steer it towards what I do know as EVERYONE has gaps. The examiner can ask you more detail if needed. Some questions will be the examiner trying to understand new work, not trying to trip you up.
I found I got through 1.5 chapters in 2-3 hours practicing with my supervisor so it may not be as comprehensive as you think. It could take days to go over a viva fully.

Top tip-if you pick a v busy examiner or one travelling a fair way they will have limited time and need to get back and give you a short viva

My viva is this afternoon.

It probably depends how well you know it to start with and how confident you are talking about it. You should have some practices to get an idea of what you will be asked. You won't be expected to be able to answer all the questions as can't possibly know everything e.g. details of 100s of papers. If you don't know the examiner will probably try approaching the question in a few ways to guide you towards an answer. You are being tested on what you DO know, so you might as well say you don't know and let the examiner steer the conversation round to what you can shine on. You should know about what your examiner does and how it fits in with your PhD.
http://www.geocities.com/andrewbroad/cs/cs710/viva.html

Congratulations!

I've got mine on Thurs.
I'm kind of frozen from revising at the moment

Use your mistakes to improve and troubleshoot work, and accept you will make mistakes if you are learning something new?

I've met a lot of PhDs who have continued the sex and booze from their undergrad days for another 3-4 years. In fact the odd postdoc too....
You're more likely to miss settling down and starting a career outside academia for more money.

"Remember a PhD won't keep you warm at night"
That really made me laugh
My partner of 6.5 years is supportive, but again he probably worked at least as hard if not harder than I did on my PhD! He owns a small business and often gets phonecalls about work in evenings or weekends especially in the Autumn, or stays late. He didn't even do A-level Biology/Chemistry but is really clever and good at IT and Physics/Maths and could possibly have done better on a PhD than me! It's nice to not understand a word of what the other does. He gave me help with unix and sometimes gave me late night lifts back from the lab. I usually felt guilty about staying late and tried to stick to a productive 9.30-6 workplan.

It depends on the quality of the draft and how much time you (and your supervisor) want (or have) to spend on it
It also depends on whether you are writing completely from scratch, or have papers already, and how much you have already analysed your results.
I know someone who got a PhD (and is a successful postdoc) who gave it in without her supervisors reading it. I took ages to write and my chapters were 2nd or 3rd drafts. The one on the 3rd draft could have been improved further, and was twice the length of the others, but it was getting to my 4th year deadline. Some people want a near perfect thesis, others just rush it in and want to sort it out in the corrections as there probably will be changes anyway.

My external can't make 23rd Jan which moves it further away to 31 Jan. I 'm bitterly disappointed it is now at the 4 month after submission date and all I want to do is finish and move on. I'm not sure if it is worth pushing for the 2nd choice examiner as I never imagined it would go past December, 31st Jan is nearly February.