I must admit I didn't know what the two-body problem meant until I went and looked it up! There was a similar discussion on here not so long ago I think, about academia and its effect on relationships and the possibility of having to live apart for career purposes. This is one of several reasons why I'm not planning on chasing after six-month contracts that require you to move here, there and everywhere. Are you and your partner having to live quite far apart then?

I would say enjoy your first year - you should have time at this stage to look at things like interesting or useful courses offered at your uni for postgrad students - but also make sure you get plenty of reading and writing done, as you will really be glad of it in the later stages.

I think a holiday sounds like a great idea too! I've not booked anything but I am certainly planning on using my annual leave, 3rd year or not - it is so important to remember life outside of the PhD :)

The development and validation of a questionnaire sounds to me like the basis for a chapter - I'm including a chapter on the development and pilot testing of the materials I'm using in my quants study.

Just to add that if you're doing this in the UK and getting NHS ethical approval, talk to your supervisor and apply for the ethics really early. You might already know this anyway, but it can be a lengthy and complex process to get approval - good luck!

Congratulations, fab result!

I'd definitely talk this one over with your supervisor. My thesis is quite heavily reliant on a qualitative study (it also has a quantitative one, and a small qualitative follow-up to that one) but one thing I have been talking to my supervisor about is the need to get an external examiner who has qualitative experience/knows how much work has gone into it.

Hope you've had something to eat and drink in amongst all that, wowzers! I got some writing done last week and have drawn up plans for the year so I feel like I'm getting my head round what needs done, but I also have a heavy cold now and am doing precisely nothing today!

Hi Fabian

My situation with the offer letter was two years ago (sorry, that probably wasn't very clear from my post), and my funding was fine. The only thing I ever received in writing was the offer of admission, which says I need to pay fees, but in reality my fees are paid and I receive a bursary as well! It is a strange system and I hope it works out for you too.

Hi Drpurple

Sorry you're going through such a difficult time. I think that as well as the problems with your depression and getting a bad reference, it's also such a tough job market. Hopefully you'll get an offer from at least one of your interviews that you have coming up. I do know what you mean about feeling deflated at the thought of taking on paid work that you're so overqualified for, but it may be a way of paying the bills while you do voluntary work as well? You don't need to see these jobs as the end of the road, they're just a means to an end. I wonder if it would also be worth talking to a careers advisor and trying to sort out longer term plans/goals, as it seems like you have done an awful lot of education/training and you mentioned that you are training again - maybe it is worth spending time trying to look at all the things you are qualified for? The other thing I would say is that if you haven't had formal support for your depression, it may be worth asking your GP for a referral to counselling, since that has caused you to leave a job. Hope things improve for you soon.

Depending on your topic and the type of analysis you used, it might be that you wanted to focus on individual accounts or get the kind of detailed account you get from speaking to people individually? Or you might have thought the results would have been affected by using groups, eg people behave differently in groups and some people might have been less likely to speak up?

I had nothing at all in writing to say I was getting funding - my offer of admission looks like I owe the university money for my fees! It does seem to be very slapdash in some cases - I would also ask the supervisor to confirm the details of the funding arrangement.

Good luck, glowworm! I've still got a year to go before that stage, but my supervisor has already said to me not to worry about not being able to answer all viva questions perfectly.....she said if there is anything you just don't know on the day, in all likelihood they will put it down as a minor correction. Let us know how it goes!

Have you checked to see if you already have a suitable recording facility on your phone, laptop etc, rather than buying something? I have an ancient recording device but most of the time I just use the sound recorder on my netbook as it's very straightforward and does the job.