Tiger Tavern, 1-2 Tower Hill, London, EC3N4EB

http://www.londontaxitour.com/london-taxi-tour-eating-and-drinking-pubs-tiger-tavern.htm

There was tavern on this site since the 16th century, for anybody apart from me that might be interested, the Tiger Tavern had a collection of living birds in the 18th century that people could look at whilst drinking...

H- I too had been dying to ask that!

Whilst Sabrina should have known to back up her work onto a usb or email her work to herself for safety, Katy deserves to be shot.

Xeno - can I suggest this Icelandic kids song from a show called 'Latabæ' (Lazytown). The song is called 'Kokkabókin' (Cook book)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22mBK6eBXKg&feature=related

It should make you laugh - or perhaps need another cig!

The panel work is sent off. So now to stew for a bit...

Eek...

Thanks for the encouragement.

You're right. Calm. Calm.

I'm so highly strung sometimes. Nay, all the time. :-$ ;-(

I find my PhD absolutely terrifying. I am stuck on a panel piece that has to be in tmrw morning (so no sleep for me), and my sup has just rang me aksing me to do a book review with him for a journal which covers a signficant new series of books in my field. I'm so happy but so scared. I feel so fraudulent. I barely understand what I read sometimes, I have only barely articulated ideas.

This PhD is so hard and I always feel like I am running to try and keep up - except running is a poor metaphor, because usually I mope into unproductive gloom about wanting to run away and escape!

This PhD is exhausting, but in an odd way I don't really do enough to find it so. :-(

Argh! I am so stuck on a piece of work due in tmrw, and I feel so incompetent. Then my supervisor called me and asks me to review with him a series of books that have just come out. They are really signifcant works to my field. And I feel so happy - but so terrified. I feel like a fraud who is just waiting to be exposed. I can barely string a coherent argument together and I feel expectations crashing down on top of me. This PhD really brings out the fear in me, my mental health I mean. I just want to run away from everything.

Snap! I am aiming to complete in October 2009 - probably closer to December 2009 though.

Now about that internet connection....

With a day to go before having to hand my panel work in, I am now unplugging the net connection. I vow to have my work done by the time I log back on. (well at least 2/3 done!)

My barometer of unhappiness is my third year of my undergraduate degree when i developed an eating disorder, felt depressed, and spent three days in bed in my room refusing to talk to anyone.

I am a lot more balanced now, but still have ups and downs. The worst is feeling like I have nothing to say and feeling futile. I always dread supervisions and preparing written work. It will be a real feat to finish this PhD. I am writing prep work for a panel at the momment and have really struggle to get ideas down. At least when I force them they start to flow, suprisingly!

Panel prep due in on Monday evening. A lot left to go!

All night!

No, I'm not from Sweden, but I have been learning Swedish since 2006 in anticipation of moving there in the future for a period of time.

I've pretty much had to listen to Swedish music, format my mobile phone and laptop to Swedish, and watch Swedish tv to try and get some kind of immersion. I use it every day and force myself to use phrases all them time.

I think it is great that your are going to Finland, Finnish is a challenge because it is not a Germanic or Romance language. Swedish could be a way in for you in Finland because it is 'the second domestic language' - and it is mandatory at schools, even graduates are expected to speak it to a good level. But I suppose Finns might see it as a bit imperial to speak Swedish as a total newcomer - and would prefer Finnish.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandatory_Swedish

Oh, the bottom one is Swedish, in Finland Swedish has status as an offical language and it taught in schools, a legacy of Sweden's political control of Finland.