They do great Mangoes in Chinatown though. But yeah, very expensive!

In Chinatown (Manchester) you can get a box of 30 packets of Ramen Noodles for £3.00

Ramen is my lifeblood.

The elephant is just one animal I am using in the thesis. And if anything the thesis is about people as much as animals. I developed this particular case study myself when I wanted to write a paper on a cultural history of an animal... I chose a big animal whose arrival in Britain would not have gone unnoticed - and then started finding really interesting and beautiful anatomies of these animals.

I'm sorry I blasted you a little on the other thread!

continued...

From my perspective a lot of science Phd topics are small demonstrations of principles or aim to work towards a understanding in a particualar area. In that respect, my thesis is very similar. It's easy to knock my research isn't it Chaco? I don't pretend to have the first idea about neuroscience, but at least I respect the fact that it has its own value/ benefit to a specific field and yourself. It's a shame that you can't think a little outside the box...

Otto and Charco.

Actually, as I made it clear in my post - that isn't my thesis title, simply a paper and sample chapter I am writing at present. The actual thesis relates to changes in the cultural and political constructions of animals in a formative period in scientific and intellectual history. I think the history of science and natural history collecting is a fairly valid field - and personally I get pretty fed up with the arrogant hegmony of much of the 'sciences' of which a majority of the PhD's don't actually change the world or have a point per-se.

Having just spent a week poring 300 year old sources I feel very protective of my ideas until they get into print....but...

.. it is about the first few elephants that came to Britain and they way they arrived as natural spectacles, died and were dissected and then became specimens in collections and in 'paper menageries' and anatomy tracts. I'm looking at the way the 'elephant' was defined in this period.

I find your mouse thesis boggling!

I know my topic isn't really going to change the world or have a practical utility. BUT I think my project is intellectually stimulating and valuable in and of itself. I know that even if I get one or two papers out of it, and if these communicate my interest in the field then I will have done well. At the end of the day, my PhD is my own and has its own intrinsic worth to me - and whilst I need it for a career and it should have some wider appeal, ultimately it is a topic which enthralls me. Early modern Animals aren't for eevrybody and that is okay with me.

My thesis title changes - but the title of the paper I am working on at present is:

A "Most Ravishing" Spectacle, Cadaver and Specimen: Framing the elephant body 1680-1725.

sorry, porridge 'with' water. My English!

Hmmm, yes and porridge was water become palatable. A pasta or rice in tinned tomato. Lidl - the grad students friend.

I went for the first day of reseach in the BL. It was great. Took a while to get used to ordering the stuff...but now I'm on a roll! What a great building and ammenities!

I am sympathetic.

I broke up amicably with my boyfriend of two years last Summer. It was a mutual thing, and we are friends now - but even so the moving house, starting a Phd and starting a new job (yes, living apart I do spend more of living costs) was mega stressful. So much so it triggered my first bout of psoriasis. It was awful, but I got through. And I'm happy now.

Best of luck.

I had my hair cut on Thursday especially.

*blush*

Student *geek* chic!

I learnt to read very early on and had managed two or three hundred books aimed at teenagers by age books with ease by age 6. I had read a lot of 'classics' by the age of 11 - even if I hadn't appreciated the finer points of the prose! lol

On the flip side - my GCSE teacher in Year 10 said I should be lucky to pass. A number of years later, and my PhD has a large historical element to it!

I work in a large university library, and last summer one of my colleagues found what can be politely called 'a fully utilised French letter' between the pages of a book. Let's just say, the head librarian was in contact with the very embarassed borrower.