OMG I'm in absolute hysterics! Just what I needed!

Yes I do, thanks for asking.

I quite liked dispatcher although being abusive is a step too far. But then I'm quite forthright and downright rude at the best of times, although occasionally helpful.

Usually (and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong anybody) you don't have to pay anything back from the funding but if you get paid every quarter then you'll have to hand back whatever you didn't use during that quarter (i.e. if you got paid for three months, then left a month into that quarter, you'd pay back the other two months worth) so effectively you don't have to pay back what you got for the duration of your studies.

For several years now, I guess linked to New Year resolutions, I have made a list of things I want to achieve for the year. Not resolutions as such, but a variety of goals. So I have short term goals, medium terms goals and long term goals, with what I intend to do to make inroads into each of them. Then as I go through the year every month I look at how I'm doing and either tick off the completed ones or revise the others

I ask because several people have said to me they find it surprising that I have an actual list of things I want to achieve, not just a list of general ambitions.

So do you have one? Or am I a bit mental?

Before my PhD I was rude, grumpy and intemperate.

After my PhD I am more rude, more grumpy but less intemperate.

8-)

Yes, as technically you still haven't finished it until you submit the hard copy - the viva isn't the end!

Have you spoken to your supervisor whether it is possible to go down another route you are interested in?

I wasn't enjoying my PhD at the end of my first year because I wasn't doing something I was all that interested in but I identified a direction I wanted to go, discussed it with my supervisor, and that led to what became the main theme of my PhD.

Oh Sneaks, I *love* you, you've just given me an amazing idea!

Not that I know the answer to your question. But you are a star (tree)

I didn't know that people studied German universities. That's an interesting field I'm sure.

Agree with Bilbo, it will differ by uni. I had minor corrections to do within 3 months, which took about 2 (due to Christmas and work and new job interviews).

No and I'm not remotely bothered either. Maybe if it was something "readable" but my subject is too full of equations and impenetrable terminology to be easily read by a non expert. They are proud, I know they are, and that's enough for me.

I spent most of my first two weeks either drunk or hungover.

Have you considered Belford University?

Alpacalover, that is true what you state although I can't think of a paper off the top of my head where there is any detail about it - and I can't really explain either I'm afraid (I'm not a geneticist but I did need to assume a direct relationship for my PhD even though I was told it wasn't accurate).