No way Jose!

Wow - that's organised! I love homemade christmas cake. Can I have some please? Would love to try out the recipe for those chewy ginger bisuits. Thanks. Does anyone else find they have an obsession with food when they are working? Or with food in general?

Can you do it the other way - i.e import refs from word document to Endnote? ;)

awwww ...

The trick is to let the mars bar goo cool down a bit before you add the rice krispies or they'll just pop and go soggy. I tried using snickers but found them too hard. Are you sure you're not gay DanB? Never met a guy who was into doing this! Do you have a recipe for chewy cookies? I'd love you to bits if you had as I've been trying to get hold of one for ages! ;)

opps meant stationery ... been in lab too long!! I guess the ultimate thing would be a dictionary!!

Quirky is definitely good! The quirkier the better.

In the meantime how about post it notes (you can never have too many) and other stationary, mugs etc... while you work on the quirky freebies! You are really expanding now! ;) Next it'll be the bright lights of the West End ... Findaphd ... the musical!! ;)

So is anyone doing anything for it?

Happy Halloween!!

Insecurity lurks!! Must be the pheromones!! ;)

Yeah it's scary! You have days especially when you start and think - how did I get here? And then it dawns on you what you are trying to do! It's fun so far. I've heard it described as the best time you'll have as it's probably the only time ever in your career that you can just concentrate purely on your research without thinking about other things e.g. admin (the bane of most academics'lives), grant proposals, teaching and other commitments.

The same reason as you. I want a career in research and it seems you need one these days to get anywhere. And 3 more years to being a student I couldn't exactly say no. As to the subject it only became clear during my masters and I've been refining the specific techniques I want to use ever since! It was just a natural progression after I had tried lots of different techniques/areas of interest within the subject area I found one I really liked.

There is a lovely vegeatarian cafe in Liverpool called the Egg that even has vegan options and soya milkshakes.

As for choosing between Leeds and UCL I agree with DanB - the supervisor and research group are more important than the university. UCL is more known than Leeds generally but that doesn't mean they are better. You really have to go and see them if possible to see which you would prefer. One thing to bear in mind about UCL especially if you are going to an established dept they usually only fund the projects they are interested and won't be too susceptible to new ideas.

Chocolate!

Thanks Ann. That sounds like a good idea. I've just seen this post again so I guess they've moved it over. Maybe I can fit some baking in between everything else I have to do!! I wish!! Getting very busy at the moment.