Think I can get it - have sent you a pm.

HI

I've just started my PhD (part-time) and although it is hard fitting everything in (I am in my forties with a husband and two children) I am still glad I am doing it. I gave up a very good career (high salary and perks etc) to go into academia and at the moment I travel at least two and a half hours a day to go to work, I earn less than half what I did in my finance career but I am so much happier. Although I worked 35 hours a week in theory , the reality in the corporate word (especially if you rise through the levels) is very different.

I still have time for a social life and my family but things just have to get prioritised - sometimes it is the children sometimes it is the PhD.

You have to decide what you want to do though and it sounds like your heart isn't really in the PhD.

Alias for the forum

(yes you have replied)

Just sent my reply off :-)

Just found this http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page by googling free minmap software - don't know if it is any good though.

And this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mind_mapping_software has a list of different software.

Minmap integrates with Microsoft Office so I can plan a presentation or chapter using it and then export it to word or powerpoint as outline mode; not sure what the free ones can do.

I don't know of any free software - I use mindmanager which I got fairly cheap as a student (I bought v 6 when I did my MSc which I finished 5 years ago - it still works really well). You can get v8 from here for £60 http://www.studentexpressware.co.uk/gbu0-catshow/mindjet.html

Spent all day in graduation (and two more coming up tomorrow and Thursday) but when I got out I had an e-mail from my supervisor saying that the 2000 words I sent yesterday ( the first I have sent) were "a good-enough start, but I propose we leave proper examination til Sept, when it will all be even better and set in context" which given the feedback on my proposal was all "yuk" " don't like" "change this" " get rid" etc i was encouraged by.

(Oh & I should have posted that I had a fab weekend - children are away with my parents so my husband took me away Sat/Sun for a surprise weekend to the North Pennines which is an area I am considering using for fieldwork and we spent Saturday in tourist information centres (and a cafe) and all day Sunday looking at tourist places associated with my PhD research (he took lots of pictures for me) so he is in my very good books (he even doesn't mind that our summer holiday has been arranged around places I want to visit for my PhD) :-) )

I tend to stick a load of washing on / take the washing out and peg it out. When I am at work I make a cup of tea and see who else wants one so we can have a 5 min chat (the smokers all go out for a chat). I tend to do all the surf the net stuff but as you said you need (esp if you wear glasses) need non-screen time. I did have a resolution (which didn't last very long) to spend 15 mins a day tidyng my office so I might reinstate that in 5 minute blocks - in fact looking at my desk I might start that now - you have inspired me :-)

It really does depend on your subject - in my branch of social sciences "I" is a big no-no but in education it is expected (something I really struggled with when I was doing my PGCE in Higehr Education). Not sure about the latin - if it is botany then I would expect latin plant names and many legal terms are expressed in latin but otehrwise ???.

I think the best thing is to speak to your supervisor or another PhD student in your discipline.

My husband transfers money around between pounds and euros (UK to Spain and Italy) and he finds that companies such as HiFx offer better rates and lower commissions. You do need to have the bank account set up already though to make the transfer. I would set up a bank account and then make the transfer using Hifx or similar. Always phone them up and bargain with a couple as you might get a slight improvement (which if you are moving large amounts makes a difference).

There are lots of places - Surrey, Bournmouth, Manchester Metropolitan, Leeds Met, John Moores, London Met, Bedfordshire, Cardiff, Derby and lots of others. Since torusim is a cross discipliniary subject you can alos find toursim researchers in other departments (eg Geography, Sociology, Management etc). If you are not restricted to a particular part of the country then I would look for an academic who specialises in the area of tourism you are interested in and approach them with your ideas. If you are more restricted due to family committments (as I was) then you might look to your local university (fortunately my local university is in the Top 20 worldwide for tourism research and in top 3 in UK). There are also many universities abroad (eg Otago in NZ, Edith Cowan in Aus, Wisconsin-Stout in US, Hong Kong Polytechnic University). Annals of Tourism have publised lists of rankings based on research output which is another useful source of information (more useful than lists like Times Good University Guide). If you are looking for a funded place then they will be advertised.

The point is (and most of you have got it) is that you need to be on over £20k to be better off working which is close to the average salary. PhD studentships are actually very generous as they are tax and NI free plus you aren't paying pension contribution. A £14k stipend is worth just over £20K in gross salary so if you get that plus some hourly teaching (of which the first £6500 is tax free) you are MUCH better off than many graduate starting salaries.

Since there have been posings about cost of living etc I though it would be interesting to see which people would prefer - salary or PhD studentship