Hey guys...

Just wanted to give an update on the walkers crisps situation... I got a reply today with £4.50 worth of walkers vouchers. whoop :-)

The reply really made me laugh though... my favourite line from the letter was "I trust you have now recovered from your experience"... erm not really, but I'll survive. haha.

Merry Christmas all, and to all a Happy New Year!!(tree)

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My goals are very much likes Sue's...

- submit thesis, have viva, hopefully pass viva with few corrections, do those and re-sumbit... hopefully be completely done and graduated by July.

- get a job

- plan a trip somewhere fantastic and disappear for a while.

Fingers crossed....:-)

I'm an inbetweener on this one... I don't purposefully seek out marmite, and I've never actually bought it, but I don't really mind it. I used to have it on my sarnies as a kid. I wouldn't say I love it though. What I love is cheese. Or chocolate spread.

Cobweb there is no tick box for me...:p

hey guys,

Thanks so much again for your responses.

Sneaks... I feel your pain for the iron and microwave... I once lent my tumble drier to my mom when her's broke (I never used it) and once she had her replaced she lent mine to my brother, and I believe it is now in tumble-drier heaven and I have clothes maidens and radiators to dry my clothes.

I feel much better (mentally - I've woken up with a cold... booo). I told my OH and mom about my meltdown over the bag of crisps and they thought it was hilarious. My OH even walked to the postbox in the rain to post my letter of complaint to walkers, and humoured me saying I should have told them how they ruined my day. That made me smile.

Cobweb... that's genius. I may call up the MD of Walkers. Maybe they'll give me a lifetime supply of crisps. I'll request dorito's though. Not sure I can stomach potato crisps after yesterday!

I'm taking a day off today. 8-)

I'm going home... theres an empty xmas tree and box of decorations with my name on it...

Didn't get quite as much as I wanted done today, but am a lot closer to my goal of finishing this chapter :-)
Yay!

Well done Algae on your paper, and Sneaks on the moving!

I'm feeling slightly better about my chapter... after a good rant, some luch and some tapping away, I've managed to finish the bit that was really getting to me. Still no where near finished, but I'm one step closer :-)

Onwards and upwards (or something to that effect!)

Wally...

On the consumer rights thing... I once went to MacDonalds and ordered a double cheese burger. When I opened it, the bun was mouldy. I was nearly sick. So I went to the counter to complain and they said it wasn't mouldy, it was from the grill... gross. A mouldy grill. So, I complained to the big man (I expect it was Ronald MacDonald himself) and got £10 worth of vouchers. Bonus! Problem is, I'm not overly keen on eating mouldy food, so haven't been back since. I've never understood why they sent me MacDonalds vouchers when I quite clearly said in my email-of-complaint that I would NEVER eat at MacDonald again... Obviously Ronald missed that bit when he read it...

Thanks guys. Your posts made me smile.

Cobweb... I've actually written a letter to walkers and put the crisps in an envelope ready to send back. The will not get away with ruining my lunch like that!!

Sneaks, I am still rowing, running etc, but am losing motivation for that. Because I'm on a training programme it's starting to feel like a chore... like this extra thing I have to do, so I've been rebelling and missing sessions. I'm going to decorate my moms Xmas tree later instead. Hopefully that'll cheer me up a bit... and I get to see my beautiful niece :-)

I've decided to get this chapter done.... by the end of this week. My hope is that once it's done, the rest will come a lot easier and my mood will brighten as a result. This is the one chapter in which my findings threw up anomalies, so I'm having to do loads of extra reading to discuss it all. I will get it done!! Even if its a big pile of poo, I will get it done.

It's weird... opening up on here has made me feel better. I recommend it!! ;-)

Sorry guys, I need to vent. I'm having a god awful day/ week/ month...

So, I'm writing up which is going terribly because I've been working on the same chapter now for nearly a month and it doesn't seem to be getting anywhere. To make matters worse, I just nearly lost ALL my thesis stuff because of some technical issues, but thankfully I had backed up my work elsewhere. I nearly had a mental breakdown over the phone to my OH because of this (he's a computery fixey guy). I don't think these are the main problems though... I actually feel like I'm losing my mind...

I have no motivation for anything... the only thing I look forward to anymore is going to bed. I've turned into a hermit. I actually just feel miserable. All I want is for the PhD to be over. Really that's all I want right now. Anyone who's asked me over the last month what I want for xmas has got the same answer "for someone to finish my PhD for me". But I feel like it's never going to be over. And to make matters worse, I can't motivate myself to actually get it done. I feel like I'm being completely irrational... I know I can do it. I know I have enough time to do it. I know I want to do it... but at the moment its just like there's this huge cloud hanging over me stopping me from getting it done. To be honest I just want to cry. I don't even know why. I just feel like crying would be a lot more productive than what I'm actually doing right now.

To clarify the fact that I'm losing my mind... I just opened a bag of crisps and they were disgusting... undercooked or something... they tasted like raw potato. I wanted to cry about that as well. Walkers crisps made me want to cry. Send in the men in white coats now...

I'm sorry to burden you guys. I don't really want to talk to anyone else about this. I'm not good at crying in front of others and fear that's exactly what might happen if I do open up to family/friends/OH.

This chapter is starting to do my head in. Literally.

I've been working on it for like 3 weeks now (not the full 3 weeks as I've had plenty other stuff to keep my away from it), and I'm not even half way through. I've just checked my word count for it, and its on 10,000 words. Thats more than my main lit review chapter!! This is going to be a monster chapter, and I'm not sure I'm EVER going to finish it. My deadlines are flying by with nothing to show for them. I'm on the verge of going insane I swear. I'm tempted to take up counselling...

Arrrgggghhhh... :-s

Sneaks I hope the move goes well. I'd much rather be moving/ dipping my toes in burning hot lava than doing this right now!!

Rant over... back to work...

My aims for the day:

-Get this chapter at least half way finished

That's my only aim because I know there's no chance of my working on anything else.

I may also work on brightening my mood though... but I'm not sure that's at all possible given the strenuous task I've set myself above.

:-s

wow... although i expected it, it seems like we do have more females on here...:p

I agree with Sneaks and Emmaki..

I think you're being over critical of your potential sup. She sounds fine to me, and clearly has an interest in your subject area which is the most important thing. how much your sup publishes has no impact on your PhD, and all that matters is that you get along and that she provides the support you need to complete your PhD.

I'm not sure of exact rules, but from my reading and what I've been doing, I have tables (showing data, etc), figures (graphs, charts, etc), and images (pictures, drawings, etc).

I don't think there are official rules on what you call them, but if they're taken off someone else, just make sure you reference them in the normal harvard way: (Someone et al, 1999) under the image, then properly reference in references section.

hope that makes sense.

Sneaks... enjoy your non-PhD day!!! I want one of those!!

I'm just going to vent really quickly...

In my faculty we have these random research seminars where academics and researchers will present their research. I was asked by the organiser to present today... which I don't really want to do. Anyway, I have to now. So I'm sitting here reading through my notes and EVERYONE... i swear everyone I've seen today has commented on me doing it... like its some huge task. It's getting on my nerves. I just want some peace before the storm to prepare. It also seems like all my fellow PhDers have come in specially today to watch me (or so they keep saying). Talk about pressure. I was hoping no one would turn up! Plus, to me it's no big thing. It's not like it's a conference or anything... Grrr...

Anyway, vent over... back to the reading...