I haven't found that: where I am the undergrads are 90% Asian, and the postgrads probably 60% non-white; and of the white postgrads, a majority are not British. I much prefer this: I would hate to be stuck in a situation such as you describe.

I do find that most students here are middle class though; and the middle class ones tended to get a lot more support from parents: even know one PhD whose mum made her sandwiches all though her degree

Yes, what is it with those type of people? You saw it first, she had no entitlement to it. She should have been gracious: especially, as you say, with her child present. What kind of example is that?

What is facebook like? I've had an email from a former colleague inviting me to join her as a friend on Facebook, but the last thing I want is my mug being posted on some website

Aye, sveral times just over the last week

"Stripped to the waist", I meant. Oops

I think I'll designate this the whinging thread (and keep cheerful on the other ones). So: today's moan. I think you psychologists should study "Male Gang Mentality When the Sun Comes Out". Oh, there's gangs of British men, stripped to the wait, Carling in hand, yelling "Wooorgh! Get yer tits out yer dirty f***ing slut!" (or its variant, "Get yer tits out yer ugly f***ing minger"). Then there's the Eastern European and Mediterranean men with their choruses of "Zexzy! Zexzy!" sounding like bloody mosquitoes.

Why can't you walk past a group of men in summer without geting a barrelful?!

Sorry, I know I'm generalising and that lots of blokes don't do this. Just venting.

Do you dislike writing in general, or is it just that you are fed up of your Ph.D. subject? If the latter then probably best to just take 2 weeks off - I think everyone, no matter how much they love their subject, gets to a saturation point where they just want a break. In Bill Bryson's book "A Short History of Nearly Everything", he quotes Charles Darwin, who had just finished an eight-year thesis on barnacles - he said to a friend "I hate a barnacle as no man ever did before." I'm sure that's a common feeling among thesis-writers.

On the jelly question: we have a Chinese supermarket that sells a huge variety of agar desserts (jelly, effectively). Agar is from seaweed, as I expect everyone knows. Tastes exactly the same, but comes in nice exotic flavours like jasmine and Thai flowers.

Happy

That would have been ace

Well, I did dawdle over it to wind her up

Chrisrolinski: I used to worry that he would get an annual list of downloads, but he never did. I wondered how I would explain this one:

"Reaction of arsoles with iron carbonyls. Arsole → ferrole conversion"

(no explanation other than it made me laugh in a very childish way).

Rutherford, they've probably been reading news articles like this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/11/world/europe/11bacon.html

and assume that we all spend out lives calculating things like how to make the perfect bacon sandwich.

Petty annoyance of the day: me, sat in the library using one of the many electronic catalogue computers. Then feels a presence behind me, and there's a girl, arms folded, staaaaaaring at the screen that I'm using.

Me: Can I help you?
-I'm waiting for that computer.
-Can't you use one of those? (several free machines; though admittedly she would have had to walk 30 feet to get to them).
-No.
-Oh.

She was there for bloody ages...hard to concentrate with a pair of beady eyes watching you. In the end I got up and pulled out the chair for her, and told her to please, take a seat (sracastically). Would have told her to bugger off but she may end up in my project group next year.

hee hee Chrisrolinksi, I used to do that too. I figured my boss paid a set amount per year for his Science Direct account so my secret downloads made no difference.