Actually, it's numbet 616 who should worry (if you believe in all that nonsense):

http://www.religionnewsblog.com/11133/revelation-666-is-not-the-number-of-the-beast

What does "ding" mean?

I'm happy; it's like being paid for your hobby.

I'd buy some f*****g equipment that works

I've been paying my TV license by direct debit for at least 10 years, but every single month I get letters threatening arrest for non-payment. I've given up writing to them telling them to check my details; just let them send the police round and I'll show them my bank statement. Haven't they got anything better to do?

Yes, our generation will never afford a house, a pension, or anything. Our parents and grandparents lived in a time when they could buy their own house, never knew unemployment; didn't have to live from short-term contract to contract and could make savings. And they now get pensions, winter fuel payments, discounts on transport.

I've beein thinking about this lately cos our local paper is campaigning for more winter fuel payments to all pensioners; which makes me think that all the public money is going to one privileged group of society that has never exactly been short of money anyway.

I did part of my undergrad at Sunderland, and there the PGCE requires only a 3rd class degree.

Incidentally how did you get accepted onto a degree without Maths? I thought it was a basic requirement.

I get 12,000 and feel pretty rich; mind you I don't drive at all or drink very much, and those two things seem to be the biggest expenses for other postgrads.

Mind you talking of medics wages, I'm tired of being expected to sympathise with nurses, who get 22,000 to eat chocolates and complain by all accounts.

I think showers use more water than baths, despite what we get told about showering being more environmentally friendly. No-one can shower in less than 2 minutes.

You have two options: get into debt (in the short term) with a Career Devlopment Loan, or get a job and study on day release or by distance learning. Many people do this; you're not the only one. I think you need to be a bit more pro-active.

You're only 26, so you musnt't give up. My supervisor was passing as I read your message and he gave some thoughts: that, obviously, if you had applied for a PhD straight after graduating with a 3rd, you would probably not be able to compete with 1st class applicants. But a 3rd with work experience in the pharmaceutical field - even admin - is a different matter. Coastman is right about the Masters: even if you have to pay fees, it's better to be short of money for a couple of years now than do a job you don't like for the long term.

Two people in the Pharmacy school here got 3rds originally, but topped it up with Master degrees and now they're Drs, no-one cares about the 3rd class Bachelors anymore.

"fiends doing PhDs "

Was that a Freudian slip?

Let's all hope so too. Are her family with her?

What is tiger balm?

Ooooh, sounds like your desk hasn't been health-and-safety-assessed!

Not sure about Oz, but where I am they're so bloody scared of being sued that everything is assessed. There's even a ladder-climbing course you have to go on.