Also the best vodka - my first 3 days in Zakopane are a blur thanks to that stuff

I had the best dumplings ever when I was in Poland. Luckily there's a great Polish shop opened in Leicester, once I've figured out how to read the instructions on the packet, I'll try to make my own.

Though try not to be too good an interviewee if you really don't want the job. I once did exactly what you're doing (wasn't really keen but went to the interview out of curiosity) and got offered the position the next day, which made me feel guilty

You could try general stuff:

How long have you been looking at (....) - what drew you to that area of research, etc. Or about links with other labs in the UK and abroad: most good research groups will have several links.

Specifically: what analytical equipment/software is used (MS, NMR, DAD) and which manufacturer (labs usually have a preferred brand). Or about the health and safety implications, esp. since you're pregnant. And the sharing of menial tasks between group members, and out-of-hours work.

I've found that asking people why they reserach what they do, and their friends in other labs, is usually enough to get them talking, then all you have to do is look fascinated

If I'd had the funding or personal finances, yes, but I would have done a research Masters, not a taught one. My firm was supposed to be funding a part-time Masters but it went bankrupt (not cos of me I add...) - but if you are short of funds you may want to try working and asking the firm to pay for your Masters as part of staff development.

Otherwise you can probably do a crappy job 2-3 days per week and fund yourself on a Masters/MPhil the other 2 days - part time fees are around 700-800 per year depending on the research.

Try visualisation: imagine it being published in high impact factor journal of your choice (that's what I'm doing with my lit review; though it helps that this one is on a subject I find really interesting too).

Ok, we can have donkeys as long as they're not in the Xmas sense. I bet they hate it as much as I do.

hello Duncan!

Bloody hell, it seems we're a sickly lot on here.

Don't get me wrong, I like seeing my family but I'd rather do it when things are less pressured ("It's Christmas" Everyone start having a good time NOW") and I don't have to stay so bloody long with nothing to do but sit watching TV and going stir-crazy. Or I'd like them to visit me for once, the roads go both directions!

Don't feel bad. Part of the reason this time of year depresses me is the way you have to play diplomat to avoid upsetting anyone. My parents are divorced so I'm expected to spend Christmas with one and New Year with the other. This means that I can't just visit "home" for a few days like everyone else, I'm stuck hundreds of miles away from my home for two full weeks (23rd Dec - 3rd Jan) making forced converstaion with my parents friends about bloody railway stations of the 1950's or something, slowly going out of my mind from having to keep up an act

I live in Leicester; close enough! I'm glad to read both your replies and realise I'm not a freak (well, not in this respect anyway). I find it quite lonely feeling like everyone except me is in this culturally enforced state of jollity. Not that I'm unhappy, not at all, I just find the whole thing really false.

Yeah, New Year's not so bad. I'm already resoving to be much more self-disciplined with my reading and organising; didn't realise how much of a Ph. D. was going to be organising your own timescales and making yourself stick to them.

I'd like to create a safe space for Christmas-haters like me. The following subjects are banned from this thread:

1) Christmas food
2) Where you are going for Christmas
3) What you are getting or buying for Christmas
4) Christmas
5) Snow
6) Holly and ivy
7) Carols
8) Tinsel
9) Baubles
10) Donkeys

So there!

Right. Errrr...nice weather we're having?

I can't wait for Christmas to be over and for normal life to resume. This time of year is depressing on so many levels. I hate having to adopt a whole new personality just because "It's Christmas!"

It wouldn't be so bad if it was just Christmas Day, but the whole bloody charade drags on for weeks and weeks.

Maybe this will make you feel better:

"There are several famous examples of rejected
papers. Thus Jenner's account of the first use of vaccination
against smallpox was rejected for publication
by the President of the Royal Society. Jenner
then published his findings himself as a monograph.
In this way the Royal Society was never associated
with one of the most important medical discoveries
of the 18th century even though it was made by one
of its fellows".

Their loss! Publish it somewhere better.

Also: two members of an adjoining group (both now postdocs) got a 2:2 and a 3rd respectively, and one of those is now the leader of the group. After a couple of years people won't care about your grade anymore!