I'd definitely vote for knitting, it's great as you can take it anywhere with you and these days it's actually considered quite cool.

I've also taken up making nice photo albums, not quite as fancy as those american scrapbooking but just putting the photos in some kind of order and writing some bits about them, it's nice looking through old holiday photos and the end result is quite satisfying.

I tried gardening, but everything died

I'm working Saturday at least, everyone keep their fingers crossed for me. I'll be developing a photo from a Southern Blot and my supervisor is desperate for the results and I've managed to mess it up twice already and...this is the last of the samples so this really has to work or I'm in deep do-do!

It's meant to be rubbish weather anyway...at least I hope so when I'm stuck in the lab!

I think people are misunderstanding me, I think *all* cases of abducted/missing children are awful and sad, wherever in the world and whatever nationality. I just don't really compare the deaths of these children to the deaths of children in places like Africa from diseases and famine because one is the act of a few individuals causing the deaths and the other is a culmination of a lot of bad things in the world.

I haven't got anything significant at all yet, just learning techniques and trying to get things to work to take to the next stage. I wouldn't worry about it, every PhD is different so some people may make lots of progress to begin with and others it might take longer.

I don't think I explained properly, French post-doc was referring to all the famine and starvation in Africa, didn't mention human trafficking, which I have to admit I didn't really know much about.

Well I haven't seen all of series three, have two more episodes to go. Series two is better though.

That would be a bit weird if Otto was the french guy! But as he was talking about starving children rather than evil peopl I feel a bit safer that my cover hasn't been rumbled!

Do you ever get in discussions/arguments where you are unsure if you are being overly sensitive? Sometimes I really think my point of view is worthy but after the event think maybe I was being a bit unreasonable.

So... in our office yesterday someone mentioned how sad it was about Madeline dissapearing and that he hated to say it but she probably wasn't still alive. We were all agreeing that it was awful until french post-doc says that millions of children die in Africa everyday so why is it such big news. I was pretty angry and a bit shocked as I didn't really think it was comparable as Maddy was most likely abducted by a paedophile. I suppose lots of children do die all the time and that is awful too but I feel more sad about Maddy because of the situation. What does everyone think? I've been feeling a bit bad about losing my temper a bit.

I've seen Series 3, I'm a bit of an addict and couldn't wait so downloaded it. I used to Like Derek, but now I don't!

My lab group has three offices between us. My supervisor has his own and then there are 4-5 of us in each of the other two. I have my own computer and desk and there is quite a lot of room. I didn't realise how lucky I was to get this, I would have no where to go without this and how would I do any work without a computer?! I also have a computer in the lab I can use if I don't want to come all the way upstairs.

I'm doing a CASE and have so far only met my industry person once. But I will be going there at some point to do some experiments there although I think I can choose and it depends how my experiemnts going. The industry hasn't really had any input yet but I think that's just because I'm in my first year. I'd like to get more input from them though, my academic supervisor is a bit nuts.

I lost my grandma a few months ago, she had been very ill for a long time but I never really thought that she would one day not be there. I spoke to her almost everyday and she always said that I made her feel better. This was my first experience of grief and I found it really weird, and still do, I'd get irritated by the smallest things too and go through really weird mood swings. I also often pretend she isn't dead just to make myself feel better. All I can say is that grief is weird and you can't understand it but it will get better and you will feel better in time. Just hang in there and take it a day at a time.

At least your supervisors sound supportive, when I mentioned my grandma had died so I needed time off to visit my grandad so he wasn't on his own my supervisor suggested setting him up with his mum who is the same age! I'm not even sure it was a joke, I nearly punched him

It is sunny outside, I get to finish early because I have done all my experiments, my southern blot worked and I'm back in the supe's good books. PhD isn't quite so bad after all!

Thanks for replies. I feel better this morning. At least if I have more of this at each presentation for the next 4 years my viva won't scare me!

I've heard of those, really good for core stability and bad backs apparently.