Hey, guess what has happened now?! My partner has just been made redundant! Do you ever get to the stage when so many things happen that it just doesn't affect you anymore? A friend told me that is a good attitude as it means you are accepting stuff and not stressing but thinking about moving forward. The good thing about the redundancy is that he does specialised work and the only jobs around seem to be in the same city as my uni or surrounding area. He has interviews lined up for next week only a few days after submitting his CV, and the salary he could get is twice as much as he was earning before as he had a bastard boss who took half of what he earned as he was sub-contracted or something.
So I'm looking at the positive. We could move back close to uni, he will be able to help financially if I need it, the pregnant teenager will probably stay down south with her boyfriend and the council will have to house her.

I had a meeting yesterday with the person who I want to come on to my panel and hurrah, she had no problems with it. She has read some of my work and is really interested and wants to work with me. I now have her and my supervisor supporting me and one other panel member who is OK. The negative one is gone!
The new member's experience and knowledge will be really helpful for the direction I want to go in. I've got nine months left till I offically finish but I only just feel as if I am getting somewhere now. I'm glad I persevered as I know what I am doing is valid. I could have easily just accepted all the negativity and done the boring old-fashioned stuff which I was being steered towards.

I think this is more to do with Monday 4 May being a bank holiday. I'm sure access is normally fine but as a lot of people don't work on bank holidays then sometimes places aren't open so special access has to be arranged. But as we all know bank holidays don't exist in the world of PhDs!

I would say that you should be able to change to a different area of interest if it isn't a complete change ie from English Lit to Biology! From your post I think you mean a different area of English Lit so that shouldn't cause any problems at all. I did my masters in Early Medieval Language and Lit and my PhD is in later medieval Art History, so a change of time period and subject. It's about having the research skills and the skills you have gained so far in studying Early Modern literature will be transferable to other periods. Out of interest what are you working on at the moment and what do you want to work on?

Most of you will be aware of the pressures on me at the moment. I have come up with another option to deal with this which is go part-time to finish my PhD which might take some of the pressure off. I was wondering if anyone has experience of being funded and changing to part-time and how this affected the financial side of things.

Like it, Dan B. This should be given to all PhD students when they start.

Here's a good article which should help
http://www.jobs.ac.uk/careers/articles/1220/Academic_CV_Building_Where_to_Start

Regarding non-academic work, anything which shows administration skills is important, as the article says the three main areas employers will be looking for are teaching, research and admin.

I'm preparing for some seminars next week but I really want to show the students a film which they have been recommended to watch. I doubt any of them will have done it in their own time. The film is two hours long which will fill the seminar. I'm feeling guilty that I am being paid to teach but won't actually be doing anything if they sit watching the film. I'm happy to stay behind for discussions if they are though.

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If anybody is interested in attending an inter-disciplinary postgraduate Medieval Conference -Religion, Belief, Superstition c. 400-c. 1550, at the University of Manchester, there is more information here http://sites.google.com/site/postgraduatemedieval2009/

PhD students, Masters students, and Post-docs all welcome. (and anyone else!)

Thanks Caz.

Can someone tell me what is the policy regarding advertising conferences? Me and some colleagues are organising one and we want to publicise it as widely as possible. Can I put a llink to our website?

Thank you everyone for your advice. The main thing is that I have been honest with my partner right from the beginning. I have even shown him the posts on here. He knows I love him and whatever happens we will make our relationship work and he knows my PhD is the most important thing to me at the moment. We have got together again after 22 years - we went out as teenagers, so there is a strong bond there. I knew he had children when we started seeing each other again and I have accepted them and thought about it long and hard before we moved in together. But the latest development is just something I didn't expect and can't deal with. The housing situation is complicated or perhaps eased in a way by the fact that I still own half a house in the part of the country where I am at uni. I can get rid of the tenant who is actually becoming a nightmare anyway, and I can move back in there so will be closer to uni and can concentrate on work. The problems there are that I will need to borrow money off my dad, which hopefully I can do as he is fairly well off, so I can pay towards the mortgage again but still pay towards rent for my partner, as we want to keep the house on for the future when hopefully his daughter will have her own place and I will have a job. The other problem with me moving back to my house is that my ex still lives there. He is away a lot so we wouldn't see each other that much and we are still friends. He is getting exasperated with the tenant at the moment so he will have to choose the lesser of two evils! Me and my partner would be able to see each other at weekends so we would be able to keep the relationship going. He has been very understanding but I know that he has to deal with his daughter and I wouldn't really want it any other way. She is not with the father of the baby any more and her mum handed her kids back to their dad as soon as they were old enough, so neither of them will play any part.
I had thought about taking a break from the PhD but I think taking a break from the situation by moving is the best option, as I just want to work on that and get it finished. We will have more choices then for our future together.
Thank you again to everybody, and I sympathise and empathise with those of you with similar problems.

Of course she and her baby are more important than my PhD in the grand scheme of things, but I have to be selfish about me, and yes, you are probably right I will have to take myself away from the situation. We got the house together as we needed somewhere bigger for all of us and worked out how much we could both put in to the rent. If I move out and stop paying the rent then he will have to move again to somewhere cheaper.

I don't know what I expect from anyone out there but I need to have another moan. Everything that could possibly happen to me has happened during my Phd but I've struggled on until I was near breaking point a few weeks ago. I'm now seeing the uni counsellor to get things into perspective. When we listed all the things that had happened - bereavement, buying a house, divorce etc etc she was amazed at it all. I was beginning to feel more positive about moving forward but got home to snide comments from my partners teenage daughter. A massive row ensued in the whole family and I just felt I couldn't take any more. We found out whay she had been so moody though - she is pregnant and wants to keep the baby.
I can't stay here with a baby in the house. I can't work well as it is with TV on all the time and never knowing what mood she will be in. I don't think I can cope with living with a pregnant teenager and then a baby. I don't know what to do. I don't want to end the relationship with my partner but being with him (and his family) is jeopardising my PhD. I pay part of the rent here so can't just leave. I feel trapped and out of control, but then I feel selfish about wanting my own space.
I don't know what to do for the best for me and my PhD.
Thanks for reading/listening.

There are 284 users online now!! This can't be right. There are normally only about 9 or 10! Is everybody having a crisis?