Love the Ode Smilodon,

And now I can spell Makka Pakka correctly!

My boyfriend got me a Macca Pacca toy (any of you out there with young children will know who this is!) Anyone who doesn't I suggest you watch In The Night Garden - but you have to watch it on catch up if you can or record it and watch it at night while under the influence of alcohol.
I bought pink fizz and chocs (£5 from Tesco) and we will probably partake of these while watching a DVD later on. Romantic? No. His 15-year old son is here for the weekend! (However we are off to the Viking Festival in York next weekend, so that will be our romantic weekend away).

What you are entitled to and what you take could be very different amounts of time! I'm funded by the AHRC and the allowance is 8 weeks a year. However, in the two years I have been studying I have taken one week of proper holiday - ie going away abroad. I've had days off here and there but there is no way I could have taken the full 8 weeks every year without getting really behind on my work.

Hi, I don't know anything about the Philosophy Dept but I am at Manchester in that school, and it's a great university. If you need any more general info on the city or uni I can help with that. If I were you I would not think negatively about the department for replying quickly, I would think positively about them being so impressed they accepted you straight away.

I've posted quite a lot of moans and groans on this forum over the past two years but I thought I would be positive today, not to blow my own trumpet but just to motivate others and have some good news for a change. I've officially been in my third year for a week now, and I had a really good day yesterday. I did my first lecture for the Continuing Education Department (I'm doing a six week course), and it went really well. There were eight retired students and some of them knew quite a lot about lots of things so they asked lots of questions but they all said it was really interesting and enjoyable. One, who was on the committee of a big society in the area also asked if I would give them a talk. This is great because it's an academic/public society which I have attended lectures for and they get big names from the field. After doing 20 minute papers at conferences I always wondered about the big one hour lectures that keynotes and speakers at this society do and whether I would even be able to that, and now I will get the chance (scary but good!).
I met with my supervisor and after it being a make or break situation as I had done lots of research but not written anything of real note, she is amazed that I have written a 10,000 word chapter in about six weeks and she says she has every confidence that I can produce a very good PhD now. I'm not so worried about my next panel in a couple of weeks (even though one member strikes fear into my heart as she just criticises every little thing I do).
And my third piece of good news is that I have had a paper accepted for publication.
So, yes I suppose I am blowing my own trumpet a bit, but I think it's good to celebrate success when you can. Especially as before Xmas I was told by my supervisor that if I didn't produce a really high standard piece of work I would probably fail my next panel. (She has been really supportive and helpful though and is always really honest with me). She also didn't think I was at the level to get anything published yet.
I started to doubt myself and wondered whether I should give up anyway as I was having money worries (my tenant ran off without paying the rent!).
My house is rented out again now and I made myself be positive that I could do a PhD.
So, at the moment, everything is good and I'm starting my third year on a high. It is all ups and downs on this PhD ride, and I'm bound to have more crises along the way but for the moment I'm happy!!

Has anybody had the problem of trying to mark an exam paper which is illegible? I can barely read the answers on one paper but I can make out some words and can read parts of the notes they made, enough to see that they have answered the question but not enough to be able to make out their arguments etc. I was thinking of giving them a 3rd as I can work out enough to know that they don't deserve a fail. Would anyone just fail it straight away?
I have issues over the use of exams for formal assessment in that it does penalise those whose writing is bad, although they should make the effort to try to write legibly. I suppose as it is a first year, and they want to query their mark and find out why it was low, they will have the chance to do something about their writing before they take exams which count towards their degree classification.

I've just checked their student number alongside their coursework and I gave them a 2:1 and then a 1st for these assignments!!

It's happened! I'm still in my dressing gown, and the worst thing is I have only put it on to come downstairs to get a cup of tea! I am working in bed marking exam papers. My excuse is that my partners teenage son is playing on his X box downstairs so it's too noisy to work and marking in bed is easier than other types of work.

Good advice!! And I had a case of 12 bottles delivered yesterday. I switched energy suppliers and received the wine free as a thank you. Sometimes I work when I have had a few drinks and get some good ideas. But I make sure I go back when sober and tidy up what I have written. I may do the same with the marking and go back just to make sure I have given fair marks.
Actually some of the answers and the writing make me think that some of the students went into the exam room pissed!!

I'm at the Gates of Hell! I just can't get started on marking. I don't have any specific guidelines for the exam scripts but was told to use the coursework criteria which isn't relevant in a lot of areas such as presentation, use of sources etc. I though exams would be easier as the answers are shorter but instead of marking one essay, I have to look at three different answers and then work out an overall mark. And trying to read the writing!!!
Any tips??

Fot the first time today I thought I don't actually need to get dressed. I could work in my dressing gown. But then I knew that would be a slippery slope so I made myself get dressed. I feel better for it. I did spend part of the morning in bed reading an article and thinking about a course I have to do next week. The slippery slope would be not even putting dressing gown on but just bring my laptop and books upstairs so I could just work in bed all the time!
Also, yesterday, I noticed a lot more grey hairs, I am in my early 40s so I suppose it's to be expected but I'm sure they are appearing faster due to the PhD!

I've got a chapter to finish for my review panel in Feb, I'm preparing a course for the continuing education department, I'm facilitating a two-day masters research design workshop, and I've just been reminded that the exam for the course I taught last semester is tomorrow so I will have 30 exam scripts coming my way on Monday. So much to do so little time!

I started a thread last week called Financial Difficulties - search for that and have a look at some of the posts regarding earning extra money or saving money.

That's an interesting point AlicePalace! I don't actually spend that much time preparing for seminars as I know the subject very well. But the marking does take time. However, for an academic career, it's all about what is on your CV. Thanks for all the other replies. I am limited to six hours a week work as well as six hours teaching so I will have to be careful or keep any extra work secret! I'm just in a difficult situation at the moment as I co-own a house with my ex and he still lives there but I had got a tenant in to pay my half of the mortgage. However, he just did a runner without paying two months rent. So I am down by quite a lot of money. I try to budget carefully, and in fact am not actually paying for food at the moment as my partner is covering that.
If I need to stay overnight for courses, conferences etc I always manage to get £19 a night travelodges, I use Tesco clubcard vouchers to get more vouchers for meals out so we can have some sort of social life, and I'm always looking for 2for1 deals as well. http://www.vouchercodes.co.uk/printable-vouchers.html
This is a good site if anyone is interested.

I was just wondering how people manage financially when they are funded. Let me just say first that I know how lucky I am to have a funded PhD and I admire people who take on study and have to fund themselves. However, I am in a different situation, in that I have funding and am very grateful but am still finding it hard to manage financially. I feel guilty that I am complaining but I am not extravagant with my money. Everything just seems to cost so much - petrol, food, bills etc. I have recently moved in withl with my partner and we pay a percentage each of the rent. He has two teenagers so we haven't divided everything by half as he feels he should pay more as he is supporting three people. He is very supportive to me as well but I hate it when he pays for everything. I'm doing some teaching but that covers my petrol expenses. I have just applied to do more teaching but I don't really have the time, and I haven't told my supervisor yet as I know she thinks I don't have enough time to spend on my PhD already. But if I don't earn some more money I may have to consider giving up the PhD. Teaching seems the best option otherwise it would be a supermarket or pub job (nothing wrong with that per se but I am limited to the hours I can work and at minimum wage I would not earn enough to make a difference).
Are other people in the same boat and any tips?

Because a PhD can take anything from three to six years I think there are going to be times when relationships break down but this could have happened anyway and may have had nothing really to do with the PhD. Unfortunately my marriage broke down in my first year but the reasons had been there before the PhD and although me working on that caused us to grow apart, I don't think it was the main reason. I am now in a new relationship which I'm sure will last through the PhD and beyond. Life is much more difficult with my new partner as he has teenage kids and we are having financial difficulties at the moment but we both support each other through problems.