======= Date Modified 15 Jan 2010 12:42:21 =======
Hello everyone, welcome to a delightful night of fine dining!

The theme for tonight is Indian delicacies from British times, where you will not find any of the 'regulars' from restaurants today (so no samosas, onion bhaji, chicken tikka masala, poppadums, curries and so forth)..

You are dining in a house which has a ripply lake in the central outdoor space by which there are flower beds on flower beds. The flowers smell delightful and the seating area, complete with exquisite carpets, cushions and throws, has drinks of any kind on offer of alchoholic and non alchoholic nature. there are also fresh mango drinks being served in sweet and spicy varieties!

Floating around, as invisible as Jeeves, are stewards carrying a selection of kababs, dips of mint, coriander, yogurt, grilled spicy potato wedges to accompany your drinks.

In the background you can make out a faint rendition of sitar or sarod...It is a sit down dinner with the host's own friends helping out to serve you your fine evening meal!

Starters: succulent prawns and tender chicken pieces marinated in garlic, lemon juice and chillies, grilled to perfection; soft fish filletted into bite sized morsels in a tandoor coating and slow tandoored; cheese fritters made with home made cheese and a lavish Raita made with exotic spices whisked into a creamy yogurt

Mains: Kashmiri pulao made with rice soaked in saffron and milk, strewn with the choiciest of nuts and raisins (with a non nutty alternative for all nut dishes), giving the rice a pale orange tint marked with bits of brown and white. This goes with lamb rezala- tender lamb slow cooked on a wooden stove with the best of soothing herbs and cream. The vegetarian option for this palak paneer - made with rocitta and fresh spinach in a cream sauce. Fluffy soft white naans are being baked fresh in the wooden stoves by the lake...

Dessert: Ras-malai, a dessert made of cheese in sugar, saffron, cardamom, cinnamon and cream or vermicelli prepared in thick milk, rose water and a cooling Kulfi made with fresh milk and cream

As you leave- you are each escorted out of my house by me personally, leaving you with a hand packed after-mint and a small posy of flowers from my garden!

Hi Satchi,

Oh I so love this 'room' of ours... and now we have a food room too with the dine with me thread!

Ok - hair packs, I've heard natural things are nice, although not as spectacular as store boughtstuff. For instance egg (if you can bear it) is a natural conditioner, as is honey, as is lemon juice.

A last rinse with a lemon squeezed in used to be a nice squeaky conditioner for the teen me, but really it depends on hair type.

My only consistent strategy with my hair has been *never* to have used blow driers, *never* to have coloured* and *never* to have curled/straightened/anything that involved anything artificial. And that's cos I was lazy (still am) but now I guess I am happy about this decision!


PS: Henna is a great conditioner by the way as you may know.. not just the colour, it's got this function too :-)

Slurrp. Wally I give you 9 on 10

I would've given 10, but sorry, I hate salad i.e. anything fruity/leafy from the innermost core of my heart. Veggies are a waste of space and I eat 5-a-year and don't speak to people who do 5-a-day

Ok, next is me, tell me when ready! I have something exotic in mind :-)

======= Date Modified 14 Jan 2010 08:10:22 =======
hi there!

Hmm, have you got a 'writing sample'? Like a mini-essay, a review or something else as a sample of your academic writing? If yes, great, if not, totally great :-) When I did my applications, like you, I too had no grades, and in fact for my 6 US applications which had to be in by like December (i started my MSc in October) I had just got 7 weeks into the programme and the apps had to be in (!!)

So - my point is, it's doable! They have been used to MSc students applying without taking a year off, so that's ok!

I think you should try to look at it from their PoV:

1. Does this student have an intellectual agenda that's sufficiently precise, realistic, although also ambitious for this very early stage? (i.e. they want to see your core theoretical competence)
2. Can this student articulate it well? (i.e. your language skills, but more, clarity in thinking)
3. Has this student approached *me* specifically? (i.e. the question of 'fit')
4. Can I identify clear links between my interests and theirs? (i.e. again fit, and more than just copied from their websites)

I think a letter that ensures the reader can answer these questions to the affirmative, plus your CV, plus a writing sample if you have one (if you do, the better it is in basics - style, referencing etc) - sending these in might be fine!

Edit to add: mind you, these are all things you wil develop through your main (proper) application as well, all I am suggesting are indicative aspects of what a person receing many such emails might seek!
If you've got someone in your current uni to read through great! I didn't and managed ok

Good luck! You#re an ambitious girl and I've got a feeling this or something else equally god will surely work out :-)

Can we make this thread our virtual salon?

Granted, any spammers coming on here and doing searches will find themselves giggling in glee, but this can become a nice space for all looks-related issues!

Ok question (asked with some frustration!) - how long does your shampoo effect 'last'? I mean, my poor hair goes limp on the alternate day i.e. it's limp by Weds if I shampoo on Mon and is best on Tues. It's become second nature now to always shampoo on the evening before the day I want it to work. that's fine, but am wondering if it shouldn't 'last' a bit longer!!

And no, conditioning etc doesn not help!

I've never watched CDWM (need to get a TV been planing for ever!)

But, Eska, this food is scrumplicious! You get a 10 on 10 from me (I'll need seconds of everything!) :-)

Nic girly thread! (sorry for the stereotype wo/men!) like it! :-)

I keep chopping off my hair (at the hairdressers of course!) at about 2 inches below shoulder length. I have never ever used a blow dryer on my hair, let alone dyes, colours, tongs, curlers, straighteners and anything else. I am 25 and dont have grays or split ends or damage, but that may be because my dad's side of the family all have good hair, mum's side has thin har, but not problem hair.

All I have ever done with and continue to do with my hair (its jet black, absolutely straight) is hot oil before a shampoo and towel drying.

A few years ago when I was in college, I used to make fancy hair packs for myself with stuff from the kitchen (honey, lemon, tea leaves etc) but now no time!!!

Hi there

There are many discussions available on what a theoretical framework is but I think a simple way to think about it is - (a) a framework of theories and concepts which you apply to the empirical material generated in your research, to retain, revise or reject (!) it. i.e. the same empirical material might potentially be interpreted/approached from a range of theoretical frameworks.

A literature review is a mapping of what empirical research exists in a specifc field. (X has studies 2000 people using Y in Year Z to have findings A B and C. This contradicts findings of Y's study..so and so forth). However, a conceptual framework/theoretical background is not what research has been done, but a *framework* of theories with which as a toolkit if you will, you approach your own work.


I cannot offer instances from anything outside of what follows, but see if useful. Let us say, somebody is studying the content of 4 films. Now, let us also say that all 4 films have something/s in common.

Now, their literature review will map the field of research in this area and selectively report who has done what, said what, who dis/agrees with whom, spot the gap and say why their work is relevant.

But, their theoretical background will determine what their analysis and interpretaion will do. So, if they say, that they aproach their work from a feminist perspective, it is clear that they will use feminist theories within which to make sense of the 4 cases they are studying. If they work with class theory, then the same cases will be analysed differntly, if they are interested in nationalism and theories of the nation state, then that.

Am I explaining myself? A conceptual framework is different from a lit review in that it is not usually empirical work but rather theories and concepts which are combined or taken singularly and applied as a framework within which to interpret and position you own research - your task is to apply that framework creatively, make the framework clearly apparent in your work and then, revise or retain it.

You can all see how bad I am at this! (but I do work, just that I cant make myself wrie it all down)

2010 agenda : a chapter a month (despite any number of jobs, conferences, traveling, crap admin etc)

So, 15th Feb: to have drafted either Chapt 4 or Chapt 1 and 4 both

New years evening halfway across the globe from the UK - a day before I leave- at the fag end of a lovely holiday -

a massive, nasty, horrid showdown with my dad. Long anticipated. Long avoided. Long simmering. Throoughly debilitating. A fierce, argumentative and independent minded 25 yr old clashing with an equally fierce, argumentative and dynamic 60 plus.

but anyway, not to be a thread spoiler, so am moving out of here, but only after giving out gifts to everyone!!(gift)

======= Date Modified 01 Jan 2010 16:21:51 =======
Oh goody!! What a lovely piece of news on NY Day :-)

With your skills with the English language we'll all pass our vivas with no corrections whatsoever, and with the trans-disciplinary promises you also seem to make (Assuming you'll write theses for any field??) everyone from molecular physics to Latin poetry is right now hailing you as their Messiah of all times!!

======= Date Modified 01 Jan 2010 16:26:38 =======

Happy new year all, and thanks Eska for painting that lovely picture :-) I wish that for al too, but more, if some or all of that isn't to be, still, a spectacular new year to us all!!