I met my partner at the residential college we lived at in my first year of uni (1995). He was a 3rd year. He was a bit more grown up than the other guys there and he had (and still has!) a great butt in jeans.

Kath and Kim finished. Not sure if it is coming back. Do you guys get the humour of it? There is an English guy in my lab and he said it does not make him laugh because he does not know people like that and can't understand what is funny about it. Wondered if it was just him, or if it was English people in general. He is a bit weird - 50 years old and comes all the way here to do a PhD...only to sit for 4 years and play minesweeper on his computer all day.

You are right, Ann, it is a bit rude for 1.30pm Fridays on the ABC. I guess all the kids are at school at that time.

Speaking of Martin Clunes in TV shows, do any of you know if the Doc Martin show is coming back for another series? We got 2 series here and I loved it...even bought the DVDs and watched the all in 2 days.

Funny thing about Neighbours is have recently moved to Melbourne where it is filmed - and I saw a Neighbours tour bus in the city picking up tourists the other day! I never knew you could go on a tour of Ramsey St, but alas, you can. Sad but true. I might go on one just for fun.

Neighbours is on at 6.30pm here. Always has been.

This is a very important question, and I am glad someone has raised it. I am sitting at home all day these days by myself writing (and because apparently I am unemployable) and deciding when to have lunch is critical.

I go for 1pm, but the only thing on telly then is Oprah (can't stand her and her self-promoting ways), crap made-for-TV midday movie (vomit), The Days of Our Lives (yawn), and Question Time in Parliament (yawn and vomit). Fridays I hold out until 1.30pm for the Men Behaving Badly reruns.

I think it is all about making the afternoon as short as possible, so the later the better. Very important decisions though, DJW.

Turn it into a positive as much as you can - "I have learnt a lot from this experience", "I gained skills in the lab during my year I wouldn't have otherwise", "this has motivated me to succeed in science".

It's similar to what people who get fired are faced with when they interview for a new job - all the books say be honest and turn it into a positive. Just think before you act.

Just think before you act. Good luck, ophiucus.

I'm with Ann. I would NOT recommend lying in an attempt to get another PhD...in this situation, hiding the truth=lying.

Surely it would be best to be open and honest about what has happened. Explain to prospective supervisors that you did a year of a PhD and what you achieved during that time. Explain that unfortunately there was a problem with your supervisor and were forced to leave, but that you don't think there were grounds for such action to be taken. You can explain that you don't normally have problems getting along with people (if this is true) and it was just an unfortunate situation.

Good luck, bazzab.

Coastman doesn't get the attention of the ladies on here because he is a desperado, he gets it because he sounds like the kind of guy you want to come home to each day and snuggle up on the couch with. Funny, modest, intelligent, calm, doesn't make rude/hurtful posts...all that and he is protecting the coastlines of Britain!

Well, if this is lust-confession time I have one my own - I am with MariaZ on this one. Sylvester sounds like a catch to me too...except he is after the little Grecian beauty from nextdoor...and I am neither Greek, nor little.

I think I got my copy of Endnote from the IT people at my uni - maybe if you contact the equivalent at your uni, they may have a similar legally-licensed-software-for-postgrads set up too.

Okay, I must be blind - where is the poll? I have never seen a poll.

By the way, does anyone else get creeped out by the faceless man holding the "search the forum archives" sign?

Golly! I am old enough to be Coastman's mother!

I am due to submit soon - December 22 to be precise. I still don't have a full first draft - half way through last chapter now. Half of my thesis has been published and I am allowed to put those papers in as chapters unchanged, so half is polished and won't need changing. I don't think I will get finished by Christmas though.

I expect the whole checking, references, formatting, printing etc. will take longer than I think it will too.

I find my Mum is good at proofreading and checking references. She has no idea what she is reading, but arm her with a red pen and she is fantastic at spotting errors - especially commas. She is even happy reading reference lists and checking they are all formatted the same...also good at making cakes to keep me motivated!

3 months behind after 13 months is not the end of the world. I was 8 months behind at 12 months when I was making the "nothing has worked" speech. All that work was scheduled to be finished in 3-4 months and it took me 18 months. Just give it a go - you have nothing to lose, do you?

bazzab - just remembered. At my 12 month review meeting, I had no data either. I had tried all these experiments but none had worked. I had to give a short talk outlining what I had achieved and the whole talk was "tried X method, but no conclusive results were obtained...tried Y method, no conclusive results were...blah blah blah" - and in science, inconclusive results are the worse kind. It would have been comical if it hadn't been happening to me. Hang in there - no results is not the end of the world at this stage.