Wispa was my favourite chocolate bar when I was little, so as soon as I saw them in a shop, I bought 8! It was instinct as I'm so afraid they will take it away again. I find it so hard to eat a savoury meal without something sweet at the end, so my diet is not going great.:-(

aww sorry wookie, maybe your flapjack was special and much lower in calories than mine. I like the rule that if you bake it yourself, its ok. In some ways its definitely true because then you can control what ingredients you put in (so you can try and leave out all the nasty stuff). I should do that more often instead of always buying pre made snacks full of rubbish. Lemon drizzle cake sounds lovely but just thinking about cake makes my thighs feel heavy. Cake is my downfall, I just can't say no:-(

poor you! Look at it on the positive side guys, you're hopefully doing wonders for your immunity! Have you tried all the old wives tale cures of eating really hot curry and sweating it out etc. Wonder if they actually work for anybody?

how often do people recommend weighing themselves? I had a friend who did it every day and started to panic if her weight went up by 1lb, but she soon started to notice that she could gain or lose up to 5lbs throughout the day depending on when she weighed herself. She soon got into a habit of buying new scales every month, thinking that they were always broken. So how often do people recommend, every week? every fortnight or every month perhaps? I bought one of those little trampoline things and found that I toned up a lot more, I looked slimmer but seemed to put on slightly more weight (I'm hoping its because muscle weighs more than fat), so I'm making it my aim not necessarily to lose weight but to stay toned.

I really hate to discourage you but I think it may be very difficult to find somewhere that will take you to do a part time lab based PhD. I find that supervisors in the sciences often want student who are not committed to other things and so they are completely flexible for the PhD (including weekends and evenings). Although it could be possible to achieve it, I think you may find it difficult to get accepted on such a course. To be honest I don't know anybody who has come from a scientific sales background (although I have met people who have gone the other way from PhD to sales), however I don't see why it couldn't happen. Sorry if this post sounds a little negative, I'm sure there is a way around it, but I'm just saying you may have to fight a little harder than others applying for full time positions.

every other week usually, whether there is progress or not, usually just so I keep her in the loop/need consolation or advice, but even if I don't see a practical point to the meetings, its always good to touch base on a regular basis. Things haven't always been that positive though, I used to have a supervisor who I would try anything to avoid and used to dread facing. I saw her often and we had regular meetings as well as unscheduled ones. I used to be so frightened to meet up with her if I had no new data or obvious progress, but I suppose it had to be done. Some people in my department only meet with their supervisor once a month or so, but this is sometimes unhelpful as he forgets things about the project and it just becomes laborious and they often don't get much help/advice/feedback. On the other hand it can be pleasant to have a bit of distance and space from your supervisor so that you are more likely to have something to present at a meeting.

Oh my god I can totally relate. I'm beginning to obssess about my weight but as the cold sets in, I can't stop myself eating stodge!:-s

I like the use of all the Umms at the start of some of these posts. You're obviously doing your best to make it like a real conversation guys, keep it up(up)

In my uni/PhD rules, you have to submit by the end of 4th year or its an automatic fail. Having said that, most of the students here take longer than 3 years to complete. I should mention we are doing lab based PhDs. So the trend is to work until the end of 3rd year in the lab, and then write up (usually unpaid, so a lot of people get part time jobs) in the last year. So really the whole process takes around 4 years. I however am taking a different track. I'm trying to write up as I go along and hope to both submit and publish by the end of my 3rd year.

Sheffield seems popular but London is still ahead? I have read comparatively few positive London threads so I guess there's a lot of secret London lovers. Come on guys, free stuff??? Sheffield!!! I had a great time there on a conference. Seem to remember a pretty cool place called the Devonshire Cat or something? any of you Sheffield people know it?

some would say character building!? Sounds like you need a break Hairui?

PhD bug, you can share my 1 lonely star if you like:-)

scienceishard (science scissor hands?) is sorry for frightening 404. Yes it is sunday today and will be all day, so relax!:-)