i'm somehow reassured that other people struggle with this, too! thanks all!

olivia, i've been on a few such guided walks and enjoyed them!

maybe we could create our own guided tour entitled "PhD life in central London", which would include visiting some of those tiny hot-desking shared offices, some crowded university cafeterias, some "quiet study" sections in libraries, and some labs. obviously, the tour would start early in the morning and continue until late at night, and it might be advertised that "occasionally, the seeminly rare species of 'supervisor' can be spotted on this tour".

on another note, it is not just history that england has to offer, but also some fascinating landscaping - you should try Windsor Great Park someday, for example.

umm, i dream of being a researcher, but without all the stress and deadlines. leading a small research team, and working with lots of great people. getting good research results and helping others get good results and write well, too. at the same time i have a house somewhere with my partner, and kids, and on the weekends we go out cycling and hiking and building dams in the streams. we go skiing regularly, and my kids all have interesting hobbies at which they are good at and enjoy. my friends often come to see us, sometimes for a whole week, and we discuss interesting stuff the whole night long. i sleep in the mornings as long as i need to, and then get up to a new, wonderful day!

nick, the fact that you got such a quick reply might mean that they are not recruiting students at all at the moment. else they would have taken longer to decide!
so that would explain the result and the fast reply, and perhaps gives you some hope for your other applications. cheers!

coffee, nuts and dried fruit/raisins (that's actually called "student-food" back home, and indeed has "brainfood" qualities). soups from EAT, PRET, or the university cafe. dried fruit bars, always got some stored in my desk as emergency food. wraps and sandwiches for a treat. "quick-lunch" type "ready in five minutes microwave, just add water" noodles/rice. more often than not, nothing at all (lunch).
oh, skittles and gum bears (haribo) keep me going.

congrats!!!!

you must be all excited now! keep us informed how thinks work out, if you would? (i'm just over-curious and nosy )

wouldn't that be outlined in your contract, or "terms and conditions", or whatever you got when you got the studentship?

the research council's deadlines aren't past yet, are they?

hey katq, same here (though different discipline). sometimes i get really stressed by how much others are doing - everybody seems to be "finishing a stage of fieldwork", "starting on phase 2 of fieldwork", "doing more fieldwork than planned", etc. and i am still stuck to this desk and not leaving it soon, either.

doesn't help. just do your own thing

we are going our own, roundabout way, but we will get there, too!

ossy, you cannot access the views - the number here just states how many people have READ your question. there is nothing to access.

a reason why no-one has replied might be because no-one knows an answer, and/or because people feel that you should be able to do your own research. i can't help you as i don't know anything about this, but i believe using google would give you results quite quickly.

coral,
i was in a similar situation, and decided to do it. sometimes it was wonderful and sometimes terrible. right now, my partner followed me to the new country and got a good job here, so after 16 months we are now living together again; distance relationships can work.
i'd say if your boyfriend supports you, then do it. if he doesn't, then it is up to you to decide on priorities.
as a PhD student you will be so busy that it won't matter much which country you live in

i don't - i heard of people who decided to leave after the first year but it took them a full second year to write up their MPhil dissertation. don't underestimate what is required for the MPhil!

does the money matter? i mean, will your parents have to forgo something important, or is it just a matter of them putting a little less into a savings account or not buying that cool fourth car?

if the money doesn't matter, do what you prefer and you think best. if it does, consider carefully what you are really "buying" with your parents' money. (i guess that's why you are writing here)

i felt really sick when my funding didn't come through and my mum said she would forgo her own university course in order to be able to help me out financially. i could have done a PhD which would have come with a decent wage, instead i chose to follow my fancies... and what if it turns out to be less great than you thought?

sleepyhead, in some of my more frustrated moments i, too, think of going on strike. the reason mainly being that if TAs would strike, then finally maybe some people would recognize what we do. because that, in my experience, is the chief problem - lack of recognition. this is expressed for example in low pay, in lack of support when necessary even if according policies are in place, and in the fact that TAs, although we are on the payroll, are usually not considered as "staff". most gravely, sometimes i feel the institution thinks that the teaching does itself, they do not recognise that there is work involved - a bit like housekeeping work, actually.