We have a bottle of some sort of coffee liqueur from a business trip and I have found it is the one thing you can drink and actually get more alert. I'm saving it for The Final Countdown to submission.

Bored, friendly, hungry and/or strange. I know I have selction bias but I'm in partial denial. It's getting less partial though.

Just had my dinner. A very fine chicken and chorizo stew which goes quite well with this bottle of rioja.

But can I now face another data file........? Hmmm. Or maybe I will slack off and watch the last episode of Lark Rise.

Oh don't talk to me about self-selection and selection-bias. That will be a fat chapter in my thesis

You have to live here I guess to understand how bad the car/traffic situation is. We live here as normal residents and have parking - but we're a bit further out than most people. I have lived closer into town and it is very hard to park your own car near your own house in many areas (and it's all residents permit only).

You could ask about accomodation with parking - but it's unlikely in college itself (I don't know of any).

There's a bottle of wine downstairs calling to me.

OK. So I complete 2 more files and I can have a glass. Or maybe one more file then one glass - another file - another glass......

Alas my punting days are over. More likely to catch me in Tescos with a raving toddler in the trolley.

Only problem is I'm doing the absolutely most tedious aspect of the whole project - the data prep before the analysis. I guess there always has to be something tedious. And this is definitely it. Did I mention it was tedious?

I think I need more tea.

I'm working at home today and tomorrow. Hubby has taken our daughter out. Yup. I'm, working hard. Yes I am. Right now in fact. Oh yes.No more internet peeping. Oh no.

Maybe just one more refresh before I get stuck in....

Finalising my final, final data prep zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

It appears to me that academic staff are totally unaccountable for their actions and can pretty much be as eccentric, unhelpful and perculiar as they like. But if your supervisor and project are OK then all should be well.

Hey Darwin has punts too you know

And it wasn't Darwin's actual house - it was his granddaughter's.

Good luck rjb - I also abandoned my first PhD after the first year review ** shudder**. Ghastly experience. Then I did an MPhil and now PhD again.

Well - I had no idea I should register the car. You learn alsorts around here.

I don't think the problem with the funding application is all that serious TBH but I was more taken by the change of supervisor without discussion. Now that kind of thing would worry me - do you like your new supervisor and just how much control will you have over your work?

It is hard when you rely on funding like AHRC - and it is a PITA to do all that paperwork for nothing (which I did as I knew I would be outside their subject but was obliged to apply to fulfil another funding source requirement).

As you are self-funding I would consider very carefully whether you really want to stay where you are - perhpas you do - but it should be a considered choice. If you can self-fund - the world is your oyster!

The problem with the AHRC ranking process is that it is independent of the rank by marks - otherwise there would be no point in asking depts to rank candidates. That can work well if used properly but also means it's very subjective.

I would hardly call your ranking level 'stupid' - presumably this is an order of ranking among people who all got firsts/distinctions. The ranking is not the final word either - or there would be no point in submitting more than one candidate. The project topic itself also carries a lot of weight.

5 months to viva - EEEK!