oh and I would also consider a monday-friday room let, you could stay in a room for 3 nights,without having to commit to rent. My mother in law rents out rooms at hers on a similar basis, its basically a cheap place to crash, which isn't a hotel, so you don't have to commute.

yep the EPSRC is for physical sciences I believe, whereas I'm social sciences. I would advise picking up some teaching, even if not in the first year, it will definitely add to your cv and help find a job, if you want one. I know countless people who taught through their PhD and were offered a lectureship because its easier to get someone to continue, rather than hire someone in. It is a careful balance though, to make sure your PhD work doesn't suffer.

I didn't go in that often, probably 1-2 times a week throughout my whole PhD. BUT it does affect your liklihood of picking up extra work, and most importantly, getting a job afterwards - you are not 'seen' enough and therefore people don't consider you for any roles that may come up.

It depends on how you are funded if you *have* to do teaching. I'm an ESRC student, so not required, but took some for my CV. If you are funded by your university it is usual to have to teach X amount of hours, as kind of pay back for your bursary - it is not negotiable.

If it were me, I wouldn't rent anywhere yet, see what hours your expected to do (some unis/departmetns will have a culture of being at your desk 9-5) and then see what you can do.

At the mo I only go in about once every two weeks, but I'm writing up, so don't really need to. It will also depend on whether you pick up extra teaching etc.

Have you checked the price of travelling because that could be very expensive if you're travelling peak. Maybe you could arrange a monday-friday thing?

have you got a spare husband - you could type normally with your other fingers, and he could hover over you until you need the letter and then you shout it out e.g. S!!! and he quickly types that letter for you? :p

thimble?

Sounds nasty, hope it fixes itself soon :-)

I transcribed 40 1hour interviews, I think they took me about 3 hours each max to transcribe. I used this program and would definitely recommend using the 'automatic pause' function on it as it speeds things up immensly http://download.cnet.com/Transcription-Buddy/3000-2064_4-10221579.html?tag=mncol;;1

its free 30 day trial, but if you uninstall it and then reinstall it you can use it continuously for free.

Is there any reason why you can't target UK car manufacturers?

just to add my study isn't on chocolate! (wish it was)

I read somewhere you should use commas instead of brackets/parentheses, but my sentence doesn't really make sense with commas

"Whilst the two concepts remain distinct (eating more chocolate does not necessarily mean you are obese), they are mutually influential"

Can you change your participant group? What field are you in?

I think it depends on what analysis you use as to whether you can get away with using your background informants. I know PhDs that are made up of 5 interviews, but with extremely indepth analysis, whereas mine for example has 40 interviews, with a basic thematic analysis.

I had £750 a year as an ESRC student to spend on stuff I needed e.g. conferences, equipment. I think there is a LOT of money that goes towards uni stuff - that you'll never see though.

I also had to claim the money for equipment, i.e. purchase stuff through the finance team - the money wasn't sent to my bank account.

Can you conduct phone or skype interviews? Sounds like the time lag between you setting it up and it actually occurring is probably causing people to forget/drop out.

my supervisor told me not to for the first 2 years, which I think was a big mistake. I found it very difficult to comprehend what I was actually producing. I ignored the advice in the 2nd year and read through some from people in my department.

I find, now I know the direction of my research I can easily look through related theses objectively. Sometimes they highlight things I could add but I don't think you'd end up plagarising in any way. For me they are mainly useful for looking at structure - where to put what.

I haven't applied for a job or anything, I was just wondering what the general perception is of private unis.

Would you work for one?

A friend of mine recently got a job at one, and although I'm pleased for her, I can't help thinking "oh..which uni was that again?"

Although I suppose with the tuition fees stuff, then they'll ALL be private unis eventually.