if I wasn't married, and had a dog who I couldn't put in quarantine for 6 months and 2 cats etc I would definitely go. Unfortunately my hubby hates foreigners - he's suspicious of them, and wouldn't want to be more than an hour away from his beloved football team :-(

I also can't speak any other languages, apart from a petit peu de francais. :$ and the french notoriously don't do my subject very well.

I'm also scared of spiders which rules out much of the world.

I seem to be the only dog walker on my 'dog walking field' who talks to their dog - I'm not talking about commands here, I'm talking "ooh, look at that bird [dog's name] you could definitely chase that, chase it, CHASE IT, woop woop woop............oh you got it, that's disgusting, you killed that poor little creature. Here have your ball, squeak squeak (that's me doing the sqeak noise too)"

I win.

I think you should do what makes you happy :-) just be aware that PhDs are NOT valued in the world of work, unless they are required in that profession. In my experience anyway. The reality is, it keeps you from gaining experience (and earning and therefore saving money) for three years.

Goal 1 done.

Goal 2= pack for the week away (no holiday :-( )

Satchi, if this is for your thesis then keep the actual values in if they are p values - then you can go through and change later if necessary. I've had journals wanting actual P values rather than < than values. if that makes sense!

I haven't done my viva, but I would keep answers shorter rather than longer - personally I end up getting myself in trouble by saying something wrong if I talk too much! e.g.

"so why did you choose this PhD"
"well, I was fascinated by the subject and the more I researched the area, the more I found it severely lacking in xyz which is why I wanted to do the PhD (this is where I should stop) and of course, I coulnd't get a job and it was easy money to sit and watch The Wright Stuff and other stuff, that's a really good show isn't it.........etc etc etc"

Things aren't going well at the mo, but hopefully going to try and make a dent in some work today.

Goal 1: run analysis

glad to be of service Chuff! She's already working there, so they've probably already worked out all of the working-with-partner issues.

read Ben Goldacre's book, he has examples of medical trials and testing for beauty products etc that are shockingly bad.

I went down there after my MSc. The best job they suggested was dressing up in a bear costume at the local heritage site. I didn't do it though, because the train fair to get there was £8 and they were giving me £5 an hour and it only required 1 hour of work each day :p

Having lived with various housemates by renting out rooms in our house, there is only one real option.

this is to collect any rubbish e.g. pasta sauce spilled on surfaces, hoover dust from thier areas of the house, general rubbish. and put it in their room until they get the message.

I would say, unless the PhD directly trains you in something specific needed for the job, then don't do it.

yeah, I kind feel like they should have just opened up a window and shouted "F*** OFF" as they saw my car driving up to the building - would have saved us all some time lol.

Well it went really well, and I got some really good comments. I don't know if I've got it BUT one of the other candidates already worked there and was married to one of the department heads, so...... :-s

I think the problem with the market at the mo is that you're getting finishing PhDers/post docs going for jobs where you don't need a PhD, because its so competitive.

You may be better off contacting people directly and asking for RA work, rather than waiting for job adverts to come up.