Agree completely Leanne. You should definitely wait. A house is far more important than the wedding. if you want to be fully put off a wedding go on you and your wedding forum, they are crazy on there!

I thiink it is the gloss - I have done presentations where I have thought christ, what shall I talk about, I have done NOTHING, but everyone thought it was amazing. I think it just looks different when you are so absorbed in it all. Although having said that, i do see some people who have very easy PhD projects, I know someone who's entire PhD was a smaller project than my first study.

======= Date Modified 04 Nov 2009 15:06:26 =======
The problem is I have seen half my department go on maternity during their PhDs and 7 years down they line, they still aren't finished. And buying a house is a big deal for me and would mean I can move on with my life cos I am currently living with my mother in law which is not ideal!

I agree that you can get married very easily, as long as you don't let planning things get in the way of the PhD.

mandelson did say that students are now 'consumers'. I can understand it from their point of view, I know when I did my undergrad I was angry when the lecturers went on strike and we got all our marks late and I was thinking "what am I paying for! :-s " but now I am on the other side it seems like an impossible situation. I don't think mandelson understands how a university is run and that people to research AND teaching, not just the latter.

he's trying to get lecturing and marking etc. off his supervisor, but any other part time work e.g. office work will be difficult, as people tend to only employ women on a part time basis. He's also thinking about setting up his own consultancy which will be exciting.

well we technically accepted an offer, but now we are thinking of pulling out and keeping the house. If we do move, we really need to buy a house rather than rent, because we have 2 cats and a dog. It seems more sensible to keep the house now. My husband is pretty much set on quitting and finishing his PhD and tbh I agree, its better to get it finished, but it does leave us being supported by my stipend, and that is due to stop in Oct 2010, so if neither of us find jobs before then, then we will have a nasty mortgage to pay. Although we used to have student lodgers to pay most of it, so may have to revert to having them back in, which is not idea but ok

I met a student in the uni lift once. I hadn't yet lectured the group, and I don't think she knew really who I was, but recognised me. She just started slating all the lecturers, saying the course was boring, she had done it ALL before. and I realised it was a thursday and she should have been in a lecture, and she said "oh i couldn't be bothered to get up for it" and I thought, if that were me and I had been caught out, I would have blamed the traffic or something! needless to say, I went and told everyone in the department!

oh no, I have just realised, the Dr gave me pregabalin which apparently is also used to treat anxiety as well as nerve pain. I NEED anxiety to get my PhD done!

I was helping a postgrad last week and I said he would need to find a reference that supported his point. and he said "how do I do that" so I said "just search it on google" and he then said again "how do I do that" I mean, how do you search for something on google??? He didn't even know!

Also the whole family thing seems like a ticking time bomb to me. I am 25 and thinking that I will have to establish myself in a job for a few years before going off to have kids and then I think, but I have 'trained' for so many years, should I 'waste' it all having kids. Blokes don't have to think about these things!

oh yes I feel that I am very much in limbo. I got married earlier in the year, but my other half got a job and we had to move in with my mother in law so he can commute while we sell our own house back in our old town. Problem is he now wants to go back in academia, so we are now in a quandry - do we sell the house and risk never getting a mortgage cos of short term academic contracts? do we stay in the house which means I have to commute? Basically until I finish my PhD and hopefully get a job in oct 2010 - we have no idea about whether to move or stay, or if he should quit his job or not aarrrgh!

How are we all doing today?

I've been to the drs and they have given me lots more pills - yay and referred me to st thomas' pain clinic.

I now watching a bit of telly :$

but will start in minute!

I have definitely seen this. I am expected to take calls at home from students to support them (althought they are postgrads!), they are also given everything. Our uni library doesn't have loads, but they also have access to senate house but they refuse to go over there and demand the pdfs are supplied to them. My other half also teaches a foundation year course and is constantly being told that he basically needs to treat them like secondary school kids - one to one support, loads of extra tuition to get everyone through the exams.

I think there has been an over focus on types of learning. We are constantly being told not to do old style lectures in the PGCHE or whatever it is teaching qualification. You have to do group tasks etc and get them all interacting, which is fine, but the course my other half teaches on, its gone the wrong way and students are now complaining that the more dominant members of the group just talk about themselves for the whole lecture in a 'debate' and everyone else just gets bored - and they actually WANT old style lectures.

I think the problem will only get worse with tuition fees. Mandelson's plans include universities having to tell students how many lectures they get per week for their money - so is a course that has 10 lecutres a week better than a course that has 3? Will we have to start giving valuations to lectures i.e. tuesday's lecture will be worth £50 and wednesday's will be £400.

======= Date Modified 03 Nov 2009 18:44:48 =======
Problem is I have a threat of other people doing similar research, so I really wanted to get a draft paper done by Monday so I need to finish the analysis by tomorrow at the latest. (its re-analysis so i have a large amount of it done).



Hows your star teek?



Think will sign off for the night - hopefully I will be starting work at about 9.30 after a dr appointment for the pain!

hope the bombshell wasn't too nasty ev!