Hmmm I don't watch any of them anymore but I always hated the UK soaps - sooooo depressing. I did have a terrible addiction to Neighbours and Home and Away a long time back - but then its the soap version of pure escapism rather than pure self harming inducing lol. I don't think they'd come under your criteria for the poll though - shame......

Tom Selleck???? ooohh nooooooo (sprout) I just don't get the appeal for him, I tell you who should have been the rich businessman though - Clooney!!!!! *swoons*:-x I'd have been on the streets quicker than Belle de Jour if I thought there was a chance i'd bag him ;-)

They aren't donating, they are paying a fee which isn't subject to VAT so there is no VAT to claim back - you can only claim back VAT expenses on things that have it applied. The only people who could help you on this Bewildered has already given you a link to - I'm not sure that many of the rest of us who know about these things - I've certainly never heard of being able to claim back VAT on laptops or petrol when you're a student but then I'm a UK national in ft study so my situation is very different to yours.

Please don't worry :-) The chances of your end thesis being much like your proposal are very slight, mine has changed totally once things got underway and I'm doing things now that I hadn't even thought of, didn't even know about come to that.... The more you do, the more you read, the more you'll spot the gaps and as the others have said, you don't have to make some astounding ground breaking discovery, just add to existing knowledge. They also wouldn't throw you out, far from it, your sups are there to help you to find your way and will guide you. Enjoy your summer and look forward to starting in October and please don't worry at all :-)

I really do feel for you, I've also got kids, my youngest was 11 months old when i started my BA (she's 6 now) and I'm with the other mums - its utterly impossible at this age to stop the activity short of physically tying them up and I don't mean to criticise you in any way, please don't take it that way, but I had young neighbours when my children were little who used to moan about the noise sometimes (my eldest two were born 13 months apart) and I used to sit and sob my heart out at times and was constantly neurotic trying to shut them up (try stopping a baby with colic crying). She'll likely understand totally what you're saying but feel like she's stuck between a rock and a hard place. You can't make them sleep when they aren't tired, you can't stop them running and its hard. I had to move into a flat when my were a little older than your baby neighbour (my ex left us) and tried to find a ground floor place for the reasons you mention but couldn't afford anything - cue more neurosis. I can so understand what you're saying - I have done my whole uni with a young baby/child and the noise is a nightmare at times and yes they must be disciplined, but at 17 months there is absolutely nothing you can do about the kind of noise you're mentioning without physical restraint - then you'd get tantrums lol - they really are way too young to discipline in that way :-( I so hope that you manage to get through this, I do completely understand, but what the mum is saying is right... there is nothing she can do and he's only a baby - they have so much energy at that age!

My kids always say that my safe place is safe in the knowledge it will never be found again ;-) I'm hopeless sigh - and I so want some chocolate!
Today I have to finish the refs for my essay, complete the editing and get it formatted and ready to submit for tomorrow - I have a feeling its going to be a midnight oil session again :-(

I've been to mine, I met my sup there to go on to a meeting and had a coffee and things - it does feel strange the first time but I think may of us build quite a close relationship with our sups and although you always have to maintain that distance to a certain extent - you can't always expect your sup to be your best mate, you work with them for a very long time and I think its quite normal for friendships to develop which is a good thing. In my dept its quite common and the dept itself tends to have parties and things at one of the houses which we get invited to and I think its an opportunity to get to know them better.

I think that this road is always going to be majorly tough financially - I'm in a different situation to you in that I didn't start uni til I was 34 - by that time I had a family (3 kids) but never got to do the fun stuff - I worked, then I married, had children, always had major financial issues, never had two pennies to rub together even though we both worked - the kids and mortgage took care of that.... I'll be 41 this year, I HAVE to submit by 43, I'll still have 3 kids, a house, etc etc lol and STILL no money :-)
what I'd say to you is that this will be behind you so much younger that you'll have time for all that later on - I've spent so much of my life wishing it away and now I find myself this age ;-) Enjoy your time, when the time is right then you'll get what you want, you're young enough for it not to be too late :-)
Being in my position if anything its tougher - I have soooo much guilt - I can't afford anything fun for me or my family lol and they need providing for. I just hope that it will be worth it in the end and they are so supportive - the hilarious thing (or maybe I'm ending up slightly hysterical) is that at the point I leave uni my kids will be starting it - my son will go there next year when I'm beginning completion!!! Hence another pressure on me to get a move on so that i can help fund him lol, my daughter will go the year after that at the point I have to finally submit or else ;-)

I want to read your thesis Sneaks - have this one on me for the giggle (sprout)

omg...... lmao - GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO WALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lol lol lol lol - that is just too funny :-) I bow to your greatness and amazing talents - we're just not worthy here to talk to you any longer, you blind us with your brilliance - I have to turn down the brightness on the screen just to read your posts :p
I just so want to be a fly on the wall when the number you gave gets a call - lucky them :-)

I'm not entirely sure how it would work but when they last raised fees and introduced the top up business I was doing my UG degree - those of us who had already started were not charged any more - in our case the price you pay at the start was the price you paid throughout, however new students starting after the changes were charged the higher rate. I think from what happened then, that if they do raise fees (which seems inevitable the way things are going :-() that it won't affect those of us who are already midway through. I could be wrong, but its not the way they've done it before.

Wow!!! I would so love that!

This is getting old now and I'm worried that you've missed your chance - did you apply???? You really must - my dog can now eat her dinner with little mess AND has had so few accidents in the house since obtaining my degree that its just astounding! PLUS take their BOGOF offer and get you MBA in cat whispering - its really too good an offer to turn down now that you have your boring PhD that will offer you little in life - I'm going for a PhD there in blackbird impersonation next!

I like your thinking Slizor :-)

Seriously, there is NOTHING to be embarrassed about (I know, easy to say), but honestly there isn't - hydraulics can be messed up so easily by all sorts of things! Try being a girl lol! ;-) I can understand though why you'd prefer to not have it discussed f2f on campus though ;-) It doesn't make you any less of a man or any less operational in the long run, its just one of those things that can happen any more than you'd be embarrassed about having appendicitis or the flu. Hope the plumber is able to reassure you

Lol Bilbobaggins, I do the same!!! I end up with somethingly, thingy, ermmmmm, that thing about...... and so on, it saves me stopping the flow to struggle to find the right word, have to remember to edit it out though, missed one for my last board paper and gave my sup team a huge laugh when they came across 'that thingy' ;-)

I know exactly how you're feeling, I was just the same when getting ready to write my first paper. What you have to remember is that you're new to the PhD, that you're only in the first year and nobody is expecting a world class paper written perfectly - you're doing a PhD, that is about learning to research and learning to write at a high standard. If you got good distinctions you can do this standing on your head, it really isn't that different! To get those marks you'd have had to have written very well and you can so do this :-) Just start writing, just write anything, pick a bit of your lit review and write about it, take it from there and off you go. I think my writing has improved in the last couple of years but its a gradual thing and also remember that you will rewrite much of what you're writing now for the final thesis so its no biggie - its all about learning, improving your style, gaining confidence etc. Have faith in yourself, you can do this, you've done it before and you'll do it again and will surprise yourself :-)