Well, isn't this a fun thread - it was gr8 2 c so mch hlp fm BailE. Sigh, never mind Bobby, as you've seen, nobody else here is like that at all - and it would appear that that was the first, and hopefully last post from him. I did have to laugh though - it got very amusing :-) Hope its all going ok x

I'm so sorry ((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((hugs))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))) Its been nearly 16 years since I lost my Grandpa and I still love him as much today as I did then, sometimes I still well up and miss him dreadfully - but most of the time now I can look, as I was today coincidentally, at photos of him, and think of him, and laugh and smile and remember how incredibly wonderful he was and how much he shaped my life - including giving me the passion for my field of study!!! Our grandparents are very very special people, and we lose them and it rips our hearts in two - but it does heal, for now though don't think of working, I could do nothing for a few days after my Grandpa died, I coudln't bear to even get up as the pain would hit, just be kind to yourself, remember him, remember him well and happy and know that no matter what happens in your life, he will always be a part of you and would be so very proud of you - do you know this poem? I read it at my Nanna's funeral and it helped me so much...

Death is nothing at all

I have only slipped away into the next room

I am I and you are you

Whatever we were to each other

That we are still

Call me by my old familiar name

Speak to me in the easy way you always used

Put no difference into your tone

Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow

Laugh as we always laughed

At the little jokes we always enjoyed together

Play, smile, think of me, pray for me

Let my name be ever the household word that it always was

Let it be spoken without effort

Without the ghost of a shadow in it

Life means all that it ever meant

It is the same as it ever was

There is absolute unbroken continuity

What is death but a negligible accident?

Why should I be out of mind

Because I am out of sight?

I am waiting for you for an interval

Somewhere very near

Just around the corner

All is well.

Nothing is past; nothing is lost

One brief moment and all will be as it was before

How we shall laugh at the trouble of parting when we meet again!



Canon Henry Scott-Holland, 1847-1918, Canon of St Paul's Cathedral


With love to you xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

How's it going? nearly done yet? The only way as the others so well said is to get your head down and do it - there's no magic formula for this stuff - just hard work and lots of it! If you've got a week, why not take the time anyway and make sure you do this really well rather than rushing - I'm guessing you're masters level and there aren't many opportunitites to gain marks, each one counts - make sure you do the very best you can or you'll be kicking yourself when the grades come back!

Fantastic news - Congratulations!!!! :-) Its always so nice to hear of people coming out the other side, thanks for giving us that boost that this really can be done 8-)

Lol, I like the rant - I hope that it was soothing - I like a good rant - I particularly liked the bit where you were in danger of flinging yourself out of the window - I have a form of that - its normally someone else I'm going to throw out though ;-)
I'm sure that if your supervisor is happy with you, then just showing your face should be enough - I don't work at uni - it would be a nightmare - sooooooo noisy - and full of undergrads (were we really that annoying he he he) I work from home, I go in sometimes, I have to spend a lot of time off campus anyway in the archives, so I suppose its easier for me - but I tend to just drop in, say hi, wave at a few lecturers and then go home again. Don't let those awful girls drag you down - they sound right bi*ches to me :-s

A second Dr K. - this is just so brilliant - as Ruby says, even though we don't know you, don't even know your names beyond Dr. K it gives such incredible encouragement. I'm only just starting, getting ready for my first supervisory board and it seems such an incredibly long and hard road ahead, seeing people succeed and make it to the end is just a real boost - better even that coffee and a bar of galaxy for encouragement.

Wow, sounds brilliant - congratulations Dr. K, you must be very proud :-) Is the view good from up there in the world of the postdocs?

sounds like a brilliant idea - I have M.E. and my memory is just absolutely terrible. I can remember big stuff, and fortunately my work, but if i do something, or have something down to do, and then don't do it I won't remember that I haven't - or somebody will say something to me and I'll completely forget who said what. I also find motivation tricky - this sounds like a great idea though - I might go and get myself a journal!

What brilliant tips and ideas - I love the star chart (never had one of them!) and the timer - great ideas. Its so good to see that others are just as bad as me lol - and yes, that's in a good way - I do like the idea of being non-conformist - I WILL be a rebel, if only in that I don't manage the 9-5 lol.
I agree that it would be good to keep things going - I'm sure a lot of students are much the same - high achievers, hard working, but feel like poop because they don't seem to manage 'it' lol.

Hi. I started in Oct too and I don't think we've had anywhere near enough to really get into things yet. I'm the same as you, same uni for BA and MA and then scholarship for the Phd - I too feel rather weird atm - but I think its natural - I don't know how to advise you - hang on would be my suggestion - its just too early - we haven't go going.
You say you haven't done anything yet - what, nothing? Reading, maybe a small pilot study, what subject are you in? Why not speak to your supervisor and get some advice - get him to set you some deadlines and then get down and do some work.
Regards the scholarship - with mine if I quit I have to pay back the lot - its motivation if ever I need it to keep going!

I'm another one who tends to go to the wire - I start with such good intentions, I'm NOT going to run it too close again, I AM going to work sensible hours, but somehow it always ends up with last minute panics - I was working until gone 3am the morning of the submission of my MA dissertation - I had planned to have it finished 3 days before - sigh. Its not that I don't work, I do, I work very hard and a lot of hours, but I'm sure that I'm not as productive as I could be and way too easily distracted. I've always been the same though - I would do my homework on the train on the way to school, revised on the stage outside the gym for O levels prior to going in etc etc. I think maybe time managment is my issue, but then again I do try to do that too - it just never seems to work out.
I do think that maybe you are one of those people who can do it or you aren't. I do make my deadlines, but I need those deadlines to get me into shape - it does worry me a little (no, a lot) with the structure of the Phd that they will be few and far between. I have to write my lit review, methodology and results of my pilot study for my first supervisory board to be handed in by 19th Jan - I hope I'll make it - but then its so far away that the lazy moo part of me thinks hmmmmmm, start writing after Christmas - doh - nope, maybe better to start sooner than that!!!!
I do like the comparison with bungee jumping - I'm sure that there is no greater adrenaline rush that trying to meet a deadline - especially as when I was doing the BA they introduced zero tolerance - if not in by 4pm on the deadline day 0 marks - that focussed the mind somewhat!
I'm interested to find out who those that are much further ahead do manage to keep it going without a set deadline if you are a deadline driven sort of person.

I agree that there is nothing wrong as such with the American system, however I do think to a certain extent that it does devalue the title of Professor. To Joe Bloggs in the street Dr so and so is just 'professor'. I also agree that the trend of giving celebrities an honorary professorship is just ridiculous. In the UK Professor is the highest accolade that people work for many years to attain - lets keep it that way - I'll be perfectly happy to be Dr and a lecturer :-)

Hi Cassy, I'm also a mum - I have a 15 year old boy and two girls, 14 and 5. I was quite surprised to read your post - they do maybe butt heads, my husband certainly does with mine - particularly my son - far too much testosterone in one house lol - but as he is a nurse and works shifts, mainly nights, he's always, since the beginning of my BA, helped out with the housework and the children. He does a lot of the school runs, housework, cooking etc. If I'm here and he's working I do it, and if he's here then he does it on the grounds that he accepts that my study is 'work' and if I wasn't studying I'd be at 'work' and he'd be doing it anyway - its treated as though I'm not physically here if that makes sense, even though I work from home. If your husband is retired then there's no reason whatsoever why he can't take on the majority of the day to day running of the home and childcare to enable you to work - what will happen when you go on to get a job at the end?
I think that maybe you need to sit down and speak to him at length about this - its not fair on you if he's home to sit on his proverbial and allow you to rush around doing home stuff and work full time at something that will (in theory) improve all of your lives and your job prospects in the long run.
It is hard though - I tend rather than have a break with a coffee and my feet up, rush around washing up or whatever when I get up from the computer lol - mine tries so hard and is good but its the 'man thing' (no offence guys) - hoovers go around the middle of the room - the corners/under things don't count lol. But he is fantastic with the kids and without his support I could never have done what I've done already.

I think it depends whethr you've done them before. I'm new to statistics too and need them for my history thesis (yep, lol, ever thought I'd need that!) and I'm hopeless with numbers - add a few letters in too and I'm done! I was given statistics without tears by Derek Rowntree as a starter and am looking for more 'statistics for dummies' type books to get me in, particularly as I only need a fairly basicish grounding in it. I found the more complex books totally incomprehensible and enough to have me reaching for the vino! I've got to do an MA qualitative methods course in the spring term -dreading it - does your uni offer anything like that in any of the depts in your uni? The course I'll be doing isn't run by my own dept but I was advised to do it by my supervisor.

I'm starting to really feel this too. I am doing my Phd at the same uni I did my BA and MA at - but now I'm pretty much alone. The MA was great, the core group of us from the BA went on to do it together and it was just brilliant - we had a lot of fun - they have all left now, and I was saying to my supervisor the other day that although I'm in the same dept, going in and out of the same rooms that I have done for 4 years now, it feels totally different. There is no chance of bumping into somebody in the library or in the squares - nobody to text or email to chat to, nobody to meet up with for a moan, nobody to sound off on. We are quite a small dept - I think there are only about 15 or so active research students, all or which are at a different stage to me - I say that, there are 4 of us this year, but you wouldn't know it. They are people I didn't know, studying different things, and we all work from home, I don't even know who they are! I know a couple of second years but again, they are so rarely on campus, and I work from home that there hasn't been a chance to build up any friendships yet. Its all quite depressing actually. I'm a mum and so can't go and do anything else - I have to spend time with the children - it is just so so different from the last 4 years where there was always somebody to have a coffee and a chat with and to feel that you were normal lol. I find I'm leaning more and more on this forum and checking it regularly to see what's going on and to talk to people who really understand.