(oh, how embarrassing, I miscounted)

600!

I!

can

so

then

morning everyone! If Sylvester can do it...

Ha! So were we right about HangSeng being H? TBH I'm a bit fed up with the detective thing - it's no fun when no-one replies. I don't think DanB is ever coming back. Piglet, I'm resigning from my position as your deputy.

There's also (maybe) a subtle reference to having been IP banned "i doubt entry [to that questionnaire we had a while back] is anonymous as could log the IP address so as they say on dragons den ,it's a no from me". Don't know what Dragon's Den is...

The posts are strange, they mostly seem like a genuine newcomer, someone who's just here to participate in sensible PhD-related conversation. Maybe it's one them out of forum rehab, proving that they can make valuable contributions to the forum before they reveal themselves and ask to be allowed back?
(And again, sorry HangSeng if we're wrong, it's not that we don't LIKE you, we just miss our old friends...)

I'm confused too - I thought I was showing that HangSeng WASN'T in Hong Kong (talking casually about the pound and 'over here' i.e. UK).

Attention co-investigator Piglet and suspect Hangseng!!!

"a few years ago, ages before lost came OVER HERE [Hong Kong?] on tv"
"the great thing is that the POUND is very strong against the dollar at the moment"
"have recently ordered the boxset of series two of numbers from amazon us as i bet it won't be shown HERE until at least next year"

I'm onto you...

I spent the first 1 1/2 years hoping that things would get better, but they didn't. Since then I've just been riding it out 'til the end. I think I'm still here because I do want to succeed with my experiments, but I don't think experiments are enough, even when they're going well.
To conclude - things probably won't get better unless YOU make them better, unless YOU go out and find some friends - you really will need them. If there's no-one in your lab, make yourself an honorary member of some other lab. I haven't figured out how to do this hence I remain in isolation (but you say you're a sociable person, so maybe you WILL be okay).
I wish I'd read the signs in that work experience summer - I didn't realise that what I was getting, what I hated so much, was a taster of how my PhD would be.
Oh, katq is right, the interdisciplinary "postgraduate training courses" run by the uni are definitely good for meeting people, but these only started in my final year.

Okay, so far you've had happy stories - ('it'll be okay', 'give it some time'). Now for my tale of woe (I'm almost at the writing up stage). As an undergraduate, I did a summer of work experience in a research lab at my current uni. I hated it. None of my experiments worked, none of the PhD students in the lab talked to me, and some of them were downright nasty. Even though I'm totally not a social person, I found it very difficult to spend every 9-5 essentially alone
Then came my final undergrad year - it was good, having something to aim for, working hard for it, achieving, feeling proud. I had even found a niche of experimental work that I liked - I thought "I'll do a PhD"!!
But practically since day one of my PhD I've been miserable - it is SOO lonely. Until a year ago I was in a lab with just one other student.

eh?