Nice try Mia, but it only counts as one.

are you calling me a baiter? Outside now!

Fine, but can you throw it over Stu Cowell instead?

A strong correlation between the number of posts on individual threads and the amount of smut and innuendo in them??

This is a premature Wednesday silly question...

yes, but please don't throw a glass of water over me. Only DanB has cold showers (see food thread!).

cold shower? That would just encourage him.

I can't answer, I can't answer that...

Let's audition some questions. Stu would make a good Simon Cowell, you can be Sharon Osbourne. That leaves me to be Louie Walsh. I suppose that means I have to talk rubbish - perfect for me.

As I have exclusive licence on silly questions, I think it should come from me.

Reply to Verdy: Probably nowhere can you mortgage on a stipend. Banks can't get their heads around what they are and think that 12K is taxed. I also guess the short termism is also a problem for them. I've had my mortgage approved because I am mortgaging on my current salary (I'm a soon-quitting management consultant) so I borrowed what I thought I could manage on my stipend. I've also built up 75K in equity through being in the property market for the last 6 years.

Many people have told me to take full advantage of my position now, because once the PhD starts I will not be able to get a mortgage for 3 or 4 years which will lose me alot of ground in the property market. I'd be a fool not to and I can also make a few bob on the side subletting rooms. That's the plan anyway...

Yes, but just for 3/4 years, then I sell - works out a third cheaper every month than standard repayment but obviously you're not reducing the loan (not that you'd make much impression on the capital in the first few years anyway). This works well if the property market rises as you get to keep the money that it earns and keeps me in the property market whilst doing the PhD.

My feeling for the area in which I;ll be living is that people pay £300/month to rent a room in a house. I've just sold my London home and am buying close to the uni campus where I'll be based. The laughable things is that I can get a £100,000 mortgage for a whole house and only pay £380 per month in mortgage payments. With two spare bedrooms I can people to pay my mortgage for me. Well that's the logic anyway. Hence, the question on what are the going rates for rent and what comes included in the price!

Your bed or someone else's/anyone else's?

do Parcelfarce do food nowadays?

How much are we all paying in rent, and what do you get for your money (e.g. bills)?

I'm thinking of subletting rooms in my house.