Diggin' some Herbie Hancock this evening.

You should say "I'm sorry madam, but we're currently out of stock of nice ones. But we have a special deal on mediocre pens".

I'm sure that there are plenty of people who would whisk you away for the evening if they had the chance.

It strikes me that you are a great procrastinator...keep up the good work!

That's great!

A factor that is more important than if it's 'warm and sunny' is actually the research strength of a supervisor/Department, and the project itself. That should be your focus.

A mechanised one I suppose, I don't want to have to deal with too much 'monkey business'.

I think these things are what you make of them. VeryPoor, what about seeing how you can get involved in order to organise some events you think would appeal to more people?

Its OK, I can't dance either

So err...do you come here often?

I firmly believe that any course of work benefits from a considered amount of socialising, because it will help you become a well-rounded person.

Your work probably will suffer if you're out til 3am every night, but if you stayed in every night you'd probably spend 70% of that time staring at a blank word document, wishing you were out anyway.

My University has a really involved post-grad society which always keeps me busy and helps me meet a lot of people, and I think will be one of the things I look back fondly on from my time here.

I kinda agree too, I expect email traffic to be slower (though hopefully not non-existent) over the weekend and holidays etc. For example, you wouldn't expect an email from your supervisor on Christmas Day, unless you were really unlucky!

That doesn't mean you should have no support outside of office hours, but I think you have to be realistic. Of course, academics and students should be flexible when it comes to a big deadline such as paper writing etc.

Can I have a monkey that wears a hat and claps cymbals together?

Health insurance??!

But scientists don't spend too much time in the library...damn those online journals!

OK let's flip the question: where is the best place? (I need all the help I can get! )