I have sent my supervisors cards because I haven't seen them for a while (am on maternity leave). I don't send cards to people I see every day anyway.

Looks like one of each so won't be dressing them quite the same!

I hope you realise I was only joking about the slapping - am not the violent type at all. In my defence I am about to give birth to twins so 1) am very hormonal and 2) the size of a small house - would take me a good half hour to get off the sofa anyway so you have nothing to worry about. ;-)

Stay away! I am a married PhD student and my husband is a professor/supervisor - if I ever found out that one of his students had made a pass at him then I would be around in a flash to slap them round the face. If you want I can do the same thing for you :-)

Hi - I have a study at the moment but am expecting twins and my study will become their bedroom. I am hoping that I will be able to work in my bedroom as everywhere else in our flat is too full of kids' stuff. I haven't started yet though but you are not alone!

Misspacey the "black mark" was said tongue-in-cheek! However, I did wonder if I were to apply for the same conferences next year (they are annual) whether it might count against me.

Sorry - all my posts seem to be rather personal at the moment but please bear with me! I am meant to be attending 2 conferences with a poster presentation but I am thinking about pulling out. As the gov swine flu guidelines now say that pregnant women should avoid crowds and public transport if possible and I am pregnant with twins I feel that I should put my (our) health first. Do you think this is fair enough or do you think I will get a black mark next to my name?!

I'll be 4 1/2 months but this twin thing has really thrown me - at the moment I feel horrible and can't imagine ever feeling fine again. :-(

I have been accepted for a poster presentation at a conference in a few months' time. I really hope that I can make it but at the moment I am not feeling too good and I am worried about forking out several hundred pounds on accommodation, travel and conference fees. Will conferences refund fees if you can't go? Also can I get travel insurance to cover (train) fares if I have to cancel? Thanks.

"I think you already have one about the same age as mine - so at least you really know what you're getting into"

You'd think so wouldn't you? I seem to have blanked it all out though - I thought the little baby stage was behind me!!:-)

Hi - I am doing my PhD in the UK although I am living in Italy. I have been mainly working from Italy (from home/local uni as I'm in the humanities) but have spent a few months in the UK - probably not very likely that I will be able to do that again though.

Hi. I posted a few weeks ago about telling my supervisor that I am pregnant*. Well, I told him and he was very nice about it and he wants me to work out a plan of when I expect to be on maternity leave and how I will arrange my work. Just wondered how much maternity leave other PhD mummies have taken? At the moment it looks like I WON'T get leave from my employers (who are paying for my study leave) which means that my study leave will end before my PhD does so I don't want to take too long. However, I don't want to be unrealistic. I'm thinking of suggesting eight months? Does that sound reasonable?

*Now I just have to work out how to tell him it's twins. ,-)

Ciao Silvietta!
I am English and am doing my PhD in England but I am doing my data collection in Italy where I live most of the time. I know that at my university there is a lot of help for foreign students - courses, tutors to help with writing skills etc. I started my PhD after ten years of work and was really out of the habit of writing academically. I have found that reading lots of academic articles helps you to get into the way of writing better essays too. Good luck!

I am a bit annoyed that I can't use the uni logo as I am not using my uni email either - as emails go it is a bit useless as it has the following characters in it: o01l (and people keep on getting it wrong as it doesn't actually spell anything!)

Thank you so much for all the congratulations - it is just beginning to sink in! I am in humanities and mainly work at home so there is no pressing need to tell him so I think I will keep in quiet unless comments are made about my lack of work! I already have a son but he is at school and babies seem like such a long time ago, it's like starting again!