Well, 2 lectures next week. One with Master's students, so I'll have to know what I'm talking about - Shxt in a bubble bath! I may never have been hunk enough to model for Armani, but given the state of me with all these late night's I probably wouldn't even get an offer from DFS to sit on one of their couches and pose for one of their adverts any more. Still, there's always the Betterware catalogue.

Oh heck, Bilbo. Sorry to hear you've got shingles - it can be horrible. Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

I've seen that Lion Man a couple of times. I just have one question: why the hell does he wind them up like that? He may as well prod them with a stick or jump out at them in the dark when they're sleeping and go 'Boo!'. You should watch Dog Whisperer - it's like Lion Man but with dogs. On the subject of feral creatures, Supernanny can be a good watch as well.

So, my addictions: zombie audiobooks (only one more left to listen to now :-(), Butterkiss microwave popcorn, cups of tea and texting into the Radio 5 Live talk show. Oh! Last week they actually rang me up to talk live on air about my sleeping problems (they were having a talk about sleep deprivation). This was about half 12 in the morning. It went something like this:

"Good morning, Tony"
"Good morning..., so you're having trouble sleeping. Tell us about it."
"Well I'm doing a PhD and I have a lot to think about all the time. I have conferences to go to, papers to write, I have to write up my PhD, collect and ana-"
"So, what's your PhD about?"
"Outcome measurement"
"Oh, woo, right. So you must have brain ache then?"
"No, just a lot of work."
"So, did you hear about what was keeping Andy awake?"
"No, I was downstairs making a cup of tea at the time"
"Well, nice talking to you"
"Thank you. Bye"

They lied! The women who rang me up to speak to Tony said there was going to be a sleep expert live who I could chat to on air. The buggers. Instead, I started talking about my work and they got rid of me really quick.

Hello, Angelofthenorth, I think the way you've described things, you've made the best decision. You've worked extremely hard, but when it comes to your family finances, the people you love and your own health you just can't put it at serious risk. As you said, the PhD is not integral to your long term career goals and you will leave with an MPhil, so it won't be like you have nothing significant to show. On top of this, there is nothing to stop you from pursuing another PhD in the future if you ever felt it appropriate, since you have both the experience and ability. I wish you luck with everything.(up):-)

Hi everyone. I've been asked by another academic in my department whether I would like to co-author a paper with him. It's probably a really good opportunity and I recognise the advantages (reputation, networking and all the important stuff), but I'm so busy at the moment. Does anyone know what co-authorship involves? How much extra work is it? I don't want to throw this opportunity away unless I have to.

Well knock me down with a feather...I really don't know what to say? Let me make myself cry [mental note: I lost a lot of data this week and it's likely put me back a month] while I give you my acceptance speech - sniffle, sob, wail.

Theme tune as I walk on stage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJmr5CKY73M

A wise person (my co-supervisor) once said to me: you're a bit maniacal when you explain things to me and I think you need to pick up your pace with your work because you only have 9 months left. That was about a week ago. Well, look at me me now one week later...I'm one month further back [activate canned laughter machine]. [Mental note: Let's see if I can make this pretentious like a real Oscar speech] We live in radically changing times, have just faced very near world economic collapse, we almost all died of swine flu and our very existence as future academics and research lies in question because of the immense changes that are currently taking place in UK academia. But one man, one man refused to be shaken, refused to just lay down and accept fate. This man offered to help the Prime Minister, swims 3 times a week and resubmitted a rejected paper to another journal - pending Editor approval for review[Mental note: Start crying heavily now]...sob...that man was ME.

So who do I think deserves an Oscar?

Bilbobaggins for most informative, sage-like posts.
Sneaks for best accountability thread in the UK.
Chrisrolinski for best thread portrayal of fighting your PhD to the bitter end.
Slizor for best posts for inflicting self-injury through exercise.
PhDBug for best thread for female health awareness.
Satchi for best fashion tips for females thread.
Eska for most interactive, original threads - but a Razzie for worst dressed Avatar.
Keenbean for best dressed avatar.
Keepcalm for best thread for making me feel inadequate in terms of my work output.
Teek for writing what I consider to be trendy and cool posts - I'm obviously not saying you're from the 70s, but I just get the urge to listen to The Who or Jimmi Hendrix whenever I'm reading them.
Algaequeen for most stylish threads. It's the way you use your 'its', 'ands' and 'buts' - damn well inimitable.

There are obviously many others deserving of Oscars, and I shall be back over the coming days with my suggestions.

I'm a very quiet, shy and reserved PhD student. I don't know any other students in the process of doing PhDs, and the only interaction I have with any is on this thread. I don't go into my university unless I have a meeting, so I suppose that is the reason why. I'm a natural born worrier and right now I'd be horrible company for other PhD students anyway.

I'm not really a wise person, Angelofthenorth, and I can't really imagine what you're going through. I imagine that it must be as bad as it gets though. I can try and give you my perspective and any wisdom you have though that may be of no help. I've spoken to a lot of people who, right towards the end of their PhD, have just wanted to chuck the thing in the bin and forget about it, like you. Firstly, you've spent 5 years on it, so you just can't drop everything and forget about it - unless your health seriously depends on it. You have to have something valuable to show for all your hard work and efforts. So, that leaves two options to me: the MPhil or another 6 months of toil to resubmit for the PhD.
The MPhil might be a really good route for you because of the fact that you don't feel that a PhD is going to aid your career and what you want to do with it. It's also a very significant achievement in its own right (I hope that doesn't sound patronising) and may be the best compromise for getting the most value out of what you have done so far relative to how much you want an end to your experience. Not to play devil's advocate, but all that work and effort of yours deserves, in my view, a PhD. Why are they going to give you a hostile external? Why can't they strategically select someone who will be more appreciative of your efforts? Any, sorry if I sound stupid, even if you feel worried about being able to satisfactorily answer your research questions, could you not account for the reasons why in your discussion and conclusions?
I'd go for the MPhil if you feel that your health and finances mean that it is impossible to carry on for another 6 months with the PhD.

Yeah, it's free stationary and you can ditch anything you don't need, like the application forms. I got them to very happily send me the pens and stuff in big fat parcels to my home address. Seriously, they're recruitment consultants, so they're only too happy to do this since it potentially means more customers and commission their way.

Thanks someone 3 and Keenbean. What really annoys me though is that my recorder is an all-singing, all-dancing top of the range one - I spent most of my postgraduate fund on it. I realise know that I would have been better sticking to one of the traditional micro casette ones. I really, really built myself up for this data collection session and it went so well. In fact I remember thinking to myself as I was undertaking the data collection and thinking I was recording the information: 'I can't believe this is going so well'. I was right.

I didn't have any data collected in my first year, like others have said. Rest easy, Sam_RB1 - you're doing fine.