I'm doing some research in health and I'm based 'oop North' Good luck with your work.

At least my avatar trying to see my rear in the mirror has got to be better than going on Embarrassing Illnesses on Channel 4! It's got to be said, some of our reasons for a lack of daily progress just can't be made up. Yet when the work for my supervisor is late yet again, I'm going to have to make something up because she's just not going to believe me if I tell her the reason I couldn't get much work done is because I couldn't actually sit down to work in front of my computer because of a single spot. Ah well, tomorrow is a new day and I've just thought of an idea for a new, highly valuable thread. I shall post it later. Thank you for the plaster idea, Sneaks.

Today has thus far been a write off. I've got a headache, a cold and another problem that's really embarrassing it deserves a separate sentence. I've got a spot on my bum and it really hurts when I sit down :-( What can you use to get rid of spots? I've heard tooth paste helps but I'm not putting that on my backside. Anyway, however ridiculous that's my reason for today. Does anybody have any similar perculiar reasons for a lack of daily progress? I'll bet not.

I'll just say briefly and make another confession in the process; you've got to be so careful with what you say to students. I had one last week. I was lecturing on drug therapy for rheumatological conditions. I'd used a cute little picture of a gold tablet to illustrate the gold therapy that is used. And the student went 'wow, are the tablets made of gold?'. So I said, 'no, they don't give you pieces of gold to swallow'. So all the other students laughed and he gave me one of those 'if looks could kill' faces, greatly offended. It's not like I went out of my way to offend him; it was just such a silly question, I didn't know what to say in response.

Right, well, here's my confession for the day. I've written 1121 for the discussion of my paper which I have to get published and I have to say it's the longest way of spelling the word 'crap' known to mankind.

I hate the intense weeks of the academic term. When you get to the middle of the working week even the first letters of the last 3 days of it spell WTF.

Time for some management speak: blue sky thinking, think outside the box and so on.

My God, talk about feelings of inferiority - everyone's got better confessions than me! Smelling your own bowel gas though - that's a bit narcissistic. I feel like I'm watching an old episode of Eurotrash reading that.

I was just about to log off and then I read that. Oh, Eska, thank God this forum is anonymous! Jeremy Paxman of Marks and Spencer's underwear fame?! What is it about female PhD students and their strange fixation on men like Jeremy Paxman? So far on this forum, I've discovered that female PhD students also have a crush on Kevin Spacey (you've got no chance there) and Ben Goldacre. Never mind male PhD students and their apparent infatuation with 'ooh la la, I am so French' Audrey Tatou. I feel vindicated now. I wouldn't worry about your crime, btw, as I'd like to confess that I stole some teaspoons and a cake tin when I did a catering job.

Well, I've been a member of this forum for nearly two years now and I'm getting to the stage where I can start to feel comfortable admitting certain things...I'm a serious drug addict. I'm hopelessly hooked on 2 mg Boots Peppermint Nicotine chewing gum. Honestly, I found some lying around, popped one in my mouth, gave it a chew and now I'm a nicotinotoxicodependent. On the bright side, I have lost weight - I need a belt for my 32" jeans! Result! On the down side, when I go to the chemist to score I look really shifty and say "she wants that," pointing at the chewing gum and therefore inferring it's for someone else :$ On the upside again though, I do have the the best all-day-long, minty fresh smelling breath and xylitol-enhanced mouth hygiene of my whole little hill-top town. I know it sounds a little backwards and makes me seem like the biggest rain-coat jacketed internet weirdo in the world, because the whole idea of using the gum is to beat nicotine addiction not get addicted, but I'm hoping to go cold turkey and beat this once and for all when my PhD is over. The whole idea of not having a piece of gum with my first cup of coffee in the morning seem unfathomable at the moment. Ruby Wax would understand me, I'm sure.
So, the idea of this off-topics thread is thus. For anyone interested, we confess our sins (obviously nothing dead serious) on this thread to one another and hopefully experience a feel of catharsis in the process. So this thread could be really helpful.

I've got another one to get us started.

I was supposed to submit a conference abstract for the deadline of the 22nd of November for an oral presentation. I didn't because I forgot. I've told my supervisor that it was because I submitted my abstract for the wrong academic discipline at the conference, only realised it after the submission date and the conference organisers are not willing to accept the submission (which was on time :$) for my discipline.