My original idea was to become a full time academic, drink lots of lapsang souchong tea, impress people with long words and read the Guardian. But now I've decided to open a little vegetarian health food store somewhere remote and campaign for human/animal rights. With some quality tunes playing in the background of course. What about everyone else?

Oh, and forgot to mention, im going to write a novel, produce a record, and grow some mushrooms

And run a youth hostel

I decided that if it all went pear-shaped at viva, I would set up a tea shop somewhere quaint (preferably by a river with lots of ducks) and sell over-priced (but delicious) homemade organic cakes to gullible tourists...I guess I could source my ingredients from your health food store?
With my vast profits, I would breed tortoises (just for fun) and set up my own laboratory in a back room, just to keep my hand in.

A note of caution re mushroom growing; my sister-in-law bought one of those mushroom growing logs but all it ever produced was a swarm of very small black flies that invaded her cellar…

Of course, you may be talking about a totally different kind of mushroom altogether...not sure you can get log kits at your local garden centre for those...

Hey Ann, reckon we should start getting a business plan sorted

Hey Wickid, good idea...I had a very nasty piece of carrot cake in a supposedly posh cafe last weekend so I'm sure I can do better than that! How are the novel, record and mushroom plans going BTW?

Well novel and record are on hold for a while til I've finished PhD. Mushrooms are also on hold, whilst I recover from the last crop! I make a wickid carrot cake, also pretty good at vegan chocolate cake. Big Up to the nice people at Green and Blacks!!

Are you a vegan then? How do you manage to do PhD research without the emotional support provided by Cadburys Dairy Milk?!! My very empathic supervisor used to keep vodka chocs in the office for my thesis crisis moments! ;o)

Been veggie for 15years, vegan for 1. It's easy, if you're prepared to cook. Green and Blacks do loads of very nice vegan chocolate. Most beer is also vegan. So are mushrooms.

Glad to know you have the important food groups covered! ;o) So, how do you make a choc cake without eggs, butter, milk etc. (will obviously have to cater for all in my riverside cafe!)?

It's easy: Use soya milk instead of milk, soya marg instead of butter, and egg substitute (buy it from health food shops, made from lots of natural, healthy ingredients). most high quality dark choc is vegan. It might all sound a bit weird, but it tastes exactly the same. Just cruelty free. Go on, you know you want to ...

Great, always good to have an excuse to eat cake! I'll have to design a blinded randomised controlled cross-over trial to taste test the saintly vegan cake against it's evil dairy-filled rival (even better, excuse to eat twice as much cake!). I'll let you know how I get on! ;o)

Mmmmmmmmmmmm that sounds like a great idea? Can I be on the panel? I agree you can never have too much chocolate cake! I went to a vegan cafe when I was doing my MSc and they had the best stuff there! Especially this amazing Strawberry Cheesecake and Chocolate Crunch!! You should have them in your tea shop Ann and I'll be a permanent resident! :)