Mine was 280 pages and the university binders couldn't get it in one volume. I had to go to an independent printers to get it done but there were no problems with this and it was only £5 more expensive if I remember.

That's seriously bad news rewt and it was something I was terrified of happening to me. So much so that during my interview for the PhD I asked him outright if he had ambitions of moving in the next 5 years and what would have to me if he did.

If moving with her is an option I would definitely consider it. I think bewildered's suggestion is great. Getting to spend a few months in each location could work.

Nope. You were entirely within your rights to say no.
I would have done the same. I would have emailed her and said "Unfortunately I will not be available blah blah blah". I wouldn't have justified it either by talking about why. If I was asked directly I would say I simply wasn't interested and I would assertively repeat that line until she backed off.
I would also ignore the email from that supervisor and play a passive aggressive role as regards this presentation. BUT. I would have talked to my main supervisor first to advise that I was going to say no to the second supervisor.

I have never been told to do something though. My supervisor simply would never have done that. He'd have asked and possibly strongly recommended a particular thing but he'd never have simply told me it was happening without talking to me first.
I am in the incredibly fortunate position of having a face like thunder when I am deeply focussed so it makes people naturally wary of me :-D
Saved me a lot of hassle :-D

I am unsure what kind of help you are going to get unless you can provide a bit more detail about what your problem is.

FilipJ96, In my opinion, I think you are putting way too much emphasis on league tables and perceived reputation. It's interesting that you put your interest in each position almost as a throwaway comment. This sort of decision-making is a mistake and this forum is packed full of people who ran into serious problems as a result of poor decision making at the start of their PhDs.

First and foremost in your mind should be the work you are going to have to dedicate the next few years of your life to. Then you need to consider location including the working conditions because this is where you are going to have to live and work each day. The choice of supervisor should then be in third place because this is the person who will have to support you when you inevitably hit one or more walls during your research. I don't mean their reputation: I mean whether you get on with them, how are other students treated etc.

In my opinion, these three things, in the order I have listed them, are considerably more important than the type of recommendation letter you may or may not get at the endpoint.
I'm not saying you should ignore reputation but you certainly should not make the mistake of ranking it the highest priority in my opinion.

YorkFuller,

Although there are rules about how many hours to work outside your PhD you could easily get a part-time weekend job away from the uni and not tell anyone.
I don't agree with the advice given by eng77. I don't believe anyone should be "grateful" for anything in this day and age. In a world where a 7 year old is making £2m per month making Youtube videos I would advise anyone to go out there and get whatever you feel you want and ignore those who have a problem with that.
I think the bigger issue for me would be you limiting your PhD work to 40 hours per week. Personally I don't think that is a good idea at all. A PhD shouldn't be a 9-5 job and you might be harming your future here.

Monkia, I am a bit confused. Are you volunteering this information or are they directly asking for it? Why are they asking your ex-supervisor for a reference?

@eng77 the thing is that when it comes to presenting maths, figures, and general text typesetting, nothing comes close to Latex. Word has always been a nightmare for anything more complicated than a letter.

Anyway, sorry TQ, I'm afraid I have no advice for you on this :-(
Word is supposed to easily deal with all of this but I suspect if you cut and paste it will drag in a whole load of template/style/theme tags as well and completely wreck your document.

eng77, I suspect TQ is already well into the writeup so a change to something like Latex would probably not be a good idea.
Having said that, apart from the formatting of tables, Latex didn't give me any problems once I went through the anguish of getting hold of a good template and learned the basics. I would have hated doing a science thesis full of maths using anything else though.

I'm afraid there is no "safe" time to have a baby as regards your career. Trying to time these things won't necessarily help you either. You risk getting stressed out and your body will have a number of ways of frustrating what you want. You simply cannot say "I'll have a baby in this period of the year but not in this other period". It doesn't work like that.

You can't equally prioritise both career and pregnancy. One will have to take priority over the other for a while at least. I think you need to make that decision before you do anything else.

Maternity pay kicks in when you go on leave for it. My wife left about a month beforehand but this was quite a few years ago so it might have changed. I think it will be your decision and you should be able to work right up until the wee beggar pops out :-)

Visiting each of the three is a good idea but it won't help you decide what you want to be known for in years to come when you are no longer at these institutes.

Only you can make this decision based on what you really want.

Do you really need to make the decision now or can you find a way of bringing your disparate interests together in a single piece of work under one of these supervisors?

That link tells you to delete system files.
I wouldn't even think about this until you have had this verified by Microsoft themselves.

Agreed. I would hand my formal notice in first thing tomorrow morning.

What a way to respond to someone who is trying to help you.
Looks like self confidence isn't going to be a problem.

I didn't say it wasn't fine.
I am merely pointing out the fact that letter for letter this post is absolutely identical to that posted by a different user months ago.
That is odd. No doubt about it. You would expect a difference of some sort.