Well out of my friends here there is: a blonde extrovert, a redhead extrovert and a brunette introvert - although come to think of it they might all be brunettes without the help of hair dye

My hair is brown too although a bit blonder than natural at the moment!!! As for intro/extrovert I have no idea it kind of depends on the day!

I don't think you can generalise on personality or hair colour

But have you found out yet whether you have got the OK for the upgrade? I thought they normally tell you straight away... they did with mine anyway but maybe it differs.

If you have been granted the upgrade then I wouldn't worry so much!!! It is only a step along the way and there are bound to be some constructive criticisms and even small changes suggested at this point. My sup told me to think of it as an opportunity to discuss the future of the research with an external person rather than some kind of 'final judgement'.

Just relax now that it's done and don't beat yourself up

Warnborough.ie, so it's in Ireland?!?!? Can't believe I've never heard of it... I just had a quick look at the site there and on their 'Quality Assurance' board I did actually recognise the name of someone who came to our college as a visiting lecturer - so he is 'bona fide' at least!!!

Something about it just doesn't inspire confidence though does it?

*hug* you poor thing chris... what can I say, just do as much as you can and then take a good long break at Christmas.

I'm going on 21st (half-day too ) and won't be back till the 2nd... that's twelve and half glorious days of christmas woohooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By the way i have seen people make little robins with santa hats and turkeys (kinda like smileys except not)... how do you do it???

P.S. I understand it at a conference, but is this the way they are at Christmas parties aswell??? What a bunch of boring old gits, why would you want to be a part of that?!?!?

Although we don't even have a party in our department so I guess I can't talk about being boring

I usually try and turn the topic around to something non-academic - they really hate that so it probably won't win you any popularity contests

But seriously have you noticed that they can't hold a conversation about something non-academic??? Even something as simple as the weather or something that was on the news, they get all uncomfortable... there's a way to turn the tables mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha (evil laugh)!!!

In summary, they're the weirdos not us They may be able to talk the talk but they have no social skills outside of their own comfort zone.

Yeah mine too - but at €60 per hour I kinda think that's fair enough!

I'm not sure I follow chris... Do you mean you can never relax because the PhD is 'always on your mind'?

Adem I know what you mean - I was talking to two other postgrads here about the same thing - one said she wasn't going to let the phd consume every minute of her life - the other replied 'huh - you won't last three months'. There's a nice slap in the face for ya

I really like your attitude on this one o.stoll. I think too many people get caught up in this thing of 'boo hoo poor me I can't take more than one day off for my summer holidays'. That's a load of rubbish, no matter what you should always take two weeks in the summer and make sure that at least one day of your weekend is sacred i.e. no work. You'll go insane otherwise!!!

Graham as for the 9-5 that is more or less what I do, plus the odd Saturday to make up for classes I teach during the week. However, I do think now I'm in my 3rd year there maybe a few longer hours ahead of me

Lol... you do make me laugh I'll say that for you!!! I happen to like my real name just fine thanks very much

Corinne, I think there are some little 'rays of sunshine' on here (that's sarcasm by the way ) who just take pleasure in criticising other people's posts, their usernames and being negative about everything in general.

What I wonder about these people (who don't need to be named) is don't they have work to do???

Contd. But then I realised that the subject really was boring - students are never going to like every subject on a particular course so I can't say I blamed them.

Since then, thankfully, I have gotten some more interesting subjects to teach and have gotten some interested groups of students to work with and have come to really enjoy teaching.

It was originally what I wanted to and after that first knock to my confidence I thought 'Oh God this is not for me at all' - but I have to say just get 'back up on the horse' and keep at it - things will improve!!!

I agree with other posters here, you really shouldn't let this knock your confidence too much (and you should really reconsider your username too )

I had some horribly unresponsive classes in my first year of teaching and here's a little horror story... One day nobody showed up for my tutorial and I met a student in the corridor and asked why - he said because the class is boring I nearly died of embarrassment...