I've got the second one.

It sounds like you've both been really productive. :)

It's awesome to get good feedback, Batfink27. Sometimes supervisors seem less critical than we are, others they tear perfectly good things to shreds. It's most unreasonable. :P Also I am very jealous of what looks like a 40 minute supervisor meeting. I have to clear hours for mine. I'll go to ask him where something has been moved to and he'll think of a thousand things I have to know about.

Anyway. Poster done. At last. Hurray! :D

Can I join in too?

Today I have to complete the first draft of a poster. This should be fun. :s

Hello,
I'm probably not much good for advice, but I've ended up in a long distance relationship too. I'm about a year and a half into my PhD, and my boyfriend moved countries a couple of months ago for an amazing new job. Obviously I'm not going anywhere for a while, and he's hoping to stay in this job for the next few years... it's hard knowing that it's going to be so long until we can live in the same place again but we both totally support eachother and in the meantime I've got some amazingly supportive friends who I can demand hugs from on a regular basis. I definitely second the advice about making sure that you keep some sort social life. On those days when everything feels miserable and hopeless it can be good to drag yourself out and let your friends distract you from it all.

It's actually really reassuring reading this. I'm largely treating mine like a 9-5 job, sometimes I work later but most days I'm home at the same time (sometimes earlier because my journey is shorter) as my housemates who have "proper jobs".

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I think I'm probably going to aim for a smart-casual sort of approach.

Lol at the catsuit :)

I've just tried it and gave up at question 17. The wording confused me. Sorry.

Hello.
This is probably a really trivial question, but I'm going to a one day conference next month and don't want to look completely stupid... so... does anyone have any general suggestions of what sort of thing is suitable? :p

Thank you for the replies... it's good to see that other people have managed this before. I reckon we'll probably still manage to see eachother about once a month (lol @ "sex trips" :p) , so I guess it could be worse. Engaging the positive thoughts. :)

Hello,
I was wondering if any of you wise people could give any advice about what to do when a relationship goes long distance and how to balance that with a phd and stay positive? My boyfriend is starting a new job abroad soon and I'm in the second year of my phd so I'm not going to be moving anywhere for a while yet.
Thanks for reading (I assume if you read the thank you that then you read the rest of it :p)

I guess I'm doing a phd because I went to university and loved it, and so far I still don't want to leave this sort of environment. It's really exciting when I think that I'm studying things that no one else has looked at yet, and although I'm not sure if I'm exactly where I want to be, the whole area of research I'm in is absolutely fascinating and so relevant (alternative energy type stuff).

I suppose I do want to at least have a good attempt at being a lecturer. I know it's horribly competitive, but I won't get anywhere if I don't try. :)