Down in the dumps

Excuse this post, I'm just getting some disappointment off my chest here... should be back to my more bubbly self shortly.
I have just spent the last few weeks and days working on this fellowship proposal. I think I wrote a good one. My mini boss helping me out too, even got a blush-worthy letter of recommendation from a former boss. Yesterday we were due to sit down and check everything before submitting, he came and asked me when I got my PhD. It turns out that this fellowship is for those who get there PhD from 2005 onwards. I got mine 2004. So all of our hard work has been for nothing. I'm kicking myself for not checking the guidelines properly. I did look and I did see a deadline,but that was back in March when it was still 2004 as the deadline, from April it changed and I didn't check or didn't notice again. At the age of 32 it appears I'm too old to apply for this grant because in the UK educatioin system you can complete your PhD much earlier than in other countries. So now I'm back to worrying again. I know that his highness said there would be money if I wanted to stay, but its not quite the same reassuring feeling as having your own grant and he's not around. I"m trying to be all positive,but really I'm feeling a bit lost at the moment.
This is compounded by one of my really good friends leaving. She's off to Sweden tomorrow to take up a new job- she's been my lunching companion for the last 2 years. We've been able to bitch and off load when working here gets to you, and as she's also a researcher she gets the little frustrations of research that is sometimes hard to explain to others in other jobs. I'm going to miss her alot, but such is the life of science and the life of an expat.

Now excuse me while I go have a wee teary session in the loo and dig out my emergency depression chocolate supply.