Food glorious food

Every so often I forget that no matter how long past lunch time it has got
without eating, no matter how hungry I am, food from the hospital snack shop
will never taste good. Ever. Food is one of lifes pleasures and I always
feel cheated when it's no good. Minted lamb and chargrilled parsnips on
malted bread sounded good at the time but is a mistake I will never make
again. And I could have got half a starter at my favorite restaurant for the
same price.

Nice try

The wife doesn't like to follow the rules and certainly can't be told what
she should be doing. In fact she tends to do the complete opposite. I
pointed out to her last night that the earlier she has to get up in the
morning, the later she goes to bed. I then told her that she really
shouldn't be having sex with me and that a good many people probably think
the same way. It didn't work, she was too tired from the late night and
early morning! You can't blame a girl for trying though.

Time Goes By

What happened to the last few days? It's Wednesday again already. I blame it on the clocks going forward and that lost hour. It's nice not to be woken so early by the sun streaming through the curtains and even nicer to be driving home in the daylight. Last night was chaos on the roads due to the
Big Strike and then some idiot causing an 'incident' on another major route. I sat in my car going nowhere fast but actually quite enjoyed it. The sun was shining and there was some good music on the radio - it was nice to HAVE to sit there and do nothing.

As for the strike itself, I don't see why council workers shouldn't have to work until they're 65. As life expectancy increases so should the retirement age be raised. I was actually quite shocked to hear that 26% of the council tax we pay is used to pay the pensions of former council employees. With all the fuss about rocketing council tax they should wait until 65 to get the full pension!

Packing

I'm practising for moving house by moving labs at work. I like my old lab
but it is being knocked down and rebuilt again. I don't see why they need
to, the place looks like it's well used and god knows what they will find
when they start shifting the dust. My new lab is like a goldfish bowl but it
does have views over the rooftops to the fields beyond. I'm not sure about
my new collegues though - a half million pound piece of equipment and
someone has stolen the extension lead from the computer that goes with it.
Probably the same person who last week was downloading music on it! Hello!
Very expensive equipment for illegal downloading? Excuse me while I go and
polish my machine to get those grubby fingerprints off.

Headaches

Ask any researcher and they are likely to say that funding issues are one of their biggest headaches. We have just found out that one of our applications has been turned down - two of the reviewers liked our work and said the grant should be given but the third claimed that the technology doesn't work and we won't get results. We are already getting results and showed some of the preliminary data in the application. It makes me question his motives. He's probably one of these old guys who doesn't trust the new techniques. There is a nice permanant job advertised just up the road which sounds appealing. If something similar comes up in two years time I might be tempted to sell my soul to the devil and make the jump into industry. Then again, I probably won't. I enjoy the freedom I have to do my own thing.

It's Back!

The womens curling world championships are taking place in Canada at the
moment (the men get their chance next month I believe)! Oh joy at spending
the next few late nights infront of Eurosport. As I said during the
Olympics, it really is a sport best enjoyed late with a few beers, so yay to
time differences!

We're in the money

When I started this job a few months back I was disappointed to find that
the pay was less than I was expecting. Until this week, when I find that the
powers that be that spend their lives jiggling things like payscales around
have given me a payrise. So I am very NOT disappointed to find that actually
I am on more than I was expecting in the first place. AND it is to be
backdated to my start date. Yay! I've been wanting to take the wife to a
lovely restaurant that she has never been to, (where the mussels are
fantastic) but with saving for the house move she hasn't let me. This seems
like the perfect excuse to get out and celebrate! Double Yay!

Rug Rats

My life seems to have been taken over by small children. From being sprayed
with baby sick by the youngest to being left alone with full responsibility
for a 2 yr old and a 3 yr old, both overly-hyper and hell bent on wrecking
the place. Biscuits and childrens TV helped to keep them in the same room
(damage limitation) and they eventually tired themselves out so that when
the wife returned it was calm and peaceful. "Aren't they little angels" were
her exact words, I'll not repeat mine! She's a typical doting granny - none
of the kids can do much wrong in here eyes and I know I've said it before
but they are one of the advantages of being with an older woman. She's also
adamant that I have to have my own kid(s) one day. She's old enough to be my
own mother but I can't think of any one I'd rather have to be the 'other
mother' to my/our kids. That's not to say that we have any immediate plans
for reproducing, I'll keep practicing on other peoples offspring for a while
yet!

Travel plans

I've had enough of work for one week. I have acheived next to nothing because someone somewhere, and I don't know who or how, has messed up and I can't do anything in the lab until it's sorted. I really want to start getting some results because there is a conference in California at the end of the year that sounds quite nice (both the subject of the conference and the location). On the subject of conferences, one of the major ones in my particular field is held every two years which meant that a couple of years ago I was sent on a jolly across the Pond to the 'City of Brotherly Love'. This year it's being held in Spain which means that in another two years it will be back on the other side of the Atlantic again. It's not that I have anything against Europe but when I'm not paying for the trip it's nice to get as far as possible. So if I get my preliminary results ready for California I then have another 2 years to get a full set of results to take to the big gig. Now there's just the small matter of finding funding for these plans. Oh and getting the results. Well a girl's gotta have some dreams!


UPDATE: After pondering this post (it's been a slow afternoon) I have decided that actually I'm not much fussed about going to conferences for the following reasons;

1. they're not really about 'seeing the world' but about working
2. I don't really like 'networking' and can never remember peoples names (especially important people)
3. I make page after page of notes on all the interesting talks but then can never read my handwriting making me sitting in a darkened room for hours on end scribbling away a pointless exercise
4. It gets lonely, especially having a big bed all to yourself
5. I have to leave the wife at home (see 4.)
6. I don't have enough hands for carrying a suitcase, a laptop, a poster, a bag with all the junk I need for a flight and all the junk collected from the conference in (and that's me travelling light)
7. I don't do jet-lag very well - I need a week to recover
8. I don't like very hot/very cold weather (I always end up with one extreme)
9. I never get a window seat when I ask for one
10. US Immigration people scare me (the Dutch however I found to be overly friendly)
11. I like my home comforts (see 5).

I'll just read the abstracts when they're published instead.

Random

Okay, so contrary to its title, the last post had nothing to do with the
Ides of March. The 15th of March merely reminds me of studying Julius Caesar
in GCSE English many moons ago and I sometimes struggle to come up with
catchy titles that are going to grab the attention of anyone stopping by.
That was the first thing that came into my head, it was early!

Still on the subject of the last post, no need for curling in the
commonwealth games, they have bowls! (of the crown green type, typically
played by older people in the park on sunny afternoons - although I did get
into playing it myself one summer and do occasionally suggest to the wife
that we take it up. We could do with taking up a sport to get fit and it
seems like nice, gentle exercise). It's a relief, I thought I was going to
have to turn to synchronised swimming to provide my entertainment.

Changing the subject, the surveyors report has come back on the new house
and I'm pleased to say it's not falling down although the roof may need
replacing at some point in the future. We paid nearly 500 quid to have a
bloke tell us the roof may need replacing in the future! Now I'm no
structural engineer but don't most roofs need replacing eventually? Now we
need to delay the survey on the wifes house as the ceiling we had
re-plastered last summer looks like it's about to fall down - we have learnt
our lesson that re-plastering may make the rooms look pretty but it ain't
worth the mess. There is something to be said for the much maligned
anaglypta!

Beware the Ides of March

Apparently this week is National Science Week. But, rather than waffle on about my work (which is actually just a long list of acronyms that I can never remember what they actually stand for) I shall just refer you to New Scientist and the potential for remote controlled sex toys described in my last post. Who knew science could be such fun!

Rather than doing my own science I want to stop at home and watch the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games. I've only just recovered from the excitement of the winter Olympics, now this. Where do I go to lobby to get curling into the Commonwealth games?

Long distance lovers

The article here describes wi-fi wine glasses which let people in long distance relationships (or any other sociable pairs I guess) share a drink. The glasses glow when one of the pair raises the glass and puts it to their lips, no matter how far apart they are. Now I'm no physicist but if you can make LEDs glow using wi-fi what else can be turned on using similar technology? Surely it's only a matter of time before two people can have all the fun of an intimate relationship without ever having to be in the same room! Vibrating mobile phones have been around for a while, how difficult would it be to adapt that technology and make them more controllable using wi-fi? The mind boggles as to how far this could be taken.

D'oh

Lack of posts = busy few days. Things are taking off at work and I seem to
have spent most of this week in meetings. For the first time I'm really
starting to feel that I know what I'm talking about and am not afraid to put
my hand up and have my say. The one think I'm not getting any better at is
remembering names. The other day I found myself 'networking' (hate that
word) and talking to a guy who was very interesting and seemed interested in
my project (perhaps he was just being polite). Anyway, one thing lead to
another as they do in these situations and he might be interested in
collaborating in the future. It was only the following day that I worked out
that actually he is one of the people who first described the whole field
I've been working on for the last four years and a couple of his papers I
cite just about every time I talk about my work! Do you ever have one of
those moments when you just want to kick yourself for being a bit slow on
the uptake?

Gardens

The house buying is proceeding nicely. We have signed our lives away (just
how many direct debit forms do the building society need) and are waiting
for the survey on both the new house and the valuers report on the wifes
house for the re-mortgage. We are keen to move asap as we need to get the
veggie plot prepared and seeds sown before it's too late. Forget the DIY
books and colour charts, the wife is investing in gardening books and keeps
talking about crop rotation. I'm just sorry there isn't enough garden for
one of those sit-on lawn mowers and I don't think one tree justifies buying
a chain saw. I will however a nice collection of power tools for the work
that does need doing. And a garden shed to keep them in!

School run

I took the 5 yr old to school this morning. We were of course late and she
has no sense of urgency. After jumping out of the car and then having to go
back for her school bag behind we made it into the playground where she
wanted to run around for a while before I managed to get her through the
front door and into the cloakroom. Other kids were in and out in a flash but
not us, she doesn't see the need to rush. Eventually she heads off towards
the classroom before running back for hugs. When she does make it into class
I notice all the classes are dancing and doing exercises with the very prim
and proper teacher leading them. So cute. What a fab way to start the day, I
might have to try it myself. All together now... in out, in out, shake it
all about!

Hairy

I really dislike going to the hairdressers, I don't know why but I do. Consequently I let my hair grow until I get sick of it then get it all chopped off (although apparently once my hair starts to get long I look about 14 - remind me of that when I'm old and not wanting to look my age, but at 27 and a half it's not so good). Today I finally got around to getting a hair cut - I can tell because my neck is now in a draught. The other problem I have is that I can never remember the name of the person that cut my hair so I end up with someone different every time I go and they always seem to worry about cutting so much hair off. Today she wanted to know that I wouldn't burst into tears as she snipped! The wife seems to like the new me so it was worth the stress and small fortune.

This may be a bit random

Despite there having been warnings of snow and chaos for the last couple of
days the sun hasn't stopped shining and I've not seen a single snowflake
(although apparently I wasn't watching closely enough yesterday, but then my
office doesn't have any windows). It has been a bit cold though, not helped
by the fact that the heating at work has broken down and no one seems to
want to fix it (we are being demolished in a couple of months so they
probably think that it's not really worth fixing the heating). 13 deg C was
recorded at lunch time in one of the labs, no wonder my fingers are so numb
I can't feel the keyboard. Talking of ice, I nearly had a rather large chunk
through my windscreen this morning whilst hurtling along the motorway. A
lorry seemed to be shedding shed loads of ice off it's roof. My life flashed
before my eyes! Talking of cars (see this may not be so random after all),
what is it with blacked-out windows? So that you can pick your nose in
private?

There, I feel better having waffled for a while. There is no one to talk to
here.