Happenings

Things are starting to happen in the house now. The kitchen is taking some time and I can recommend NOT buying a kitchen from B&Q - first the handles were delayed and a worktop arrived covered in chips and scratches, then we discovered that one of the units is damaged and they are taking ages to replace it. The guys fitting the kitchen are however great and have no problem with the fact that the job is taking twice as long as expected. At least we have a cooker now, the camping stove was starting to frustrate me. And for the first time in over two months we have a washing machine! Hopefully by the weekend the temporary kitchen in the dining room can be moved into its new home. Also up and running is broadband, and I managed to install a phone extension AND set up a wireless network. Now all I need is time to catch up on this blog lark.

More men

We had a load of rubble and old wall tiles to dispose of at the tip. It's a manic place at the best of times and I always feel hassled to unload the car as fast as possible and sort the rubbish into the appropriate skips. So we pulled up as close to the rubble skip as possible but still behind two other cars. The guys in the car infront are unloading a big boot full of bricks, one at a time. ONE AT A TIME. Us women pick up our stuff by the bag load, carry it past their car to the skip. The wife did manage to lighten their load by taking a few off them (for a path for the greenhouse) and picked up as many as she could carry in one go. Just to prove how precious these guys were they then cleaned their car out before leaving, never mind the queue forming behind them.

Just to prove I'm not a man-hating lesbian: We're getting the new kitchen fitted this week and the guys doing that are fab and doing a really good job. So good that we'll have them back in a few weeks to do the bathroom!

Men Man

I wish I was more handy around the house. Not that I don't know how to
handle the shiney new electric screwdriver - I successfully got the fire
surround reattached to the wall and am firly confident that it won't fall
and squash a small child and this morning I managed to get the coat hooks
back on the wall after the man who came to read the gas meter pulled them
down. It's the bigger jobs that I wish I knew how to do since the so-called
professionals seem pretty rubbish most of the time. Firstly there was the
fire. Two different guys were involved in the fitting of a new gas fire
which was then condemmed by the guys who came to fit the second fire
(apparently it's a problem with the chimney and we and our neighbours could
have died a slow death from the noxious fumes - a simple test the first time
round would have spotted this). Then, last night we discovered a gap above
the new back door. Now it's nice to see daylight through the window but not
so nice to see it between the door and the frame. Thirdly, we got blinds
fitted at some of the windows and a) one of the rollers didn't roll; b) one
of the bedroom sets fell down completely and c) the big set of verticals in
the sitting room are all different lengths. It's not as if we've been going
for the cheaper option. The only thing we've not had a problem with is the
greenhouse which we women built ourselves and which is still standing firm.
I'm dreading the kitchen starting next week and am tempted to take a
plumbing course and tackling the bathroom myself. The only thing these guys
seem good at is drinking tea!

Grrrr

Every two weeks I have a meeting with my supervisor on Monday at 3pm. Would
it be so difficult for him to email me to tell me he won't be able to make
it. Three out of the last four times I have been pacing the corridor outside
the meeting room like a nutter before finding someone to confirm that he's
'in a big meeting with some VIPs'. Never mind little old me. On the other
hand it has given me a chance to visit the library - I had forgotten just
how lovely and quiet it is in here when the students are all of on holiday.
Now if they could just sort out the air con and let me being some coffee in
I'd be quite happy to stay for a while.

Sarnies

I was going to post a follow up to my last post but that post has
disappeared so that will have to wait. Instead: The wife started to make us
both sandwiches this morning to take to work when she got a phone call so
took over, nly to be dragged away myself leaving them to be finished by the
wife after all. Imagine the lovely surprise when I just opened the bag to
find neat little triangles with home grown lettuce in addition to my fave
chicken and tarragon. It's little things like that that make me feel loved.

Life

Several years ago the wife set out to get herself a degree. While at uni she
met two other mature students and they have remained close friends ever
since, being there for each other through lifes ups and downs. A year ago
one of them was diagnosed with lung cancer and the prognosis was not good,
it was a large tumour and there was no cure, although with chemotherapy and
radiotherapy her life expectancy could be lengthened. The wife and I talked
about the choice she had numerous times. The several months of treatment
would make her ill and her quality of life during that time would be poor.
The other friend said that they wouldn't have the treatment but would enjoy
the little time they had left. She didn't. She wanted to be around when her
first grandchild was born at the end of last year. After several hard months
of chemo and radiotherapy and scan after scan the tumour was still there,
but it had shrunk. It was now small enough to operate. So a few weeks ago
she had half of a lung removed and this week was told that the tumour had
gone. There is no guarantee that the cancer won't come back but for now she
has been cured in a way that was never thought possible and is feeling
better than ever. And she will, hopefully, live to see her granddaughter
grow up.

How many people, like the other friend, would have refused the treatment.

Heatwave

My aim for today is not to break into a sweat and if that means getting half
the stuff done that I should get done today, well, tough. Lab coats are far
too impractical in this weather. Instead I should be at home trying to
figure out the best place for a new water butt. The existing one is already
empty and the grass is in need of some intensive care. If summers are going
to continue like this, one butt is not enough. Having been automatically put
on a water meter since we moved we are concious of the amount of water we
are using (and hence the bills). And of course we're trying to do our bit to
conserve water - but my lovely garden is suffering.

Bits and bobs

So things are a little bit slow around here. Summer is here, work is busy,
the house needs 1001 things doing to it, the grass needs cutting and to top
it all off the wife bought me Flight Sim for my birthday last week. Hence
out of that list very little is getting done and most of my computer time is
now spent learning to fly. I'm still hoping one day to learn to fly the real
thing but for now this will do. My birthday passed virtually unnoticed this
year, which is the way I like it and unlike last year when those bastards
tried to blow up London, it was a quiet day. We went out for a meal at my
favourite restaurant and made it home nicely in time to change into PJs and
settle to watch Big Brother - I'm getting old! And while we're on the
subject of BB, I'm finding this series hard going since all the housemates
ever do is argue and I can't keep up with who has fall out with who at any
given time. Anyway, back in the real world about the only useful thing
achieved last week was stripping the fireplace back to its bare wood in
order to restore it to its former glory. Oh and the cucumbers are taking
over the greenhouse. Never let it be said that I don't lead an exciting
life!

Dilemma

I have a dilemma. Someone has told me that they are planning something as a
surprise for a certain persons birthday and sworn me to secrecy. The trouble
is that I am 99% certain that the recipient won't be impressed with this
particular something for a number of reasons, she has experienced it before
and vowed not to do it again. I have suggested that culprit re-thinks her
plans in the nicest possible way but I don't think I was very successful. So
now I don't know whether to tell the other party or not. Or perhaps I'm
being selfish as the event is likely to involve me as well and I'm 100%
certain I don't want to do it.

Ding Dong

The old doorbell on our new house is one of those wireless ones and sounds a
bit like a clock striking a quarter past the hour. The old lady who
presumably had the doorbell installed has moved across the road to live with
her sister. Our doorbell has a habit of ringing on its own and it is
definitely not being pressed as the button is now inside the house. It was
spooky at first but is one of those little things that you quickley get used
to (hence not having removed the batteries). The bell rings, without fail,
every day at around 9am and again around 6pm (an occasionally inbetween).
This is the same time that the carer visits the old lady across the road.
I'm thinking that they have the same bell. Or the old lady wired the bells
up together to spy on us.

On the same subject (who knew doorbells could be that interesting) - the dog
very quickly learnt that the bell meant someone was coming to visit him
(because he thinks people only ever come to visit him) but is learning very
slowly that the bell now means that no one is there and still barks like
mad. This is particularly annoying at 9am during a Sunday morning lie-in.

Random Ramble

The wife loves the greenhouse. I love that the glass in the Greenhouse is not glass at all but is plastic because it is slightly opaque and I am not an exhibitionist. The bloomin' garden has encouraged my hayfever to be worse than ever, just as I thought I was growing out of it. S'not very attractive. What is attractive is the wife watching the football - I love it when she's passionate. I am however torn with the England v Portugal game. I have Portugal in the sweep at work. Is that unpatriotic?

Rain, rain go away...

It can't be about to rain! It's been gorgeous all week and now, just as I'm
about to pack up and head home to enjoy the garden, the sky clouds over and
threatens rain. There are more practical issues I have with it raining this
weekend. We still don't have a washing machine and we're all set to go and
take over someones washer to do the several loads we have accumulated over
the last fortnight. If we can't hang it out, it will never dry! Secondly, we
don't have a cooker anymore. The guy who came to fit the second new fire had
to test all the gas and he condemmed the 40+ year old cooker we inherited
with the house. So, I was looking forward to a weekend of BBQs. I'm off to
do a wee anti-rain dance.

Rain Stops Play

The current project for the house is gutting the kitchen ready for the new one. We're half way through taking the tiles off the walls then we can get rid of the larder. Then we need an electrician and a plumber followed by a plasterer before we can think of putting the new kitchen in. The aim is to try and keep the kitchen useable for as long as possible since we both love our food which means trying to keep the mess to a minimum. The wet weather would have made the job even messier today (at least that's my excuse) so it's been a lazy day from the start. Other things have been happening though, the new windows and doors were finished on Friday. The windows have all been kept in the same style as the original ones, apart from one which is sort of bugging me, but to have kept it the same it looks like we would have had to loose the opening. If we hadn't had to have an opening large enough to escape through if there was a fire there wouldn't have been a problem but regulations now state... bla bla bla. At least we can open the door onto the patio now and the new front door is back to the original 1930s style that is should be. This week it's the turn of the fireplaces.

We've also had the oldest grandkid here for the weekend and as lovely as she is, she can be a little brat at times. The biggest problem is that she won't go to bed so as it gets later on in the evening and the wife and I simply want to curl up on the sofa together, she gets more and more demanding. At least with grandkids you can send them home when you've had enough!

Calm before the storm

This was the recently constructed greenhouse into which I put several hours of blood, sweat and tears. It now contains several tomato plants, a cucumber plant, peppers and red and green lettuce (and the peony infront of it is now in flower). Beside the greenhouse our first two strawberries are almost ripe. It isn't quite finished however as I still haven't got around to cementing it properly into the ground.

The greenhouse is built of aluminium and polycarbonate. Both of these materials are actually quite light. The winds are actually not very light at all tonight. Guess who will never be forgiven if the greenhouse moves and damages any of the wifes crops.

So hang me

What I am about to say may be considered tantamount to treason by my fellow countrypeople, especially after my verging on the obsessional interest in the curling at this years winter olympics (at least they had a chance of winning). But, I don't think that Eng-er-land will live up to all the hype and repeat the win of '66 that has been filling the TV/radio/newspapers for the last too many months*. I just don't think that 'we' have a particularly strong squad. The best things about the world cup is the empty supermarket during saturdays games and the empty roads this afternoon. Why can't those bloody car flags be banned? Why does every cake/biscuit/iced-bun in the bakers have to be covered in red and white icing? And, why was a half decent radio program's dominated by a debate about whether it is right for people to pull a sickie in order to watch the England games? It's just all wrong, it's only a game.

*I hope for my own sake that I am proved wrong here, for the wife is a keen footie fan (and we all know how happy a happy wife can make me).

Wild

I think I need to get my hair cut - too often now I'm getting to work,
seeing my reflection in the computer screen and wondering if I did actually
comb my hair this morning.

Spending Spree

When we sorted out the financing of the house we made sure that there was
enough left in the bank to cover all the work that needs doing on the new
place. Having a relatively large sum of money available makes window
shopping great fun: "we could get that nice expensive piece of furniture for
the dining room" or "those solid walnut desks would look fantastic". When it
comes to actually spending we are more cautious, hence still no wardrobes or
washing machine. However the new kitchen has been ordered, the new bathroom
has been decided upon and the design for the new windows chosen. But the
best buy of all so far? The greenhouse! And the fantastic weather means that
the inner child in me spent the weekend playing with the giant mechano set
and the end result (apart from some strange patches of sunburn - my left ear
and a stripe across my lower back) was a very, very happy wife who was eager
to reward me for all my hard work - after she had planted the tomatoes.

Out of the chaos

I'm back having survived the move and the 1001 other things that have taken
over since. The move itself went smoothly, the only day of the week it
didn't rain which was fortunate. We're still living among boxes and out of
suitcases as we have very little bedroom furniture - the removal guys
couldn't get the only wardrobe out of the house. We have no washing machine
and are using a 40 year old gas cooker (which is a bonus as the old lady
wasn't supposed to be leaving it behind). One week after moving we got the
boiler replaced so at least we can have a decent bath now and wash in hot
water. It seems like nothing has been done in the house since in 70 years -
the original sink in the original kitchen has started to leak and the toilet
is falling apart - I have decided that the house has seen more use in the
last two weeks than in the last ten years. But for all that there is a lot
of work to do, it is mostly cosmetic and at least it's clean. And big! Where
as in the old house we lived in one room with all others off it, we now have
more rooms spread further apart making every other conversation start with
"where are you?". Then there's the garden. It's fantastic! A large lawn with
flower beds full of flowers surrounding it. One large border has already
been cleared ready for the greenhouse and the veggie plot is the next
project on the list. The whole place makes getting up and out to work in the
morning that bit harder.

We're not set up properly for the internet yet, NTL turned up to install
cable only to discover that they couldn't give us the whole package so we
have taken our custom elsewhere, only elsewhere has a two month wait. So,
it's back to dial-up temporarily (we couldn't go without) and the garden is
better for my blood pressure than waiting for pages to load.

Boxes

A quiet five minutes hiding from the wifes family - living with a four year old and four month old is an experience! With 48 hours before we get the keys to the new house we are just about finished packing. A camping stove and new BBQ has been bought as we are going to be without a cooker for several days, in fact there isn't much of a kitchen. The phone company kindly cut off our current phone line yesterday, just as we were phoning around sorting out things like gas and electric for the new place. Hopefully the bollocking from the wife has got it reconnected.

My biggest worry now is the removal firm we've booked. I saw one of their two vans the other day and it looks very small, especially when you see the number of boxes we've got. I thought I was a hoarder but the wife is even worse!

Disappointing Friday

Dare I admit to being quite excited at the prospect of Big Brother starting
last night? It just goes to show how little decent telly there is at the
moment! It brings a little light relief from the packing. We were going to
go and see Juliet Turner tonight but neither of us can stay awake past 10pm
and can't face the prospect of the two hour drive there and back. We are
both feeling constantly knackered and this weekend want to try and restore
some sort of order to the house. As well as all the boxes and piles of
things still to be packed, we are also housing someone elses furniture for
the weekend and then two adults and two kids are joining in the fun on
Sunday. The wife is far to soft when it comes to her kids, but that's
another story all together. Let's just say it is hard to move around the
house at the moment.

On top of the disappointment of waiting 6 months to see Juliet Turner and
then not seeing her at all, I got a free chocolate caramel bar with my
sandwich this lunch time (which at the time was not at all disapointing). It
being from M&S (this is probably the last week I can afford to buy my lunch
from M&S) I expected it to be delicious but it tasted just like a mars bar,
a sticky, sickly sweet mars bar. Utter disappointment.

The deed is done

Today we signed the contracts for the new house and in ten days we complete and the place is 100% ours! On the way down to the solicitors this morning I did point out to the wife that in terms of commitment, this is as good as getting married. I told her that this was her last chance to call the whole thing off and to speak now or forever hold her peace. She replied in her typically romantic way, "I'm not pulling out now after the amount of money we've spent getting this far". However she did suggest that we went out for lunch afterwards to celebrate and I'm sure I spied a bottle of something fizzy in the fridge!

Flapping around

Today I'm doing an impression of a headless chicken. Or a blue arsed fly.
Whichever is running round the most, suffering in the heat and having more
and more piled on her. I have managed to automate one of my experiments
which gives me 10 minutes to sit down. Finally we have a date for the house
move, contracts are being exchanged next week then the big day is happening
two weeks today. Thats just 14 more sleeps! Consequently after running
around at work all day I get to go home and pack boxes - I never knew we had
so many books. Boxes and boxes of books. And wine glasses, so many odd wine
glasses that don't match any others. We're also eating some strange meals as
we try to run down the contents of the freezer. I can't wait to get home
just to see what the wife's dug out for tonight.

Panic

It's been one of those days - just one thing after another and too much to do with too little time to do it. An annual review at work has allowed my boss to dump a whole heap of work on me. I was probably going to end up doing it eventually but now I'm going to be doing it on his terms (and his time scales) rather than my own. Then the wife tells me that we have to be moved in two weeks, she has a tenant lined up who needs her house then. Not a problem in terms of packing (who'd have thought two people could own so much junk), we did a lot over the weekend. But, having decided to decorate one of the bedrooms we also had to finish continue that and on moving the bed we discovered a hole in the floor that needs sorting. Add to that the incompetent mortgage advisor and the ridiculous amount of information the building society want and two weeks seems a bit optimistic. As the wife said, it doesn't matter, the shop round the corner is selling tents at half price. I just can't see how the wife, the dog, me and all our belongings will fit in a three-person tent!

Last Minute

So the Black Cats avoided breaking two records at once by getting their only home win this season at the last home game of the season. Unfortunately it won't be enough to stop them being relegated with the lowest number of points by any team ever (breaking their own record) but it did put the wife in a good mood last night. And the wifes good moods are good for me!

Bring me sunshine

It is a lovely, lovely day outside and I have discovered that looking out of
my 5th floor lab window I can see not only the fields with the cows happily
grazing but beyond that I can see planes on their final approach into the
airport. Which, for a plane spotter with multiple two minute incubations
during the course of any given experiment, is perfect (two minutes is too
short to do anything useful other than play solitaire and in the absence of
a lab computer the window is an ideal substitute. However, if there were to
be a computer in the lab I would now be able to visit the live flight
information on the airports website and find out exactly where each plane
has come from). I just spent five minutes enjoying the sunshine and talking
to the wife on the phone after a successful experiment. Not even the person
who let the door slam in my face or the person who ignored me holding the
door for them could dampen my mood, but why do people have to be so goddamn
rude!

Still not moving

I actually made a start on packing, although there is still no date for the move. The wife had to work on Saturday so I took the opportunity to empty and dismantle a wardrobe so that one of the bedrooms can be decorated before it is let out. After multiple trips to B&Q (DIY is what bank holidays were made for after all) I was fully equiped with a new saw, several lengths of wood, half a ton of nails and a large tin of paint. I know wood cladding is kind of out of fashion but it will make it easier to tidy up after tenants move out and we made a good job of it, even if I do say so myself. Or at least it will be once it's finished. The tenant thing seemed to be going well but the bloke who had wanted this place turned up on Sunday morning saying he had changed his mind. We think we will probably put it in the hands of an agent. It's all so frustrating, the whole business of moving seems to be going so slowly. It's almost a year since we started looking into moving and three months now since we offered on the house. Initially we had hoped to me moving this weekend but we still don't even have a date for exchanging contracts. I feel like I'm banging my head against a brick wall, but at the moment it's the wrong brick wall!

Loving Memories

Sitting reading the announcements in the hatched, matched and dispatched
pages of the local newspaper (as you do when there is nothing better to do),
there was one announcement in loving memory of someone who would have been
101 yrs old today but who died at the tender age of 90-something. How far do
you take it? "In loving memory of a great-great-grandfather on his 135th
birthday". Or am I being a cold hearted bitch?

More Bricks and Mortar

Although our current venture into the property market is going slowly we are already planning our next move. Watching Kirstie Allsop and her sidekick Phil last night telling us Where Best to Invest has set the wife off thinking. As you may or may not be aware instead of selling her house to buy the new one, she is renting it out and has had no problem finding a tenant, in fact they came looking for her. This area is still cheap enough to make buy-to-let viable and with the hospital and University on the doorstep, finding tenants should be a doddle. The wife has even gone so far as to predict that if we get four properties rented to students we could retire to the country and live off the profits. I'm off to browse the property pages again and think up ways to raise funds for the deposits, this is one grand plan that I can feel myself getting swept along with.

Green Fingers

The sun hasn't stopped shining all weekend and it actually feels warm. Saturday we ended up going to a couple of garden centres, a little premature perhaps but we bought some plants for the new house, including a couple of strawberry plants (all I need now is an ice-cream maker). Spurred on by this we also planted some seeds ready to bring on in the new greenhouse and veggie plot, including enough lettuce and tomatoes to keep us in salads until Christmas. Yesterday we headed into Durham for a walk along the river which left me with a feeling of complete contentment. The problem now is that it's Monday morning and the last thing I feel like doing is working. As yesterday was St George's day, the patron saint of this green and pleasant land, today really should be another bank holiday!

Public service

I've just decided that today should be a public holiday so that we can all celebrate the Queen's 80th birthday. I know we've already had one day off this week but surely having today off as well would have made the day special for all of us. I would have much preferred to sit at home in watching day time telly her celebrate than be at work. I might also have had raised a glass to her by now (unless it's just this place that makes me want to drink).

Thumb twiddling

Have been waiting for a phone call at work now for two days as my favourite
toy has broken down again. This means I have to lurk around the damn thing
so I can follow the engineers instructions and press various buttons to try
and fix it. Whats the bet that if I go out to get lunch now he'll phone.

19th April 2001

Last night I took the wife out for dinner to celebrate the last five years ('cos I'm a big old romantic like that). We went to a little Itallian on the sea front where the food is fantastic (especially after the rubbish we have had the last few times we have ventured out for food). I love it there but the wife had never been before. I knew she was impressed when she made a note of the sauce she had on her steak, promising to replicate it at home. The only downside was that they had no mussels - apparently it's something to do with the weather in Scotland? At least it gives us an excuse to go back when the weather is better. After being well fed and watered and a brief stroll along the prom (very brief - it's still only April) we made it home and promptly fell asleep on the sofa, waking up sometime later, her with a bad back and me with a stiff neck. If we struggle to stay awake now, I dread to think what we will be like after 25 years!

Pizza and Wine

This song reminds me of sittiing in a pub, five years ago today on the day I met the wife for the first time. (Although a quantity of wine was consumed neither of us ate pizza that day).


Can you shut your eyes and turn away from me
I'm gonna say some things I've never said before
And I'm feeling kind of stupid and I'm feeling kind of shy
But they're building up inside of me and I have to let you hear them
Cos you never know, the world might end and one of us might die,
Don't be laughing, but I love the way you smile.

Could you maybe close your ears and talk to someone else
While I tell you things I've never said before,
Cos I'm feeling kind of stupid and I'm feeling kind of shy.
That I've not been used to tenderness and I've not been used to being kissed
Or being held for hours at a time, eating pizza and drinking wine.
Oh I love the way you put your hand in mine.

Could you ever reach behind you and turn the music up,
While I say some things I've never said before,
But it's getting easier to tell you more and more.
That I always dreamed of waking up to singing in my ear,
in fact I used to dream of....
Now you don't even sing in tune, but that's alright with me
Cos I have always loved the way you sing to me.
Now I've always been the scary type,
And I've always felt the need to fight,
My words will pierce the skin and make you bleed.
But you light my fires when I get cold,
You buy me back when I get sold
And you've never been afraid to love me,
And I will always love the way you love me,
I will always love the way you love me.

Juliet Turner - From Lets Hear it for Pizza

Not Just for Lorries

I'm heading off shortly to visit my mum for the weekend so if everyone else who is using the A1(M) and M1 this afternoon please remember that we drive on the LEFT in this country and that any other lanes are for overtaking. Once you have completed your manoeuver (i.e. passed the vehicles going more slowly than you) if you move back into the left hand lane we will all have a nice afternoon as well as getting to our destinations faster and more easily. Now let's all have a pleasant journey.

More tales of moving

We passed the house we nearly bought today and the people who (thankfully) pipped us to it were moving in. We're still hoping to be moving in the first week in may but the mortgage advisor we've been seeing thought it best to delay the re-mortgage on the wifes house until things moved on a bit with the new mortgage. The trouble is he seems to have forgotten about it and we are now facing a delay while he sorts out the paperwork which could have been done weeks ago. His theory was that we didn't want to be paying the buy-to-let mortgage before we actually moved but there are surely later stages that we could have held it up if necessary. Listening to the wife talking to him on the phone though is entertaining - he must be the only person who can talk more than the wife can!

We drove past the new house today (as I do everyday, just to make sure it's still standing)! The garden is blooming, it looks like the old lady took really good care of it and all sorts of colourful flowers are flowering already, and it's still only April. The garden is one of the main reasons we are buying this house and will be a priority once we move in. There is a gravel area just right for a veggie plot and a perfect spot for a greenhouse. It will take some preparing but I can't wait to start growing food. My only problem is that it's getting late in the planting season and will be several weeks before the veggie plot is ready. I'm tempted to start planting seeds in the propagator now but am worried that they die before we are able to transplant them (if they start growing at all, I'm not very green fingered, yet).

Don't come too close

I'm back in the spare room again having been struck down by bird flu a virus which quite sensibly the wife doesn't want to catch (although she is looking after me well, supplying endless cups of tea, just not coming any nearer than an arms length away). Have to drag myself back into the land of the living soon - so much to do, so much to blog about - just so little energy to do so.

Gee Up

What better way to spend a wet, cold Saturday afternoon than with a windswept Clare Balding (when Sue Barker isn't taking over) and the racing on the telly, and of course a flutter on the Grand National. My money is on Innox and an each way on Amberleigh House. Amberleigh House may be getting on a bit but he should have no problem getting round. Now to work out how many will fall at the first fence.


UPDATE: Ok, so Innox fell at the first fence and the other was pulled up on the second curcuit. At least the wifes horse finished, just not fast enough to cover our loses!

Shock Horror!

So a swan has been found to have died with bird flu in Scotland. The end of the world is nigh! I was late for work this morning because breakfast news said they had a reporter inside the 'protection zone' at Cellardyke and I wanted to see the mass panic and people dying in the streets. Alas, it looked just like a sleepy seaside town. Then they went to a supermarket in South London where people insisted that they only buy free range organic chicken anyway so there was no risk to their health which cheered me up. Free range organic poultry is probably more at risk because they are kept out in the lovely fresh air where wild birds can come and go as they please, passing on their germs. Having said that how many cases are there of transmission from bird to human through eating chicken? How many cases of human to human transmission have there been? I'll shut up before this story really starts to wind me up.

Staying on a similar subject, the local news last night ran a story about a giant rabbit eating its way through vegetable plots and allotments, and this isn't the first giant rabbit to have made the news recently. Perhaps we should be less worried about bird flu and more worried about starvation giant rabbits take over the country and destroy all crops.

Another girl

I have been banished to the spare room for the last few nights, through no fault of my own. The oldest grandkid has been staying with us as her mum hasn't been well and being the awkward 5 yr old that she has refused to sleep anywhere but with her Nan. Thankfully her mother has made a full recovery and the pair have returned to their own home and their own beds. As much as love the kid the spare bed is small and cold and I can't wait to snuggle up with the wife again. Clean sheets, clean pj's, clean me - roll on bed time!

Baldwins

I can't believe that they are killing Mike Baldwin off so quickly. It's only a few weeks since he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. When it comes to issues like this the script writers should portray it more realistically. Apparently they did the same with Alma, killing her too quickly as well.

(Talking of Alma, it might just be my thing for older women but does any one else think that Amanda Barrie is rather nice? Apart from in the awful wig they had her in in Bad Girls).

Anyway, yes. The point of this post was a could have done better to the Corrie writers!

Girls and Boys

5 yr old GK was staying with us this weekend. Last night she asked for water.

5 yr old: I like water but boys like juice. It’s a boy thing. Boys like juice. Girls like water and juice.
Me: So boys don’t like water?
5 yr old: Do you know the other difference between girls and boys?
Me: No
5 yr old: Girls have a tuppence and boys have a boobie-tuppence.
Me & Wife: What?
5 yr old: Girls have boobies up here and a tuppence down here (pointing) but boys have a boobie-tuppence down here.

God knows who’s been trying to teach her the finer details of anatomy but strangely enough I can see her logic!

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.

I grew up in the middle of the country and only ever saw the sea twice a year on holidays. After nearly five years living just a couple of miles from the beach and seeing the sea in the distance everyday on my drive home from work there is still something awesome about it. I can sit and stare out to sea for hours and just let my mind wander where it wants to. Yesterday on the way home we stopped at one of the bars on the seafront for a drink and sat in the window watching the waves break over the pier. I suddenly felt surprised at my life as it is now. I can't remember what I expected life would be like at this point but I'm pretty sure it wasn't going to be like this. I almost stopped and changed thoughts, scared that if I thought about my life in any detail I wouldn't like it. But then I realised that put simply I am actually approaching 30 with a successful career, buying a house with the woman I love and living the life that I have made for myself. The scary details are the bits that other people worry about - that I'm buying a house with someone else yet there is no guarantee of a job here in two years time; that the person I love is a woman; that the woman I love is old enough to be my mother.

But I'm happier than ever, and these worries are not my worries.

Shopping

I hope to God that this house buy doesn't fall through as we have spent all weekend browsing shop after shop looking at kitchens, bathrooms and bedroom furniture. After four hours in Ikea we think that we have decided on a kitchen and a new set of wine glasses.

Victory at last

We may not have got any medals in the curling or on the piste but oh how todays Calcutta Cup win for Scotland makes up for it.

Note to self

When sneakily watching the curling on the BBC website at work, don't leap
out of your chair and shout 'yessssss' when David Murdoch makes a double
takeout to take three points in the 7th end and make the score 6-5. Yes I
know USA are in the lead, just, but there's two ends left! It's just too
exciting!

Phew!

After a sleepless night spent chewing fingernails we heard first thing this
morning that the offer has been accepted! I thought the first offer being
quite low would be rejected so am doubly chuffed because we can now afford
to do everything we want to make it into our dream home. We can't quite
believe that after almost a year of talking about it, we are actually
proceeding with buying a house! Is it too early to be looking at kitchens
and bathroom suites?

Wahay!

House and Home

The saga of the house hunting may be about to come to an end. We have finally heard that we can get the mortgages we need and have decided on a house that we both absolutely love. It's the right size, right location and although it needs some work will be stunning when it's done. So, we have just put in an offer and are now waiting on the edges of our seats to see if it will be accepted. It's quite a bit below the asking price but considering all that needs doing we think it's fair. If we have to go any higher we will be stretching our budget to the max to get everything done the way we want it. Just a case of wait and see now, so fingers crossed!

Money honey

Barclays bank have today announced record profits and are being criticised for the amount they are making from charging customers. I would just like to stand up and say I think Barclays have got it about right. When I went briefly into the red recently they wrote and told me that they would waive the charges since I usually keep my account in good order and indeed the money they took from my account went straight back in. I'm fed up of people thinking that they can have something for nothing, spend money that ain't yours and you're gonna pay for it, that's life. (I know it's not always that simple, but this is a 'must have' society - what's wrong with waiting and saving to getwhat you want? It makes it much more exciting)!

Phew - this wan't supposed to turn into a rant but I feel better for getting it off my chest!

I was going to prattle on about other things but I've forgotten what now. So think yourselves lucky and thank you for your time.

I don't like mondays

I knew it was going to be a bad day when I just couldn't remember the key
pad number to get into the lab this morning (I have worked here for over
four years).

And I know funding is tight around here but it would be nice to have some
heating on - it is still winter after all. Brrrrr.

And I just know that with the rate at which I'm working today I'm not going
to get away in time to be home for the last womens curling match this
evening

And it seems that in the mornings I either have time to make lunch or make
breakfast. Today I did the former and ended up eating it by 10am. So now I'm
off to get an soggy sandwich filled with unrecognisable filling. And coffee.
Coffee will help!

Update at 11.11pm: So the GB women got knocked out despite a few exciting ends there tonight (you would have thought that with Rhona Martin shouting at them like that they might have played better throughout, she'd scare the crap out of me)! Then to top it all off I went and missed all but the last 5 minutes of ER!

Cor blimey - Roll on Tuesday!

Life's choices

Everywhere you look it seems that there are 'experts' telling us that we are all going to die young because we eat the wrong foods, drink too much, don't get enough exercise, have stressful lifestyles etc. Then this morning there was an article saying that we aren't having enough babies to look after us and fund us as we all live to a ripe old age.

Does this mean that people who don't have children to pay for them in old age should live an 'unhealthy' life while those who have lots of kids should do all that they can to ensure that they live until at least 100 to give their kids a purpose in life? Better still, if I don't have kids can I keep up my love affair with food and wine?

Ice Ice Baby

A quiet week blogging because I've been busy at work (watching the live streaming of the Olympics on the BBC website). The only problem I'm having is that the last couple of Winter Olympics have been in different time zones meaning that we had to watch most of it late at night. Not only do I have to miss most of the events this time round as I'm at work, but some of the stranger events aren't quite so fascinating to watch over breakfast as they are after a few beers.

I wouldn't mind having a go at the luge (but not the skeleton - the head looks very vulnerable hurtling down the ice in front at great speed). And as for that snowboard cross, it's almost as exciting as the curling (but fancy celebrating winning before the finish line and the falling over - I'm sure that won't keep cropping up on 'what happened next')! I'd better go and make sure the beers are chilling as it's GB vs Norway in the curling in half an hour!

VD

We didn't bother with valentines day, decided it was a load of commercial claptrap (or as the wife put it so much more eloquently, it's pandering to a capitalist society)! My excuse is that romantic gestures are for all year round so why should Feb 14th be special (although if a dozen red roses, a large box of chocolates and a cuddly toy had come my way this might have been an altogether different post). Having said all that we did enjoy a nice meal, a bottle of fizzy wine (left over from the PhD celebrations, not bought specially for the occasion) and curled up on the sofa in front of the telly.

Talking of last nights telly, I was getting prepared to rant all about last nights edition of 'Holiday Showdown' and the bloke that thought that homosexuality was the root of all evil but also thought it perfectly acceptable to take his kids on a shooting holiday, shooting pigs and firing the biggest gun in the whole of Texas. Fortunately after he got to know the bisexual couple who took him and his family to San Francisco his opinion seemed to change somewhat. So he has been given a reprieve. Or perhaps I'm just in a good mood.

Every cloud has a silver lining

I have spent most of the day at work preparing for a meeting this afternoon
with lots of pretty diagrams ready to pass on information from my trip last
week. Then 10 minutes before the meeting I find out that actually the person
I was supposed to be seeing isn't in today. And my work computer has gone
bang on me and so I'm relegated to a steam powered machine. At least it's in
a quiet corner and I have figured how to get the sound working so I am
happily ensconced in the curling - GB lead Denmark 2-1 after 6 ends!
(although some of the sounds coming through the earphones are bizzare when
not looking at the pictures)!

Bricks and mortar

So as the Olympic opening ceremony continues in the background we're left thinking about our housing situation. The idea now is that we keep this one, remortgage to rent it out to raise the money to buy our little palace. Renting out the wifes house will pay for itself and be a nice investment for the future and we can still afford to move to a bigger place in a nicer area with a garden. When it comes to buying we have managed to narrow the choices down to two, doth need work but one is slightly bigger than the other. The smaller one is owned by an old lade, it's very old fashioned and needs a whole new kitchen and bathroom and general updating but it's clean and well looked after. The other one has loads of space but is really tatty and dirty. The kitchen and bathroom are modern but are falling apart and we would rearrange the walls upstairs to make better use of the space. While my heart says one and my head says the other I'm trying to picture them both finished. I thought last summer finding a house would be easy but in reality it is a lot harder, or perhaps I'm just being picky!

The few days away was opportunity for both of us to think about the best way forward and having talked about it today it looks like we have both come up with the same idea.

Back

It's nice to be home after an eventful few days elsewhere in Europe. The work was intensive, early starts and late nights interspersed with 'networking' (I hate that word and dislike doing it even more) so was happy to be heading home. What didn't help was missing the connecting flight and spending a sleepless night on an uncomfortable bench in the airport. Especially after the flights stopped and there was no more plane spotting or people watching to do. I had to be up at seven yesterday morning and managed about half an hours sleep this afternoon - 36 hours without sleep for someone who is used to at nine hours a night isn't pretty!

It was a nice feeling to finally step off the plane at our local airport and really felt like I was home. Even nicer less than an hour later to be sitting at home with the wife and a decent cup of tea.

Off

I'm off on a trip, business rather than pleasure unfortunately so things will be quiet here for a couple of days. Why whenever I say I'm traveling light do I always end up with a bag that weighs a ton?

Oh flower of Scotland...

...when will we see
your like again!

Everyone I have spoken to has laughed at my 'joke' about Scotland doing the Grand Slam and winning the Six Nations*. Who'd have thunk that we could beat France (who incidently were described at one point today as being second best in the world behind the All Blacks) and be in the top half of the table with last years champions bottom! No wooden spoon for us this year. Okay, I know there are still four games left but with the new coach Scotland have turned themselves around (and next year is world cup year). To beat the favourites for the Grand Slam today after winning just one 6 Nations game in two years, tis a pleasure to be (semi-)Scottish.


In other news: I'm feeling broody having spent time with Tiny Step-Grandkid this weekend. Although they don't do much in the first few weeks of life, there is something special about having a baby fall sound asleep in your arms. (And I need someone to educate about the wonders of Scottish rugby).

*Rugby union tournament played annually between Scotland, England, Wales, Ireland, France and Italy. Grand Slam = winning all five matches; wooden spoon = bottom of table team. See this for a fuller explanation of (one of) the most exciting tournaments around.

Fun and games

With the Six Nations starting this weekend and the Winter Olympics starting on Friday I'm feeling sporty. Being a fan of the underdog I'm backing Scotland to take the grand slam and top the 6 nations table and at least one skiing medal from Torino. And here's hoping Rhona Martin and the girls can curl their way to gold again this time round. Sweeeeep!

One way to see in the new year

I have just come across a discussion forum for a particular technique I'm
using at work and was surprised by the information bar at the bottom of the
page:

Most users ever online was 21 on Jan 1 2006, 02:01 AM

I know us scientists are supposed to be an anti-social bunch but even I'm
not that sad!

ERrrr

I'm not really into computer games, apart from Theme Hospital that is. And occationally flight sim. Oh and I recently discovered Lemmings online. But I don't tend to go out and buy computer games very often. Until this week when I discovered ER, the game, as in ER one of my most favorite telly programs. And complete with a review that said that as I love Theme Hospital I will love this too! I was hoping it would arrive yesterday while I was 'working from home' but alas it landed on the doormat this morning after I had left for work. So for the last two hours I have been trying to figure it out - I feel like a 15 year old boy with the latest computer game, I'll have to be careful or I could end up locking myself in my bedroom and playing all night! Fear not, the wife is not feeling neglected, she is playing games too!

We really should get out more!

Inbreeding

A child whose parents are both scientists are more likely to be autistic so says this article. Apparently, people such as scientists, engineers or mathematicians are 'systemizers' and the genes which are responsible for making such people analytical "may also impair their social and communication skills". A Cambridge prof suggests that systemizers "tend to be less interested in the social side of life, and can exhibit behaviour such as an obsession with detail - classic traits associated with autism" (I wondered why people keep telling me I have an obsessive personality and I'll take my computer and a quiet night in over a social function any day).

"Professor Baron-Cohen said the rise in autism might be linked to the fact that it had become easier for systemizers to meet each other, with the advent of international conferences, greater job opportunities and more women working in these fields".

Which conferences does he go to? A conference is the last place I would think of looking for a spouse (one of us in the family is quite enough thank you). Or perhaps I'm just happily settled with the wife, who fortunately is not a systemizer but is a rather good poet.

Disorganisation

One day I will learn to be more organised. My car tax expired yesterday, the MOT today and insurance tomorrow and of course the woman at the post office won't give me a new tax disk without having new certificates for the other two. The insurance is sorted but I'm hoping the garage around the corner can MOT my car today. I daren't drive to work though as I have multiple near misses on a daily basis and it's only a matter of time before I and someone/something else collide. Knowing me that time would be today and my insurance would be null and void. Next January would someone please kick me up the arse to get sorted sooner!

Update: The garage around the corner managed to fit us in and my little car passed with flying colours so I'm all legal again.


For illustrative purposes only - my Ka is rarely this shiny

Fame and fortune

First of all there was Pop Stars, Pop Idol, Fame academy and the X Factor - Now we have FameLab, the Pop Idol of the science world. Somehow I can't see it filling a prime time saturday evening slot, although some of the auditions will probably be even more cringe-worthy than some of the bad Pop Idol auditions! And no, I won't be entering - I have no desire to become the next Will Young in a white coat.

Work rant

The hours at work are quite flexible, hence I aim to be in around 9.30
(usually it's closer to 10 by the time I've found a parking space) and stay
usually until after 6 (unless I have mis-timed the lab work or things have
gone wrong, then it's later). This works for me as 9-5 would mean spending
twice as much time sitting in traffic - by the time I leave work the roads
are empty and I can fly home. For others here, the arrival time varies but
the 5pm departure is set in stone. Half hour coffee breaks morning and
afternoon, 90 minute lunch breaks and they still manage to be out by 5! If I
hear one more wisecrack about not being able to get out of bed and my late
arrivals I will personally chain them to my bench and point out to them the
time I spend in the break room and the time at which I down tools and leave.
And would the person who stole my mug from the cupboard please return it
before I need my next caffeine fix at about 3pm - (not even the layer upon
layer of tea stains has put them off taking it).

Weekends were made for this

We've spent the whole weekend doing what we want to do and I really feel like I'm starting to relax. We headed towards Newcastle and spent the day on the Quayside, taking in the bridges, the Baltic, the Sage, a good lunch and a stroll along the banks of the Tyne. We're easy pleased! Although the 'contemporary art' in the Baltic was a bit weird and we didn't go past the first floor. An old record or a piece of graph paper with some of the squares shaded in isn't really my idea of good art.

We did have a frustrating morning though. This was the third time we had tried to view the same house, the first time the owner turned us away saying he had told the estate agent to cancel and last time there was nobody in when we went. We were really looking forward to seeing it again (we saw it a few months ago but thought it was too much of a mess) but yet again there was nobody there. We think this is another case of people not really wanting to sell despite their house being on the market. After the wife has been dropped in with viewings on our place recently we are starting to get sick of the whole house business. I think we started looking too early, before we were able to do anything about moving. Hopefully, we can get another viewing with the agent rather than the vendor because we think this is the house for us!

Tonight though I'm all calm and relaxed after our day in the sunshine. Time for a soak in the bath and curl up with the wife in front of the TV.

Dr Holly

The fools fell for it and have award me the PhD. The viva wasn't nearly as bad as I expected and I was pleased with some of the feedback I got, although I didn't perform quite as well as I would have liked to. The relief is enormous and not just for me but for everyone around me as well I expect. There are certain people that I couldn't have done it without, the wife in particular has got me through the last four years and if it wasn't for her I don't think I would have finished it (although se got me into that mess in the first place!). And what better excuse to open the bottle of very nice champagne that's been sitting on the shelf for the last two years!

Delightful distractions

Locked away at home revising I over-heard the wife playing computer games with 5 year old:

Wife: "I'll only play if you stop picking your nose... [Pause]... your turn... [Pause]... What have you done with your snots?"

And that's why I tend not to use the wifes computer!

Time up

My viva is nearly here thank God! I've had enough sleepless nights and stomach chunring to last me now thank you very much. People keep telling me, and I think I know they're right, that it is just formality and I couldn't get this far and not pass but there is a little niggle that keeps me thinking I could be the first person in the department to fail outright! The closer it gets the more convinced I am that I know nothing about my subject. By tomorrow I'll know nothing but am aiming to know it all - I'd better crack on then!

It doesn't help that I've re-discovered one of my old childhood favourites - Lemmings

Who's the daddy

Discussing the subject of my last post with my mother she set off on one along the lines of "that generation have payed for the NHS all their lives and are now being denied the treatment they deserve" which of course I aggree with but she followed it up with "instead the money is being spent on sex change operations and fertility treatment for same sex couples!"

I guess I'll not get impregnated by the NHS then.

Alzheimer's

NICE (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) were supposed to publish their guidelines for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease but have delayed this and have instaed put out their draft guidelines. I suppose this means that there is still some hope. I mentioned this briefly back in March but have a lot more to say on this matter now.

NICE are suggesting that the only effective drugs used in the treatment of Alzheimer's be used only once patients have progressed to the moderate/severe stages of the disease. That is, once the disease has progressed far enough to affect daily life for patients and their carers, often to the extent where the patient has to leave their home for long term care. Is it really fair to wait until a disease has become this severe before starting treatment?

Alzheimer's does not just manifest as memory loss. Depression, aggression, delusions and hallucinaitons are other common symptoms on top of the cognitve decline. (Indeed, the guidelines suggest that the one drug which in severe Alzheimers is effective against these distressing, behavioural symptoms be withdrawn altogether). The disease doesn't just affect the patient, carers are as affected by Alzheimers and are often elderly spouses who find the physical demands as hard as the emotional strain. There is no cure but current treatments slow the progression of this disease, allowing people affected by Alzheimer's to maintain a better quality of life for longer. While these draft guidelines are better than the complete ban on the use of these drugs that was suggested last year, not all of the factors have been taken into consideration and the new suggestions are still far from ideal.

For more information on dementia or the NICE guidelines visit the Alzheimer's Society. They can also offer help and support if you or someone you know is affectd by dementia. (Or the Alzheimer's Association in the US - but the NICE business is irrelevent so you US readers probably won't have got this far)!

Appreciation

How wonderful is the wife? She has been in the kitchen for hours preparing sunday dinner - roast beef with all the trimmings - allowing me to get on with revision for my viva. The house is full of wonderful smells! She has this canny knack of knowing how and when to make my life easy.

Milk and sugar?

Last week we had the news that boobs can bounce up to 135m as a woman runs a mile. This week the men in white coats have come up with the idea that coffee consumption can boost a womans sex drive. (Is there a theme developing here? But hey, Women, science and coffee - what better combination). I want to do this sort of research, or in the case of the coffee, I'll volunteer as a human subject! It's reassuring to know that grant money is being spent on life-changing research. Coffee anyone?

Ziggy

This is one of the best news stories I've read in a while.

"Somewhere in Yorkshire, there lurks a proverbially nauseous parrot. Ziggy, an eight-year-old African Grey, had provided Chris Taylor with years of companionship until the fateful day when he opened his beak to mimic his owner's girlfriend and squawked out one word: Gary.
Ziggy's obsession with his latest impression grew and he began uttering "Hi Gary!" every time Suzy Collins' mobile phone rang. Chris's suspicions deepened after Ziggy started to make long kissing noises whenever he heard the name Gary on television or the radio.
Things between Chris and Suzy finally came to a head the night Ziggy decided to blurt out: "I love you, Gary" in her voice. When Chris confronted Suzy about his pet's obsession, she admitted to having had a four-month affair with Gary, a former colleague".

A know-it-all

My school reports always used to say 'Holly needs to ask if there is something that she doesn't understand'. I used to hate having to put up my hand in class for fear of looking like an idiot, I always felt that I should know it and shouldn't need to ask. Now I'm feeling like I'm in the same situation. As a post-doc I'm working on a similar sort of project to my post-grad project but there are some big differences. I don't know at what point I should be putting up my hand and saying 'I don't understand' or 'am I doing this right'. I'm teaching myself but then I worry that I'm wasting time on stuff that I should know. I'm not supposed to know it all and I'm not trying to pretend that I do - I just still haven't learnt when to ask for help.

Summer time

It's a beautiful, spring like day here in the North East. When I got up this morning I opened the windows and was pleasently surprised that I didn't freeze or get blown away and could hear the birds singing. (I was almost inspired to write poetry, but I can't and I was more interested in getting rid of the smell of the delicious if rather strong curry the wife cooked last night before a couple came to look at the house). Even now, I'm sitting in my office with the window wide open. Is winter now behind us or am I tempting fate? Will I wake tomorrow morning to find us snowed in? Is it wrong that we will get colder due to global warming and we are actually getting warmer? Or does everything just seem sunnier after a good nights sleep?

Following a trend

I'm revising for my PhD viva which is in X days (I'm not saying how many for the simple reason that it will scare the shit out of me). The wife is being very supportive and trying to make me feel less anxious by reminding me that the examiners won't actually have read the whole thing. In which case, why did I do it? Why oh why did I spend four years worth of blood, sweat and tears producing a 250 page document that no one will ever read properly? And why oh why when I was proof reading before submission did I not spot the glaringly obvious mistake of putting one number in table 1 and a completely different number in my discussion of table 1?* Perhaps I was unknowingly, being fashionable before it was fashionable to make up results like Dr Hwang and his fake cloning and Dr Sudbo and his imaginary cohort of patients with oral cancer. Disgrace me now, save me from the trauma of the interrogation viva and let me go and get a proper job. (Like creating fluorescent pigs - I was about to lay into Ms Kennedy over this portrayal of scientists but then realised that she is actually fairly accurate in her description: "Scientists are, by their very definition, nerds with curious senses of humour and no sex skills")!

*Please note that I would never knowingly fabricate data, I am however very good at typographical errors

The saga continues

We are still looking for a house, I know, it has been going on for months! This week we have been messed around three times. We want to go back and see a house we have seen before but discounted because we would have ended up knocking down walls and building new ones. Now we have decided that this wouldn't be so bad if it would give us the space we need. The first night we knocked on the door and the bloke answered in his dressing gown and said he had told the agents to cancel so we rearranged for yesterday. When we tried again yesterday there was no answer. Friday someone was supposed to come and see our house and despite claiming to have knocked on the door, failed to turn up.

We daren't go for the house we really want because the woman doesn't want to move but is being forced out by her ex so she is being difficult about viewings, putting holes in walls, ripping tiles off bathrooms... We don't trust her not to leave the house which would leave us stuck if our place sells. Another house has come onto the market - perfect location, ideal size, fantastic garden - but it's a complete modernisation job. I think this would be good fun (and a chance to build up a collection of power tools)! Perhaps we have been to fussy in the past and are now getting desperate!

More science

There is an article today which provides further evidence that exercise is unhealthy and makes me think that I'm in the wrong field, this is the kind of research I want to do!

Mad, bad and dangerous to know?

I am supposed to be training on a newly installed peice of kit this week but it has broken down already. Just as I was starting to get the hang of it and getting all excited about running proper samples, it starting throwing up all sorts of error messages. By the time it is fixed I will probably have forgotten even how to turn the thing on let alone do any analysis. Fortunately the technical support is pretty good so we should be up and running again soon. I have taken the opportunity to work from home on catching up with blog reading/writing report writing, grant applications and revising my Phd for my viva in a couple of weeks.

On the subject of grant applications, I've just started this project and we are already putting in new applications. Unfortunately I think this is going to be the story of my life, unless I make the break into industry. This isn't a move I'm keen on, I want my work to be useful in ways other than to line the pockets of the share holders but at the same time all the bureaucracy in academia is already getting in the way of me just getting on with research. This article sums it up nicely, and I guess it's that 'eureka' moment that keeps me going. As for whether I look like a mad scientist should do - perhaps I do a little bit first thing in the morning but for you own sake I shall leave it to your imagination!

New Addition

Happy news - another grandkid has joined the family and the girls now out number the boys! The photos are gorgeous and I can't wait to meet her. The only trouble is that she will set my biological clock ticking! Surprisingly the wife is quite keen for me to have kids and we often talked about how one of her sons would be the ideal donor/father. We'll just have to wait and see if any of them still want to 'sow their oats' when the time comes! Perhaps I should just stick to grandkids. The oldest (6 yr old) has been here tonight. Her giggle is so infectious that we were both aching from laughing and I still couldn't tell you what we found so amusing! What better therapy can there be.

Insomnia

I've spent the last half hour writing a post which started off about Big Brother and turned into something quite philosophical. However I'm struggling to get my ideas down coherently so will sleep on it and finish it off in the morning. I'm knackered as the wife couldn't sleep last night which as it turned out was quite entertaining (although not for the reasons you might be thinking)! As I was trying to sleep we had the following exchange;

Wife: 'Are you tired?'
Me: 'Uh huh'
Wife: 'You're always bloody tired you are'!
Me: 'Well it is half past three in the bloody morning'!

Fortunately this amused us both, but I didn't dare tell her I was knackered this afternoon!

Resolutely resolved

I have spent the last few days thinking about new years resolutions. Things
like improve my fitness, eat more healthily, drink less, be better at
keeping in touch with people, procrastinate less and work more... you've
heard them all before I'm sure. But if it has taken me until the 4th and I
still haven't decided then it is a waste of time, since I should have broken
my new years resolution by yesterday. So don't be looking at me to change.

(Perhaps I should resolve to find more interesting topics to blog about)

Have a Happy One

Happy New Year to you!

I finally made it home in time for New Year. I was all prepared to battle my
way through the weather to get here but saw very little evidence of the
several feet of snow the TV had been prattling on about. New Years eve was a
quiet one. I find it is over rated and I'm not one for spending half an hour
at the bar trying to get a drink while being jostled from all sides and
having perfect stranges jump on you at midnight, so we stayed at home and
watched the festivities on the TV (where the bottle of bubbly was accessible
without having to leave the sofa). There was a little excitement at midnight
when the wife got a phone call to say her sons wife had gone into labour and
that yet another grandkid was on the way but it turned out to be a false
alarm.

New Years day was our Christmas day so after exchanging presents and a big
breakfast we went for a walk on the beach. Although it was drizzly and the
wind was chilly, the tide was in and the waves were crashing over the sea
wall and it was just the perfect way to blow away the past year ready to
start again. Of course then we had to have a go on the slot machines in the
amusement arcade to dry off - (I was three quid up at one point but
eventually lost twice that) - Vegas it ain't but it was fun! We had bought
each other daft gifts this year so spent the rest of the day playing table
football, magnetic darts and monopoly, before collapsing in an exhaused heap
in front of 'Under the Tuscan Sun'. If you haven't seen it and want a nice,
feel good film, its well worth a watch (and Tuscany looks gorgeous which has
set the wife off thinking about moving somewhere warm and sunny and
Tuscany-like)!

But now it is like the holidays never happened and life is back to normal,
it's my first day back at work and i'm full of enthusiasm (hence I have time
to write all this rubbish)! So wherever you are, whoever you are and
whatever you do, I hope 2006 is a good year!