Of Weekend Work and Fortune Tellers...

Well, it's been a while since I last posted, and will probably be a while until I post again because I am taking my computer back in for further repairs (I love being able to get every thing fixed for free, so I have a new computer when my warranty expires...) So... on to what happened during my weekend...

On Friday night I went out to a pub with my coworkers, and had a good time watching drunk people and talking, though of course the gradual increase in decibels of the music eventually made talking impossible and my continued inhabitance of the building undesirable. Still, it wasn't a bad way to spend an evening. I ended up spending most of the rest of the night on the phone, which wrote off some of Saturday morning. When I finally got up, it was time to go to work, since I had cell cultures growing that needed to be split and frozen down, and others which needed to be thawed and grown. They're like little chicks, really, constantly needing feeding and attention, regardless of the day. At least there is some ability to control them, since you can plate out very small amounts which will take quite a long time to grow, or large amounts which will grow quickly, but the cells tend to be quite temperamental, and like to grow in particular ways. Therefore there is a range of percentages by which they can be split, and the rate of growth sometimes means that they cannot be delayed for more than 1.5 days.

I finished work at 6, and rode out to the Backs (the backs of the large city-centre colleges), to sit on the bank of the Cam and drink (lemonade in my case) with my coworkers. It was pleasantly sunny and the atmosphere was nice. As we were sitting there and observing people, a strangely-dressed man was observed. He was wearing a patchwork jacket of gaudy fabrics, a jester's hat, torn socks, and loud pants. We were remarking on this apparition, when he decided that our little party looked like an interesting place to visit. He sat down and said something like the following very quickly: "Good evening esteemed sirs and madam I wonder if I would be able to beg the enormous favour of a moment of your time to introduce myself I am appelated Andi Pandi and I have the fascinating and esoteric talent of being able to read everything about you, more than you would ever cogitate or consider credible, simply from the order in which you select these coloured cards I have with me etc etc etc". We decided that it would be amusing to partake of this offer, so he went ahead and laid out his cards. I picked some, repeated the sequence a few times, and when he was happy he began to spout an awful lot about my many layers of feeling. As expected, he said enough that was general so that some things applied, and enough that was specific that he had observed from my interaction with workmates. After he finished, it was such fun to ask him specific questions and watch him wriggle... Particularly when he couldn't work out what my profession was ("something involving scrutinising"), despite a lanyard around my neck saying "Addenbrooks," and a hospital ID and a research ID. Eventually he saw it and pretended to "discover" that my colours meant that I was a doctor working long hours in the ED... not exactly. Anyway, it was quite a lot of fun, and he was a good sport.

Sunday was a bit of a non-day. I went shopping. That's about all that can be said for it. It's funny that even the aforementioned hypermarket is not open for long on a Sunday; only from 10am until 4pm. Still, that was enough. And that was my boring Sunday. I was going to go to someone I don't know's house for dinner, but then his wife was sick, so I ate a lonely meal and slept. Sometimes life here is not very exciting...

This is true procrastination...

So it's about 7 hours until I'm supposed to get up for a brand new AMS day of a brand new AMS week, but I'm still sitting in front of the computer, feeling utterly sluggish and not wanting to do the work that I was supposed to have done on Friday:
Experiment design.
It's a relatively simple antibody workup. But not so simple when there are 4 or 5 antibodies that needs to be done on relatively few samples. We're only harvesting 2 mice spleens and 4 mesenteric lymph nodes. One mouse spleen might yield 10^8 lymphocytes, if my technique can be called "up to scratch". That's not a lot of cells to stain. Another practical difficulty is the selection of fluorochromes for Flow Cytometry. Wouldn't it have been nice to have all the colours in the world? But at most there're only 5 available for our use. Not to mention the cells still need to be stained with the usual anti-CD4 and anti-Valpha/beta to select CD4+ T lymphocytes.
Experiment starts 8:00am tomorrow morning.
I'm sitting here feeling anything but productive. Must be the whether, I think.
Ah well, at least I'll get to have fun searching for little white blobs of Lymph node in the big white fatty mass of the mice mesentery tomorrow. That's always something to look forward to.

Procrastination... Not...

The first week in the lab has passed and soon will come the second week. I've been deviating so much from the actual work I need to do that I'm truly and most terrifyingly behind on my lit review. So far, I've only read one review and another paper on the effects of reelin' expression on cell migration in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus, and even so neither of them I can talk about without uncertainty.

However, this week I've been on a steep learning curve, with the first and second day running around in the lab preparing artificial CSF and RNA/DNA mediums, trying to remember which chemicals have to be kept in under 4 degrees, -20 degrees and -80 degrees, or in the water bath, and when to switch the temperature, and when to remove them from those temperatures. Huge pain in the arse, I might say, that the supervisor seems to place a large amount of trust in my memory by giving me instructions as a passing comment. One time, I forgot to remove the artificial CSF from the magnetic stirrer on my second day and left the solution at room temperature overnight, and so I had to remake a new batch on the day next and so there was a delay in the rat brain harvest surgery.

There were 2 cool events that happened in my first week, one of them by chance. On Tuesday my lab partner Gabi was showing me on how to weigh rats when one of the status epilepticus rats went into grade 5, then 4, then 6 seizure. Grade 6 is most terrifying and is also known as 'popcorn' among the lab people - because it is when the rat jerks violently up and down like popcorn popping. I thought 'popcorn' was a bit of an understatement because the rat jumped up and down so violently that the lid above broke off and the creature unconciously made its escape. Thankfully, Gabi was quick enough to lift it and hoist it back into the cage before the rat fell off the table. The second cool event (but perhaps not too cool) was the rat brain harvest. Rats had to be guilotined for the brain harvest and since general anaesthetics will alter the methylation status in the brain, decapitation had to be done with the rat fully awake (and writhing for its life). I'm thankful that I'm not ethically permitted to decapitate a rat, because it's terrifying watching a living creature being killed like that, let alone doing it. My only job in this process is to wipe up the arterial blood spurt and wash the bloody equipment. Until now I can still remember the rat's eyes as they widen with fear when the blades hit all 4 sides of its neck, and that gaping mouth to let out one last unheard squeak. I don't think I will forget this, ever.

Ok, I think this will do for now. Time for dinner!

Lunchbreak!

My favourite time of day! The office is quiet today, for some reason. Franz Babl (what an awesome name, right?) is back this afternoon and we are somehow throwing an afternoon tea (who has afternoon teas at 2pm?). Franz is the research head in the ED here, and one of the crazy hardcore doctors who seem to do everything.

Nom nom I love corn...

Had an enlightening conversation over lunch about the age that people want to get married.

Getting tired of literature review, as I find it impossible to absorb anything on screen, but feel guilty printing all the time.

Brain stops...

...here.

New blog appearance

Tell me what you think about the new blog appearance... I changed it to this so that landscape pictures aren't cut off.

Some photos of the past few days...

Well, here are some photos, at long last. There are a few more on my flickr page. Sorry for crowding up the front page of the blog...

Another weekend on the other side of the world...

Well, yesterday and Friday both count as weekend, I think. My coworkers needed a break, so Friday turned into an extension of the weekend. We went into the city centre, and finally I bought a sim for this phone. Unfortunately, while I was in the city, rain began. Enormous drops began to fall, thunder pealed, lightning forked out of the sky (destroying a couple of mobile phone towers and giving me signal problems), and I became a thoroughly wet figure, riding with bowed head into the driving rain. I was so soaked that I ended up having to turn off and go back home to change, before taking the bus back to work, and from there out to a very long lunch. The afternoon was spent back in the lab talking, with a very long discussion about the biological aspects of homosexuality. It is interesting how, for someone speaking a second language, the language itself betrays prejudice. For example, my co-worker was trying to differentiate between homo- and heterosexual, and he said, "If he is gay, or if he is man"... I knew what he meant, but it's funny how the language shows part of his view (essentially that homosexuality is a mental disease, [though he wouldn't have put it quite like that] and that it bears no resemblance to "natural" [sic] relationships). It was a very interesting discussion, however, and continued on the walk home, even when the rain began anew. I'm so glad that my coworkers are people with whom one can have this kind of conversation.

Saturday and today were largely consumed by the need to shop. I rode down to Sainsbury's (a British supermarket chain), and it was not a supermarket but a hypermarket. It was the size of a large Bunnings, and had aisles or everything from organic fruits and vegetables, to stationary, toys, homewares, garden products, etc. They even had a cafe for tired customers! I suppose I shouldn't really be so shocked, but I am in a town not much larger than Frankston, and this is one of two of these monstrosities, and one of at least 10 supermarkets. There is a giant tesco, a small tesco, two small sainsbury's, etc etc etc. What I found strange was that for all the European and Indian foods available, the Asian food was limited to two varieties of soy sauce and some pot noodles. Worse than even safeways... Therefore today I went exploring and found two Asian supermarkets. They were somewhat pricy, but I managed to find most of what I wanted. The Chinese supermarket was funny, since the lady there didn't speak English, so I had to use my very very limited pidgin Chinese to ask for what I wanted, and didn't understand when she asked me if I wanted a bag. At least I know where those shops are, even I I'll hopefully only have to cook for another 3 months. Well, that will do for now. I might post something again soon.

My computer is still two days away if I am lucky. I hope that they give me a shiny new computer, though... Would be nice indeed! :)

I know this is a blog, not a tweet, but seriously.

THIS WEEK HAS BEEN FAIL

Commiserations to anyone who has been screwed in any way.

A weekend of exploration

So, my second week begins. I spent the weekend exploring Cambridge with Hon, and it was a lot of fun. My student card worked wonders when attempting to enter colleges, as the '2.50 fee is waived for Cambridge students, and queues may also be avoided. The colleges are amazing in their scale and their intricacy, and their age is evident in every stain of lamp-oil, in the paths worn smooth by centuries of feet, and in the ancient stems of the ivy growing up the yellow limestone facades. Each college is immaculate; enormous lawns stretch out, perfectly clipped and as flat as the mirror-like Cam which bisects them. They are often surrounded by pleas to avoid walking on the turf, or noting the exclusivity of the location to Fellows or members of the college, which may contribute to their maintenance in this state.

Photos will unfortunately not yet be forthcoming, as my computer is in at the Apple store (so nice to live within walking distance of one) for repairs. I am hoping to have it with me again my Wednesday, but we shall see.

We explored not only the colleges, but also the many laneways and sidestreets of Cambridge, and walked up and down the banks of the Cam. Punters were out in force, and it was amusing to note the difference between the graceful, effortless control exhibited by the professionals, and the directionless meandering of the first time punters. Particularly chuckle-worthy was an incident in which someone had planted the pole and been unable to twist it free, and had therefore been forced to watch as their pole remained fixed in the river bottom while their punt sailed blindly forward. I unfortunately didn't have the chance to see (and photograph for posterity's sake) an upset punt or a punter left in the river after trying too hard to free their pole. This had apparently happened not long before we arrived on the Backs of John's, as there were a number of males dressed in nothing but underpants and looking rather wet. It appeared that one had fallen in and the rest had followed, deciding to swim if that were the present fashion.

We ate at a number of interesting places. The Lettuce and Slug was an interesting modern pub, serving some kind of Mexican/Italian fusion food, while The Mitre was very much a traditional pub, complete with drunkards. A group of young men, and one old man, were enjoying rather too much of the local ale, and much hilarity ensued upon their attempts to walk, talk, or drink from a glass. Also in that pub, Hon struck up a conversation with our neighbouring table, and perhaps only in Cambridge would you discover that a table of four similarly-aged, multinational people are conducting research into carbon nanotubes and molecular genetics. Their nationalities would have suggested a Contiki tour; two Turks, a Pole, and a Frenchman.

Food here, at least in restaurants, is proving a deal more exciting than expected. It seems that even staid old England is coming to realise that not everyone eats meat, and is thus beginning to provide vegetarian options. Even food in the supermarket is labelled "vegetarian" when it satisfies the criteria. Even cheeses note whether they are suitable for vegetarians or not (whether their rennent is made from processed calf). I had a delicious baked potato with garlic mushrooms at "Tatties", a potato specialist restaurant.

I'll post this now and write more later. I'm getting frustrated with how long it's taking the bank to send me my pin, as well as the fact that my computer is not back yet!

Convergence

• ethics not done, supervisor n00b at it, due monday, supervisor leaving for overseas on Sunday for a week
• someone pulling out of seeing Harry Potter with me and refusing to reimburse me or to find someone to take the ticket
• problems with new property

... in short: bad luck, thanks for playing.

stocks are low?

So we settled into our new office today, and I noticed a box in the corner with scrap paper, some stationery, and some other bits and bobs. And four full boxes of Tamiflu.

Awesome.

a tale of two burnings

It was the best of foods, it was the worst of foods, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of pressing too many buttons, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of disbelief as I walked back into the kitchen, it was the season of Light (fire), it was the season of Darkness (rice+bowl), it was the spring of cluelessness, it was the winter of total fail, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us but smoke inhalation, we were all going direct to AMS tomorrow, we were all going direct to lung cancer - in short, the period was so far like when I was eight and mum said "10 minutes" in the microwave and not "10 seconds".

---

It was the year two thousand and nine. Culinary and academic revelations were conceded to me at that favoured period, as at this. I had recently attended my first blessed day at AMS, bestowed with a paltry three hours sleep. Even the prospect of a full day ahead did not remove the thought of the smoky microwave from my mind. At 12:30 am that morning, I had risen from bed and attempted to clean it. Even at 2:30 in the morning it stressed me. I believe I got up at 6 am.

The Royal Children's Hospital, less favoured on the whole as to matters holiday-related than her sister of the late bedtime and lazy breakfast, loomed with exceeding ugliness up the hill, making my day several hours too long. Under the guidance of Michael Marks, she gave us an insanely boring two-hour seminar on how to use Ovid to search for things, as well as a rambling talk on Clinical Research something-something (quality? This was at about the time when the lack of sleep kicked in). It is likely enough that, rooted in the yonks of experience of the RCH AMS unit, they have good reason for doing this. It is likely enough that my grudging acceptance of this may have been slightly (very) influenced by the excellent morning tea of berry friands, muffins and jam donuts. And tea. Lovely tea.

In the Fourth Floor of the RCH, there was scarcely an amount of order and excitement to justify much blogging. Daring powerpoints by men munching covertly on potato chips, and seminar-way robberies of my valuable brainspace and time, will take place every two weeks, compulsorily; victims... I mean, students, were publicly cautioned not to go out of town at these meeting times; the students will annoy the supervisors, and the supervisors will annoy the students, and nobody thought any of these occurrences much out of the common way. In the midst of them, the hangman of boredom, ever busy and ever worse than useless, was in constant requisition; now, stringing up long rows of miscellaneous criminals; now, hanging a lazy kid on Saturday who had been told off on Tuesday; now, burning people in the hand with whatever came out of the microwave, and now burning rice at the door of an apartment on Lygon Street; today, taking the life of a rather stupid girl, and tomorrow of my dad who is gonna come over for a little while (he says that smoke smells take forever to come out).

All these things, and a thousand like them, will come to pass in and close upon the dear old year two thousand and nine. Environed by them, while I work unheeded, trod with total randomness, and carried their rights in a plastic bag that gets shoved under the seat when I need to be Asian. Thus did the year two thousand and nine conduct their Lessnesses, and myriads of small creatures - the creatures of this chronicle among the rest - along the roads that lay before them.

Administration thing

Hi all,

Just something that makes organisation easier: when (and if) you post, remember to put your name in the box in the bottom right hand corner of the posting box.

That way it's easy to determine whose post is whose. Plus, it looks neat. :)

James

It truly begins...

Well, I'm coming up to the end of my first week here. I have been slowly discovering all sorts of things. In the lab, I've been learning RNA isolation and cDNA formation, as well as QPCR and sundry other things. More generally, I have been discovering the British way of doing things. Some things I never realised, like the fact that keyboards here are rather different. Others are just annoying; my pin (without which I can have neither a mobile phone plan nor internet on which I may use skype legitimately) still not having been sent for my card after a week... Or that it being light until 10:30pm really plays havoc with my sleep patterns...

Yesterday evening I went exploring around some of the Homerton grounds, and of course I took my camera:

Field with rabbits (sorry about the bad photo; I need a longer lens):

Some photos of the sunset:

Some interesting creatures I found in the gardens (I can't wait until I buy my macro lens!):

Tomorrow will be another 8-6(:30) day, I think, but at least I will get to relax somewhat on the weekend. Hon is coming to visit on his way to the US of A, and therefore I will have the opportunity to do some more exploration of Cambridge, along with buying a much-needed bike, taking photos, and (fingers crossed) getting my phone/internet sorted out. As always, the weather is highly unpredictable, but it has cooled down a lot; something for which I am very grateful. I do notice how little UV there is here, though. Even at midday on a bright sunny day, my glasses take a good half hour before they are even slightly dark, and never get very dark no matter how long I am in the sun (for reference; on an overcast Melbourne morning they are fairly dark within 10 minutes). No wonder English people end up red and blistered after half a day in Australia! I wonder how anyone here gets vitamin D...

One last thing; for anyone interested, I have posted a very short photo guide to where I am living on facebook. I will go around and take photos of the Great Hall and everything later, but this is just to give an idea of what my accommodation is like. It's apparently the worst accommodation in the college, but it is more spacious than my first-year JCH room, plus someone comes in here and vacuums, washes and changes my bedsheets and towels, and generally tidies up once a week. And there's no college duty! Yay! :D

Of Worms, Dogs and Men

Have I ever mentioned that a number of people in and associated with the lab I'm in have a quirky sense of humour? ...well, now I have.
I will assign the people mentioned in this entry (and henceforth any entry after this)aliases.

Of Worms
Hong: so are we the only Australian group in Coeliac Disease research?
#2: well, there's the worm people up in Queensland that you work with, no?
$: yes. This gastroenterologist infected himself with hookworm when he went to PNG. He just put one on his arm and let it burrow through...
Hong: ...
$: he had them for years. And he purified the his faeces and infected other people. So he's got a research group on worms going now.
Hong: ... WHAT?
#2: and the Americans really couldn't cope with it! When we told them at the conference, they were like,"oh my god!!!" They were so horrified they really couldn't cope with the idea. They were asking,"how on earth did he get ethics?"
Hong: and how on earth DID he get ethics?
$: well, all it takes is someone you know on the committee. Easy.

Of Dogs
Russian: once, after one particular long day at the lab, I got home. And instead of my dog jumping up and down and wagging his tail like he normally does, he was literally crawling to me! At once I freaked out and picked him up. Was he sick? Maybe there was some spine problem? I was just about to ring the vet when I walked into the kitchen and saw this massive amount of poo on the floor. I was so relieved! If that's the only thing wrong then it's easily cured!
Everyone: XD
Russian: then I remembered my high school friend in Russia. He went home one day and said to his parents,'I've got a brain tumour.' And his parents really freaked out. Then he said,'no, actually I don't have a brain tumour. I just wanted to tell you I failed my exams.'
Everyone: ...

Of Men
$: Made a speedy recovery, did you?
#1 (recently underwent major surgery; mind you, he's a consultant himself): Well, I literally conned my way out of the hospital. I said to the nurses on Shift 1,'They told me I'm going home tomorrow.' They said,'ah really, that's great!' then I said to nurses on Shift 2,'I'm going home tomorrow!' They said,'congrats, you're doing well!' then the nurses on Shift 3 said to me,'are you going home today?' and I said,'yes, that's what they've told me.' Then my surgeon came,'so, your discharge is scheduled on Friday.' I said,'no it isn't. They told me I'll be discharged today!' and he said,'oh, really? okay.' I conned my way out by creating a rumour!
Everyone: XP
#2: And how was it at home?
#1: It was great! I did my own heparin injections for 5 days. You know, jabbing at the tummy. My wife wasn't very impressed. 'What're you doing?' she asked. 'Just shooting up some drugs.' I said.
$: Ha. They did give you some real stuff though, didn't they?
#1: Yes. Oxycortin. Nasty stuff. I hate narcotics. I've started doing some email reviews for the past month... er... *grimace* very blunt, not good...
$: XD. Wow, so you were showing your true self, then.
#1: Well, I wouldn't say that. Because normally I'm on alcohol anyway.

...but sometimes it doesn't rain

Sunset over homerton 2
Originally uploaded by enlightened0ne

Thunderstorm

Thunderstorm
Originally uploaded by enlightened0ne

This is what happens at the end of a sunny day in Cambridge. Take a look at my photostream for more pictures of the storm. :)

Bumblebee

Bumblebee
Originally uploaded by enlightened0ne

I never realised how accurate the cartoons of bees were until I saw the bumblebees here, their low drones announcing bodies that seem to comically large to be aerodynamic, and their fuzzy bodies looking ready to be stroked. That is, until I discovered that these bees have no barbs on their stingers, and are capable of stinging more than once, like a wasp.

AMS Begins

Is no-one but me and Hong going to post here? Come on... you can do it!

Anyway... my first (and second) day.

Well, to begin with, Addenbrooke's Hospital is HUGE. Not just large in the way the Austin, with its two sites, is, but imagine taking all the Austin's land, then covering it completely in buildings. This map might give an idea of the size, though not how tall each building is.

View Larger Map

Fortunately for me, after walking down to the hospital (15 mins), I was met by one of the two people in my research group, and he took me up to the lab. I have no idea how I would have been able to find it, otherwise.

The second thing that surprised me is the amount of funding that the multitudes of researchers here have. My group was only founded a year ago, and at the moment it consists of 4 researchers including me, as well as my supervisor, who is a clinician most of the time. Despite this tiny size, we have the funding to buy anything we want, including an expensive new QtPCR machine (much nicer than the one at my old lab), two LCM (laser-capture microdissection) machines, and piles of other stuff. I don't know where this kind of funding comes from, but it's nice to know that I am allowed to "try out" expensive research techniques without money being a barrier. I suppose that being able to get large amounts of funding with relative ease is a benefit of having one's research group in England's largest research hospital... Somewhat daunting, though.

So yesterday was, of course, all about administration. I'm not even allowed to work without a full OH&S induction. Today, I went through said induction, pinching myself to keep awake, and almost falling off my chair when I actually did fall asleep. There was another guy with me, and I almost had to poke him to wake him up once. Ah well, at least now I can work... or could, if they didn't require me to go and have a Hep B booster tomorrow. Not because my immunity is low; I had my vaccination 12 years ago, and antibody levels were nice and high when they were tested 2.5 years ago. They know this. No, it's because here in England they realised that for people in high-risk professions, where HBV immunity is important, it is more cost-effective and equally efficacious to give a booster 5 years post-vaccination than to check serum antibody levels. I love the illustration of the bureaucratic process: since this is policy, it does not matter that I have already done the more expensive option, (twice) verifying the superfluity of this booster. I must have it anyway, wasting half a day of my time. "Half a day?" you say incredulously, "surely a single vaccination wouldn't take that amount of time!" Well, no, it shouldn't. But despite working in an hospital, of all places, I can't get my vaccination there. I have to travel to the centre of Cambridge to have my vaccination done there, since apparently they don't have doctors at the hospital or something. Maybe they just don't want me to associate the hospital with pain and sharp pointy objects or something...

At least now I have my long list of things to do. I will be pretty flat out until next Wednesday, since my supervisor wants me not only to score 9 TMAs, (which is not too bad since I've been doing that all year, and these ones are easy) he also wants me to be competent with tissue culture and QtPCR by the end of the week. This in addition to working on a patient database. I don't know how many hours he thinks I have in a week! Ah well, it will be good to get a lot of learning out of the way in the first week or two, so I can concentrate on getting some good data.

I've been walking into the centre of Cambridge a couple of times. It's a pretty long walk; 2.5 miles, but it's pleasant enough, and saves me the £3.30 return trip on the bus. It's been very warm but also pouring with rain: photos to follow. I'm planning to go punting with my workmates in a week or so, so I shall post photos of that when it occurs. Now I ought to go and make some dinner. Hope everyone's having a good time! Please post something...

AMS: Day 0, anyone?

Officially my first day of AMS today.

Though there's almost nothing new in the level 5 lab of Dept Immuno & Micro, it's still somewhat exciting - and that's not because I'm not getting paid like I was during summer holidays.

I thought day 1 would be full of red-tape. But turned out my supervisor wasn't organised enough for that - swine flu had struck her the previous week so she had been quite behind and stressed out. So in the end the only red-tape I did was to renew my access card. So, a day 0 instead.

Day 0 turned out to be "educational". In addition to about 20 more papers to read, I strolled across Royal Parade to WEHI, catching sight of Geoff McColl jaywalking towards RMH on my way XD, and fell asleep half way through the Autoimmunity Postdoc seminar so lost track of what the Professor's new findings were... *sigh*

The only useful thing was having a talk with the supervisor regarding the project. What I had found out, much to my surprise, was that I would be required to be absolutely write down everything, and date and get my supervisor to sign every single page of the book... Unfortunately my project will be part of the contracted work our lab does to an external company... hence the extreme pedanticness. If only I am OCD enough...

The rest of the talk was all within my expectations, since I have been in the lab before. Things like "you know you will proabably be working more than 9-5, right?"; "when we have experiments going, you'll be expected to come in on weekends..."; "our internet should not be used for purposes other than work-related... of course, that is not to say you can't game or whatever at all, if you're the only person in the lab at 8 or 9 at night and running a very long experiment." Ah well, such is lab, and I have been expecting the worst anyway since learning that the phD students often come in at 6am and leave at 9pm...

So that's about all for my 1st day. Somewhat sluggish, but then again, the momentum will probably only pick up 1 month into AMS, if I'm lucky.

And now I want to hear everyone else's AMS Day 1 (or Day 0, if you've got a worse than red-tape day like me)... Post away!

A Man from Mukinupin

Saw this MTC play at Sumner Theatre in the playhouse yesterday, by Dorothy Hewitt.

Despite being heralded as a great Australian theatrical creation, the play felt rather like a conjured up pieces of information - of course, all of them relating to this little country town, but seemed rather random between themselves. This resulted in me wondering where the story is leading to at the half-time. During the 2nd half, the play did tie its loose ends together, however it seems rather contrived, and the result was both puzzling and comical. Perhaps, had the play trimmed itself a little to allow more character and plot development, had it actually been a book where people can read and absorb rather than feeling being "rushed" to the conclusion, would have made this a truly deep, meaningful and great work. I wonder how much of its failure to captivate the audience can be attributed to the playwright, and how much to the director and his/her interpretation and presentation.

The bright side of the play, though, was the excellent sets. White sand, a real fire, a "magic" caravan that all characters can mysteriously appear and disappear from, and a rainy scene, all on stage, are but a few. Not to mention the 2 main female and male casts were playing 2 different characters each - which, one wonders at the speed of their clothes change, behind the magic caravan. The use of curtains as a prop was a clever design, for it allowed artistic use of the shadows and created the right atmosphere for the many of the settings in the play.

Overall, an experimental piece of work... but it would seem to me that the effort in making the technological marvel on stage has perhaps compromised the depth of the story... and for any play, no flashy settings can replace a strong plot and good character development...

A hailing Melbourne morning

Yesterday morning's rain and hail was slightly annoying...

95% of the time, I actually like the rain: the thunderstorms that is spectacular for the ear, the downpours that pleases the eye, the gentle drizzles that clears a heat wave, which comforts the senses. But the neverending rain that was too much to be a sprinkle and too little to be a shower, that was heavy enough to soak me but not heavy enough for me to bother opening my umbrella, that slants in stochastic directions with winds that pierces through my clothes, all while I was hurriedly walking/jogging towards the bus stops from home, slightly stressed that I would miss the bus then miss the train then miss the time for my grandfather's appointment at the Eye&Ear Hospital, which I was to accompany and interpret for him and would incur the wraths of several female members of the family if I had failed to do what I promised... - was a tad bit frustrating. Not to mention it then haphazardly turned into fine needle-like hail which reminded me of the mini messager the hand therapists used on my wrist except this hail was messaging on the wrong places. But this is enough whining already, especially since I did manage to evaporate all the rain that landed on me with my body heat during the train trip.

We ended up waiting until 12:30 for the 15 mins appointment, despite having arrived at 9:35. It was not that all appointments were running behind schedule so much, but the fact that the mandarin interpreter that the hospital has booked for my grandfather was running late for 2 hours. Despite my request for the interpreter to be cancelled and I do the interpretation instead, the nurses still managed to shove my grandfather's file to the bottom of the pile, and pushed it behind time after time, much to our puzzlement. Then the interpreter finally arrived, and the file finally surfaced to the top of the pile, but all opthalmologists were still seeing patients, and the we waited for another 20 mins and the interpreter decided that she couldn't wait any longer. So I ended up interpreting anyway, which was fine because I also told my grandfather what the consultant said to the registrar who was taking his final exams soon, so he was satisfied with the additional information. The amusing thing was that after I told the registrar I will be interpreting his instructions, he kept on saying things like "look here", or "look that way" and pointed his hands which, because of the way I was standing, and the machine between my grandfather and him, I couldn't actually see... Ah well, he had better wished that in he won't be getting a non-English-speaking patient in his exam.

And I'll finish my rant here. Off to see Dali now!

Homerton College, from my window

Homerton College, from my window
Originally uploaded by enlightened0ne

Well, here's what it looks like looking out of my window. Surprisingly sunny and very hot, considering I'm in England. I can't wait for the weather to "improve" and become cold again.

Fevered ramblings from the plane

Well, I'm nearly at heathrow airport, now; just a couple of hours flight time left. I was quite disappointed with the movie selection on the plane, since there were only about 6 films I even slightly wanted to see. At least this meant I had no trouble sleeping for about 7 hours on the second leg of the flight. This is where I cannot love noise-isolation headphones enough. I put music playing at the lowest possible volume (0 bars on an iPod) to block out any noise that could filter through, and despite sitting next in the same row as a couple with a very young b aby, I had no problems sleeping. Well, no problems other than the usual cramped airline seat, lack of legroom or ability to lie down, and girl next to me sleeping on my shoulder.

Now I'm stuck with not much to do; I can't fall asleep again, there are no good movies available, and I'm not in a serious-enough frame of mind to be able to read my book at the moment. I suppose that I'll just sit and stare at the map, willing the listed headwind to become a tailwind so that we reach LHR more quickly. Once there, it will be something of a challenge to find the right bus I am meant to take that will take me to Cambridge. It should be easier than the trip I took last time, which involved hauling my luggage into multiple trains, while wearing a suit in preparation for interview.

I'm glad that it turned out that my suits weighed less than my casual clothes, since i was going for the heaviest possible clothing in order to avoid excess luggage fees (I did, however, regret this choice at KL airport, where it was 30°C...) Despite what I'd heard about Malaysian airlines being strict with their adherence to 5kg handluggage only, I was never even looked at twice, despite my 10kg suitcase, buldging shoulder bag, and camera. Lucky me, I suppose. :) KL was also rather lax with their security checking; I didn't bother to remove any of the large amounts of metal on my person, including phone and wallet, and was beeped. I then received a brief pat down, which failed even to find my phone in my pocket, and told to go on...

Okay, I think that's enough rambling from me... Hope everyone's enjoying the last bit of break before AMS begins!