Two new budgies, two new brake pads

Completely unrelated but at the same time.

One is a latino (pure yellow with white cheeks). The other is white and grey.

The brake pads are a greyish colour too.

I found out that the squealing of brakes when they wear out is intentional, and if you buy cheap brake pads they won't do it. Its to warn you that your brake pads need replacing soonish...or now.

The squeal is caused by a folded strip of metal (P shaped) that vibrates if the brake pads are worn to the point where the stem of the metal strip rubs on the disk. Clever, no? This P shaped piece of metal serves no other purpose but to warn you so you don't crash through a barrier going 100km/hr down a windy hill when the brakes finally fail.

my second chuckle of the afternoon

was a link to this comic

Fellowshipping is fun :)

Good game of LOTRO last night. We got through some stuff that took Bindy ages to do on his own...plus some things I had overlooked, so Bindy is going to trot off and have another go at them - hopefully tonight. I am reenergised to play. So I must Level Bindy up to 40+ so that he can go off adventuring in the frozen north with Aspy.

In other news, my electrical whizz brother fixed my networking problems. He brought his gear around and tested stuff. Apparently, when we got the house cabled for networking (you just plug in via the wall sockets now) they left the underhouse cabling a little loose. The network cables, if you cut the wire, can untwist a bit and the wires inside start to electrically interfere with each other and mess up the signals. Since it was loose, it untwisted a bit before they wired it to the wall. He trimmed it, twisted it, wired it back up and tested it. All is now groovy. I've been blaming my computers for being incompatible. Good thing I didn't return anything to the store :D

misc bits...while we're all waiting on confirmation

...which could be some time, since they don't commit on things round here..

I spontaneously bought a new laptop/notebook on the weekend. I had been thinking about it for a while...but as a long term thought...then there was a sale and a nifty computer.

I have a white Eee PC (1000H version) Its almost as powerful (and has more RAM) than the toshiba laptop I bought 2-3 years ago for over $2300. The new one cost me $560

Also, see below for bird pics - I've updated finally

Things change

My job just changed..probably. I will not be doing next year what I expected to do..probably.

Watch this space & I'll let you know when it becomes official....or not

mysterious enough? :D

nine, count em, nine

I now have 9 baby budgies out of their nests and flying round...well, the last one is still hanging on the wall, clutching a crossbeam for grim death, looking like it very much wants to go back inside. 5 of the babies look like clones. Yellow heads, blue green bodies, turquoise butts and iridescent blue tails. Photos will follow when they sit still long enough.


And here they are...Some of them anyway. They're just getting faster. The first shot is a bit blurry but shows the colours up well.
the blue and green here are siblings
The bird at the front is the baby (sibling to the bright greeny blue clones) and unrelated to the other one. This is preening, the open beak isn't due to the baby screaming "Agh! she's eating my brain!" but rather "ah, that feels good"

Sleepy again

Semester has just started and I'm sleepy again. This time I'm blaming the fact that I'm housesitting and getting fresh sea air. Once I get used to it I should be right. The getting up 1/2 an hour earlier to get into uni at the same time probably doesn't help. zzzzzz

no time to read my email

When people say "I've had no time to read my email and its the afternoon", I generally assume they are either exaggerating or have poor time management as I can scan through a list in 5 minutes and reply in, at most, 10minutes to any reply needed stuff....then today happened. My email got looked at at 3pm. And now, back to work again.

its only a matter of time

I had yet another almost accident on the way to uni this morning. There is a roundabout (see below & ignore lane closed bits) that has had the same set of rules since it was built. Some of the locals who live in the suburb that comes out at Yolanda drive still have problems with it however. The problem is that the left lane coming out of Yolanda can turn left, go straight or turn right. The round about is designed so that if you are coming from Nathan street and want to turn right into discovery drive, you go straight ahead and when you get to the turn, you go in the left lane. You aren't allowed to cut across the solid line and go into the right lane unless you are doing a U-turn. This is set up because if you were exiting from the right lane into discovery drive and someone was turning right from the left lane from Yolanda, they'd crash into you.

If you are on the Nathan street approach and turning right and you are on the roundabout itself, everyone from Yolanda has to give way, not just the right lane (the same as if you were going straight ahead from that lane) - see below - yellow has right of way if they are on the roundabout first
The problem is that the "red" people often think that they are fine to drive into the left lane. Hence me almost hitting the car that I was assuming was turning left from Yolanda until it kept coming forward as I was turning right - he was assuming I would turn in the right lane and is still probably swearing about the driver who doesn't know the road rules (which I looked up very carefully when the roundabout first went in - the council put maps up with arrows and notes about who gave way).
The left lane at Yolanda needs to be left turn only. It might slow up exiting traffic but it will stop the idiots who don't bother to check the road rules or take note of solid line marking.

Dr Horrible

I found this on the web this weekend. Its a supervillian musical done by some american actors you may recognise - Check out Captain Hammer. You need to let it download or its very jumpy.

not writing...reading

I have been looking at blogs that people have not been updating & thinking "how lazy are they?" Then I realised I am in that number. So I'm going to write. I was making the excuse of nothing to say, but once I actually start typing I remember things

1. Birthday last week - popcorn cake was brain explodingly sweet
2. I bought myself a new digital camera Lumix TZ-15. It even has a smart photo setting for taking photos of food. I got it for $150 less then RRP. It also has a setting for 6x4 shots, so i don't have to crop when I take the jpgs to the camera place to print.
3. I have almost finished a draft for a methods paper. I will submit before the end of July I hope
4. One of the three fans in my computer is getting noisy so i'm taking it into the shop...after getting online tonight.
5. I'm turning into a grumpy old woman - small children related activities are irritating me more and more - not with my nephews and the kids of friends, but with strangers kids. I see this as the first sign of becoming one of those old cat ladies who come out of the house to yell at the neighbourhood kids. Apologies to the perfectly sane and compassionate cat people out there. I think I'm getting arthritis in a finger too.
6. My cockatiels have abandoned their eggs and are looking for a new nesting box. Obviously this lot didn't work - they would have hatched by now if so.
6. I've discovered a bunch of webcomics that I will, at some point, make links to on the side bar. PS238 is pretty fine.

Dr Who

I wonder if our local fanboy has seen this bit of unedited footage, where the Dr has to be seen talking but doesn't actually have lines. Heh.

Filing Time!

I've been writing a paper all day and have got to the point where I just can't make a rational decision about it any more. I've actually caught up with all the "must get this done stuff" - at least the stuff that doesn't require other people who aren't here - hence actually working on a paper. Its too early to go home, what to do?
Aha, I have filing that I haven't got to in the last 18 months - ie since I moved to this office! Actually its probably older than that.
Anyhoo...filing time! Spit could write a song about it.

a new record for me

I got to work this morning knowing that a meeting was scheduled for 9am...last minute thing booked yesterday. I got out of it at 5:30pm. It was still going but I just wasn't functional anymore.
It was fine tuning exam questions - they were all written but needed to be polished for grammar, intent and whether the question was really asking what we wanted the students to answer. It was commented on at one point that answering the questions was easier than writing them. The students won't appreciate it. It was alos only for one exam...there are three more :(

The birds...

I've put nesting boxes in my aviary. I've been having endless fun watching the aerial combat over the best box. The male cockatiel is making keep away noises at the budgies...who are ignoring him & disturbing his lady love. The male budgies are all sitting on top of nesting boxes looking down on the girls. There was one female budgie who chased one of the males around till he agreed to mate with her. Now he's gone off with her mother....the philanderer.

Yesterday there was a loud thump and we saw a great Goshawk on the top of the cage. It (probably she because its rather large) kept coming back to try get the birds. They were dead quiet. Apparently, Goshawks are bird eaters and can grab budgies through the cage wire and eat them by nibbling through the wire. My cage is large and solid, but I could still lose a few. It's a magnificent bird though. The Bird of Prey carer here said if I want to get it back, I should put chicken meat on the top of the cage....but I don't think I'll give it any encouragement.

warm..bah

I love winter. The curling up under blankets, the lack of sweating.
Last night I went to bed, threw the blankets over myself and felt that something was wrong. I was hot. I threw the blankets off, thinking "this is a bad idea, I'll be too cold. Its winter and all that". But I wasn't. In fact, as I lay there I thought "I'm still hot". I checked the thermometer on my clock to determine whether it was the temperature or me with a fever. The former apparently. It was 25oC at 10:45pm!
I swept with the fan on last night...in winter! Last year we had the lowest top temperature in June ever on record. This year we probably won't. I'm hoping it was just because it has been so overcast that the heat hasn't escaped. It's still warm today. I miss my winter :(

This was fun...and quicker than I though it would be

I found this on someone elses blog and copied it

What we have here are the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing’s users. As in, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded. Bold the ones you've read, italicize the ones you read for school, underline the ones you started but didn't finish (or are on the shelf waiting for a free week). I'm assuming they don't mean underline those ones you've always meant to go out and get a copy of...

Also of course, I could bold more if they let you do it for watching the movie :)


Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi : a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
A Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
The Canterbury Tales - maybe, i went through a classics stage and this might have been read all the way through
The Historian : a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible : a novel
1984
Angels & Demons
Inferno
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver’s Travels
Les Misérables
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela’s Ashes
The God of Small Things
A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon (reviewed, new,for Baltimore Sun!)
Oryx and Crake
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed

sleepy, cold-ridden, sore knees and needles

I have a cold...I got it thursday. It didn't stop me climbing Castle hill on Saturday (hence the sore knees that make me clutch the stair rail for grim death while going up). Nor did it stop me shopping for cool t-shirts and sale priced dresses $40 down from $160 also on saturday. Of course with all that I'm now tired. Oh, the needle is due to the flu-vax i got today. Apparently having a cold doesn't stop you from having the needle (you need a fever to stop you...or the first stages of pregnancy, neither of which I have).
Tomorrow I will be supervising an exam from 8am and then toddling off to get some blood sucked for serology -stage two to confirm I have an atypical infection of the lungs - possibly not related to the cold. After that I go on antibiotics

Hmm, its almost like this is my old lady outlet for telling people whats wrong with me. Never ask me how I am to my face. You'll never get away.

champagne tastes

I have discovered the china I would collect if I collected china. I even looked it up online to find out how much it cost..
Since I could buy a new computer for less than the price of a single piece, maybe I won't be doing any collecting...However, if any of my long time fans out there are looking for a gifty for me, my favourite pieces from the 2008 collection are ADORNMENT and FLEUR-DE-LUCE

who has time to blog?

Not me.

day 10 -britain again

This was a relatively short day. I realised I'd been pounding pavements and cobblestones for at least 8 hours a day each day. My feet were starting to hurt. I visited the Jorvik centre (which had a sit down train like tour, Barley hall - which was a hands on museum - I put my butt on seats to read up on the rooms and went to the train museum to stroll around and eat dinner. They have an inside picnic area.
For lunch I had pork and crackling sandwich & viennese truffles from Thorntons chocolates for dessert. This is my most favourite chocolate of all time - or almost - they don't make the dark chocolate one anymore :(
There were some heavy downpours that i missed by being indoors during all of them. I did walk home in drizzle though (5:30pm)

one of the royal carriages - through a window

Jorvik centre. apparently they found fossilized human faeces while digging for viking archeology

these passageways are normal - not just a "didn't join the buildings" they are designed for foot passage

Barley hall...seats mmm

The river had risen somewhat - no sitting for me

The ruins of one of the church/monastery's that had been sacked. Probably by Henry the eighth - though I don't quite recall

I'm not the only one!

It's nice to see someone else had the same response to seeing the Mona Lisa as I did. I'd also like to complain about the 50 other tourists gathered round desperately trying to take photos in spite of the conditions & spoiling my already terrible view.

LOTRO is cheaper

I just installed a piece of equipment that cost the school over $18000. Its a spectrophotometer about half the size of a slimline computer. While browsing through the functions I found a section entitled "games" I then played tetris on this machine for 5 minutes. I resisted sudoku.

I would say that this was the most expensive computer game I've ever played, but I remember playing patience on an atomic absorbtion spectrophotometer that cost the company I worked for over $20000 at least ten years ago. At least that machine had the excuse of being attached to a windows based computer. The new one is a little unit with it's own screen and numeric keyboard.

a real academic

On Monday my business cards arrived. This morning I got a rejection letter for the first paper that I wrote myself. I am now a real academic.
It's one of those "deal with the critiques and you're welcome to resubmit" rejections. Since the critiques were mainly about things I thought were weaknesses in the paper, I'm happy to work on them - but it may take some time :P
I'm choosing to see it as a sign that my instincts about what makes an acceptable paper may actually be right. I submitted because the lab time I had to do this work was over, so I worked with what I had found. Must find more lab time (I do have some funds to do it in).

havent blogged in a while

I've been designing new curriculum (ok, sitting in the room and asking questions while other people design curriculum), writing lectures and pracs - new subject...I'm writing bird lectures and bee lectures and designing a project for a student to do. So lots of things I've never done before. I just came back from holidays and got sick enough to stay in bed for 4 days, then I came back to work, while still convalescing and so I'm quite tired. Things are only going to get busier, so i really should get back on anyway. But those are all my excuses.

I still have to finish the Britain holiday stuff on my blog and I've since been on another holiday. Even my recreation is getting on top of me.

BTW, while looking for a journal article to use as a statistics example for vet students, I came across a paper on measuring dog flatulence on different soy based diets....soooo tempted to use this one.

Shades of British travel

I was on Holidays in Kentucky and Sydney for a week and got home today. My flight from Sydney was delayed due to technical difficulties, resulting in a new plane, a missed connection in Brisbane and my luggage has not arrived with me. They may get it to me tonight some time...I hope.
Anyone want to fly with me ?

so cold

I am training for a trip to the coldest part of NSW in a couple of weeks by doing a walk in Freezer clean up. I'm spending about 2 hours a day in there. My nose goes numb, my fingers go numb, the cold seems through my shoes. And boy, is there a lot of old rubbish in there. I'll probably end up with a cold from the rapid fluctuations in temperature.

back to the Britain trip - day 9

Yup, frightened of spiral staircases. After doing some sales shopping at The Edinburgh Woolen Mill, I went for a hike around Clifford Castle. I felt terrified and dizzy on the spiral staircases. It didn't help that Clifford Castle was built on a large mound of earth that couldn't support the weight of the walls properly. This meant that one wall slumped sideways (big crack in wall) and the spiral staircases, as well as being spiral, are on an angle. The mound of dirt had been put there for an earlier fort and the stone castle walls were an upgrade if I remember rightly. Clifford Castle was also the site of a massacre of Jews during a dark period in York History. There is a memorial to it at the front of the castle. This was one of the periods that the castle burned down (only the stone walls remain).
After this i went to the merchant adventurers hall. This is an impressive example of how the earth build to bury stuff. the hall which was used at one point as a hospice, is much lower than the gardens outside - they have flooding issues and have had for hundreds of years. But I think it used to be much higher up. The gardens just got higher over time. I also had coffee in the oldest Coffee house in York (very tall skinny cafe restaurant now, about 3 or 4 floors and the staircase was not quite spiral)
Next on my quest to do everything was, in order; Visit to the treasurers house, the railway museum and high tea at Betty's - very posh & I have photos (i am such a tourist). After that I did a 2 hour walking tour. I got home at 9pm and planned the next day for maximum efficiency. My feet were very sore, but the skies had been lovely and blue so I took advantage of it.

Clifford Castle spiral staircase

Merchant Adventurers Guild

High tea

Roman fort tower wall (with more recent wall - medieval - on top)

christmas presents

This morning when I got in, I had an email from GenBank informing me my sequence would be released to the public on the 25th of December. How's that for a christmas present, my first sequence data. :)
Then after I had coffee, I had another email informing me I now had access to an account code for discretionary spending (read research and conferences and business cards etc).
Of course, this is money I should have had access to in August, and the statement online says it is 2007 money (I get more next year & this should roll over) and since it arrived today, on the last day of work, after all the supply businesses, ordering system and printery has closed, I can't spend any of it till next year anyway.
However, I was expecting to still be fighting for access to the money in six months.
I wonder if I can get business cards printed before I get to Sydney in January?

here tis...or at least the close up

I haven't found a full shot I like yet...I may go with the official one on the stage recieving the certificate. I look insufferably smug in it though.

three days and counting

I got my PhD gown yesterday. I've tried it on - its very heavy and the sleeves drop to mid-calf level. Now I have to buy an outfit to go under it

floppy hats away!

I will definitely be going to the graduation ceremony on the 15th December 2007. I will definitely be wearing a blue floppy hat :)
I was talking to someone yesterday who will be graduating at the next graduation in april 2008. She also wants to wear the blue floppy hat & claims a large part of doing the PhD was to wear the hat. It's not just me who did my PhD so I could play dress-ups. Anyone else do the time to wear the gown?

my head hurts

I finally had time to do some admin stuff, sent it away and both lots came back with: please update/change certain things. None of these fixes are easy, I'm not sure if they are relevant or correct either, so I'll have to think about it, ascertain the validity of the change and then either spend much time doing the changes or penning a coherent reply explaining why I think I shouldn't do changes. I also have an eyestrain headache from all the reading I've been doing, without glasses, bad jenny.

Anyone else have issues wearing glasses while lying down to read? I don't like the way they squish and move when I roll onto my side. Maybe I need contacts.

not playing, reading

My temporary surge of energy has gone...once again i have no enthusiasm for anything that requires thought. There sits LOTRO, all paid up and all I want to do is reread some of my old favourite novels. I have decided this is because I know I will enjoy them without having to invest any mental energy in them. Aha! I'm brain tired. Maybe its the post PhD brain shut-down. My brain has said "you don't need me any more" and gone for a walk...it may be some time.

Day 8

BTW my parents came home today from their Scotland trip. Their flights home were apparently quite lovely. A combination of flying Qantas and much prayer.

On the 8th day of my Scotland trip,
I went to castle Howard;
1.5hr bus trip from york
8 pound 80p return
long walks on the grounds
tame peacocks everywhere!
a really cool fountain
roman statues and mosaics
Gainsborough's on the wall
and some weslydale cheese

I know it doesn't scan...but I would have had to make something up for it to fit.
BTW they were also filming the new version of brideshead revisited there (same place the first one was filmed).

The banks of the river Ouze were overflowing on this day too...I couldn't walk the paths.

wearing a floppy hat

I am 99% sure I will be "presenting" at the graduation ceremony in December. This is what you do if the PhD has already been conferred but you want to attend the ceremony in full gear and shake somebody's hand. I've always said I did the PhD so I could wear a blue velvet floppy hat...so I'm not missing out on it. I've sent in my paperwork. Now to keep a finger on the pulse so it doesn't get lost.

quicker than NaNoWriMo

This is more my style of writing...and it takes less time

Miss Cranky Pants

I'm tired, so tired. Every time someone says something I disagree with, I get snappy. Partly because I'm too tired to think rationally about my arguments. Today at lunch we had a discussion about Dawkins "the god delusion" and "is there any proof of god". I tried to point them just in the direction of Marco's blog and Dr Clams' blog directly, but no-one seemed that interested in actually reading something someone else had written that I found interesting and relevant. They just wanted my opinion...and I'm tired, cranky and not able to string two thoughts together.
I also get cranky when my argument for not reading something (which is as follows) "I've read for and against reviews that indicate I won't enjoy it and I have limited time and very limited energy for things I know I won't enjoy, so i choose not to read them" is answered by "you can't make a judgement without reading the book".

Yes actually, I can. And its something we all do every day when making choices about what we believe or decisions we are going to make. In an information age, it is not possible to examine every piece of information about every factor in our lives before making choices. Our time is not infinite. Even in science we usually start with reviews to get a big picture before deciding on how much detail to examine. And as Marco said "I'm not Dawkins target audience"

Ooh, that vent felt gooood.

the rest of the day seven pics

York Baptist Church


The view from the wheel


me on the wall - the slightly pained look is me trying to smile while figuring out whether I have the camera far enough away and pointed in the right direction


a view of the wall


remains of a roman tower from the original roman fort as viewed from the wall

heh

Middle ages tech support

Some day people may look at computer training videos and find them just as rediculous

Day seven: sunday

I went to church this morning at York Baptist. Good service and the light streamed in through coloured glass windows. Afterwards I rode the Yorkshire wheel and then walked the walls. There was a brief sunshower so I pulled out my umbrella. A gust of wind promptly broke it. Then the sun came out again. After the walls I went to Bettys, hoping for a late lunch, but it was very, very full. So I went to Marks and spencers and shopped for a while. when I came out, the roads weren't packed and were very wet so there was either a rainstorm or a flash flood to clear the streets while I'd been in Marks & sparks. Still trying to find a meal, I was caught in another rainstorm and took shelter in the roman museum. I finally had coffee and a giant cookie at Starbucks. I do believe it was the first starbucks coffee of my life. Nice but no better than Gloria Jeans.
After this, I climbed the minster tower (276 steps). I also found out I have developed a fear of spiral staircases. Going up was scary as I was thinking the whole way that I'd have to come down again and there was no hand rail at some points. There were times going down that I sat on the stairs and used hands, feet and butt to work my way down. I never used to be afraid of spiral staircases. perhaps I'm developing a sense of my own mortality (or morality as one of my students wrote).
Dinner was a leek and cheese pasty with an apple and rasberry pasty for dessert. I walked home in rain so heavy that in spite of a roughly fixed umbrella, my shoes squelched and my jeans were wet to the knee. Thunder and lightning even!
Much walking today. There'll be pics once blogger fixes the glitch.

climbing the minster - in sheer terror

The view from the top of the minster

marking pracs

is a tedious job, but every now and then someone brightens up your day.

Person 1
When writing about the result of a disease: morbidity and morality (mortality)
person 2
when writing about insect cell lines: Incest cell line

all in one afternoon

broadband

I have broadband at home...finally. I had it about 5 days before being sucked into playing LOTRO.
Its also handy for looking things up quickly on the net. before it was quicker to pull out a reference book and flip though it (or go out to Uni). I have calculated my download speed is now 50x what it was before.

Day 6: saturday the 30th of June

Back to the trip - its been so long now, I'm glad i kept a diary.
Saturday was drizzly on and off and I did a lot of walking.
Went to King Richard III museum at Monk gate and then got a quick personal tour of St Marys hospital Ruins (by a tour guide who was waiting for his tour group to turn up). The hospital has roman sarcophagi just sitting around - they were dug up when the railway station was upgraded and they were moved to the ruins since there was space there. Anyone could just wander in and take one...assuming they had superhero strength and could disguise the 6 foot sarcophagus under their coat.
Then I went on a 2 1/2 hour walking tour of the city walk which was entertaining and informative. I ate lunch and took a river cruise (freezing and drizzling but the next day the river cruises were shut down because the river rose so much, so its good i went when I did). I went to the Yorkshire museum to get out of the cold and then to the model train museum. Then I had coffee at the train station and walked to betty's where i had carrot and coriander soup, rasberry lemonade and a marzipan cake in the shape of a cabbage. Thoroughly fed and damp, i went back to my B&B, had a hot shower and washed all my dirty clothes by stomping on them in the shower and squeezing them out. They dried remarkably quickly when hung in the cupboard.

while writing the last book..

Robert Jordan has apparently died while still writing book 12 (the final book) of the wheel of time series. I gave up at book 8 when the dangling plot threads and no end in sight got too much for me.

at some point you just go out the other side

and all the stress goes away. You develop the mindset that there are just some things that aren't going to get done before you die and you readjust your world view. Or I could have just had that nervous breakdown.

I'm waiting for my computer to number crunch through two lots of data so I have time to write this.

I'm going to buy some hardware for broadband and then wire it up so i know I have what i need, then I'm signing up. I'd hate to sign up and then waste the first month 'cause my phone lines won't permit a line filter to plug in (current status) and I didn't have time to replace them.

To do at work today;
seminar at 2pm
update a contig based on work i did on it at the weekend
finish about 1/2 of the stuff on my things to do for Wednesday - the rest will have to wait for tomorrow, along with the things to do for today.

oops, one job done - I can take the USB stick and do something on another computer now...

and now for the middle

Since burning the candle at both ends just isn't getting me there.
I am soo sleepy. Amanda and Chris are up, so I've been taking what opportunities I can to spend some time with them. I'm also spending my Saturdays number crunching sequencing data into the right format for submission to BLAST (the online DNA database). Saturday because i'm not getting it done through the week due to huge workloads.
Saturday night A&C&kids&me went to the pictures & for dessert to Lukabean. Sunday was my nephews birthday, so I had to make an appearance. On Monday I rejoined the Gem club and spent the night there as I have some rings to make for my sister-in-law before my parents leave to visit in 2 weeks. On Tuesday I did computer stuff for my parents for when they leave. On Wednesday I went out to mini-golf to have a game with some friends (one of whom is leaving for thailand) - we'll miss you Kirryn. Tonight I'm going to the strand for a barbeque with A&C&kids. Tomorrow I'm getting a quote on floor sanding for when the parents are away. Saturday I'll be number crunching again, followed by a bbq birthday party for the other nephew.
I still need to organise broadband (bought the modem and card, chose the company -maybe). Also need to write a game for next weekend.

At some point I'll have a nervous breakdown and it will all stop.

back to the good stuff: aka day 5

I slept in on Friday the 29th (since breakfast wasn't till 8:30am) and when I woke, the niggling headache I've had for months was gone. This came back during the travel stress. My back still ached from the luggage carrying, but not too badly. I bought a Yorkpass and caught the sightseeing bus to look at the town. I went to York castle museum - can take hours to get through, The york dungeon - very commercial, could have been anywhere, the micklegate museum, the regimental museum, the York Minster undercroft & then to evensong - good acoustics + mitres, incense and robes. I had a wild boar burger and fat rascal for lunch, and went to the golden fleese (oldest pub in york) for dinner. It was built before 1503 and all the floors and walls slope.
Then I went back to my B7B...exhausted. Did I mention the B&B had carpet in the bathroom?

Just the bad stuff part 2

So there I was, in Germany, with no euros, no phone card (by the way I tried about 5 methods to phone out from the airport and the only one that worked ended up costing me Au$70..twice! and I could only do this because I had visa), only a grade eight understanding of the language...and the english translation of things in writing was limited, though most people spoke english. Fortunately while I was at the hotel, I'd managed to find out that if I could get a piece of paper from Flybe which stated the reason that I missed my flight was technical - eg plane not flyable, my insurance would pay for me to buy another ticket, on another airline. Just in an aside - Flybe still hasn't sent me this information. So while at the airport, waiting for China airlines to open their ticket gate, I found an agent to see if there was any other way back to Australia. I'd also got my parents to contact my travel agent - she cancelled my domestic connection so I wouldn't lose the money and could get her to rebook once I got back in Australia, but she couldn't find a seat for me.

Yes! If I wanted to pay Au$5000 and fly to Korea on Korean airlines and then to Australia on some airline I'd never heard of. Given the cost I thought I'd give it a miss unless the Flybe paperwork came through.

As it happened, as the gate opened, I rocked up to the ticketing desk and got an immediate seat...the problem was apparently the next leg which was overbooked by 4 people. The flight after that was overbooked by so many people I had not a hope of ever getting on it. They did give me a waitlist boarding pass for the next leg - normal boarding pass with no seat allocated (this came in handy later on).

Ah well, there's me, stressed, stomach churning, trying to make a phone call to let my also worried family know I was at least getting closer to Australia, tired but unable to sleep and getting on a 15 hour flight to Taipei in a plane which was full, cramped and too dry to sleep. I kept waking up coughing and thinking I didn't have enough air. I had very little appetite either, though I ate a bit of my meal.

When I went through security they took me to one side and made me pull out all my camera gear. They swabbed this for explosives. I really didn't care at this point.

At Taipei I went to the China Airlines transit counter. I have to say they were very, very professional, calm and tried all sorts of things. I did feel looked after. They made sure my luggage was identified and held in their hold until they knew I would be getting on a plane, they got me a room in a hotel at the airport, told me how to get there, assured me my waitlist boarding pass would get me through the multiple security checks and told me where and when to come back to the desk. They also assured me they would make sure the next shift knew exactly what was going on.

I had a nap in my room - day rates in the airport hotel were really cheap and the room was large and clean. The whole thing however got me so stressed by this time that I was gagging with nausea. I really, really, really do not like being totally dependant on other people when I travel. I like to at least be in a position where i can decide when to go to the airport, what I will do, choose my own options, etc etc.
The hotel also sold phone cards where you could talk to Britain for 5 mintes for about Au$4. cf Au$70 from Frankfurt!

I ended up buying a vege-subway and eating a few bites. It was the mildest thing I could find & I thought some of my nausea might be because I hadn't eaten. I had huge plans of eating Shibu-Shibu in Taipei, trying all the local foods in the airport and strolling all the shops. Unlike Frankfurt, Taipei has an interesting airport. It even has a museum. I felt too depressed and sick to do any of it.

I went back to the transit desk at about 7pm and checked in. The new shift were just as professional but told me that couldn't tell me whether I'd have a seat till the check-in closed at 8:30pm. They made sure that the check-in supervisor knew about me when check-in opened. Then they told me that the lines at check-in were so long, it might take longer before check-in could close....great, just what you want to hear at this point. I even suggested that if it was possible to bump me up to business class, I'd be willing to pay the hundreds of dollars more...the guy took my ticket & I think he was going to find out. While I was waiting, I slowly ate the rest of my sub - it took me over an hour.

At 8:55pm he handed me a boarding pass (economy - I assume that he was waiting to see if I could get on without paying extra before he offered me the option) and told me he'd ensured my luggage was put on the plane. Then I ran from terminal 1 to the skyrail, through terminal 2 and lined up for security, then ran through terminal 2 to the gate. I got there as they were saying "any further passengers for flight XYZ should now board the plane."

The flight to Australia was just as painful as the others and I still couldn't eat. When I got to Australia and though customs and quarantine, I rang my agent, told her I was now in Sydney instead of Brisbane (did I mention the plane went to different parts of Australia on alternate days?) and asked her to get me a ticket home and to charge any excess to visa...lovely, lovely plastic.

I caught the bus to the domestic terminal, picked up my boarding pass from the ticketing desk (at least I didn't have to queue this time) and went through security to the main area.

I still wasn't hungry - even the chocolates and Krispy Creme donuts left me cold. I did buy Freakonomics to distract me and I had a couple of naps in quiet corners while waiting for my....wait for it....delayed flight.

Yes, there was fog in Melbourne that morning that had caused rolling delays. My flight left 2 and a 1/2 hours later than it should have. Fortunately my connection in Brisbane had a gap of 3 and 1/2 hours so i still had an hour to kill when I got there. I killed it by staring, shell shocked, at the wall.

I must say, both my domestic quantas flights had about 15cm more leg room than any of the international flights...in each case i was asleep before the plane had levelled off. The first flight I woke as my ears popped painfully, the second flight I woke just after dinner had been served...which I finally had an appetite for.

I have travelled to Britain 3 times. The first two times I had one day of jetlag when I got home...this time I had a week of jetlag and was still shaking it off when I got back to work. I blame extended flights, anxiety and an inability to eat or sleep sensibly on the way.

Next time, Qantas all the way!

just the bad stuff

For those who can't wait for me to go through all the good parts of my holiday before they find out the bad stuff;
here it is

There were floods in Yorkshire, so I went to York. The only bad part here was that every day started wet and ended dry or vice versa. Oh, that and the river rose and flooded the walking path along side it so I couldn't stroll along it.

When I got back to Scotland everything was hunky dory. Actually the only bad part in Scotland was when I went to Fort William with the intend of going on a seal cruise when I got there. The tourist place gave me a map and when I said, "so I go to the pier to get on the cruise?" they said yes....the only pier on the map was a commercial one at the other end of town, across the busy road, with big "no access" signs on it...and was the wrong one. By the time I'd figured this out, found a local to point out where I should go and got back there...100m in the other direction from the tourist centre...it was too late. I watched the boat set off as I stood at the ticket gate.

Things started to get curly when I got to my hotel at the airport...or rather, got off the train, failed miserably to find a courtesy coach and walked with all my luggage in the increasing drizzle to the hotel i could see in the distance.

The hotel had a sign up saying get to the airport terminal 30 minutes earlier than you planned. Also, there was no courtesy coach to my terminal anymore as the police had road blocks up after the bombing attempt. This meant I got up at 3am and walked with all my luggage, the 400m to the terminal. And then they didn't open check-in till 1/2 an hour after i got there.

All was going well and the call to go to the gate was fine...then just as we were about to go through, they stopped us as the plane had been found to be un-flyable. It took them 45 minutes to find another plane, decamp all oour luggage and the in-flight service stuff and reload. Then they put us on board and told us that it would be another 45 minutes till they could take off. At this point I realised i would miss my connection....and I did...by about 15 minutes.

They gave me a handwritten note to go to transit services in Frankfurt & my luggage was supposed to keep going without me. I don't know what I would have done if you need a visa to go through passport control as this was my only option. If I'd arrived in time I could have nipped up the stairs and gone straight to the next gate.

With my shiny entry stamp in my passport, I found that my luggage hadn't gone through and if I hadn't checked, I would have left it behind in Frankfurt. I then went to the info desk and said "please do any of you speak english". One guy popped up "yes , goodmorning, goodevening, goodbye" Then he asked "how can I help you?" Apparently the directions the plane had given me were wrong, but he put me straight and I circled a desk twice before deciding that I would just talk to the person near the FlyBe sign...who was the right person.

Result:
China Air won't let you fly another airline at their expense to catch up to your next connection, so i lost that too
They only fly one plane a day and all the future flights were fully booked so I had to waitlist.
the lady said I could be there for a week
Flybe put me up in a hotel in the middle of nowhere (which if I'd had to pay for it would have cost me over Au$300). - I had no assurances that they would continue to look after me if I couldn't catch the next plane.

This meant there was nothing to do - though by this time I was so stressed I just wanted to curl up in a ball. I had three meals at the hotel, the first two weren't anything to sneeze at and by the third (breakfast) I was so wired I couldn't swallow solid food...and it was really nice too.

I went back to the airport and hung around waiting for the check-in to open....stay tuned for more.

the boy stood on the burning deck

We went out to sizzlers last night and celebrated my mothers 69th birthday. She'd previously had a surprise morning tea where all the ladies said "Happy 70th birthday" Apparently it was hysterically funny that they'd got it wrong. Much saying of "70" instead of "cheese" for the photos.

There were 8 of us at Sizzlers and we got to quoting the poetry we remembered learning at school. No-one could remember the whole poem until one of my uncles started quoting a pre shakespearian poem about the death of caesar (I think). 'The boy stood on the burning deck' shone out as the only poem anyone had learnt where only the first line was remembered. I blame all the variations that generations of students have made.

Infectious ties

http://www.5clickstore.com/iawareables/

how cool is that!

Aaaaarrrggghhh!!!!

I need to have a primal scream. I was pottering along thinking "only got one small job done today. I'm so far behind -mild angst, mild angst" when something associated flared up that I got all upset about & then when I was upset, was told "its not a big issue"...well it is to me, it has consequences that affect me. Then I was told "don't attack me, its easy to fix" What, now I'm not allowed to say something isn't working, in an upset tone, when I'm upset...note I don't recall saying "you're not working" I was upset about a system, not an individual. Way to get me even more uptight, the whole inference of "You're unreasonable because you're doing a personal attack"...which I wasn't.
Sigh. It was probably all communication breakdown & misunderstanding each others approaches to a conversation. I'm still all adrenalined up though.

day 4

After days of the airline saying that the courier had the luggage and the courier saying that It was on their paperwork as not confirmed yet, I rang the airline and they were alarmed and actually tracked down the luggage. Apparently the courier hadn't got to the luggage pick up on time and the luggage was swooped on by customs (who put it in their lockup - after taking off all my tamper-tags I think). They promised it would arrive tomorrow. This was a problem as I was heading off to York an hour after my conversation but I didn't want to change addresses as I'd had enough trouble getting it to Falkirk, let alone heading it back south again. So I headed to York for a week with no luggage and decided to buy what I needed there and just have my luggage arrive at Ruths house whenever it did.
I got on a train at Falkirk, got off at edinburgh and found that my connection south was an hour late due to a problem on the line. Roamed around the station and got another train South which was actually quicker :) Arrived at York and walked to my accomodation. At this point I was glad I didn't have all my luggage with me. The room was small but well appointed and I went out to do a night tour (in the daylight - dark at 11pm) before having a well deserved sleep.

day 3

I spent day 3 running around after my luggage. I decided I needed some clothes, like underwear, something to sleep in and something to wear during the day. The luggage didn't arrive and I sent an email to complain. My brother Doug cooked salmon for dinner and took me off clothes shopping in the evening. Apparently you don't wear thongs on your feet in Britain, so saying "I need a pair of thongs" while standing in the underwear department beside your brother, will embarrass him greatly.

Day 2

I spent today mainly at Ruths place waiting for the luggage that they said would arrive...and didn't. I also did some phoning up and trying to check out insurance...no response. I wasn't really all that concerned as I was promised that it would arrive by tomorrow at the latest and the jetlag dulled any anxiety. I was just happy to be where I was supposed to be. Scotland is lovely by the way.

day 1

This started out with all the angst of...will qantas book my luggage all the way through to Manchester (given its a domestic flight and I'm not flying internationally with them)?...apparently they will. This was followed by - I'm going to be later to check-in than I should be because the train was a little late - and then; Where is check in? I'm wandering round the international check-in terminal looking for china airlines. Oh, yes, there it is, hidden round the side, facing the wall, where the hundreds of chinese are lining up - something of a giveaway really. I lined up for an hour and a half. By the time I got my boarding passes, the plane was supposed to have left and I still hadn't gone through emigration.

This however, went smoothly. I had a quick look for the duty free reclaim centre to reclaim the GST on my new camera and it wasn't where it was on the map. I had given up and then found it right next to the gate I was leaving through.

The first flight was cramped. my knees touched the seat in front for over eight hours. It was also cold and very dry and the air felt thin. Then I waited in Taipei for over six hours. The money change offices were closed and there was only one place to eat. Fortunately I had visa. Two people I met on the plane weren't so fortunate so they gave me aussie cash and I bought them dinner.


my dinner

The next plane was not so cramped and I landed in Frankfurt ok. Frankfurt has virtually nothing there to keep you entertained. I also couldn't find out what gate to go to to get my boarding pass for the next leg until an hour before the plane left. This was also when I found out that I wasn't going to fly british airways as my ticket said, but rather Flybe (a budget version with a different flight number). There was also very little assistance in Frankfurt to find this out. It took me 1/2 an hour just to get to the gate to get a boarding pass. Theres masses of security at the international airports now. I got on, got to manchester, and found out that my luggage didn't.

So with no luggage, I got on my first train to Falkirk. At my first changeover, I found that my next train was delayed by 1.5hrs due to flooding in Yorkshire and thus had to catch my third connection quite late. I finally got into Shieldhill (the village I was staying in near Falkirk) at about 9pm...sans any changes of clothes. Stay tuned for the next exciting installment.

Home on a wing and a prayer...more prayer than wing

My transport did everything but crash. I will write more when I get over the shock. Lets just say I spent most of my 4 days of travel home praying and not eating in spite of the plethora of interesting food available. It made the 5 days with no luggage at the beginning of my trip seem trivial. To those planning on travelling - always fly qantas...the whole way! And yes Dave, I did get out before the Gloustershire floods (though the Yorkshire ones did cause me travel delays). Apart from the drizzling weather and flooding of the River Ousse covering the walking path alongside it, the Yorkshire floods didn't affect York where I spent the week just after the flood peak.

The trip itself was great. The travel could be causing me post traumatic stress.

Tv to go

Just before I head overseas, it looks like a bunch of TV things I'm going to want to watch will be on. Torchwood, Dr Who, other interesting new shows I can't remember the names of, all the things I currently want to watch. I've decided I won't program my VCR because I'll run out of tape (even on long play) by week 2.5, plus some of these shows change start times from week to week. Instead, I'll show my mum how to record on my VCR and leave a list of times, channels and programs. Hopefully she'll remember most of the time.

Things I have eaten covered in chocolate

Why? Because I can.

licorice
red licorice
cherries
strawberries
melon (of various kinds)
cheese
all your usual chocolate bar fillings
coffee beans
red claw (Cherax quadricarinatus)
hmm, I know theres more, but I can't think of them at the moment

Things I am yet to try
ants
carrots
...you know, this list could go on for some time.

pouring with rain

Hmm. I think that some of you might think I'm in the UK already. Not so much - thats next week, I leave here on the 24th June and come back on the 20th July. However, it is pouring like I'm in the UK and I have a runny nose and sore throat. I'm aiming to get rid of that just in time to get somebody elses germs on the plane.

here I sit..

..when I could be at home. I was getting nothing done, so I decided to go home early, have a nap, then try to read through some work with more alertness. But I'd left my lights on and now my battery is flat. I'd left my lights on because it was overcast and raining this morning. Its still overcast and raining but now I am waiting in my office for the RACQ guy to ring and say he's arriving, so I can take my umbrella down into the cold wet weather and shiver at the crossing till he turns up to jump start the car. I'd get my father to do it but he has a miserable cold and I don't want him getting wet

my new job

Yes, I too will have a new job soon. The paperwork has gone through to the point that Leigh told me yesterday to expect something to sign soon and Lorraine (HOD secretary) showed me my new office in the hernia (aka the pod, or the black hole of calcutta). I will be sharing a rather small office with another junior lecturer. It has one small window (about a meter wide) in the corner of the room, facing east. The rest of the room is brick walled. When the lights are off and the shade is down, you can't see a thing. Still, better than some of the offices with no windows at all, or windows facing onto a brick wall about a meter away.

How much will I be earning? Umm, not sure, I think I'll be on academic A ranking. How long is the contract? Umm, possibly three years, will know when I get the contract.
What is the job? Umm, I've been told that for the next six months (probably) I'll be supporting lecturer A on Mon and Tues, Training grad students on the use of expensive lab equipment and otherwise monitoring and repairing said equipment on Wed. and supporting lecturer B on Thurs and Fri. By supporting lecturer, I think it will mean taking over lecturing certain subjects/sessions, running practicals, marking students work, tracking down information for curriculum design (which is what the lecturers are going to be doing while I do their lectures). Of course, not all of these at once or even all of these at all if thats not what they want - they only get me for 2x 8hr days a week each.
The grad student stuff is the part I'm most cheerful about, since I've been doing it for free while I did my PhD and now I'll be damn well paid and appreciated for it. It also means that I might be involved in some of the projects to the point that my name will end up on papers (without me having to write the papers :)
After the end of this year, I'll more likely be helping lecturer A for more of my time in semester 1, but the equipment supervision will most likely continue for the whole contract. I may also take over lecturing some other subjects (I forsee epidemiology) at certain points as we are really, really short staffed at present. Anyone want a job? BTW qualified & suitable physiologists will almost certainly be offered positions if they poke their noses in and enquire (we need about 6).

stardust

I found Neil Gaiman's Stardust novel in Big W for $2.95 on saturday. Good timing to actually read it before I see the movie. I always like to read the book before I see the movie, that way my imagination isn't stifled by the movie makers interpretation of how things look. Which it always is if I read the book afterwards.

finally, a video camera

I finally bit the bullet and bought a mini DV tape sony video (entry level model but thats all I need). I did much study on the issue and decided that I am not a prosumer, will primarily be using it on holidays where I do not have easy access to a computer for downloading and would like to play with editting later. So DV tape it is. Adding a spare 6hr battery, case and DV tapes piled a bunch more onto the price, but its still less than what I paid for my first and only digital still camera (now available for about $150). Tonight, as well as playing big city, I will be playing with my new video - it has touch screen controls and all! (Disclaimer to other big city players: I may be somewhat distracted tonight)

seconds from death...

At good header which also has the advantage of being true. I was housesitting last week and my massage therapist suggested I have a good soak in a warm bath with epsom salts to encourage my muscles to relax. So I did. Big bathtub, could lie down completely in it if I wanted to, very nice. Then I got out, pulled the plug and turned on the shower next to the bath to rinse off. I estimate I'd been out of the bathtub about 30 seconds when there was an almighty crash. My first thought was that the drainage pipe had pulled away from the bathtub and fallen over downstairs(I have no idea why I thought this). When I looked round the corner of the shower, I realised that a section of tiles had fallen off the wall and into the tub (50cm wide by 1.5m high). My next thought was "Crap. I've broken their bathroom." I would say it took me about 5 minutes to realise that all the tiles had fallen where my head had been, in quite a deep bath. At least deep enough to drown in if I had lost conciousness (my best case scenario for a bucket worth of large tiles falling on my head).

not well

Everyone in the Vet and biomed science school seems to be ill. All of us (with a couple of exceptions) have different symptoms though, so we assume we are all just run down and getting whatever we are exposed to. The exception is everyone in the pod (new attachment to the building that I like to call "the hernia")is losing their voice. I'm feverish and tired and my nose is running. The tired may be due to a couple of nights of broken sleep - cat fights, waking up sweating and hot (in spite of the airconditioning) and heart pounding waking up after nightmares about being attacked by velociraptors.

good advertising

I've got to say, this site makes me curious to go check out the book

POTC3

I also went to see Pirates 3 with Dot on the weekend. There were two guys from work there (separately, with their kids). Odd how we all ended up at the same session at the same theatre. Long movie, I had to nip out 1/2 way through to use the loo. I have trained my bladder not to need to do that during normal length movies. I just about fell over the two people between me and the aisle. They were large and slouched down so that their knees touched the seat in front. No room to put my little footsies. I was expecting a slightly different end, though I could see exactly what was going to happen at a certain point and thought "What! that not how this is supposed to end!" But it was a good ending. Sit all the way through the very looonng credits to see the epilogue.

Call me Lucky Doctor Jenny

On Friday I recieved a tube in the mail. It contained my official PhD certificate. You may now all congratulate me again. Stay tuned for the last congratulations which will be when I wear my floppy hat and shake someones hand (possibly in December). I can now wear my Piled higher and deeper t-shirt. It is green and says "Doctor" on the front. The back has "of Philosophy" with a grinning graduate underneath. Everyone thinks it is funny (particularly the non-medicos in the medicine building). My most common comment has been "can you actually buy those?".

On the weekend I went scrapbooking all of Saturday and won the big lucky door prize. A cropping box filled with misc scraps, paper, card and cut outs and stickers. Probably a couple of hundred dollars worth if you add it all up. Then I won a pack of paper in the 2nd chance draw (we all had 10 tickets each :)). All in all a very good day and I got the fun of sorting through my box in the evening. I was scrap booking my Tasmania holiday (the first page has Andrea looking at the cobweb covered petrol bowser from when we ran out of gas as we rolled into the closed service station. Its funny in retrospect).

On less fun news, my planning for today has been thrown completely up in the air as I got a call this morning from my father to say he's taken my mother to emergency with severe pains in the abdomen. They are looking at her now. I'm hoping its colitis. There is some going around at the moment with exactly those symptoms. Its been 4 hours with no news as yet. I'm sure dad would call if there was a problem though.

I am a spambot

Does anyone else have trouble leaving comments on pages due to the page rejecting their interpretation of those coloured wavey letter codes? I appear not to be able to read them.

..since I'm having coffee at my computer instead of in the tea room...

I may as well get this thing up to date. I'm sitting here as the tearoom is quiet and boring at present and there are some cakes in there. I decided I needed to cut back and today I am officially dieting, so I'm staying away from temptation.
Yesterday Kris and I took our mums up to the Harveys Range heritage tea house for lunch and Kopi Luwak coffee. It was strong, smooth and very nice. It reminded me of some of the coffees I've tried up at the coffee place near Kuranda - who's name I can't recall. So now I've tried civet coffee and can strike it off my list of things to do. Onto the next
Speaking of things to do, I'm going to Britain from 24th June to 20th July. I'm spending a week in York (since everyone I know who goes there says they didn't spend enough time there)and the rest of the time my little brother has time off from work so he'll be showing me around. I'll be staying with his mother-in-law while I'm there - except for the York bit. I'm trying to get accomodation at a B&B called Bootham Guesthouse. We'll see if I left it too long to book it. If I did, it'll be back to the drawing board. I'm holidaying during the peak season.
What else have I done recently...Oh yes, I took my mother to see Hot Fuzz. I didn't realise how much swearing and violence would be in it. "Diehard meets Heartbeat" didn't give me enough clues as a description. When the church spire-y thing fell pointy end down through the head of one of the characters and his "head replaced by stone pyramid" body staggered a bit before falling, I sank in my seat a bit. She did think overall that it was funny though.

heavy

This is cool

crossover wars!

A few weeks ago I found a comic strip on the web...that led me to other comic strips in an all out crossover festival of online comic strips. There seems to be millions of them, all interlinked in the mother of all cross-overs. Sigh. I do NOT have time for this right now. It would have been nice to find while I was procrastinating through my PhD...or not...I'd still be going at it. Here's one..and another. You can find the rest yourself. Or just look at this webcomic crossover archive

sleepy, still

I've been sleepy and bleary eyed for a couple of weeks now. I know I'm fighting an almost subclinical sore throat and cough (it crops up just enough to bug me and not quite enough to remind me to gargle betadine - my sure fire kill a sore throat remedy).
Timing wise however, I think the fatigue is psychological. It really started just after my thesis went in for the final time. Approved and ready for rubber stamping my PhD. I think my brain decided I no longer needed to fire on all cylinders and be stressed out, so it shut down to 1/2 capacity - and took my body with it.
I've been told I need a holiday. Well, I'm getting one, but I'd like to be awake to make some plans about it.

20 questions

My mother now has two of those 20 questions electronic doovies. We took one each and used the same item (teapot) to see if they would behave the same....not. While they both got the answer right, the questions they asked were somewhat different and in a different order. Do these things have limited free will? We also did a run with the item "Virus" only my mother answered the questions truthfully, while I tried to get the answers as wrong as possible. Mum's machine got the answer "virus" while I got "lynx". There you go, the opposite of a virus is a lynx. Also, from a previous test, another word for "world peace" is apparently "Fart". At least it is according to a 20 question device.

done de done done

Its done.

...must...finish...thesis...

Why can nothing ever be easy. Just after I finish all the examiners requested changes , write the report on them, fix the page numbering and figures etc and print out a copy of my thesis to go to the head of school, I find the updated requirements for my thesis.

1. extra declarations in the front (causing an extra page to be necessary)
2. pdf version to go to the library

You might think the 2nd isn't hard, but my pdf converter is changing the font size a bit, resulting in the pages shifting so that the page numbering will be out again, table headers will start on one page with the table on the next page, some figures will end up over text etc etc.

It doesn't help that the pdf is required to be the same as the hard copy that I have already printed out with much time and trouble and the whole conversion thing is really slow/sometimes not even working since I have a 252 page document full of pictures. Arrgh...and Arrgh again

Argh! Friday the 13th

I just realised what day it is.

I'm also a little peeved. I you read lower down you will find the blog where I conscientiously got my fluvax. I paid full price, doctors appointment and fluvax cost etc. Now my workplace has sent around an email saying "Come over to building X between 11 & 1pm and get your complementary - free - no charge to you - provided by us - flu vaccination. Bummer.

Now what was I going to say again?

I logged on with the intent of writing something. I can't remember for the life of me what it is.....oh yes, hands start typing, brain kicks back out of neutral.

I bought a new DVD player yesterday. The old one started making screeching noises and the screen froze. It like to think it was because it was old and cheap and the plastic gears were failing. But it may have been encouraged to fail by the fact I sat it on the end of the sideboard in my room, under the video player, under the TV - no gaps here people, just one on top of the other, DVD at the bottom. Unfortunately I've had to do it with the new one too. There is just nowhere else for it to sit that I can get to it/have direct line of sight with the remote. Maybe I can get some dowel and make air gaps between each, but the DVD player is still going to have the whole weight of my tv and video on it.

Anyhoo - the new one is a Sony that I got on sale. It has the impressive function of the remote being able to control turning the TV off and on - like a multifunction remote. It can also change the visual angle of the scene it shows - assuming the DVD has this function. As I'd never heard of this before, and the DVD's I played last night didn't, I'm not expecting to be able to use this much.

Being a name brand it also has region 4/region encoding on stickers and in the manual. The old one didn't (the advantage of no-name el-cheapo DVD players). So I got online using my extremely slow dial-up and spent 30 minutes searching for something to make it region free as I have region 2 DVDs that weren't made in region 4 format. Eventually I found a forum where they said, and I paraphrase, "Ignore the region 4 encoded sticker, thats all it is. This model came out of the factory region free and they never locked it." Lo and behold, I put in the DVD and they were right.

On other news, I just took a specimen out of the soaking tank and managed to get formaldehyde solution over the top of the glove and onto my watch. I washed it but I can still smell formaldehyde in the cloth band. So it's now off my wrist and waiting for me to give it a good soapy scrub.

The Tsunami Warning

..has eased. Apparently we are not going to be hit by a tsunami caused by the earthquake in the Solomons. Apparentlyt some government employees were sent home from Pallarenda this morning before the confirmation from Willis Island came through. I came in to work this morning and someone said "have you heard anything more about the tsunami that is supposed to hit us?" My response "Tsunami...what tsunami...aren't we supposed to hear about these things?"

How do I?

I have to ask my microbial home brewing collegues how they make non-alcoholic ginger beer. My parents used to make it - till they got sick of clearing up the broken glass - so I could ask them too. I know someone who is making a recipe that will turn alcoholic if left long enough (so its all about temperatures and ingredients and time)and he wants to ensure it's alcohol free before he hands bottles over to minors. I suggested he could get one of those breast milk alcohol strip kits that were on TV the other night. They might work with ginger beer too. You'd need to test it with some positive and negative ginger beer controls first.
Maybe I could do a troll through the web and try a bunch of recipes myself. I've always wanted to make ginger beer (in plastic bottles) and its a very microbiologist thing to do. Any favourite recipes anyone?

milestones ticking over

My thesis came back.

Minor repairs only which do not require the examiners to see the thesis again.

I am somewhat chuffed. I will be more so when the repairs are done, it is signed off and I have a certificate declaring me to be a Doctor in my hot little hand.

Then I'm off to a new world of explaining "No, I'm not that sort of Doctor and I don't want to look at the boil on your butt." Of course, if they want to show me an infected pustule, that might be a different story.

Stay tuned.

Oh, and the renovations went well. I decided to leave the ceiling till Tuesday as I didn't want to work around dropcloths while working on fiddly window sills that require me to stand on benches. I did the ceiling cutting in though. Next job is to sand and repaint the bathroom ceiling, but I want to get a good high gloss ceiling paint for that. So much mould and moisture.

editted because for some reason I forgot I'd spent Saturday painting.

updating..

Yes, the HepA jab was worse than the fluvax. Several days of worse. I didn't mow on Monday because it was very sore by the time I got home. I had trouble sleeping on Monday night because I sleep on my side...either one. If both your arms hurt due to jabs, you sleep on neither one. By Tuesday the pain had gone down enough to mow. For some reason I was completely wired on Tuesday so instead of mowing 1/2 the lawn and wanting to find a reason to stop, I got the whole lot done and thought "Oh, I've run out of lawn to mow". Then I was wide awake Tuesday night. Ditto Wednesday, I should have gone for an evening walk because I was still pumped. This morning I've crashed. I'd blame the 2 days of adrenalin and lack of sleep, but this is how I felt last Thursday too. Maybe theres some deeper cause.

I haven't been overeating (read lots of junkfood) lately because my appetite has been low (anxiety is good for something)but I still haven't lost weight in spite of that and doing a lot of running around all day.

This weekend I too am doing renovations - sanding the window sills in the kitchen and repainting them, washing the ceiling and repainting it.

Yup...thats about it.

Ow!

One doctors appointment and 2 vaccinations later. I have had a jab in each arm. I'd just like to say that the after effects of the fluvax are so far less that that of the HepA booster. I'm planning on mowing the lawn this afternoon. I may not get much of it done. I may also be much sorer tomorrow.

sleep

I've had a lot of broken sleep lately, waking up early and all that. Last night I went to bed really tired at 10:30pm and woke up when I was woken up at 7:10am. I slept the night through. The reason? I forgot to open my window and I had my door shut. It was oxygen deprivation. I must try that more often, though I am still sleepy right now.

This is the painting I bought in PNG

as well as the computer it now sits above.

mmm...I want...but I won't

These leave my hand carved and polished D6 dice for dead

the lack of plan making

I'm going to Britain in July. I think for three weeks. I'll be visiting my brother. I keep thinking of things I'd like to do while I'm there, but it will be the height of the tourist season, so if I want to go places, I'll have to make sure I'm booked in advance. I've booked the flight over, but not back yet (Saturday 14th July, flying SwissAir out of Cairns).

The problem is; In a very un-Jenny like state, I don't want to make plans, I don't want to know exactly what I'm doing and make bookings for things. I want to be spontaneous and just turn up on whim. This is not like me at all. I feel torn between actually doing something about having accomodation/transport to go the places and do the things I want to (my usual preferred holiday plan of attack), and just cruising along (never done it before...except maybe in Tassie when we tended to go...where does this road go? But even then, we had back up plans and some clue).