Stress and itching

I’m itching to buggery. I don’t think this is helped by the fact that I’m wearing linen blend pants. It’s all my own fault really, I haven’t been moisturising properly. I always pay if I don’t keep that up. I have really dry skin that needs a good moisturisation to keep my body from completely itching from head to foot. It’s worse when I’m stressed, and when I’m busy.
At the moment, I have a lot to be stressed about. My thesis, while it continues along and seems to be proceeding okay, needs to be finished by a certain date so I can make that move to Sweden. I have a job lined up, yay!, starting on the 1st of March. I need my thesis to be completed, signed off on, printed and submitted before we leave, hopefully in the last week of February. This, in and of itself, is pretty stressful. But you add to the top of that, we’re moving in a week. We’ve got to be out of the current house by the end of the year. We’re having our final inspection on the 30th (wish us luck) and we need to pack everything up and move out. We’re moving in with my best friend of some 26 or so years, NB. She’s been my friend since I was two years old. We went to the same primary school and then separated to go to different high schools, but remained friends. We hardly ever see each other anymore, but the bonds of best friendhood have been maintained. So, she has graciously offered the boy and myself a place to stay between leaving this house and moving OS. So it’s back to share house living for a little while for us. We visited the house last night, on the walk back from the parentals. So the boy has now seen his new house for the first time. I think we’ll settle in well there, though it apparently gets hot in our bedroom, which for me is always known as Natalie’s room, after NB’s older sister. We’ll see how bad the heat is and if necessary sleep a few nights at the parentals, in their newly installed ‘evaporative cooling’ house.
In any case, everything we own has to be packed up and moved, either with us to the new house, clothes and DVDs I’d say, or put into storage at my parents house, or sold. I’m bringing my gardening endeavours with me, which continue to impress me with their proliferative nature (can you tell I’ve been writing about proliferation of cells etc in my thesis recently?).
Oh yeah, so onto the third thing that is stressing me, though perhaps to a lesser extent. We’re moving to Sweden! In about 2 months! And I have to organise a visa that has the right name on it, which I think should be my married name, though I intend to work under my maiden name for publication purposes etc. I still am waiting for my new passport to be sent to me, I hope it arrives before we move. We need to try and find somewhere to live in our new city. This is apparently going to be really difficult as the Swedish system of flat rental is interesting and complicated and the city we’re moving to, Gothenburg, is really tight, rentally speaking, at the moment. But I’m sure something will work out, it’s going to have to. We just have so much to organise, in particular what to take with us, flights to get us there, and all sorts of things to do with paperwork and the like. I’m trying not to stress about it, but it’s hard. I like to be organised and know what I’m doing.
The fourth and final thing that has been stressing me, and last week was the catalyst for a very shit day, is that my grandfather has been diagnosed with bowel cancer. He’s been having difficulties with that end of his food tube for a while. It was going to be ‘fixed’ last week and when they went in, they found cancer. He’s starting radiation therapy next week and has been told that it’s treatable. But he’s yet to see an oncologist, so I wonder a little about that. We’ll have to wait and see.
I can understand the process of cancer formation, and that, as you get older, it’s almost one of life’s inevitablities. But I want my grandfather to be well, to not be suffering with pain (as he is at the moment) and to continue to have a happy existence with my grandmother and their lovely dog, Monty. But there’s not much I can do about that. So I will have to wait, hope for the best and hope that he uses the pain medication properly so he doesn’t have to suffer pain and discomfort. It will be good to see him, and Oma, on Wednesday, for our traditional German Xmas. This year it’s at my parent’s house.

So, it’s been a stressful couple of weeks for me. I’m hopeful that, with the move over, we can relax a bit more and get back on an even keel. The boy has been delightful in helping me maintain my sanity and I cannot explain how much that means. He’s just delightful.

Back to the salt mines, ie my thesis writing. I wish that writing it was as easy and flowy as writing this blog post (that has been composed in the basement of the biomedical library at Melbourne Uni while on a mental break from working), but alas, no such thing is true.

My famous brother

I'm sitting in the living room. I've just finished writing some figure legends for my last result chapter to be drafted. I've found some mistakes, I'm in the process of fixing them and trying to find some of the data I want to use. In any case, I'm also listening to PBS. My brother is playing live with his band, the Black Jesus Experience. He's the drummer. They are probably what you would call a mix of African hip hop and jazz. It's hard to explain, but I like it. They're also playing the Melbourne leg of the Big Day Out next year and going to Womad (spelling?), the world music festival in Adelaide. He's definitely going places this brother of mine.

Ooh and he was doing his best as a Bradman model earlier in the week. He works for an auction firm that were auctioning off Donald Bradman's baggy green (one of them anyway) and he had to hold it for photos and the news. Apparently some friends saw him on the Channel 10 news.

If you're ever in Collingwood on a Sunday afternoon and want to see my brother in action, head over to The Horn, which is the African cafe that the Black Jesus Experience plays at every week. It's on Johnston Street, just near Smith Street. Then stick around and eat yourself silly on the really tasty Ethiopian food.

Fats Waller

My lovely husband has acquired for me some Fats Waller. I adore it. Should I be allowed to DJ at all again, in a lindy hop context, I will be using some of this.

Lovely stuff.

I made another quilt

I'm in the process of making a cot quilt for a friend of mine's baby. She's due, actually I'm not sure exactly when she's due, but sometime next year. We haven't got a clue about gender, but there is a clue about hair colour. My friend is a redhead and it's a fair chance that she'll produce another one. So with that in mind, I tried to choose colours that would complement a ranga. It's finally up to the quilting stage. I hand sewed the 'squares' together with no pattern in mind, just a whole bunch of different sizes that I hoped would fit together nicely. I had a few holes in there that I had to creatively patch. But I think it's worked out well. So now all that is left is to quilt it, and then bind the edges and she's all ready for the expectant family. They're such lovely people, I hope they like it.

So here's a photo of the sandwiched together quilt. I used a tablecloth that I got from the op-shop as a base, some bamboo batting for the middle and the top that I sewed. Go crafty me.

Planting up a storm

I recently, well about a month ago or something, planted some food plants to help me keep sane and give me yummy food to eat. I planted a strawberry plant, cos lettuces about 6 capsicum plants, 2 jalapenos, some basil and some of that coriander you buy at the supermarket in a pot. The strawberry started off with no flowers and just one misshapen strawberry that was still white. It's now grown quite a bit, the strawberry is ripening nicely and there are flowers galore on it. The capsicums have started to have flower buds on them, as are the jalapenos, as well as growing a whole heap. The coriander initally looked like it had died and I thought I wasn't likely to get any. But it started to sprout a new sprout and I swear is growing mms overnight. I has a new prong to the sprouting part nearly everytime I look. The basil has grown, but seems to have stalled somewhat and I think needs to be repotted somewhere where it isn't shaded by the lettuce. The lettuce is growing well and we've started eating it in sandwiches and salads and I'm really pleased. Yay! So here are some photos of that, these are the grown up plants. I think I'll pick the strawberry really soon. It looks so tasty. Nom nom nom nom nom.

So here's the newly sprouting coriander:


The buds on the capsicum:


The stawberry is top left, to the right of that is the jalapenos and along the bottom are the capsicums.


Another capsicum plant in the background, lettuce in the middle and basil in the front. It also appears as though something is eating the basil. Perhaps it's time for more snail bait?

Running is my drug of choice

I never thought that I would enjoy running. All throughout high school, while I danced a lot and was cardivascularly fit, or so I believe, I never was good at running. The school run was a torture. 1.3km or so, around the school. We had to do it for PE, a lot. So I never thought that running would be fun.
I can't remember when I started doing it. Maybe it was about 2 or 3 years ago when I was at the gym and thought that it might make a bit of a difference from cycling. In any case, I started and kinda enjoyed the endorphin kick I got from it.
In recent times, I decided to start the Couch to 5K program again. I had tried it on a treadmill in the gym before and had gotten to about week 3 (of 9) and then due to various different things like stress and illness didn't manage to get any further. Recently I wrote about the next thing to happen to me while trying to run, the ankle spraining. That turned into about 6 weeks of pain. I was on crutches for 2 weeks, not able to walk at all. I had an ultrasound, and an x-ray and a bit of physio. Turns out that torn ligaments really do take a long time to heal. But now I'm done with physio and my ankle is stable and strong. It still aches a little in the evenings if I've done a lot of activity. But it's pretty much healed. So I've started the program again. Last Monday I did a week 1 run again. I was supposed to run again on Wednesday, but due to the 35 degree day, I decided it was just too hot. Thursday was also hot and Friday it rained all day. Though I could have those days mixed up. In any case, no running was done then. But Saturday morning, I was determined. I got up early and did another week 1 run.
Now, the program says to run 3 times each week. But I figured as I had gotten through most of week 1 previously that I could get away with running week 2 today, rather than waiting until Wed. So this evening about 7.30pm I went out and did that run. And it was relatively easy. I was doing intervals of 90 seconds jogging/running with 2 mins of walking and I didn't completely exhaust myself. It was good to feel as though I'd gotten somewhere. A little fitter. So, the plan is as follows, run again on Wed and Friday this week. Get myself to week 3, and then week 4,5,6 etc. Don't get injured again! Fortunately, or unfortunately considering I just bought cross trainers to help support sideways motion of the feet, soccer is not on this season as they couldn't get enough people together for a team.
Okay, enough procrastination, let's write some thesis!

3 problems with our house

We've had a series of interesting problems arise with our current house. The first was that there was the pipe that took the water from the laundry sink outside. It was broken, before we even moved in, and would leak a lot of water down the side of the house. We were promised a plumber for a long time. This weekend, we finally got one. It only took 3 and a half months. But it was fixed! And in the meantime, while waiting for the plumber to eventuate, the bathroom sink was clogged and draino hadn't fixed the problem. The plumber fixed that too. Huzzah!

The second problem was the possum/s in the roof/wall of our bedroom. We called the real estate agents and after much harassment got them to send out a possum man. They were almost impossible to get hold of and I'm not sure they were convinced that the problem was really all that big. Mind you, they weren't getting woken at 5.30am by the little bastards returning from a night of frolicking.
Anthony, the possum man, came and looked around, found where they were getting in and set up a one-way exit. But we were still having problems, being woken at 5.30am every morning by the returning beast/s, hearing noise in the wall during the day. Anthony suggested that it may not be a possum. It was probably rats. After absorbing this more disgusting news, he put a non-lethal trap in the roof to have a look to see whether it was a possum or a rat. Possums are native and protected by law. So if we had both possums and rats, we'd have to get rid of the possums first, then bait the rats. The trap was set off the first night and whatever it was escaped. This pretty much confirmed rats. So Anthony has now baited them and we should start to find that they don't make any noise anymore. At one level, I cannot wait for them to be gone. We've been sleeping in the spare room because the noise is annoying, and we have a visitor coming this weekend to stay. We'd like to be back in our own room. At a different level, I feel bad for killing the rats in such a horrible way. Rat baits work by the use of an anti-coagulant, meaning their blood is very thin and doesn't clot properly. It also, I believe, includes something to ensure they start bleeding, like glass shards. So the little buggers bleed internally and aren't able to stop it. It sounds like a horrible way to go. Oh well, at least they won't be waking us up anymore.

The third problem is our lawn. The house is a on a really big block. The lawn hasn't been mown since we moved in, in August. Spring has been great for the growth of the grass and it's very high now. The possum man said it was a good idea to get it mown. No-one I know has a mower, so we've had to find someone to do it for us. You would think that would be simple. It is not. I initially called the guy who mows my parent's lawn. He's not doing lawns anymore and instead is doing a much more honourable and possibly more interesting job working with a charity that helps the homeless. The next port of call was one of those chain services, VIP. The guy rang me. He had injured himself in a pretty bad way, that might need surgery. He wasn't able to do our lawn. The third option was a guy I found in the yellowpages from the local area. He came this afternoon to look at the job and apparently will be here to do it 'sometime this week'. So I'm hopeful of this problem being solved too. Mind you, with my experience of the plumber (he called once, promised to call again to sort out a time and then never tried again. We had to call the estate agents to get his number, which should have been the case in the first place), I am skeptical of the mowing dude turning up at a sensible time or at all really. If it gets really bad, and he doesn't turn up, I have plans to be nice to our neighbours and borrowing their mower. They use it enough.

So soon our house should be going well and have little or no problems with it. Mind you, we only have a lease until the 3rd of January, so there won't be a heap of time to enjoy it.

Next post will be about bottling wine, growing herbs and veges and should include pictures of one of those things. But for now, I'm tired and the thesis work has been minimal today. I'm going to go and do some work on the discussion for my 'this worked' chapter of my thesis. I've got a fair idea what I'm going to write, but I have to get it down on paper first and then try and get it into the computer. Don't know why, but it's just how the brain sometimes works.

Possum magic

We have a possum in our roof. It woke us up at 5.30am. I am not impressed. I asked the boy to get on to the real estate agents about getting a possum man to come and remove it. I hope that that happens. But who knows? They haven't organised to fix a pipe that has a leak in it, so why help us out with the possum?

In other newses, I was in Canberra on the weekend, visiting, attending a wedding. I got to catch up with some ladies I used to work with. All but one of them was pregnant. I felt a little left out (not really). But it was great to see them all as well as all the other mates I've missed since moving back to Melbourne.

With all the pregnancies going on around me (another friend EE is also pregnant), I've been busy making stuff. Just little presents to give to expectant mothers. So here are some pictures I took earlier of presents taken to Canberra, or being sent to Tassie.





I made some more booties like the green ones for VA, but didn't get time to photograph them.

Anywho, I have just finished making a delightful cake and should go and ice it. I've also made a totally tasty salad to go with the lovely lamb chops I'm marinating for dinner tonight. I'm using my procrastination to good purposes today, I'm being a proper little housewife. As much fun as that is, shoot me if I start calling the boy my hubby. I detest that word.

Angry

I don't exactly know why, but today I am angry. There are a number of things that are making me angry.
-I received notice that an application I put in was unsuccessful, and not for content reasons.
-I'm angry because due to injury, I cannot exercise properly and am barely walking, though the barely walking is an improvement on the last two weeks I guess.
-I really want to be closer to finishing the thesis, but it seems like, today at least, it's an insurmountable task that looms over me, not allowing me to do anything else, not allowing me to move on with my life.
-I'm angry because I have to move soon and moving is a bitch and a pain in the arse and I really don't want to have to find somewhere else to live, I'm relatively happy with the place we have.
-I'm angry because I would like some more communication with someone, but am not getting it. Admittedly, I should be trying harder on my end, but they are a little bit scary, so I'm kinda avoiding it. Terrible I know. But it makes me angry that they haven't acknowledged me for quite some time.
So actually, I guess I do know why I'm angry. I'm most angry about thesis stuff, and frustrated that it isn't going faster. If I could exercise, maybe I would be able to vent that frustration and anger. Guess I'm just going to have to make do with screaming a bit and maybe punching something. Wish me luck.


Edited to add the following: fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.
Consider this my blogging version of screaming.

Injury prone

I don't know that the title of this post is strictly speaking true. I don't know that I am injury prone per se. But I seem to be able to injure myself at inconvenient moments. Like last Thursday. I have been the replacement Kate for my cousin's soccer team. The other Kate is injured, something to do with her knee. So for the last 6 weeks or so, I've been helping out and having heaps of fun, as I have mentioned. Until this last Thursday when it was almost an entirely family affair. My cousin G, his wife C and my other cousin T were all playing and Macca was the non-family exception. All was going great, I was defending like a mo-fo and all of a sudden my right ankle went over and I heard a snap. The snap was not good. I have not walked properly since, in fact until today I've been on crutches or hopping the whole time.
So Thursday night saw me being taken first to the Western Hospital in Footscray, where there was a 4-6hour wait to see a doctor, to the free medical clinic on Bell Street, where I waited about 35 mins to see a doctor who spelled soccer: soccar, and heard : heared. I'm guessing he didn't get his medical degree by being able to spell. In any case, he strapped my ankle, told me to get crutches, gave me a prescription for panadeine forte (woo woo!) and told me to go and get an ultrasound to see if I had any ligament damage. I finally made it home and started making the husband (hehe I still giggle at calling him my husband) do things for me. He made me a lovely dinner, helped me in and out of the shower, and the next morning gave me a piggyback to the toilet and went and got my crutches from the pharmacy. So this Thursday I'm going to the ultrasound place and then back to the doctors to see what needs to be done. I've bribed my physio friend with food to help me learn how best to strap the ankle and today I'm hobbling around the house sans crutches. I fear, however, that the dancing I had planned for tomorrow night will not go ahead, nor the running regimen I had started last week.
But in good news, I got two pairs of glasses for $400 and I've got some crafty things on the go. Should be great. Now I just want to get to an op shop to pick up some quilty type stashes, I forsee quilting in my future, or at the very least patchwork. Next post will have photos, absolutely!

Running and descriptive biology writing

Today has had two themes : running, and descriptive biology writing.

This morning I went for a run. I've started, for about the third time, the couch to 5K program. It's a running program that means in 9 weeks, if you follow it through, you can be running 5kms. It was good fun, and hard work. I'm hopeful that if I stick with it this time it'll help my indoor soccer skills. I've been playing indoor soccer for my cousin's mixed team on a Thursday night (not sure if I've written about it before) and while it's heaps of fun, it really does show up how unfit I am in a cardiovascular sense. We'll ignore all the other kinds of unfit I am for now. The fun bit was checking out a bit of the Yarra trail. It runs all the way from near my parents in Macleod to the city along the Yarra river. I got as far as about Ivanhoe, from Heidelberg, and then turned around and came home. I'm thinking that perhaps as the weeks progress I'll get closer and closer to the city. Though I don't think I'll ever go all the way in, it's about 25kms of winding track. So, theory of the program says I'll be running again on Wednesday. I hope that is true.

The other part of today is descriptive biology writing. I'm having a major mental block at how to write this though. It's for the most successful part of my thesis work that I've done, the prostate gland stuff. It's worked really well, but I'm just not sure how to write it. I know what content has to go in, I know exactly what I did and what I found out in the process. But I cannot for the life of me work out a way to write it in a coherent manner. It's very frustrating. I think I might have to start with dot points and move them around a bit until it flows. There are many ways to approach the writing. In a chronological sense (not in terms of when I did the experiments but the timing of the development of the organ), seems to be the most sensible, but there are other ways that also make sense to me. I really don't know what I'm going to do. I've made thesis figures already for this and they seem to make sense to me. Perhaps I should just describe them and go from there. Gah! It's all a bit brain-hurty.

And one last thing, in recent times, 19th September to be exact, I got married. I'm now Mrs Burgermeister, or am if you believe my boy and facebook. I've changed my licence and medicare card over to the new name and it's all a little strange. I'll be keeping my maiden name for work purposes, publications etc, but for everyday life I'm someone new. I wish this new Kate was good at writing descriptive biology.

two more sleeps to go

In two more sleeps (3 days kinda), I'm getting married. Between now and then I'm getting a manicure, massage and an awesome hairstyle done. I finally can justify getting myself made up all pretty like. Huzzah! I think everything is organised for the day. I have my dress, ring, underwear and relaxed attitude all ready. Just need to get there on time and everything is fine, fine, fine.

The other news of this week is that my discussion for one of my chapters (thesis) is almost done. I hope to finish it today and send it to the supes with a note explaining the whole getting married thing and suggesting we chat next week about it. We haven't been chatting much of late, via email or via phone. I think it's time that changed, and after the wedding seems the best time. Before is just a ridiculous notion, too many other things on the go. He can, I'm sure, wait another couple of days before talking to me. He's managed to go this long without talking to me.

I've also been playing indoor soccer with my cousin's team on Thursday nights. It's been great fun. We're in a mixed team and I'm the replacement Kate. The other Kate from the team has hurt her knee and I've been called in to help out. Last week was probably my best week, I kicked two goals! Yay!

Other things going on are: I've been DJing in Melbourne. Hooray! I have now DJed twice at Carnivale, which is a new dancing night in the Melbourne scene. It's Thursday nights (after soccer for me) at Suede bar in Smith Street. It's been great fun. I love to inflict my musical choices on other people. I can't go this week though, nor to soccer. I'm getting my hair done in the city, then heading to the airport to pick up the boy's Dad and 'stepmum'. I say 'stepmum' because she's only been with his Dad since he's been grown up, so never had a role in raising him. Then it'll be straight home for sleep before getting up really early on Friday to get to the wedding on time.

Anywho, this is a rambling post with little sense, so I should go and bathe and get that discussion finished before my manicure this afternoon.

Reasons I like living in Heidelberg

Near to my house, there is a tiny cemetery. It consists of one small house block on a regular street. It's probably about 15 mins walk from my house. I was driving my mum's car back home this afternoon and noticed that there were two rabbits in there. I decided to drop in and take a few photos. The rabbits were obviously someone's pets. I hope they don't get run over, one of them hopped into the road as I was leaving. Enjoy!

Lessons learned from thesis writing

Here's something I've learned today about thesis writing. No-one gives a crap about your thesis figures. They don't care how long you've spent on them, they really don't appreciate the works of art that they are. Fuckers.

My life is now dominated by thesis, thesis and preparing to move house. Thesis, preparing to move house, and contemplating going to Canberrang (swing festival in Canberra). Thesis, preparing to move house, contemplating Canberrang and getting married. Thesis, preparing to move house, contemplating Canberrang, getting married and moving to Sweden. But mostly thesis, yeah right!

Ah deary me! I am looking forward to being settled in the new house. I'm hoping it brings a lot of writing goodness and I hope that it all falls into place after that.

In other news, I've started watching Dexter on TV. I like it. I get where my friends raving about it last year were coming from. That and Grand Designs have to be my favourite TV shows at the moment.

To tie this up. Lesson learned: no-one else gives a fuck about my thesis, except me, and maybe my supervisor. But we are keen on it for different reasons, and the same ones too I guess. Getting me the hell out of the PhD student land and into gainful employment. Must get back to it. A chapter is almost ready for supes to read.

Changes

In recent news, the boy has decided that he's 'the man' in our relationship now. This means he makes the important decisions in the relationship. This means, he decides (apparently) which football team we support, Western Bulldogs. I've tried to explain that that isn't how things work with football team support. But he is adamant that he is the Man and that his word is final. I think I'll just let him believe that if it makes him happy.

In other news, we have a house to live in together, yay! It's in Heidelberg, it's 3 bedrooms and it's a 3 month lease. That means we have three months to get my thesis finished, get married and get sorted to move to Sweden. Wish us luck, I think we'll need it.
We're moving in next weekend, so this week will be packing and preparing.
The other news of the last week has been that I have been suffering from what I'm pretty sure, was the flu. I had been feeling pretty poorly since last weekend and on Thursday I was exceptionally unwell. I took my mum to have her foot operated on and then spent the next 6 hours asleep at her house. I also stayed the night and slept most of Friday as well. Fortunately, today I'm finally feeling human and I think that by the time comes to get moving I should be feeling back to normal.

Living in Armadale

So, I went for a run/walk thing this morning. Just walked down to the local park, ran around a bit, came home. On the way home I decided to play my favourite Toorak/Armadale/South Yarra game, how many 4 wheel drives. They are ever so prevalent here. To make the point more clear, I counted 104 4 wheel drives on my way home. It took me about 25 mins to walk back from the park. That's a lot of 4wd cars. I excluded all the ones that were obviously work trucks for those many many builders and handymen working on houses around the place. And if the car had dirt on it, and looked as though it had actually been used for off road driving, it was also excluded. 104! Gotta love people with more money than sense, or hate them? I wonder. Anywho, in my travels I also saw three labradors and two friendly cats. The cats were ever so keen to be patted. One tabby and one ginger. That is all, time to work on a project proposal for the Swedish Research Council and do some washing.

Homecoming

I've been back in Melbourne now for 24 hours. Did I mention I was coming back? Yeah, I decided that writing my thesis would be more efficient with my boy near me. The boy is now my fiance, that's the new change as well. We decided to get married soon after my birthday and plans are afoot. We're going to make use of the registry office and have a small, tiny, hard to see wedding.

So what else is news? I'm in Melbourne - tick. I'm getting married - tick. I'm moving to Sweden -tick. I'm writing my thesis -tick. I've been doing very little exercise -tick. I'm feeling a little displaced -tick. But I'm good. Give me a week and we'll be firing on all cylinders.

I'm going to look at an apartment this afternoon in Alphington, wish me luck that it's fabulous and they take us. We need somewhere new to live.

End vague and useless post.

Speakeasy Blues Performance

Something else, vaguely interesting

I posted a photo of a mug of Max Brenner's hot chocolate quite some time ago. Turns out that it's a popular photo when getting people to check out this blog. I've been wasting some time checking out via sitemeter where people are coming from when finding their way here. This photo is apparently a big reason:

You dirty bunch of bastards. Trust the thing that brings most people here is a picture that could possibly look like minge. Deary deary me. But what else was the internerd invented for but for pictures of minge. I know, boobs and arses too. And probably cock. Can you tell I'm tired? And procrastinating?

Notes I write myself late at night

This was to remind me to dissect the prostate glands from some developing pupae. It's sad that I have to write these things to myself, but necessary. This was written at about 11pm. So, due to the approximately 5 hours sleep I had last night, I'm off home for a snooze to come back later to do some kick arse microscopy of some different fly prostates from developing pupae. My life is ever the interesting.

Reasons I am turning into my grandma and nanna

So I've realised in the last couple of weeks, I'm turning into my grandma, and her mum, my nanna. I present the following evidence:
Nanna used to like drinking just hot water rather than tea or coffee. She also drank a glass of water with lemon juice in it most mornings. I have taken to drinking hot water with lemon juice in it. Yum!
Grandma was the kind of woman who would read something in a newspaper article or magazine and go with the idea. This usually related to food. She read once that walnuts were good for reducing your blood pressure. So she stopped taking her blood pressure medication and just ate walnuts instead. She loved a food fad. My act of finding something in a magazine/newspaper wasn't a food thing though. I read somewhere that washing your hair only with conditioner was great for it, especially for those people like me with dry skin. Your hair apparently goes through a phase of being desperately greasy and then it rights itself. Today I'm wearing a headscarf to cover over the greasy hair. It's slowly getting there, I'm about a week and half in. If it doesn't improve soon, I think I'll give it a miss. But to be honest, it hasn't been that bad.

Just thought I'd share that. And the following: yesterday I went and saw tap dogs at parliament house and then went to see Kevin Rudd's office. Wheeee!

immortal log update

I'm trying to kill the immortal log in our toilet. It really is living up to the name. There are a couple of bottles of creme developer that live next to the vanity unit in our bathroom. They contain peroxide. I've put some in the bowl and I'm going to leave it there for a while. I'm hoping it'll dissolve whatever it is that has taken up residence in our toilet.

This sort of thing makes me wonder about what my housemate must be eating. I can't imagine it's healthy stuff.

Newspapers

I quite regularly check out the Age website. I like seeing what's making news in my hometown of Melbourne. I like to have a look at the most viewed articles section at the bottom of the page. But there aren't just the most viewed articles from the age, there are also the most viewed articles from the brisbane times and also the sydney morning herald. I've noticed a trend. The articles most viewed in the bris times are inevitably of the more sensational variety. I wonder if that says something about people in Brisbane, or whether it says something about my prejudices. Probably a bit of both. But I do wonder about that. Why do those up north more reguarly click on the articles with the least intellectual content? Like the stuff about Lara Bingle getting engaged, or the latest Britney Spears scandal (like we give a toss).

The thesis work obviously continues apace. Back to it.

Lazy Kate and scooter riding

I always think of things to blog about when I'm riding my scooter into the lab or on the way home. But by the time I get to work or home, I'm too lazy to get organised to post anything. So this'll be a start at trying to get back on track with the blogging.

Today is a rainy day, I keep on checking the www.bom.gov.au website to look at the radar pictures, waiting for a clear patch to head into the lab. There won't be one for hours. So I'm stuck in the house with the crazy dogs, waiting for a clear patch. This isn't so bad, I do have a PhD thesis to write, so I guess that's something to keep myself occupied. But it's also kinda hard to get going with that. But I will have something done by the end of today, something productive towards the thesis. I have already made a few thesis figures, so I guess that is a good start. Photoshop is ruining my brain though. That program is evil.

What other things are new in the land of Kate you ask? Or you would if you were reading this and gave a crap. The wedding I went to in Perth the other weekend was delightful, though we almost didn't make it in time. I blame cabs in Perth. Sneaky bastards never turning up. We made it in the end though so that was good. It was in Kings Park with the reception at the Old Swan Brewery. Both bride and groom were gorgeous and I'm so pleased they are married now. It's about time though, they've been together for more than 10 years now.

I'm heading back to Perth in a few weeks for some more dancing extravagance. It should also be a delight. I'm making a dress to wear to the ball and I need to sort out a mask. The dress will be pink and navy blue from a 1947 pattern. I need to adjust it a fair bit though, my lack of waist means that it's a bit snug around the middle. According to the measurements on the packet, my bust is a size 12, my hips are also a size 12, my waist is the right size for a size 16. There is something wrong with that. So I've adjusted the pattern accordingly and on the weekend I made up a mock top half of the dress with some fabric I've had sitting around for the best part of a decade. It was never going to be anything that I'd actually wear and now it's made itself useful.

On the easter weekend I did a few things. I performed at the national folk festival, hurting my back in the process. I drank a ridiculous amount of alcohol on Good Friday. I spent all Saturday recovering from that. But I didn't spew and am proud of myself for that. I've evidently learned some restraint in my 27 and a bit years.

Other than these fun things I've been working on my thesis, trying to get some final experiments to work and looking around to find a job to do once I'm finished the PhD. Fingers crossed something good will turn up and I can do some exciting work and get paid again.

More to come, when I'm next procrastinating expect another post. Maybe with photos, but don't hold your breath.

Final note: for those that remember the immortal log blog, it's back and refusing to die. It's definitely not mine this time. Ew!

What I did last night

I did a few things last night, all of which I am proud. I taught two dancing classes at our new venue, Macgregor Hall. Chris and I hit our teaching groove and were really working well together. We got our students dancing like fabulous dancey things and I am hopeful that they all enjoyed themselves. I was moderately smutty, but not too much. Just enough to make it amusing, or so I think anyway.

I picked up my housemate from the airport. I managed to score a free pie from the caltex next to the airport. I think if you turn up later in the evening (around 9pm) they are pretty happy to get rid of the remainders. My stomach is still okay, so I've assumed that there weren't any nasties in the pie.

I taught two friends of mine some basics of tap dancing. I haven't tapped for quite a number of years. I think about 5. But it was definitely all coming back last night. I have organised with the boys to get them to feed me in exchange for lessons. Feed the poor student is the name of the game. It was heaps of fun too.

The final thing I did last night was probably the funniest though. JJF is moving house this weekend and came over to drop off some of my stuff that I'd left in his cupboards. He turned up with the stuff at around midnight. He also brought with him a can of Mr Sheen and a big cloth. There is a park with some play equipment in it, just down the road from my house. Within the equipment is a metal slide. We've used the park for smashed by Kate for the last few weeks and noticed last week that the slide wasn't very slippery. JJF had the solution, Mr Sheen.
So we wandered down there with the Mr Sheen and the big cloth, soon after midnight. He sprayed the slide, and I was the first tester. I sat on the cloth and slid down, spreading out all the Mr Sheen. It was really fast, really, really fast. JJF slid down next and almost hit his head, he was going so fast he came off at an astounding rate and nearly fell onto his noggin. I laughed so hard. I kept thinking of all the kids who will use the slide in the future and will fly off. I think they'll get some pretty good air time. We played around with the slide for a few minutes after that. Then it was pretty much time to go home and get some sleep.

I had a pretty exciting evening last night. Topped off with some fabulous giggles with my best mate. Who, by the way, did pass the fitness test for the AFP and has only the interview left to pass before he can go to police college. The boy now wants him to change his surname, at least on facebook, to Gutenberg. And we have to watch a police academy marathon.

When you are out and about sometimes you see things that make you laugh

This is one of the things that made me laugh recently while out and about. I'd just been to Questacon with friends. We had dropped off JJF's girlfriend at her house and were heading home, stopping on the way in Manuka to get dusted jelly babies. We passed a cafe and we saw the following:



I was amused. That is all. I'd write more about how touched I was about the sorry speech Kevin Rudd made today, but I have flies that desperately need my attention downstairs.

Smashed by Kate

For the last little while I've been running what we've termed 'Smashed By Kate'. It's a boot camp/personal training effort. It's rather fun. I get to be quite a nasty bitch and tell people what to do. After one session last week, I sent a text message to a friend, asking if he was in pain at all. His response was a one word text message: Bitch. I think he may have been suffering somewhat. Hehehehehehe. That does amuse me.
I have to admit, I was in a fair amount of pain too. Last week had 7 participants including myself. We did, amongst other things, walking lunges in a line from the park down the road, most of the way home. It also included lots of push ups, lots of sit ups and the beep test. Next week JJF is going to do the physical entrance test to the AFP again. He's been working pretty hard, so I anticipate that he'll get in this time.
I gave him a good copper haircut last night. About a number 2 or 3 all over. He obliged me also, by cutting my hair. It needed a bit of going over later, to make some adjustments to stop it kicking out all over the shop. But it was my favourite kind of haircut, free!
Oh yeah, so back to the SBK. This week will be a bit of a test run for the AFP entrance test. We'll all see if we can get into the police, well at least physically. I'm not sure we'd all past the psych test. Fingers crossed we'll also see Princess Kate (PK) there this time. It'll help the gender balance, and help with the Kate quotient.

Dogs!

Well this weekend saw the whole household, including dogs and my housemate's boyfriend traveling to Captain's Flat to have a look at Huskies. My housemate LJS had decided that when E moves out, her dog Tikka will need a companion. So it was off to look at dogs who might fit into our happy little home.
The drive down saw the BF and LJS and Tikka in one car and E, myself and Toren in the other. Toren was rather excited at the trip and licked my ear on numerous occasions from his position in the backseat. It was very affectionate, but at the same time kinda gross as I know what he does with that tongue and it's not pleasant.
We arrived to have a look at three different dogs, all in need of a home. A male dog, Beau, who was white, very friendly, but a lot bigger than we were looking for. Teaka, a 3 year old white husky, with different coloured eyes. The last dog was Coco, a dog who while only a year old had already had a litter of pups. She was brown/red, probably a cross with another breed and very sweet. In the end, the different coloured eyes of Teaka won the day. But having a name like Teaka, so close to Tikka, LJS changed her name to Ava.
So now at home there are three dogs. Two kelpie/husky crosses and a purebred Husky. She has already shown that she will be an interesting dog to live with. She's escaped once, more on that later, and she and Tikka are sorting out the pecking order. It'll be a little while before we know who the new boss of the dogs is, but my bet is on Ava. She's very sweet though, and submissive to humans and loves a belly rub, so she'll no doubt fit in well in the long term.

Stories for me to tell you tomorrow: Smashed by Kate, my new boot camp thing that I'm running with some friends on Sundays and dinner at the day to day supervisor's house, who is no longer my day to day supervisor, she has a job in the public service so we have to eat dinner to talk science. But it's rather nice having a sciencey meeting with wine, we should have done that earlier! But now I'm off to get ready to teach the first of the ANU dancing classes for this year. And the penultimate class at the ANU refectory.

Two things

My scooter got to 20,000kms today. I have booked it in for a service tomorrow. Fingers crossed it won't be too expensive.

I noticed about ten minutes after arriving today that I should have worn a belt. I have evidently lost weight since last summer and these shorts are on the roomy side. Question is: go home and get belt, tough it out, or buy a new belt at lunchtime?

update

I saw the movie Atonement on Saturday afternoon. It was going to be a solitary 'get out of the heat' event. It turned into quite the social occasion. I'm teaching a jazz routine next week (do a youtube search for hotpockets and jojo to find it) and have been practicing the teaching of it with Princess Kate (PK), as she won't be able to make the actual class. We were having a go Saturday morning and then sitting around chatting afterwards. My housemate and her boy were thinking of what to do for the day and I said I had plans to go see a movie to get out of the heat. They decided to come with and PK thought that perhaps she and her boy M would also join us.
So, cut to later in the day and housemate, boy and myself were at the mall ready to go to the film. PK and M had phoned to say they were on their way. Housemate's parents were coincidentally going to the same session, we run into friends of housemate's boy. In the end there were 9 of us seeing the same film in the same session. Crazy.
I absolutely adored the movie. It was sad, it was funny, it was shot exceptionally well. My only gripe is that James McAvoy didn't have his shirt off enough. Other than that, I give it two thumbs up. The costuming in particular was great.
What else is news you ask? Tomorrow night we are hosting a dancing birthday party at my house. We have bought 10m of lino (dark grey marble) and we are having any number of people come over to dance and play sing star. I predict it will be the party that we'll all talk about in the weeks to come. Until such time as there is another one like it. It's a genius idea. Lino + talcum powder = an excellent dance space. We tested it out on Sunday afternoon and found it to be great. Can't wait to try it out for real with a whole party of people. I'll be DJing half of the event. Wish me luck.

Two things

Kevin Rudd is PM, yay! We have a deputy PM (who is currently acting PM) who is a woman. Woo woo! That is all. Please return to your usual daily activities. I will update when I am not sick and not running around doing endless experiments and waiting for science to treat me better.

back home again

I'm back in Canberra. After 7 weeks away, I'm back. It's much warmer and sunnier here than it was back in August. The lab is much the same. My house is much the same, though currently covered in dirt and dust. Everything is pretty much the way I left it. My brain, however, is not. It is fuzzled and useless. I hate jet lag. So because my brain is addled and I couldn't possibly update you on all that has been going on. I present, some of my favourite pictures of my trip. The ones with the funny names and the one with me drinking an exceptionally large beer.

This is from Gothenburg. It's a chinese restaurant.



Spunk wine gums in Copenhagen.



The call button for a lift in Copenhagen.



Chocolate in Sweden.



Beer drinking Kate

Oslo

Hello all. I've made my way from Germany and Austria to Norway. I'm currently sitting in the living/bed room of friend's of the boy's. We are drinking Henkell Trocken and chatting etc. We spent the whole of today travelling. We left my relatives in Delmenhorst, near Bremen, at about 9.40am and made it to Oslo at about 6pm. Our plane was delayed at Hamburg airport for about an hour. So we sat around and made really bad jokes and bought some duty free.
What else is news? My German cousins are the cutest bunch of kids I've met in a long time. Berlin is awesome. My great aunt isn't well, but living in a rather pleasant old people's home. It was rather sad to see her how limited her movement is these days (she's unable to walk) and to see that she doesn't recognise me anymore. But we only met a few times in the last 10 years or so and she is very old.
Hmmmm what else? Not a lot really. We've been having a great time away and I'm really looking forward to seeing a bit of Scandinavia. Then we're off to Munich and Oktoberfest before we come home. Better be sociable now and stop all this internerd nonsense.

Hannover

Welcome to my journey accross Germany. Today is Hannover day. We are really only here for today, we have to leave ridiculously early tomorrow morning to drive to Cologne. It should be fun and scary and all those things that Germany should be, efficient! My English is suffering a great deal from being here. I said something monumentally stupid this morning, something along the lines of 'all of a sudden the sunshine goes'. Very correct grammatically, if I were German perhaps! But not exactly idiomatically English. Bleh! So long as it doesn't continue on my return home then I'm okay.
The boy has picked up some more of these German-English-isms and has said that he has much pleasure in Hannover. So there's his contribution to the blog today. What else? We had curry wurst today, we're debating whether my Australian friend's housemate is German or American. When she speaks English it's with a very American accent. I maintain she's German, the boy thinks she's American. I intend to find out tonight.
Bleh, my brain isn't working, will post more later. I'm off to have a post lunch nanna nap and then take the dog here for a walk. His name is whisky and he still has his nads, as do most of the dogs we've seen here. Weird!

Germanermany

Hello there peoples. I'm currently sitting in the living room of a friend from Australia. But we're in Hannover. I've ended up here instead of in Bavaria, because my host parents are still in China. Danielle is working here as a postdoc and has graciously allowed us to stay with her for a couple of days. I'm looking forward to doing some washing and speaking English with someone other than the boy. We drove today from Dresden to Hannover and didn't get killed. It was an amazing adventure. Scary, scary, scary shit. So many trucks. The fastest we went was about 160km/h. Wheee!

What else? I gave a seminar at the Max Plank Institute, I got taken out for dinner at a fancy restaurant where there was a full sized poodle in the restaurant at the table next to ours. We drank a lot of cheap beer and city itself was delightful. Lovely lovely place. The conference I went to was interesting and really full on science. I'll write more when I can be arsed.

So auf wiedersehen meine Leute, bis bald.

Hi Mum, I'm not dead, just distracted

Well hello there. Today I am feeling a little overwhelmed. Whenever I think of what I have to do, I get a little headspin. I have a lot planned over the next few days and weeks. I'm not 100% sure I'll be able to do it all. But I'll die trying, or something like that. I'm mostly posting this to let my Mum know that I'm safe and sound, just busy and distracted with things like facebook and the boy (who's staying at the moment, yay!) and work and the impending doom that is Canberrang. Well, not doom, but the impending event that is Canberrang.
I have one houseguest coming to stay. He'll be sleeping in the living room, with the dogs. I'm sure they'll get along great. Other than that, I may have a couple of other stay, depending on organisation and the like. I'm going to all the events and also trying to get as much labwork done as I can. I expect to be very tired on Monday. But hopefully, pleased that Canberrang was so much fun. And I'm determined not to get a cold this year.
Okay, so Mum, I'm okay, I'll talk to you next week sometime. Everyone else who has decided to read this, send me and email and tell me what you've been up to. I have been working and gyming and spending far too much time on facebook. Tell you all about Canberrang later.

going to the gym, yay!

I'm off to the gym in a minute. I haven't been in about a month. I am rather excited. I will no doubt be in agony on Saturday. But I don't care, because I'm going to have super scary strong muscles. Fingers crossed the absence from the gym won't mean that I'm completely useless at lifting weights, but there are no guarantees.
In other news, I might be going to the reception of a wedding this weekend, specifically to dance. No eating, no drinking, no knowing the couple getting married. Just dancing with a guy from Tassie to a jazz band. I hope it works out, I have a lovely outfit I can wear.
I'll also be dancing tonight at the regular social dancing gig here in Canberra. I'm quite looking forward to that one too. Man I hope the music is good.

erm, stuff

So the cold is finally retreating, not quite gone, but mostly. Other than that, there's not much going on that I care to share. I've been a little bundle of stress and worry in the last few weeks. But I think that I've got myself a resolution that works for me and I'm happy about. More details to come later, if they become relevant to people other than me.
Canberrang is coming up very soon. I have a few potential house guests during that time. Should make for a fun weekend. JJF is hosting our dear friend chelle at his place. It should be a blast. I'm getting a little excited about all the fabulous dances that I intend on getting over the weekend. Some of my favourite dancers are coming to the event and I will have to stalk them and get myself some dancing goodness.
What else? The virgins have started emerging that will give me the babies that should be the right thing to finish off the thesis. That's pretty exciting. Other than that, woa, I have three bags full. I stole/borrowed it from Mum on Sunday. I'll have it back to yourself or your lovely daughter soon. That's the book I mentioned a while ago that my cousin got for her birthday. It's a detective novel, with sheep.
Right, those virgins will turn into hussies if I don't get there soon, so I'd best be off. Talk later and stuff.

snot central station

Yep, I'm still as snotty as a girl can be. And it's moved to my chest. I think that a trip to the doctors this week is in order. Other than that, experimentation is still going on. I've been teaching lots and dancing lots and generally having a bit of fun. Just not being able to stay up very late or sleep particularly well. When I'm well, I'll be more inclined to write something interesting here, and will most likely have something to write too. So, if you'll excuse me, I have to go and get rid of the vast amounts of snot that have accumulated in my sinuses.

I'm not dead, just sick

Today I have a stuffed up nose, a sleepy expression and a lot of work to do. The blog has suffered as a result of all this work and cold-ness. I will resume telling you all the fascinating details of my life when things get less hectic. So what's news you ask? 6 weeks to go until Europe, 4 weeks to go until Canberrang. I'm in the lab every day, twice a day, two hours at a time, doing the big experiment that should give me the results that will allow me to write up my PhD. I need a haircut to trim my fringe (I think it might end up being a home jobby). It's fricken freezing in Canberra and I really need new winter gloves for the scoot. I've taken off the P plates on my scooter. I'm still restricted but I don't have to display them anymore. I've been DJing at dancing (last night in particular). I've been teaching on Wednesdays the last couple of weeks and loving it. I've been hanging out with mates and introducing people to the TV series coupling.
So yeah, not a lot going on. Much of it is the same old, same old stuff. When things get interesting (like around Canberrang time) expect photos and fun and stuff. Until then, I suggest that you do something fun, eat some chocolate for me.

Found again

So I found my access card. It was on my bed. Why I didn't find it on the previous search is beyond me. I found out something useful today, spectrin doesn't work on prostate glands. It works on testis, just not prostates. Which is annoying, seeing as that is what I am looking at. But you get that. Looks like I'm stuck using the stain that works, most of the time, and avoiding the muscle layer.
No more nerd speak now, says I. Onto more interesting things. I'm going dog walking tonight. Taking the puppies on an outing. We'll be checking out all the trees and poles around the local area, they can pee to their heart's content. I'm going with JJF so that if there are dodgy types around I'm unlikely to be attacked. And also it helps to have someone else around to walk the other dog. Two very big husky Xs is hard work. Actually, one is hard work, two is unthinkable.

What else you ask? Today is 8 weeks until I leave for overseas. I have a lot of work to get done in that time, but I should just about manage it. All things going well. It's the boy's birthday on Sunday. He's coming for a visit, yay! Four days of fun for me, with work chucked in for the hell of it.

Other things, before I disappear to the fly room:
-I picked up the tickets for our trip today
-my arse has stopped hurting from all the exercise last week
-I cut JJF's hair and it was shorter than we'd planned, but apparently good
-I drank red wine and vodka on Sat night, ate chocolate and watched a girly movie on SBS with my housemate
-I've been teaching a couple a dance for their wedding (can't remember if I've mentioned it before) they are doing splendidly and are a lovely couple. They let me stick around and chat and they also let me play with their pets
-I saw frankie wants out! last Friday night, they were great, check them out on myspace (myspace.com/frankiewantsout)

Okay, time to go to the fly room.

spazmo

I've lost my access card. I'm pretty sure I lost it at the gig I was at last night. I've searched my house, I've searched at work (I got someone to let me in). It's not anywhere that I could imagine it to be. I'm pretty sure that I took it with me, it's the only thing that makes sense. I've called the venue and given them my details. But I doubt I'll see it again. I'm going to have to get it cancelled and get me a new one. I hope that the security guys don't get too shirty with me. Fingers crossed they'll be fine. I'm going to go and search for it again. Gives me an opportunity to tidy up my stuff anyway. I've cleared out some of my drawers already today. Might as well continue.

Meh, I'm such a spaz sometimes.

the vending machine is broken

Today, I feel like eating some chocolate. Nothing swish, just something sweet and fatty to get me through my afternoon. The vending machine is not working. Not happy, Jan! (not you woa) I'm going to a seminar in a little bit over at the John Curtin School of Medical Research, I am living in hope that they have a functional vending machine with something tasty in it. Anything to distract me away from my sore legs and arse. My new gym program is great. It's effective, but my oh my does it make my muscles hurt. My bumscles in particular are very sore. My triceps only stopped hurting today, and I worked them on Saturday. I'm soon going to be super strong. Go me!

Made it!

So, hasn't stopped raining, but I'm at work. How you ask? Well, I stole/borrowed my friend's beetle and drove here. It was rather scary and the thing kept on stalling, but it was worth it to come and deal with my flies. I still feel guilty about the day off yesterday, but you get that. Anywho, should do some work now I'm here. No excuses.
I just hope the weather is a little better tomorrow, I have a million and one places I have to be.

update with the weather

This is ridiculous! So, you would think that Canberra being Canberra, it would have stopped raining by now. Nope! I am going to have to brave the weather in a little while, just so I can get some work done. I've been productive this morning though. I've filled in some application forms and detailed why I should be given money to travel overseas and enjoy myself and work hard of course. So onto some lunch, then continuing with the writing and reading. I've looked up a few things on pubmed and have been pretty productive for someone who's still in her PJs.
Yep, give it an hour and I'll have to get a move on. This is craziness. I think all the rain that hasn't fallen in the last six months has decided to turn up today.

fecking rain

It's raining. I've checked the bom.gov.au website. It's going to be raining for a while. I'm actually inspired to go to work, but there's no way known I'm riding my scooter in this kind of rain with Canberra drivers on the road. I think a bit of writing work will have to be done. I've been meaning to update my introduction outline to pass on to the supervisors to get some opinions and start working on it. I also have to write a paragraph about how I will benefit from traveling to Europe to try and wangle some more funding out of the university for my travels. I've $2000 covered already, but that doesn't even cover my airfare, and the registrations for the conferences are quite steep.
Speaking of the rain, I've just looked out the living room window, it's a bit trench-like out there. My housemate has dubbed the front yard the somme. Toren has been digging holes and enjoying himself out there. All the holes are full and it's a big puddly, muddy mess. Hooray! Both dogs are currently sleeping. Tikka next to me on the couch, all curled up with her nose buried in her tail, and Toren in my room, sleeping on my bed. He's a big lump of a dog that one. JJF and I took them both for a walk last night. They loved it! It was rather foggy, but surprisingly, it wasn't that cold.
Okay, working now, wish me luck with the weather and the writing.

mental meltdown

Hello. I'm suffering today from what I've decided to call a mental meltdown. Actually suffering isn't really the right word. I'm fine. I just took today off. First day I've spent at home, all day, since April. It's a rather exciting state of affairs. Admittedly, I've spent the day watching TV and doing dishes. Nothing exciting, but enough to give me a mental break from work. I've been a busy bee, in the lab every day, not all day every day, but every day. But I'm going to be fine, because tomorrow I'm going to go into work and be more motivated than I've been in a while. Hooray!
Going to work every day for three months isn't good for you I've decided. I should re-instate my one day off a week rule. Maybe one day a fortnight, or month? I'm still feeling exceptionally guilty that I didn't go in today. But it's cold out there now and it's dark too, so I'm staying in.
Blergh, anyway, other things going on you ask? Well, I've choreographed a wedding dance for a lovely couple and have been teaching it to them Sunday evenings at their house. Yesterday I had a lovely time showing them all the moves. I got to play with their cockatiel as well. It's a very cute little bird, I'm looking forward to maybe meeting their dog. They take the dog to her parent's house while we're dancing. Apparently, she'd want to join in a little bit too much.
Hrmm, what else? Nothing much. Plans have been made for the europe trip, the balance has been paid off and in 9 weeks from today, we'll be jetting off to lots of interesting places and meeting interesting people. We've got accommodation in a whole bunch of different place with friends of the boys and relatives. I'm rather looking forward to it. Apart from that, I've been working, sleeping and running around Canberra. I could tell you stories about my new gym program, but I don't want to be that boring. I'll leave it here for today and go and do something productive. Yay, I'm going to bathe.

the countdown is on

They boy arrives sometime this evening. He has to go to Brisvegas for work again and is coming here tonight and staying until early Monday morning. I'm pretty excited. Two days of lovely hugs and snuggling and enjoying the simple delight of staring at each other until one of us pukes. Woo!
This will be the first time since March that I will have seen him sans cast. Apparently when he takes off the arm stocking thing they have for him his arm is 'ribbed for her pleasure'. I look foward to seeing that and reveling in it's bumpy nature. Apparently it's a tiny arm now too. I guess not moving it for 10 weeks will waste muscle like nobodies business.
Anywho, still haven't made it to work yet, it's raining and I'm cold. I'm going to leave soon though, to brave the day and collect me some virgins.

busy, cold, tired and the like

Yeah, so today I'm a little tired. I had the house to myself last night, so after getting home late (10.30pm after tango and laksa) I made my way to bed pretty swiftly. But because I had the house to myself, I might have had the company of two large dogs in my room. That's great, except Tikka decided at 4.30am to go and pee. Not in my room though, in the front yard. Seeing has she hasn't learned how to open the door yet, I had to get up and let her out and then back in again. That mucked with my sleep a little. So today I'm a little tired.
It's freaking cold in Canberra, no surprises there. But I have a car for 10 days, LJS is in NZ with her parents, so I've been given the keys and told to drive to my heart's content. Woo! Go heated vehicle, go!
Hmmm, what else am I bitching about in the title? Oh, busy, yeah. I am doing an in situ hybridisation today as well as an antibody stain, trying to update my labbooks and collect lots of virgins and get my application for money into the office asap. I'm getting some help to go to the conferences I'm going to in September. All this and I want to go to the gym today to do some squats, I didn't get a chance yesterday to do squats because there were people on the Smith machine the whole time I was there. I'm hoping to get there around 4 today and squat until my legs are tired and then maybe go for a bit of a run to get the heart pumping.

In other news, I ate some SPC pineapple in passionfruit jelly for a post lunch treat today and it was jelly-rific. Food is good at the moment, especially my porridge with golden syrup. Yum!

sewing and seeing

Why hello there. Welcome to the blog post of me, from today. I'm going to show you photos of the dress I'll be finishing sewing in the next few weeks (depending on when JJF gets himself set up at the new house), and I'm going to tell you about waking up and being able to see the other side of the room.

So, I'm sewing this dress:

ouf of the following fabric, main fabric is this:
and the middle panel in this (because I don't have enough of the main stuff)

I bought the orange stuff from the bargain shop in Queanbeyan about 2 years ago, maybe even more. I had vague ideas of making a skirt. It was a bargain, $5. The other stuff I got at Lincraft a month ago. I realised I didn't quite have enough of the orange, so tried to find something to fill in the gaps as it were. The dress pattern is care of my Mum's collection of patterns that I raided sometime in the last few years. I'm quite looking forward to having it finished. And wearing it with my boots, woo!
Okay, onto the seeing, I have breakfast waiting and I can't be arsed doing this in two phases. On Friday I got some contact lenses. Today I'm wearing them, I slept in them last night. I'm allowed to sleep in them and I think it's great. I could see the other side of the room! Woo! Doesn't get much better than that. Will post photos of me with my new hair and my new glasses-less eyes some other time.

Fingers, do you need them?

I taught a private swing dancing lesson last night. It was in Gunghalin. Afterwards I rode my scooter to my tango lesson. I don't know how my fingers didn't drop off. One of the students in the private lesson said that he'd heard that riding at 80km/h had a wind chill factor of 10 degrees below ambient temperature. Last night was -3! This morning I didn't feel like I wanted to have fingers, they hurt so much due to the cold. The problem is that there is a tiny bit of moisture in my winter gloves, as a result, when I get on the road, cold fingers in seconds. It's all a bit crap.
What else is a bit crap is that I tried on some tango shoes, and they were lovely. They fit, they looked good and they made the dancing better. Well, that's not technically the crap bit, the crap bit is the cost. More private lessons needed to get those shoes. But then I think of my upcoming trip and think that maybe it's not worth spending money on shoes here when I could spend money on shoes in Europe. Or food even. Oh woe is me!
On another note, science appears to be even more my bitch that yesterday and all I need to make today complete is a yellow plus, white plus, curly, tubby virgin female. So cross your fingers for me that I get what I need.

PS I'm getting a haircut today and I may have dyed my hair VERY dark brown.

science is my bitch

Today science is my bitch. Tomorrow I'll be science's bitch. But today we must revel and enjoy because I finally have something going right. No doubt, by writing this down, I have now cursed myself to failure of the greatest degree. But for today, I don't care.
For the techical nerds out there, I have my yellow plus insertion on the second chromosome, and I'm one cross away from having no life and getting the BIG EXPERIMENT underway. This is the culmination of 3 years of work, and it's starting to look like I might actually have some results before I go to conferences in Europe, huzzah!
For now that is all, later there may be pictures of the dress I'm sewing, but only maybe.

Belated birthday presents

Last Monday I told my class that it was my birthday the next day. One student told me after class that if he'd known in advance that it was my birthday, he would have bought me flowers. I jokingly said that that was okay, I accepted gifts up until a week or so after my birthday.
This week he turned up, with flowers, for me, for my birthday. Needless to say, I was quite embarrassed and shocked. I was also rather pleased, but who wouldn't be. My teaching partner took a photo of the three of us, me, my student and my flowers. Here is the evidence:



As you can see by my quite red face, I was quite the embarrassed. Oh well, the struggles of being a good teacher I suppose. It was quite an effort to get them home. JJF took them on his scooter and they got drenched on the way home. It absolutely pissed down as we scooted along and I had to go sans winter gloves to work the next day. Trust the next day to be one where the temperature doesn't get above 10 all day. Grrrr! But eh, I got flowers. Aw!

Funny buggers

My cousin and I, in our youth, spent a lot of time thinking of silly things to do. Quite often we did them. We dyed his hair any number of different colours, collected furniture (with my brother) from the side of the road, and drank quite a lot of vodka. One of our silly suggestions was to invent the game of Funny Buggers. That way, whilst playing it, if anyone asked what we were doing we could honestly answer, 'Playing funny buggers'. This was probably about 8-9 years ago now that we came up with the rules.
Today, I got sent an email from said cousin. He's just moved in with the in-laws until the house he and his wife have bought is ready for them to move in. Something about settlement or something, I don't understand all the things to do with buying houses, I'm many years away from that. So anyway, he found the rules to funny buggers while packing and emailed them to me. Suggested I might like to blog about them. So here I am, and here are the rules:

Put all the plates in the linen press
Put all the dessert spoons in the oven
Put all the soup spoons in the microwave with a cushion
Stand all the teaspoons up along the mantlepiece
Short sheet one bed (if possible)
Put one sock of every pair of person A's socks in person B's drawer
Put one sock of every pair of person B's socks in person C's drawer
Put one sock of every pair of person C's socks in person A's drawer
Put all underwear in the house (extra points if this includes the player's underwear) under couch cushions, in pantry and other people's drawers
Turn all shirts on coathangers inside out
Mirror image a room (to greatest extent possible)
Leave around no less than 16 but no more than 22 notes saying "Nevil Maskelyne is a bastard (Longitude)"
Sticky-tape one grape to every item in the fridge

Oh deary me! It still makes me laugh. We were and are most daggy and nerdly. I look forward to playing funny buggers once he's moved into the new house.

the bog log blog AKA the turd that wouldnae die

So Saturday night, I end up at home after spending some of my afternoon sewing at JJF's place. I've made myself the pants of my PJs and have cut out and started sewing my dress, more details later. We'd watched a lot of the goodies in that afternoon. It was all good and lovely, we made pizza for dinner with fetta and roasted capsicum and salami, was rather delicious. Add to that a nice bottle of red and it was a swimmingly good evening. Until I ventured to the bathroom. We had an immortal log issue.
I'm not sure if it was me, or my housemate Em (we share the bathroom) but there was something there at the bottom of the bowl, that did not disappear when I flushed.
JJF told me that bleach sometimes works, so I bleached the bastard in an attempt to vanquish it. But alas, the next morning the little bastard was still there. JJF had also suggested the use of dishwashing detergent, but as I was in a rush, I just bleached it some more and tried to get it to die properly. I then headed out for my day. The day was lovely sunny and bright. I walked up Mount Ainslie, went to work and dealt with my flies and then made it home just in time to change, watch some Kath and Kim with Em and then head out dancing.
When I got home, the immortal log was gone and I assumed it had been my bleach that had done the trick. Until I talked to Em. Turns out that she had made use of a stick to dislodge it from it's new home and sent it on it's way to the processing plant. I cannot believe how persistent that little turd was. It was the little turd that could.
Anyway, the rest of my weekend was vaguely interesting, but I'm too busy to talk about it. Suffice to say, my mother had another birthday which she said she enjoyed. I pulled a muscle on my pole on Friday night and I got my scooter back with a new drive belt, new seat upolstery. Tell you more later, I have lunch to eat.

DJ Kate

Hello there. I am DJing at the jumptown social tonight. Hooray! I get to play music I like and watch other people enjoy and dance to it too! That is exciting. So if you are in Canberra and can make it to the Canberra City Bowling Club, Elder Street, Braddon at 8.30pm, come and join in the fun. If not, I shall show you the pattern and fabric that I am using to make myself some PJs from.



Speaking of DJing as I was earlier. I've just been listening to some of my swing music to determine what to play. I've found that there is one song, that no matter how many times I listen to it since my grandma died, it still makes me cry. It's nuts. I'm not even sure that we listened to it much together in the month before she died. I'm not even sure if we talked about it, but every time it gets me, I miss her terribly. Every time I listen to, get this, I've got a gal in Kalamazoo. There are other songs that remind me of grandma, lazy bones, song of india, what a wonderful world, the list goes on. But this is the only one that sets me off. I think it's odd, but a completely reliable outcome. There is a list that has been going through my head in the last 9-10months, of things I remember/miss about my grandma. This has been one of them. One day I'll get them all together and make a post out of it. Not today though, can't spend too much time upset when I have to go and get myself organised to make the PJs and DJ the songs for the lovely people. Wish me luck.

Merry boofday to me!

Hello one and all. I am now offically 27. We had rescued and better cupcakes for morning tea today. I am having lunch in a little while with friends. Dinner this evening will be with my housemate and some lovely ladies. I hope to get to the gym this afternoon. And I miss my boy. What good is a birthday without birthday sex?
I'm sure there is a good answer to that question. I shall endeavour to find the answer in the course of today.

What next you may ask of the scienticiankate? Well, in my 28th year I intend to finish my PhD, move overseas and get a real job. But in the short term I intend to eat a lot of cake today, drink some lovely wine, lift some heavy weights and snuggle up in bed with a good book (The second coming -the passion of joe panther).

If I feel like it, this afternoon I'll post some pictures of my recent sewing projects, they're kinda cool.

Sometimes a scooter isn't great

So this is what happens to iced cupcakes when you have them in the back of your scooter in your top box. They fly around all over the place and get icing everywhere. Looks like there is a lot of cooking for me tonight.
Yep, I'm brining cake into the office for a reason peoples. I'm 27 tomorrow, at 4.32pm, my dad would no doubt point out. So I'm providing cake for morning tea tomorrow. But I think these cakes may end up being eaten today, I'm sure they'll taste alright, but they're not exactly the best looking specimens. Bugger! I was so organised. But not to worry, I shall just be forced into cooking more cake tonight, and icing them once I get into work. Lesson learned.

'oh baby, it's cold outside'

So, I'm cold, really cold. I am up, ready to get myself to work, well almost, but I can't seem to move away from the couch. The reason for this is twofold. It's freaking cold in here and I'm wrapped up in a blanket, waiting for the heating to kick in properly. The second is, it's finally really autumn outside, it's cold and grey out there. I'd rather stay in here and keep warm-ish, once the heater has done it's job. But that's not really realistic. We have lab meeting today, I have flies on the go, I want to go to the gym today and work my muscles (I'm back up to benching 25kgs, woo!). So give me 15 mins to get everything together and get my motivation and I'll get there, promise.

Other stories you ask? Okay, I started tango lessons last night. On the recommendation of JJF, I went along to learn the 'walking dance' argentine tango. It was mostly fun, but the presence of Harry Halitosis and Cary Cave Chest made it less that fabulous. I have now learnt, though, to walk backwards, sideways and very occasionally forwards, to music with so many violins it's crazy. I think over the next few weeks it'll get more fun and more interesting. We'll see, I might bring mints along and offer them to Harry when it's our turn to dance. Solve the problem in a nice way.

Oh yeah, and my pole dancing pole was unsuccessfully delivered yesterday. Did I tell you I ordered one? Yeah, so it's being delivered again to work on Friday. That way I might actually receive it this time. What is it with couriers? I have no idea how I'm getting it home after work on Friday though, I don't think it's something I'll be able to chuck in the top box on the scoot and carry home that way. Strapped to my body maybe? It comes in a carry case. We'll see.

Okay, I'm really going to work now, really.

Days of Our Lives

So I finally caught up with my cousin on Friday night. We had scrummy laksa, frustard (frozen custard) and caught up with all the family gossip and I learnt all about her boyfriend (who I'm yet to meet). I have to say that on hearing about him and seeing the very few photos of him, I thoroughly approve. Lovely! She has promised to lend me the book she got for her birthday, assuming she finishes it before she leaves Canberra. Yay! It's apparently a murder mystery and all the characters are sheep. I am quite looking forward to it.
Thursday night saw me at the pole dancing amateur night. What a cack! The dancing was pretty good, I've learnt a bit about pole dancing choreography. What works and what doesn't. I didn't win the lucky door prize, but didn't have my scooter stolen either, so that was good.
So yeah, onto the title of this post : days of our lives. Sometimes the lives of my friends are much more interesting than the soap operas of the midday variety. I find it hard to keep up with. What I would like the most is for my friends to be happy but at the moment, I have no idea how that is going to happen. Someone is going to end up pretty sad. All I can do is offer my ears up for the listening and try and support the sad ones. It all just proves that in life, like comedy, timing is everything. So good luck my fiends, look after yourselves and if you need to vent, I'm here.
In other news, we had to suffer through an OHS presentation during the week. It was best described by my fellow student over at antethesis. I'll leave you with that.

ow! my brain hurts

So, I'm trying to learn about notch signaling and monoubiquitylation of Notch ligands at the same time as writing an introduction to a chapter for my thesis, the majority of which isn't actually done because I still have to really get the experiments underway. I mean, I've done some experiments to suggest there is something going on, but nothing definitive yet. So it's a little weird. But do-able I suppose. But the two topics could not be different so my brain is a little bit the sore. And everything has to be done by Friday, which is my new dinner date with my cousin. I'm quite looking forward to it, laksa, yum! (not so much looking forward to having everything done by then, but the food should be good)
Oh yeah, and pole dancing amateur night is tomorrow now. It's at a kinda dodgy club in Kingston. I'm quite looking forward to it, giggle value should be high.
Anyway, I'm just procrastinating and avoiding going back to reading those articles, so I'll leave this here for now. Wish me luck with the articles!

bleh!

I have just been informed by my lovely officemate that I am having too much fun. She has no idea. I am currently sitting here, drinking some coke zero and desperately avoiding doing what I'm supposed to be doing. It's horrible. I am having a crap day for motivation. I seem to have got myself into a sleep pattern that is really really bad. It involves me not being able to get out of bed before 9am, and not being able to sleep until late. Late for me that is, midnight or one. Anyway, I have this chapter introduction to write. I know what has to go in it, I know what I have to write, but can I write it and look up the references? Apparently not.

Bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh.

Alright, I shall try and make this coherent. This week should be a busy one for me. There is dancing tonight, tomorrow night, dinner I hope with my cousin on Wednesday (must call her) and then more dancing on Thursday, then pole dancing display night thing on Friday. When I am supposed to eat at home or sleep or get this bloody thing written is beyond me. I really must get onto it.

Thank you blog for reminding me that I have no time to be updating you, I have to get this thing written before Friday or I'm in so much trouble, mostly from myself. I will get right onto it, right now, really.
Bleh!

all hail ye mighty procrastination

Yes, today is the day of procrastination. I have lab work to do, I have a chapter introduction and outline to write (which is difficult to make happen at the moment) and I'd like to go to the gym. But what am I doing? Watching DVDs with my housemate and writing little bits and pieces of the chapter stuff. I think it's probably because I have been thinking about the chapter I have to write stuff for, and realising what work I have to do yet to prove anything. Bleh, so anyway, what else is news I hear you ask?
Well, I may have a result. A result that may not actually mean much in the long run, but a result at least. I can make some cells change themselves a little. That's kinda cool. I might end up with some interesting results in my thesis. That is also cool. Okay, what else? I've started teaching dancing again. It was a lot of fun, with lots of giggles and silliness. I really enjoy teaching with Chris, we get along really well.
Um, what other news do I have? Not a lot, I have bacterial contamination again in my HeLa cells. But at least this time I know why. I'm finally getting over my cold. I'm going out to Tilley's this afternoon to catch up with some lovely ladies. There is lots of blues in Canberra this week. JJF has a blind date today (I wonder if she'll bring her guide dog with her). Actually the date should be well along it's way by now. I look forward to hearing about it. It has actually rained in Canberra over the last few days, it's a strange experience.
I ended up at the Services Club on Friday night with both my housemates. The funeral of the ACT Chief Police Officer was on Friday and they'd been drinking since midday. I have never seen so many police in one space before, nor so many drunk police officers still in uniform. None on duty I'd like to point out. While there I found another Canberra moment. One of the guys on LJS's team was the best man at a 'friend of the family's' wedding. He's been friends with this guy for about 20 years. Canberra is so like that, everyone knows everyone else somehow.
Anyway, after this disjointed post I'm going to go and get ready for the meeting with the ladies. Then it's onto work to get some serious shit done! Grrrr! I'm going to kick that labwork's arse and then get myself writing something vaguely interesting for the supes. Apologies to all who have found this a rambling post.

Hullabaloo Hangover

Well, I'm now back from Perth. Four days of absoulte madness. I have never coped on so little sleep before. I've never danced so well before. I've never ever had so much fun on a dancing weekend ever. Everything was great. I could go on and on about it, but it may eventually get tedious. I think I'll make sure that I cover all the highlights over the next few posts. This one will be thank yous to all those who need them.

Thanks to (in a vaguely chronological order):
-my mate Jane for dropping me off at the airport
-George from New York for putting up with me on the flight and keeping me, and our fellow traveller Steph, happy with swing clips galore
-Fi for coming to get George and myself and delivering us safely to the afterparty
-Michelle and Kev for looking afer me for the whole weekend and particularly for Kev driving me damn near everywhere and putting up with my constant chatter
-Ant for our very first dance together, and then all the others, and the hugs. We need to catch up properly next time, not enough hours in the day!
-every single person I danced with. Some notables are Kara, Xavier, El, Sam, Dave, Skip, Matt, Francois, George, Dan, Andrew, Peter, Pommy Dan, Bruce and the list goes on (I'm sure I've forgotten half of them because of sleep deprivation)
-my fellow members of team Brunswick.
-my fellow class members for keeping me entertained and joining in the red bull dash on both days of classes
-Jono-bo-bono for trying to get me belle of the ball
-Chez for the lifts and the giggles. 'Swingout, bitch!'
-My fellow Canberrans for representing our scene so well and for all the chats I had with various members of the group over the weekend, some good plans around there
-my Sydney mates, Bruce, Shaz, Kayelle, Michael. Love you lots and lots
-The teachers for the weekend. I had a faboulous time in all the classes I attended. Apologies if I missed a class or was tired on Sunday
-all those folks who were up until dawn bluesing on Saturday night
-Cindy for dropping me home Sunday morning so I could shower before going back to class
-Dad for giving me something to do between landing in Melbourne and flying to Canberra. I had a lovely nap on the couch before I left
-Bing for coming to get me from the airport


Okay, so that's some, if not all, of the thank yous that I can think of at the moment. I had a great, great, great time! I cannot get over how much fun it was. Of course, this tells you nothing of what actually happened but I'm still not completely with it since returning. I've got a sinus infection and am on antibiotics. Tomorrow will be two weeks since I first started feeling sick. YAY! Anyway, I'm going to go and get all my washing done and start to get back to my normal operations. I'm picking up JJF from the airport tomorrow morning and a ridiculous hour and have to get a lot of work done at work. I have prostates to dissect and some cells to transfect and virgins to collect, it's a busy, busy day.

I still haven't reached X yet

Someone told me about three years ago now, that you have to do an experiment X times before it will work. I am currently onto attempt 15? of the same experiment. The one with the HeLa cells? Not sure if I've mentioned them. They have been (to borrow from Kath and Kim) the bain marie of my life for the last couple of months. I have to do a positive control experiment. That's one where you show that something works to prove that the experiment itself isn't flawed, just whatever you were using it on didn't work. So anyway, I got it to work a while ago, but the cells were unhappy and blobby. So the supes wanted me to just do it again and get happy cells, so the pictures would be nice.
I have been trying to get those nice pictures ever since. Every day is another disappointment with regards to this experiment. It's driving me nuts! I thought I had the solution to the problem on Friday. So Saturday, I looked at the cells. They were on a plastic slide that you can't see through!!! Fark. So then I chucked the little bastards on a glass slide, you can see through those, or so I thought. Turns out that the glass slide is too thick to focus through. So after many tears and frustrations yesterday I hit on the next plan to get it to work, thin coverslips! Today and tomorrow will tell me whether this works. If it doesn't I don't know how I'm going to cope. I think it'll be so ridiculous by then that I'll end up laughing. Then tearing my hair out and going a little more crazy.
Anyway, one day things will work I'm sure. Law of averages etc. But I still haven't reached X yet on this experiment. Cross your fingers and press your thumbs for me.

I hate getting colds

Today I have the scratchy throat, the fuzzy head and the blocked up snot nose of a sick person. Fark! Stupid cold! My plan is to live in tracksuit pants, take copious amounts of cold and flu drugs and have a water bottle permanently attached to my face. This probably means I'm going to end up with a psuedoephadrine high and spend my entire life in the toilet. Huzzah! Don't you love the weather getting colder and the bugs flying about? It's great.
In other news, nothing tragic happened with my scooter yesterday, though I was expecting it. My german relatives came for a visit, we're having lunch today. Lastly, experiments hate me, but still I live in hope.

Ah freak!

So life is hectic, freaking hectic. The stupid flies appear to be, once again, not transgenic. This frustrates the crap out of me. Combine this with sewing needs, visiting Germans and a lab talk next week, we have a very stressed Kate. But it'll be okay, you know why? It has to be. If it doesn't work out, my hair will fall out and I'll be a nervous wreck and I don't need that, so it has to be okay. Right?
I must keep on repeating to myself, you are not your work, you are not your work, you are not your work. Just because it's not working doesn't make you stupid or useless. Best get back to it, living in hope of something working in about 20 mins from now. Cross your fingers for me.

Oh dear, I be drunk, but my neighbours have wireless

Yep, had some red wine, half a bottle. And some homemade 'booze' (not mine, someone elses). I don't know that it's the wisest idea to have got myself a little tiddly on the alcohol and then make use of the fact that I have a laptop and internet connection at home.

Today consisted of sleeping, porridge, bit of TV, movies, more napping, some 'quality time' with the boy and a lovely dinner of Larb and red wine. Yum! Tomorrow I"m going to my aunts house for dinner, something delightful will be on offer. Sunday has me teaching a taster class at the national folk festival and entertaining the public with some swing dancing. I think I'm supposed to be wearing vintage stuff, so no doubt my dress will get an airing. I'll also have to go to work tomorrow and check out my babies (flies) and make sure that are going okay.

What else you say? Well my cousin has gone and bought himself (and his wife) a house. I look forward to visiting them there and eating some food and drinking some vodka. Yum!

Best be off before I embarrass myself any further with the drunken typing and nonsense I'm coming out with. Catch ya!

this might be too much information, but fuck it

So, I'm sitting here preparing my talk for tomorrow's cutting edge discussion. I'm listening to a very trashy CD, the pussycat dolls. While thinking about the talk and what needs to go into it, I realise something. I'm choreographing a lap dance to 'buttons'. Dear lord, my brain is strange.

update

Today my mum, a friend of hers, and the boy are driving up to Canberra for a visit. Tomorrow, my dad, the friend's husband and no-one else are flying up to Canberra. I am a little excited about this I must say. It's kinda crap though because I have work coming out my ears and will have to be in the lab tomorrow at a ridiculous hour of the morning and stay here until at least 3pm or so. We have a 'cutting edge discussion' tomorrow starting at 12. It's is supposed to be an opportunity for us to discuss topics relevant to the work going on in the lab and for us to have interesting and intelligent conversations/discussions about said topics. I've been chosen to present results from a science paper from 1998. It's to do with phosphoinositide signalling. In preparing my presentation, I have come to the conclusion that while it may be a great honour to be published in Science, I don't want to be. Those papers are so short and so dense. Each sentence contains about, as one guy from the lab put it, a years worth of work. It's bloody amazing. But it makes it quite hard to read and to really understand. There are no separate sections for methods, results, discussion. It's all together. Each of the three figures is about 6 experiments all crammed together. Madness I tells ya.

Anyway, we've got this discussion, it's happening at the supervisors house. We're having pizza for lunch. So it's not all bad. It should prove to be interesting, but I can see it dragging on. Particularly because I'll be desperate to get home and have a snuggle with the boy. Fortunately, he's brining his laptop with him and can work from home. The dogs will keep him company.

What else is news? Well, the same experiments keep stuffing me around, the flies aren't surviving like they should. Jo, the woman who does the injections for us, injected 260 embryos, 66 survived and she sent those to me. There have only been 24 flies emerging from those vials. Something about the DNA she is injecting must be killing the little buggers. I have asked her to inject some more, I don't know if any of the injected ones that have survived will actually be able to breed/survive, let alone give me transgenic progeny.

Dancing on a Monday is going pretty well. We've taken a break for Easter etc and will be back on the 23rd April. My students are lots of fun and I'm looking forward to seeing them all again. I hope they come back!

The weather is cooling down rapidly in Canberra (and elsewhere in the country I suspect). It's been chilly most mornings and the heater has definitely been on. Oh yeah, that's the other bit of news, EH, our new housemate has officially moved in. We now have two dogs, two fridges and a whole lot of stuff in the bathroom. She's moved from a place that she lived in on her own and is now living with us. She has a lot of stuff. She's lovely though and I can't wait until she's all settled in and we can start knitting together.

The last thing that I must update everyone on is the road rage incident I was involved in yesterday. But I haven't the time now. The good news from it is that I'm not hurt. The bad news is the stupid woman who road raged me could have killed me, or at least caused me to have another accident. She was so incredibly rude and a dangerous driver. The worst bit was, she had kids in her car! Okay, short version, the flies can wait for a second. She was tailgating, quite badly, so I slowed down. Was in the left lane. She overtook me, on the inside, horn blazing, ciggie in hand and finger extended. Bitch, bitch, bitch. I reported it to the police. We'll see what happens. But to reassure you Mum, I'm okay and I'll be fine, nothing really bad happened, I was more annoyed than anything else.