laptops, bootcamp and pole dancing

New things in my life include, a macbook, bootcamp and pole dancing classes again.

I love my new shiny laptop! It's white, and pretty and is going to be dear friend over the next year while I write my thesis and work hard. Hooray! I got it yesterday and am just waiting for the IT guys to come and install all the software I need on it. Then it's bombs away and I'll be going nuts! Wheeee!

Bootcamp has been going for two weeks now, I've been 3 times. It's been hard work, especially getting up at 5am. I am always nervous when I have to get up early and as a result I end up waking up too early, or having nightmares. I had a horrible on on Wednesday night about dismembered corpses being found in my building. I woke up at 4.30am, freaked out and needing to pee. Buh! But apart from my nighttime silliness, the bootcamp itself is pretty good. Tuesday we have Vince, who is 6 foot, with lovely muscles and a lovely accent. I think he's from Jamaica or somewhere like that. He rolls his r's as he tells us to rrrrun, rrrrun! *roar* He's also really enthusiastic, and that helps with motivation. Thursday is Michael, who I think is pretty bored training us. But we still work hard, just with a little less enthusiasm. I'm enjoying the energetic feeling I get after the early mornings with lots of exercise. But, the evening slump, which had me in bed at 8.30pm last night, is less great. Two more weeks to go and I'll see if I'm any fitter as a result.

Pole dancing started on Tuesday night. I have my first bruise of the season and it's all good fun. I'm going with a good mate from work. We laughed ourselves silly and I think we're both looking forward to next week.

Hmmm, what else is news? I'm going to Sydney next week to see Little Britain live. That should be great fun. I'm going with my mate JJF, we're driving up and maybe staying with his brother. That would be good, as the brother has a pool! Whee! We'll be coming home the next day, I have too much work to do to spend the weekend in Sydney, fun though that would be. Work is going well, just a little busy. I'm getting rather excited and have lots of plans. I have a meeting with the supes on Tuesday. I am hoping to be well organised for that meeting and present an outline for my introduction. Anyway, work to to, flies to do horrible things to. Best be off.

commitments and timing

So, the PhD is going okay. Not fabulous, but okay. I'm not completely fucking it up as I used to (at least I don't think I am). I'm pretty focused and I have plans. But turns out some of those plans may not work out. My plan was to make it home by July, to write the thesis etc. Thing is, the supervisor doesn't agree with me. He thinks more like the end of the year to start writing full time, ie my lab work will continue for the majority of this year. The thought of spending another 3-4 months in Canberra, away from the boy, makes me very sad and frustrated. We will have then been apart for the best part of 4 years. 4 years is a very long time.

The other problem with this is the following: I said to a dear friend that I would go to a swing dancing event in Perth in April. But at the moment, if all my experiments go well, I'll be working very hard in April. Like 2X a day, every day (7/week) in the lab, regardless of weekends and the like. I had promised previously to travel to this event. But circumstances, both timing and financial had prevented me. Now the finances will be fine (my insurance payout is going to be significant), but the timing couldn't be worse. I feel awful. I really don't want to disappoint a good friend, but my thesis and my chances of getting home by July have to come first. Fingers crossed they'll understand. Even better if I could actually afford the time off because the flies are going faster than expected. I don't know, stuff sucks sometimes and it's hard to sort it all out.

Apart from the depressing idea of being stuck in the 'berra for another few months, things are going well here. Boot camp is hard, but fun. Pole dancing started last night. One housemate is planning on moving out, and while that sucks in one respect, at least with such a tight rental market we are likely to get a decent replacement. We can finally afford to be choosy. Previously, it's been a matter of desperation. We've done okay out of the current one, but the one before that sucked the big one.

Anywho, I should get back to the thesis and the planning. No time to waste for me, if I'm ever to make it back to Melbourne.

Tikka learns about walking

My mate BT is a legend. The man has not only tripled his wage in the last year, go you go thing go! But he has also the most patient soul I know. Seriously, he's so patient. Last night he and JJF came by with Bailey, the blackberry dog. They were out on a walk, and decided to ask if I wanted to come with. Unfortunately, Tikka's lead was in LJS's car, and she was out. I found some rope though, so it was used to keep Bailey in check, she already knows how not to pull. Tikka, on Bailey's lead, was a pulling maniac and BT took over. He managed to get that dog to actually walk alongside him for a little bit. Amazing! She usually needs her gentle leader to get her to stick to a decent speed. The trick, and here's where the patience comes in, was this: everytime she pulled, he'd stop, and make her sit next to him. At first she was only going a couple of steps and then pulling like a crazy dog. But after a little while she managed up to about 6 steps or so. Still not great, but a great improvement.
This morning, I took the Tikka dog out for a traning walk. We managed about 10 metres at one stage of walking alongside me without pulling. I think if I keep this up, she'll never need her gentle leader again. We'll probably go walking with the boys tonight, but I think I'll use the gentle leader. She might actually get some decent walking in then, rather than just around the block.
Enough of dogs though, I have news. I have written an outline for my introduction to my thesis. It's a brief document that outlines the topics I'll cover and the order I'll do it in. All I need now is approval from the supervisors and some help getting it just right and I can start writing the bastard. I've been doing a lot of reading recently, and it's been making me ask a whole bunch of questions, which in turn leads to more reading and more questions. I've got a lot to learn about my gene/protein, it's structure and all about pleckstrin homology domains. Wish me luck! I'm hoping that by next week I'll be actually composing the thing.
Other thesis related news, I have transformants. Perhaps only one, but if the insertion is on the X or II then I'm sorted. For all the non-geneticists out there, sorry, nerd speak there and now too. I'm using yellow+ as the selectable marker, rather than white+ and I'm finding it interesting to pick the transformants. I have one definite, I thought I had a white- fly on my pad, rather than a yellow- white- transformant that was a little bit dark. I wondered how the little fucker had got into the vial, until I realised he must be a transformant. Whee! A boy too, which makes it easier.
Best be off, I have to get up ridiculously early tomorrow, I'm starting boot camp with a mate from work. I have to get from Belconnen to Narrabundah by 6am. Guess who's getting up at 5am for the possible 30 mins scoot south? ME!

I can't stop sleeping in!

I've been trying for the last week to get up early. By early I mean somewhere between 6.30am and 7.15am. I have lab work to do and it's been ridiculously hot, so riding early in the morning is preferrable. But can I get myself out of bed before 8am? Nope. I've tried and I've tried, but it just won't work. I blame the hot weather we've been having. It's been over 30 for over a week, every single day. It was 40 one day last week, and no cool change with a lovely storm to get rid of the blistering heat. It sucks! The bom.gov.au website is giving me no joy either. All the temperatures for the next 4 days are above 35 and then above 30 for the next 3 after that. We're supposed to have a storm this afternoon, there are thunderstorm warnings a-go-go. But the chance of rain is only listed as 40%. Looks to me as though it'll be bone dry all day, bloody hot, and then it won't even rain. I can't sleep properly with all this darned heat. BUH!

Okay, I think I've bitched enough about the weather. Onto other things, like what else I've been up to. I went and saw my 'independent medical expert' yesterday afternoon, as part of my insurance claim. It felt like a pretty futile effort. I know that I'm better and he pretty much confirmed that. He was partly deaf, reasonably condescending, and not very chirpy. It was great fun to have to ride in 37 degree heat to get out there. But at least it's done now. Apparently, it's the last thing I have to do before the solicitor gets the final offer from the insurance company. I'm hoping for it to be resolved very soon. I needs to buy myself a laptop, and the cash from this claim should cover it.

Hmmm, what else is news? The Bree dog is moving out. I don't know this officially, as the owner of Bree (SKW) hasn't said anything to me. But I know from a mutual aquaintance that she's going up to Brisvegas next week. I'm not sure that I will miss the Bree dog too much. She's very cute, but can be a little overwhelming at times. She likes jumping up and sticking her nose on you. I was at home working on the thesis last week and I got up to go to the toilet. Bree was on the floor in the living room, where I had been working. I went to the toilet and as I emerged from the bathroom, Bree was sitting outside, waiting for me. It can be just a little full on. Labradors are just a little too enthusiastic at times. But I know that her owner SKW is going to miss her.

My exercise and eating regime continues with great success. I am (when conscious) much more energetic that usual and I don't get major lulls in my energy levels. This eating six times a day thing is good for that. Usually after lunch I'd be lethargic and useless for at least an hour. These days, no problemo! I'm also craving healthy food, even on my 'day off'. Eating well, by which I mean lots of fruit and veg, really is good for you. Who knew? (probably everyone really)

Tonight I'll be going out dancing. I'm going to Balboa class first and then there is a social dance. I plan on taking a large bottle of water with me and a towel, as I can see myself getting very sweaty. Another disadvantage to all this stupid hot weather. Grrr!

Best be off, my timer is about to beep at me and I need to go fix some embryos.

bloody hot

It is bloody hot in Canberra today! The top temperature was 40.5, it's still 39. I had plans to be at the gym today, doing the whole cardio thing. But it's so freaking hot! I think I'd melt. But I might go, later on tonight, after it cools down. Seems to be a theme with me this week. Tuesday and yesterday had me at the gym at about 8.30pm. It was so busy earlier in the evening, I really couldn't get anything useful done. It was pretty good going later, but meant I had to make sure I made myself go. It would have been so easy to stay at home and sleep or watch crappy TV.
Today has been a day of finding out about PH domains. That stands for pleckstrin homology domains. They bind phosphinositides, and help localise proteins to the membrane of the cells. Apparently though, they also help the DH (Dbl homology) domain do it's thing, catalysing the exchange of GDP to GTP on a GTPase. Exciting huh? Go science go! It's very very nerdy, but very very important that I know those things. No doubt I'll get around to reading those papers properly soon, but for now I think I'm going to scoot my way home, eat some dinner and then eventually make my way to the gym. Wish me luck!

why living in canberra sucks

The boy had a migraine on Friday. He was so bad, he ended up in hospital. He was so bad they thought he had meningitis. He had a lumbar puncture, morphine, spent 11 hours in hospital. He was still feeling shitty today. He went to the doctor. The doctor was so worried about him, they sent him to the hospital in a taxi, with a cab charge. He's there now, doped up to the eyeballs on drugs. The lumbar puncture they gave him didn't seal up again properly and it was making him feel nauseous and dizzy. They are doing something tomorrow to fix him up and he should be able to go home. I hate living so far away from him. Not that I could have done much more than his housemate, Val, has done. He took the boy to the hospital on Friday and picked him up again. He's going to pick him up tomorrow. But I just wish I was there. I'm a little bit over the whole 'long distance relationship'. I'm also a bit over share house living, but that's another story.
Living in Canberra sucks.

Project Healthy

I want to tell you a story, most of you will have heard it from me over the holidays. It's a little funny and a little annoying. It kinda links into project healthy, but not really. I'd planned to attempt the project healthy before Xmas, and before this incident. I was just waiting for Xmas to be over and all that jazz to be over, so I could get myself into a healthy routine, with exercise and everything. So here's my story:

Just before Xmas, I was feeling a little dizzy. I went to the doctor to have myself checked out. Make sure I didn't have an ear infection or something similar. So, the doctor, after telling me that my symptoms were pretty vague, checked out my general wellbeing.
She measured my blood pressure, a little high at either 132/90 or 125/85. She checked my temperature, normal. She tested my balance, good. She measured my height, and my weight, and looked at her chart. There I was, smack bang in the middle of the healthy weight range. Huzzah! She turns to me as we are walking back to the chairs and and says "hmmm, that's interesting. You must have small bones, because you look a little bit overweight"
WHAT THE FUCK?! What part of, demonstrably in the healthy weight range, did you not see, you psycho bitch? What possible motive could this woman have to tell another woman, who wasn't overweight, that she LOOKED overweight? I am still a little pissed off with this woman, and I'm just trying to decide what to do about it. She suggested I come back in a few weeks and get my blood pressure checked again, to make sure it wasn't artificially high for some reason. She also suggested I get the same person to measure it, her, because it can be a little variable with different operators. Question is, do I want to go back to that nasty woman? And if I do, do I mention the fact that it was totally inappropriate for her to say that to me?

Anyway, before she had been so mean to me, I had intended to start a bit of a health kick. I go to the gym regularly, and I try, most of the time, to eat well. But I never seem to be able to run any faster/further or get the gym thing going long enough without a break to get really strong. So, I decided to put myself on a health kick. And drag my parents along with me. So, here for the record, are my goals for the next three months:

-go to the gym 3X/week
-be able to do the splits!
-increase my upper body strength so my pole dancing is better
-get some definition in my muscles
-reduce my fat % (so you can see my defined muscles)
-be able to walk up Black Mountain via the more difficult path, without stopping

If, in three months, I'm getting somewhere near those goals, I'll be pretty happy. It does, however, mean making time for exercise and not making excuses not to go. It means eating well, more often than not. But having goals I think will help keep me on track. And knowing that my parents are trying to get healthier too helps. It shouldn't be too hard for them, if they can give up dessert, and fish and chips for a while, they'll be halfway to their goals. Add a bit of exercise, and they're sorted. One of the dogs, Mac, needs to lose some weight too. About 3-4kgs off his 13.8kg frame. I'm sure they can help each other beat the bulge. But this blog isn't about them, so I'll leave it there.

So, I'm less than a week into my health kick and it's going pretty well. I can't really be arsed to go to the gym today, although it is gym day. But I'm going to go and make the most of it. My food has been healthy and tasty and you'll all be pleased to know that I'm not starving myself. I'm eating 6 times a day and all of it is fresh and chock full of veges and the like. I'm even getting the hang of drinking lots of water. The only problem there is how much you end up needing to pee. Tell me it gets better as your body gets used to it? I will no doubt, occasionally, update you on progress. The splits are still a long way away, but I reckon I'll get there in the end. If only my hip flexors weren't so tight!

Right, enough procrastination, the fly room and the gym awaits. I've spent most of today at home, reading papers and thinking about my thesis/experiments I've yet to do. It's time to get some fly pushing in and some weight lifting going. Grrr!

sigh

So, I've returned to the nation's capital. My flies are going great guns and I'm probably starting on my introduction today. But I just feel bleh. Today I would much rather just lie on the couch all day watching crappy infomercial television and then tidy my room. But, I'm at work, trying to psych myself up for the day ahead. I'm not sure if my new year's flatness is due to returning to Canberra/leaving Melbourne, or whether it's a general life grump I've got going on. It could just be PMS. Let's hope for that and move on.

When I'm feeling less flat, dejected and grumpy, I'll tell you about Xmas and New Year's and all that jazz. Right now, the fly room awaits and my iPod will be with me. I do not need to interact with people today.

Bruises a-go-go

So Monday was my last pole dancing class. It was 6 weeks of hilarious fun and lots of bruises. I ended up with, what one housemate desribed as, legs that looked like someone had attacked them with their thumbs. I have bruises on the tops of my feet and also on both inner thighs/knees and a fabulous one on my left thigh (outer). But, the best bit is, they don't actually hurt. Well, not much anyway. But they look really impressive. They're varying shades of purple and orangey-red and green. I'm quite proud of them, I have to say.

I got to practice going upside-down on the pole on Monday. I did pretty well. I didn't smash my head into the ground and was able to get onto the floor in a pretty elegant way. I think that upside-down is going to be one of my favourite kinda of things. It requires strength and a little bravery, and it looks very cool.

I recently read an article on news.com.au about pole dancing. It was an opinion piece about how women doing pole dancing were fools. I was quite taken aback. The article, summarised by me, went along the lines that women saying they were 'reclaiming their femininity' or were making a feminist statement by doing pole dancing, didn't know what they were on about. Thing is, I don't think anyone in my class would claim they were doing pole dancing to be more feminine, or to make a feminist statement. I think they'd say they were there to have fun, get some upper body strength and laugh like idiots. I know that's why I'm there. I love that I'm getting stronger arms and abs, I love dancing around like a fool to crappy music and I love the gymnastic ability required for the class. I'd say it'd be much like doing an acrobatic/circus class, something a little different, that requires somewhat acrobatic skills. Much fun as going to the gym is (and I really enjoy it), my pole dancing class is so much fun. I'm not doing it to impress a man, I'm not doing it to land a man (already got one), I'm doing it because it makes me happy. Buh, anyway, enough justifying my new habit, I love it and that's the most important thing.

What else is news I hear you ask? JJF and BT moved into their new place yesterday, along with Bailey the black Labrador. They are now literally stumbling distance from my house. And with their surround sound and yo-yo tricks galore, I don't know how often I'll be at home. I'm still quite giggly about the whole thing. I got to ride JJF's scooter from his old place in Torrens, up to the new place. It was quite scary, scarier than I'd imagined. I think it was because it was so windy last night. I nearly got blown off on Adelaide Avenue. But I made it safely, and realised that I quite like my own scooter, even if it does have a smaller engine.

Last night was also our Xmas at my house. LJS had her parents around. I had the boys over and SKW had J and N with her. We all ate dinner separately, but dessert was a shared affair. SKW had made sticky date pudding with caramel sauce and we ate that, along with icecream. It was heavenly. LJS had also bought a chocky cake, so we were well fed. It was a lovely evening, Bailey was there too and all three dogs played with each other. Bailey and Tikka had a small fight, and it looks as though Bailey is top dog among those three. It'll be interesting to see them play more over the next while, as I'm sure Bailey will be at our house quite a bit.

I totally scored in the present stakes. LJS got me a lovely Vespa diary thing and a swivel chair for me to use for sewing. SKW got me Degrassi High season 1 on DVD. I spent this morning watching a little bit of it as I sewed, sitting on the new chair. It's still as classy as ever, which means, not at all. But it does deal with a lot of 'issues' that faced teenagers in the late 80s/early 90s. The fashion is pretty astounding, go the mullet! BT and his lovely g/f GT also got me something, yay! It was totally unexpected, but totally useful. I got a new wallet. My old wallet from RU, while lovely, has not had a functional zip for quite some time. It was time to retire it, but I was just waiting for the sales. No need anymore though! The new wallet is red and snazzy.

That's all that's news from my world. Except maybe the dizzy spells of the last few days. But it sounds like a lot of people have been getting them, so maybe it's something to do with the weather. I'm seeing a doctor tomorrow to get it checked out. Probably just a minor ear infection or something. We'll see.

Riding my scoot- lots of fun

So, I went for my first 'ride' on Sunday. I have pretty much only had my scooter as a means of getting around. A cheaper option than a car. But I have some swing dancing friends who have motorbikes as a fun way of getting around. They also have cars! So, it was decided that we should all go for a 'ride' together, somewhere out of Canberra a little way.

We decided on Tidbinbilla (I hope I've spelled that correctly) and rode out there. It was quite hilly and we were travelling for the most part at about 80-85km/h. That way my scooter could keep up with the other bikes, I've worked out my absolute top speed is 90km/h and that's downhill. It was probably around the halfway mark that I noticed that my petrol reserves were a little low, or rather, a lot low. We made it to the big dishes, but there was no way I was making it back to Canberra, or even to Tharwa, another 20kms away to get petrol.

I'm now forever indebted to my friend Stephen. He found some hose from the security guys and syphoned out petrol for me. First, from his own 1300cc bike into my scooter, and later, because it was too hard to get the petrol flowing, from Kristina's 500cc bike into a coke bottle. He filled the 600ml bottle three times and all of a sudden I had a lot of petrol in the tank. We made it safely back to Canberra and I hit 90km/h on the way back into town, on a hill, probably with a tail wind.

It was so much fun, riding with other riders, nice and safe in the middle of the pack of 5. The weather was perfect for riding, blue skies, a few clouds and a lovely 27 degrees, lovely. The riding did, however, make me want to get a bigger bike. Say a 250cc scooter, something that can do 100km/h no worries. But the sensible side of me knows that is silly. I'm only in Canberra for another 6-7 months and once I'm back in Melbourne, I don't know that I'll need that much power. The little 100cc should do the job admirably. So, I just have to cope, knowing that my riding could be a lot more fun, out on the open road, if I had a bigger bike. I promise Mum that I won't use my insurance money to buy a new scoot, I promise!

The riding part of the day ended at Gus' Cafe in the city. I nearly lost my mouthfull of food at one stage though. Stephen told us about how he'd once headbutted a duck. The duck had been flying up in front of his bike, and hadn't made it high enough. It smacked into his helmet, but continued up and I'm pretty sure survived. Funny, funny stuff. I've been hit with bugs before while riding. I've even had a bee in my helmet. But I've never headbutted a bird before. Nor do I think I'm likely to. I'm sure there's time enough for that in the coming years of riding.

Sunday was a lovely day out with the gang of swinging riders. 2 scooters, myself and JJF, 3 bikes, Stephen, Marianne and Kristina. Perfect weather and great friends who looked after me and made sure I could make it back home. I think next time I might ask Stephen if I can ride pillion on his bike. That thing is enormous. It's like sitting on an armchair. Totally cool and really noisy.

Another note about the scoot, riding and the like. I passed my Ps test a few weeks ago, but only managed to get myself to the motor registry yesterday. So I am now officially a P plate scooter rider. I just have to attach the P plate to the back of the scooter and I'm ready to roll. It took some 25 mins to see someone though. Luckily, I'd brought some sewing with me. I'm in the process of repairing a dress I made VE for her birthday last year, the lining had come a little loose and one of the straps was also starting to come away from the dress. In that 25 mins, I not only fixed those problems, but I also read about 1/3 of a paper. It turned out to be a rather successful wait. I'm now waiting on my housemate to turn up with some cable ties from the mouse house. I'm going to use them to attach the P plate.

I GOT IT!

Hooray, and champers all round! I got two clones that are the right thing. All that is left is to send DNA to Adelaide for injection into flies, sequence said DNA and run around the lab screaming "WHOOP!" at the top of my lungs. No more cloning for me (it would seem) and lots of fly work and other things. I love molecular biology today. And in accordance with a request by VA (supplier of awesome chemically competent cells) I now renounce my love affair with electro competent cells and wholy embrace chemically competent cells as the way of the future. I shall use them forever more for my cloning endeavours and agree that they are much better and more efficient than their electro siblings.

speedy mc-speedster

Yesterday was an excellent day, for the most part. I had a meeting with my solicitor, about my personal injury claim. Looks like I only have two things left to do before we can settle. I have to visit an 'independant medical expert' and have my shoulder assessed. I also have to get some kind of documentary evidence that my thesis was put back by about 2 months due to the accident. I think my supervisor might be able to help me out there. Must remember to ask, and ask nicely. Once this is done, NRMA will make me an offer, I'll pay the solicitors for their work and whatever is left over is mine. Huzzah! Fingers crossed it'll only take another couple of months or so.

I had colonies on my ligation plate yesterday morning and am in the process of confirming whether they are the right thing or not. I've grown up 12 of them and am digesting the DNA now. Give me an hour or so and I'll know whether I've finished cloning for my PhD or not (assuming the sequencing goes well). This is a bit of a milestone for me, as I may have mentioned previously, so that's cool too.

We had a farewell lunch for Nelida yesterday. She's a lovely Chilean woman in her 70s, who has been working at RSBS for 30 years. She is a phenomenal support, both scientifically and emotionally. I'm going to miss her hugs and advice. But, I figure she's probably allowed to go and do something other than work in our lab. The lunch was in the botanical gardens and we were visited by many water dragons. I'll post pictures once I'm organised.

So those were the good things about yesterday. Now for the amusing and not so great bits. My scooter decided that everywhere I went yesterday, I was travelling no distance and at 0km/h. I hoofed it down to the scooter repairer and it was a simple job to fix. The speedo cable had fallen out of it's place and wasn't connected properly. I got it all fixed up and I now know how fast I'm travelling. Which is useful. The other shitty thing yesterday was the evil headache that came upon me at about 4pm. I think it was my usual PMS headache, turning up a few days late to confuse and irritate me. It didn't go away, even with drugs. But, sleep killed it pretty well.

So yeah, yesterday was mostly good, but also a little shit. I'm hoping today will give me DNA to sequence and good flies to work with. Fingers crossed it'll also bring me chocolate, finished Xmas present shopping and a lovely early night. Man, I'm such a nanna!

Beware!

I am now a P plate scooter rider. Woo! Be very scared Canberra. I'm not sure why, as nothing has really changed, but it sounds scary. It was ridiculously hot over the weekend here in the 'berra, and continues so today. It's also really smoky. I think that's because of the fires in Victoria. Which means that smoke has travelled at least 300kms, if not more to be here, obliterating our view of the sky. It's supposed to rain today (50% chance according to www.bom.gov.au), I'm hoping that will bring the temperature down and get that smoke out of the sky. But Canberra, being Canberra, it won't rain and I'll have to suffer through another pole dancing class in the ridiculous heat. I mean, how am I supposed to grip the pole properly when I'm so sweaty I slip right off? My new short shorts are going great guns though, sufficiently short for class. I still won't wear them in public though, they are only on display at home and inside the pole room. On the street, they are covered by my Draggin' cargo pants. I don't really think that the world at large is ready to see the pasty pale whiteness that are my thighs.

Goodbye cloning? Hello flies?

I may be finished with my cloning. For those non-molecular biology types, that is cutting up and sticking pieces of DNA back together. I just have to make sure that I have what I want (which I should know by Monday or so) and it's no more silly ligations that don't work for me. No more competent cells, that are more incompetent than anything else. It'll be just a lot of genetics, fly crosses, virgins and lay plates. Lots more work in the fly room and on microscopes. It also is a significant point that I can mark off in my diary, on my way to the completion of an awesome thesis.
Mind you, with all this cloning nonsense I've been getting up to of late, my Xmas shopping is somewhat non-existent. I have the sum total of .5 of a present. I have no idea what to get some people, and not much of a desire to go shopping. Oh well, no doubt they'll all end up with something in the end. I may even get my housemate's xmas bag from last year finished before this year's celebrations. Fingers crossed! It's cut out and just needs to be sewn together and a lining found. Maybe I will get some of that done over the weekend.
The good news of today is: a dear friend of mine (mother of the quilt boy) is pregnant with her second child. Due sometime in (guessing here) late June/early July. I'm so incredibly happy for her and her family. She's an excellent mum and a great friend, even though we hardly see one another.

Muh

I hate molecular biology. That is all.

just to let you know

My short shorts aren't short enough. I have a number of fabulous bruises from pole dancing. It's heaps of fun, but my shorts need to be shorter. I'm going shopping on the weekend to get myself some super short shorts. I'm very glad the class only has women in it. And that I ride my scooter to class with my long cargo scooter pants. The super short shorts will only see the pink lights of my class.

No longer a learner?

I have booked myself in for the provisional licence test. As of (fingers crossed) the 9th of December, 2006, I will no longer have L plates on my scooter. I have been riding the scoot for almost 2 years, practically every day. Aparently the test isn't hard. I'm still nervous though. I wouldn't bother going for the test, but after the 2 year mark, if you haven't done the P's test, you have to do the Learner course again. And that costs $220 or so. So, being a cheap bastard, and probably riding okay, I'm going to try and get my licence. Wish me luck, press your thumbs, or cross your fingers for me. 9:30am, Saturday 9th December,2006.

three things I didn't expect to see last night

I went out for dinner last night with a couple of lovely ladies from work and today's seminar speaker. We had lovely food and some rather nice wine. And apart from getting knocked every so often as people walked past our table, I had a lovely time. After dinner VA dropped me back at our building so I could pick up my scooter and go home. Once I'd gone upstairs and collected all my gear I made my way back to the carpark to get said scooter. Here are the three things I really didn't expect to see, in increasing order of unexpectedness.
-my office mate coming into work (at 10pm) to continue writing up her thesis
-a black cat and two tabby kittens
-approximately 8 chinese people, wandering as if lost

I was quite taken aback by these 8 people wandering through campus. The only thing that made sense to me is that they were tourists/visitors staying at uni house and were checking out the campus because they were jet lagged and not tired. But of course, for a nanna like me, 10pm is late, and I'd had a headache all day yesterday. So I don't know that I was thinking too clearly.
Today I'm without the headache, which is good. But I've upgraded to crampiness, so I'm not sure that I'm pleased.Fingers crossed the gym will help that. I'm determined to go today. No lab work is going to get in my way! And tonight I'm off to the amateur pole dancing night at the ever-so-classy lot 33 in Kingston. Woo!

It's raining, it's pouring and I'm going pole dancing

It rained yesterday, and it's pissing down today. I have been able to borrow my housemate's car (she's sick with tonsillitis and isn't going anywhere). I think I should complain/comment about the lack of rain in Canberra more often, we might actually fix the drought right there. I was just on the Bureau of Meterology's website checking out the radar scans. We are in for some serious rain in the next hour or two. Hooray! It does, however, make me more homesick than you'd expect. Grey cloudy day? Rain? Homesick. Oh well, only 8 or so months until I can move home, or so I hope.
Yesterday was a movie extravaganza at our house. Due to the sickness of the housemate, and the exhaustion of me (in the lab until 10pm on a friday night, woo! go my social life), we decided we'd stay in all day and watch DVDs. We watched:
- March of the Penguins
-Mrs Henderson Presents
-The Family Stone
-Cars
-Take the Lead
Actually, it was just me watching Mrs Henderson and The Family Stone, someone else needed a nap. The evening was capped off by a trip to the supermarket in the pouring rain to get supplies. I got groceries for the week and spent up big, due to the space afforded to me by the car. The housemate, LJS, got herself supplies for making chocolate fudge. It was a lovely trip, sad as that may sound. I quite like doing the 'late night' trip to the supermarket for supplies. Bread is always really, really cheap at that time of day. 50c for a loaf of wholemeal bread, yum! The whole day provided a lovely break from the lab and thinking about my thesis/lab work. I was almost planning a trip in, just to collect virgins but was told in no uncertain terms by the other housemate, SKW, that that just wasn't on. And I'm so glad I decided to stay home, I'm actually keen to be back here and I think the break did me good. I think there should be a new rule, 1 day off per week, or else.
Anyway, rather than drivel on about that for longer, I'll drivel about something else. I'm going to my first pole dancing class tonight. It was supposed to be taught by a friend of mine, but she switched her classes around. I think that it might actually be better to not be in her class That way if I hit my head on the pole or fall on my arse, my lab won't know about it immediately. I'm quite looking forward to this class, and a little apprehensive. I want to know, how short do my shorts have to be?

um.... sorry

Kidney beans are some of my new favourite foods. Along with chickpeas and anything green and vegetably. Problem is, too many kidney beans make for some stinky times. I'm so lucky I don't share an office with anyone at the moment. I feel sorry for my supervisors, we're having a meeting in 20 mins and I can't promise it won't be fragrant. Uh oh!