A bit of a catch-up
Around the start of this month we had a prototype system delivered, one that I had been working on the design of for several months. This means much flurry of activity in the lab, as we put it together and test it. It was all looking pretty good. We got the thing built, and running without too much hassle, and then I had to have a couple of days off for my OU exam. As I went out on Monday the lab was looking pretty cool, one normal system working, and one prototype system sitting beside it, and everything neat and tidy. I was really rather pleased.
I had one day off to "Finish" my revision for the exam the following day. Well... When I say finish, I also should include "start" in there too. The course content was not bad, but a slew of particularly boring case studies that we had to do assessments on meant that I had disengaged with it quite significantly, and hadn't quite got motivated to look at it in any depth for about the last month or so. This meant some cramming was rather important! This led to a very busy Tuesday, and a similarly busy Wednesday morning train over to the Uni where the exam was being held. Surprisingly I don't think that I got annihilated by the exam. I _think_ that I have done okay, but I could be quite wrong on this point. I'll have to wait and see how it has gone.
Thursday was back into the lab, and was expecting that it was going to have remained a little oasis of calm and tidy, especially since we had a big sales meeting Thursday and Friday, and they were going to be using at least one of the microscopes in there. I was wrong, the lab was pretty well trashed. Had I been the first to arrive in I might have assumed that we had had burglars in the night, but no, it was just a few co-workers that had stripped one of the systems and "had a play with" the other one. In the taking down on one system however, cables were just fired onto the floor, and it did look like a bomb had hit it. I rather grumpilly started to tidy up and to reassemble the the one that I had been left with. I was not a happy camper.
That evening it was a leaving do, as one of the Seer Green microscopy team was going off to persue pastures new in other sections of the company. He had a bit of a reputation as someone who could party hard, so perhaps it wasn't that unexpected that we went 10-pin bowling and were drinking shots as soon as we arrived. A shabby evening followed, ending in an even shabbier nightclub. The Friday was not my most productive day in work ever...
Having a mid-week session of partying meant I didn't feel so guilty about lazing around for most of the weekend, not doing so much.
This week was rather good. The Last Dance were touring the UK, so Tuesday took mrph, blooddoll3 and myself down to Oxford to see them play at Intrusion with SBA (Both of whom were fantastic.) There were a lot of expected people at the gig, and also a fair few quite unexpected people. The plan had been to leave very soon after the bands finished, but one thing and another got in the way of that and we sneaked out at around 1ish. The next evening was the Coventry gig (This time with Rome Burns.) Pretty great two days, as those three are some of my favourite bands to see (They are all ever so enthusiastic) and I got to see one of them twice :)
Thursday was the main UK optics shows, Photonex, which I was going along to. It is just down the road, in Stoneleigh, so I had no excuse for missing it. It tends to be quite similar most years, but it is a very handy place to have a bundle of short meetings with people. As I was leaving the office I was given instructions from our office manager that she wanted toys and freebies so I was also on a mission there. I had a long update meeting with one of the suppliers that I am working with. I wasn't really expecting it, but I did end up talking to G. for about 2 hours during the show. He had been off in Africa on a photo safari, so as well as catching up on what he had missed, I also was able to see a lot of photographs, and we talked about photography. Africa, it has some spectacularly photogenic animals there! I managed to spend most of the day there with the meetings and whatnot, but it was pretty useful. And when I got back I had a squashy whale, a stress brain, and a laser pen for the office manger :)
I had one day off to "Finish" my revision for the exam the following day. Well... When I say finish, I also should include "start" in there too. The course content was not bad, but a slew of particularly boring case studies that we had to do assessments on meant that I had disengaged with it quite significantly, and hadn't quite got motivated to look at it in any depth for about the last month or so. This meant some cramming was rather important! This led to a very busy Tuesday, and a similarly busy Wednesday morning train over to the Uni where the exam was being held. Surprisingly I don't think that I got annihilated by the exam. I _think_ that I have done okay, but I could be quite wrong on this point. I'll have to wait and see how it has gone.
Thursday was back into the lab, and was expecting that it was going to have remained a little oasis of calm and tidy, especially since we had a big sales meeting Thursday and Friday, and they were going to be using at least one of the microscopes in there. I was wrong, the lab was pretty well trashed. Had I been the first to arrive in I might have assumed that we had had burglars in the night, but no, it was just a few co-workers that had stripped one of the systems and "had a play with" the other one. In the taking down on one system however, cables were just fired onto the floor, and it did look like a bomb had hit it. I rather grumpilly started to tidy up and to reassemble the the one that I had been left with. I was not a happy camper.
That evening it was a leaving do, as one of the Seer Green microscopy team was going off to persue pastures new in other sections of the company. He had a bit of a reputation as someone who could party hard, so perhaps it wasn't that unexpected that we went 10-pin bowling and were drinking shots as soon as we arrived. A shabby evening followed, ending in an even shabbier nightclub. The Friday was not my most productive day in work ever...
Having a mid-week session of partying meant I didn't feel so guilty about lazing around for most of the weekend, not doing so much.
This week was rather good. The Last Dance were touring the UK, so Tuesday took mrph, blooddoll3 and myself down to Oxford to see them play at Intrusion with SBA (Both of whom were fantastic.) There were a lot of expected people at the gig, and also a fair few quite unexpected people. The plan had been to leave very soon after the bands finished, but one thing and another got in the way of that and we sneaked out at around 1ish. The next evening was the Coventry gig (This time with Rome Burns.) Pretty great two days, as those three are some of my favourite bands to see (They are all ever so enthusiastic) and I got to see one of them twice :)
Thursday was the main UK optics shows, Photonex, which I was going along to. It is just down the road, in Stoneleigh, so I had no excuse for missing it. It tends to be quite similar most years, but it is a very handy place to have a bundle of short meetings with people. As I was leaving the office I was given instructions from our office manager that she wanted toys and freebies so I was also on a mission there. I had a long update meeting with one of the suppliers that I am working with. I wasn't really expecting it, but I did end up talking to G. for about 2 hours during the show. He had been off in Africa on a photo safari, so as well as catching up on what he had missed, I also was able to see a lot of photographs, and we talked about photography. Africa, it has some spectacularly photogenic animals there! I managed to spend most of the day there with the meetings and whatnot, but it was pretty useful. And when I got back I had a squashy whale, a stress brain, and a laser pen for the office manger :)