(no subject)
Well, day two started with difficult-to-identify-but-not-bad-tasting breakfast in a freezing breakfast room (Going to have to get used to the idea of wearing a coat at all times, inside and out) before heading to the labs. They're in an 8 story building - most of the buildings here are several stories high, it's like being downtown in a significant city on campus. Will have to take some pics. The labs are quite industrial feeling and apparently there's a mix of research labs and commercial production facilities, though it's difficult to tell the difference. They seem to have just about every bit of analysis gear you could imagine here, all sparkly and mounted in contrastingly rather drab rooms. Quite a lot of stuff is incongruous, the building seems quite old and hasn't really been updated much, but they have a fingerprint log in process! There's also a table tennis table on the top floor, the only nod to recreation/breaks that I've seen :) No-one is in a lab coat, it's very strange. The door is open all the time, but given the lack of heating it makes little difference. As well as the commercial production stuff there's also the equivalent of the MHRA actually in the building, which must be quite convenient!
Met the director of the facility, who is very nice and shakes hands for a time reminiscent of Banzai. He has a very nice warm conference room adjacent to his office and I sat there planning experiments with the students, which was nice and familiar feeling. Will have to see if we can fit in everything of what is planned in the time available. Was nice to see that the work plan also included sightseeing at the weekend so I'm quite looking forward to that :) Presentation to give tomorrow morning, hopefully that'll go well.
Despite the cold and seeming total ignorance of insulation methods, the lodgings provides hot lunch and dinner and it's about 1-3 quid per (quite significant) dish with rice as an apparently free extra, so I certainly won't starve at least!
Met the director of the facility, who is very nice and shakes hands for a time reminiscent of Banzai. He has a very nice warm conference room adjacent to his office and I sat there planning experiments with the students, which was nice and familiar feeling. Will have to see if we can fit in everything of what is planned in the time available. Was nice to see that the work plan also included sightseeing at the weekend so I'm quite looking forward to that :) Presentation to give tomorrow morning, hopefully that'll go well.
Despite the cold and seeming total ignorance of insulation methods, the lodgings provides hot lunch and dinner and it's about 1-3 quid per (quite significant) dish with rice as an apparently free extra, so I certainly won't starve at least!