Catch-Up
I'm in sunny Wolverhampton now for my holidays, but here's a catch-up post about the last 2 weeks of term, which were a bit crazy. They involved a 4.30am start and a flight to Edinburgh and back, a new addiction discovered, two symposiums, my long-feared and anticipated 7week report meeting, a breakthrough in my work so far, a close encounter with multiple foxes and the lab Christmas dinner. I also did my washing. A summary lies below.
Edinburgh!
I flew up to Edinburgh with my supervisor and fellow lab-members for the UK Clock Club meeting. This was why I had to get up at 4.30am. Though the sight of a frosty, foggy, abandoned Tesco's carpark was almost worth it. Especially when the petrol station lit up by itself at 5.15am. Spooky.
By the time we arrived on Scottish soil, the sun was up and we spent an hour or two wandering up to the castle and visiting a cafe for second breakfasts. Edinburgh castle pre-9am was a sight I never thought I'd see and don't expect to see again! It was very beautiful though...
The three musketeers by the castle! aka Emma, Isabelle and Sally.
...Because when you got up at 4.30am, The Scotch Whisky Experience can be quite an attractive prospect by the time you get to 9am. We didn't go in. Just stared a bit.
I will spare you the details of the day's talks, just that some were interesting and some weren't and most went over my frequently sleepy head. There was free alcohol after, naturally.
Emma entertained throughout both plane journeys by, for example, asking the stewardess as she performed the life-jacket safety demonstration whether that would help us when we crashed into the land. Also, when we arrived back she informed them that half-empty flights like ours are far more likely to crash than full ones, statisically speaking. There was a horrified silence from the stewardess, and a "...well thanks for that!" from the steward who was by that point biting his nails as we left the plane. Fun times :)
My new addiction.
Energy Drinks. Specifically sugar-free energy drinks, which I was introduced to at 5.30am in a Birmingham airport carpark by Emma. Apparently my supervisor had never heard me talk so much! It kept me on an amazing high for a good 5 hours, which sadly only brought me up to the start of the day's talks. I then spent the rest of the day sleepily craving another one. A couple of days later, I couldn't take my eyes off Emma's energy drink, so she took pity on me and gave me some. Then I spent the rest of the day craving more. I don't even like the taste of them! It's a pure caffeine addiction!
It's now on the list of drinks I can only have in case of Extreme Emergencies. The only other drink on the list is Coca Cola, which I also get seriously addicted to. Do I just have really weird brain chemistry? Hyper-sensitivity to caffeine?
Committee meeting.
I had my meeting to discuss my 7 week report and my PhD in general. I was extremely nervous but it ended up being very interesting. It turned into a discussion with lots of laughter. My committee members are all very friendly (they're the people other than my supervisor who'll be helping me throughout my PhD and reviewing my progress). They seemed to think I knew what I was talking about and said that my area was a hot topic so I shouldn't have a problem getting published! Woohoo!
Work breakthrough!
I've finally cracked the bacterial ligation/transformation problems I've been struggling with for the past 2 months: It's all to do with UV exposure. When UV is kept to a minimum, DNA is unchanged and ligations work! When I take too long to take a UV photo, thymine dimers form and ligations fail. Typically it was the last thing on my list of potential problems to try and solve. Anyway, I've had it confirmed by sequencing: I have successfully cloned my antibiotic resistance gene into the vector sequence. YAY! One construct down, 9 to go...
Foxes!
When I was walking back home one night, it was deserted around the woods/country area and I bumped into 3 beautiful foxes! Two of them kept their distance but the smallest just ignored me as soon as I stopped moving. It ran up to the emergency call point right beside me and started rubbing itself against it! It was within a metre of me and acting like I was a tree! It was so cute. Then a cyclist appeared and startled it. I'm not sure who was more alarmed, the fox or the cyclist; he very nearly fell off his bike as he swerved past, which amused me.
Lab Christmas Dinner!
I had a great time, nice food, nicer company. A raft of new people marvelling at my appetite vs my apparently small size. What can I say, I like my food and I have a magical stomach.
Now for 2 weeks of much-needed relaxation! Well there's not much else I can do here anyway... I am counting down the days til I can open my presents and have some way of entertaining myself! Too much day-time TV is bad for my sanity.
Edinburgh!
I flew up to Edinburgh with my supervisor and fellow lab-members for the UK Clock Club meeting. This was why I had to get up at 4.30am. Though the sight of a frosty, foggy, abandoned Tesco's carpark was almost worth it. Especially when the petrol station lit up by itself at 5.15am. Spooky.
By the time we arrived on Scottish soil, the sun was up and we spent an hour or two wandering up to the castle and visiting a cafe for second breakfasts. Edinburgh castle pre-9am was a sight I never thought I'd see and don't expect to see again! It was very beautiful though...
The three musketeers by the castle! aka Emma, Isabelle and Sally.
...Because when you got up at 4.30am, The Scotch Whisky Experience can be quite an attractive prospect by the time you get to 9am. We didn't go in. Just stared a bit.
I will spare you the details of the day's talks, just that some were interesting and some weren't and most went over my frequently sleepy head. There was free alcohol after, naturally.
Emma entertained throughout both plane journeys by, for example, asking the stewardess as she performed the life-jacket safety demonstration whether that would help us when we crashed into the land. Also, when we arrived back she informed them that half-empty flights like ours are far more likely to crash than full ones, statisically speaking. There was a horrified silence from the stewardess, and a "...well thanks for that!" from the steward who was by that point biting his nails as we left the plane. Fun times :)
My new addiction.
Energy Drinks. Specifically sugar-free energy drinks, which I was introduced to at 5.30am in a Birmingham airport carpark by Emma. Apparently my supervisor had never heard me talk so much! It kept me on an amazing high for a good 5 hours, which sadly only brought me up to the start of the day's talks. I then spent the rest of the day sleepily craving another one. A couple of days later, I couldn't take my eyes off Emma's energy drink, so she took pity on me and gave me some. Then I spent the rest of the day craving more. I don't even like the taste of them! It's a pure caffeine addiction!
It's now on the list of drinks I can only have in case of Extreme Emergencies. The only other drink on the list is Coca Cola, which I also get seriously addicted to. Do I just have really weird brain chemistry? Hyper-sensitivity to caffeine?
Committee meeting.
I had my meeting to discuss my 7 week report and my PhD in general. I was extremely nervous but it ended up being very interesting. It turned into a discussion with lots of laughter. My committee members are all very friendly (they're the people other than my supervisor who'll be helping me throughout my PhD and reviewing my progress). They seemed to think I knew what I was talking about and said that my area was a hot topic so I shouldn't have a problem getting published! Woohoo!
Work breakthrough!
I've finally cracked the bacterial ligation/transformation problems I've been struggling with for the past 2 months: It's all to do with UV exposure. When UV is kept to a minimum, DNA is unchanged and ligations work! When I take too long to take a UV photo, thymine dimers form and ligations fail. Typically it was the last thing on my list of potential problems to try and solve. Anyway, I've had it confirmed by sequencing: I have successfully cloned my antibiotic resistance gene into the vector sequence. YAY! One construct down, 9 to go...
Foxes!
When I was walking back home one night, it was deserted around the woods/country area and I bumped into 3 beautiful foxes! Two of them kept their distance but the smallest just ignored me as soon as I stopped moving. It ran up to the emergency call point right beside me and started rubbing itself against it! It was within a metre of me and acting like I was a tree! It was so cute. Then a cyclist appeared and startled it. I'm not sure who was more alarmed, the fox or the cyclist; he very nearly fell off his bike as he swerved past, which amused me.
Lab Christmas Dinner!
I had a great time, nice food, nicer company. A raft of new people marvelling at my appetite vs my apparently small size. What can I say, I like my food and I have a magical stomach.
Now for 2 weeks of much-needed relaxation! Well there's not much else I can do here anyway... I am counting down the days til I can open my presents and have some way of entertaining myself! Too much day-time TV is bad for my sanity.