Moving... sort of.

Just a short note to say that I've created another blog which will be somewhat less personal and a fair bit more work-y. I might re-post some of my science related writings over there though. So if you see something familiar here - don't worry I haven't been plagiarised!

P.S. Hi. 
P.P.S. Here's a quokka selfie for no real reason.

It happened.

I turned 30. 

And the world didn't end. Nor did I suddenly sprout 5000 grey hairs and develop a bunch of (new) wrinkles. Phew!

I will admit I was pretty moody about the whole thing in the lead up to my birthday. Most people I shared my concern with laughed at me, however (not very sympathetic) - but that is probably because nearly all of those people are over 30. Most even said things are better in your 30s compared to 20s. 

On my actual birthday, after work Husband and I went to The Australian Museum. They had an Aztec exhibit and on the date of my birthday there just so happened to be a special event called 'Tequila Sunsets' where they kept the museum and the Aztec exhibit open late, served tequila and Mexican food, and even had a Mariachi band. It was pretty packed (I'm generally not a fan of people...!) but very cool. 

Ladybug and Luigi

Then on Saturday, I was on my way to what I thought was a birthday dinner, which turned out to be a surprise party! I knew something was up as Husband disappeared part way through the day and my friend came and picked me up. Not to mention the fact that I had to walk with my eyes closed to the location. It still didn't click that it was a party though, I just thought Husband might have picked somewhere different for dinner and wanted to add a bit of mystery. I was expecting around 15 people there. Instead he'd actually planned a whole event with a lot of extra people, and it even had a theme! Everyone had to come in costume as something starting with 'L' (not surprisingly, given that's what my name starts with). He'd even gotten a costume for me - a ladybug. I am super impressed with all the effort he went to, but disappointed at my lack of lie detection skills... so many lies were told to me in the lead up and I was not even a tiny bit suspicious haha. Probably a good thing though that I'm so trusting, so I didn't ruin all his hard work by guessing. 

So, turning 30 wasn't too bad after all!

Question for you: have you ever had a surprise party, and did you have any idea it was happening?

It's been a while...

More than a year, in fact. So, hi! 

While I left this blog,
I never did leave behind the silly.

I don't really have an explanation for why I left (though I never fully left, I've been keeping up with other people's blogs still, just not writing anything). I can explain why I'm back though: I turn 30 this month (aaargh!). It's a significant enough milestone that I've been reflecting on what my life has been like up to this point and what I've accomplished. Some aspects I really expected would be quite different (e.g., that I would have a full time job and at least one kid by now), but there's still also much I can be thankful for. 

Related to that, at the back of my mind all this time has been my 30 before 30 list and the rest of the items left to do. Obviously nothing bad will happen if I don't accomplish all the tasks (and it's probably impossible anyway with this little time left to do them all). 

I thought I'd revisit what's left to do on my list, and perhaps it will inspire me for what could be on my next list (40 before 40 perhaps??)...

Moments

In case you were wondering what I've been up to lately...

Firstly some baking fails... 

This is a tart shell that I dropped after baking.

These are supposed to be cake-pops (they tasted ok, just looked a little odd due to lack of decorating skills)!

An unpleasant surprise when collecting the mail...

Clearly we have very small mailboxes for our apartment building. Unfortunately a (potentially disgruntled??) mailman took this to mean it's fine to wedge a DVD delivery in to the point of it being broken and stuck. D'oh. The place I'd ordered the DVD from nicely replaced it however, even though it wasn't their fault!

A beautiful day at Little Bay...

This is a lovely beach not that far from where we live that I had no idea existed until last month! I know where I'll be in Summer...

Dinner for our three year anniversary...

Mini sliders at Rockpool Bar and Grill Sydney. YUM. P.S. How has it been 3 years already!!

I'm now a Dr! My graduation was on Friday November 8th.

Excuse the lopsided hat and gown situation!

Celebration dinner after my graduation...

Devonshire Tea Crème brûlée at The Devonshire. Awesome.

Things definitely have not been boring lately!

Sleep Talking Husband Strikes Again

Due to the lack of interesting things I have to say myself at the moment, I've yet again decided to resort to the sayings of my sleeping husband. This one is from a couple of days ago:

"Stop it you uncultured swine! Shush! ...................shush".

He has jokingly called me (and others) an uncultured swine when awake in the past, as it is a quote from Toy Story. However when he said it this time whilst asleep he definitely sounded serious and annoyed.

As much as I wanted to wake him up to ask about it, I decided not to. Unfortunately he had no recollection of saying this the next day, or the dream that prompted it. So this one will forever be a mystery!

[via]

Well it's about time...

Part of the letter I received today.

What's going on?

Hello to any of you who still read this blog (if there are actually any of you besides my mum). I realise I haven't really been on here much lately. It's hard to think of things to post at the moment - I don't have any silly anecdotes, not many science-y things have been happening in my life (well I got a paper accepted which is great, but still no word from my thesis examiners), and spouse wise: things are fine, except Husband had a bad flu for quite a while. Thankfully he's mostly better now. 

As for other people's spouses, my sister is getting married in a week and half. I'm the maid of honour (technically 'matron' of honour I think, but sounds like such an unattractive word so I'll stick with maid), so it has been a busy time the last couple of weeks. Enjoyable of course though. I'm definitely looking forward to the wedding, however I'm not looking forward to the 100 reports that I'll be receiving to mark that same week. 

Because I don't really have a photo to go with this post I'm including a picture of the shoes I'll be wearing with my bridesmaid dress. Pretty, hey!

Job-wise, still nothing. I had an interview via skype about a month ago which was nerve wracking (seriously I clenched my leg muscles so much during the interview without realising that I had aching legs for a couple of days after!). It was a good experience but I didn't get the job. I've also applied for several others and unfortunately I don't think I got those either since I should have heard by now.

So that's what's been going on. 

P.S. As an afterthought, I do have a slightly silly anecdote. The other day I heard Husband coming home from work and I decided to hide behind the door in the computer room to jump out and surprise him. However I forgot that I had left my bag in plain sight so it was pretty clear I was home. He walked around calling my name and I remained silent. Next he called my phone and you could clearly hear it ringing in the bedroom. He kept walking around calling my name, but I waited until he walked into the computer room. When he finally came in and I jumped out, he was really unimpressed. He said since all my belongings were still home and the door was unlocked he thought I'd been kidnapped and he was getting extremely concerned. Oops. I guess I did let it go on for a little too long. 

P.P.S. I just realised that this blog has been going for a bit over two years now. Wow. It doesn't seem like that long.  

Husband Quotes: Sleep Talking Edition #5

I was just falling off to sleep the other night when...

Husband: "Excuse me darling, can you move out of the way for a second please?"

Me: "Okay, where am I moving to?"

H: "Oh, I wasn't talking to you. I was having a dream."

Me: "Who were you calling 'darling' then?"

H: "An old lady at the shopping centre".

I just laughed and went back to sleep. Husband was asleep for that entire conversation, as evidenced by his surprise when I told him about it the next day! Husband often talks to strangers, and if they're older ladies they usually get called something like 'darling'. So I could totally see this dream being enacted in real life. Being an introvert and fairly socially avoidant I'd prefer he didn't talk to randoms, and also the terms of endearment I find a bit weird also! It does make for some amusing situations, however.

[via]

Question for you: would you call a random old lady 'darling'??

A new normal

To my surprise I realised today that it has been five weeks since I submitted my PhD thesis. That means that for five weeks I've been sitting around doing nothing much. Honestly. I've watched a lot of daytime TV in my pyjamas (mostly cooking shows for some reason), attempted some cooking experiments (with varying levels of success) and walked/run on my treadmill a bit. That's pretty much it. It is strange how quickly I've become accustomed to this lifestyle and yet how much time has passed with nothing much accomplished. 

This is me. [via]

I don't like it.

I do think I needed a long break after all the stress of the final couple of months of my PhD. My brain is starting to come out of the fog though and I want to start being active again... and yet at the same time sitting around and being a hermit just seems easier. It's a weird state to be in considering how ambitious I usually am. 

The other difficulty is the uncertainty. Not knowing where/when/if I'll get a job is very unsettling, as this is the first time since I was around 15 that I've had no idea what's next.

At least I have some more undergraduate teaching lined up as of next week. Nothing big or permanent, but something to tide me over until I get some sort of grown up job. Fortunately I haven't been booted from the PhD office yet (often they make people give up their desks once they've submitted) so I may also try to finish writing up my papers when I'm at uni. 

Err, so yeah. That's what's going on with me. What have you been up to? :)

WOOHOO!

Still here.

I thought I'd mention I'm still alive.

We moved house last weekend, which I'm still recovering from I think. Husband has been really great in taking over most of the responsibility of the move so I can focus on my thesis. It seems to be paying off too - my supervisor seems to think I can probably submit my thesis NEXT WEEK. I don't particularly believe that yet though. I keep expecting something will come up, like some big unforseen-yet-obvious mistake that means I have to start my thesis again from scratch. My supervisor also warned me that when I finish I am unlikely to have some big feeling of joy and relief, but rather a feeling of unease. That is because it will too late to fix any of those possible mistakes and the examiners will be reading my thesis and judging it (me).

People have asked me what I plan to do when I finish. So far my answer has been: sleep and probably some existential crisis about what I'm supposed to do with my life. Husband's answer has been: BABIES! In all honesty though I really need to work on finding a post-doc job first - long before any baby-related options. 

Anyway. Perhaps I'll report back next week with the good news that I am in fact finished. Or I'll just avoid posting since I don't want to admit I'm still going. 

Or I'll just not post because I'm asleep.

[via]

Husband Quotes: Sleep Talking Edition #4

Yesterday was the Postgrad Conference I was involved in organising. It was a very long day and I'm glad it's over, but it went fairly well.

Anyway, I didn't get home until 11pm and went to give Husband (who was of course asleep) a hello hug. When I did, this is what he said:

"I don't want any frittata!"

Considering I made frittata the other week, and he'd never even heard of it before then, I can only assume that he didn't care for it that much if he's dreaming about avoiding eating it. He had no recollection of saying it until I (of course) teased him about it!

Oh dear, another cooking fail then I guess...

...though I thought they tasted OK! [pic via here]

Aargh no more scholarship must hand in dreaded thesis day...

... was yesterday. 

original calendar (without aargh!) from here

Unfortunately, as is usually the case with these things, it's been taking longer than expected and so my thesis is not yet done.

I'm not too upset though really, mostly because I can blame other people a bit instead of myself  :P 

Specifically I need research assistants to score some of my data (if I score my own data I can be accused of being biased and making the results fit my hypotheses), plus - Husband's brother (previously known on this blog as "Twin", which still applies since they are still twins) is getting married in mid December in Perth. So we're heading over to Perth for a week or so. We've never been before so it should be fun. Anyway what this means is that while I was still aiming for the end of December to hand in, it's now looking more like January will be the time when I finally finish my thesis.

Here's hoping that I don't write a similar post in January about how it will be a couple more months!

Snippets v2

I tried to make blueberry muffins. I didn't nearly explode my kitchen this time, so that's a win. However the muffins were pretty awful to be honest. I think I need to admit that baking-wise I'm a one-trick pony with the banana muffins and stick to them (I think Husband agreed, but implied it in a much more diplomatic way).

After a few weeks off, I went for a run today. Hopefully I stick with it this time and run more regularly because I do actually enjoy it - once it's over.

A paper that I submitted to a journal came back with the decision "revise and resubmit". I was expecting it to be rejected so this is a pretty good outcome. The changes I have to make are a bit irritating but oh well. The editor said my paper has the potential to be quite important, which was very encouraging because I've definitely been thinking lately that my research sucks!

I'm on an organising committee for a conference in November. I was able to conveniently forget that fact for most of the year, but now that it's pretty soon I don't think that's possible anymore. 

My two-year wedding anniversary with Husband is a week away. I feel old. We haven't organised anything particularly spectacular to celebrate since we had our weekend away a couple of weeks ago as a present to each other. It's weird because it feels like two years has gone past extremely quickly, but at the same time it feels like we've been married a lot longer - in a nice, comfortable way, not in a 'this is really dragging on when will it end' kind of way!

Lastly, I've been laughing a lot at the below youtube clip. It's pretty old, but I love the guys' enthusiasm for rainbows! It has also been turned into a song, which unfortunately has been stuck in my head for a couple of weeks.

 

"What does it mean!?"

Feel free to share any snippets of your own in the comments. You know you want to. 

I hope this doesn't happen to me...

via PHD comics

Some days, finishing my thesis seems very achievable and not all that far away. Other days - not so much.

P.S. At uni working on my thesis on a Saturday. At least it's quiet.

A new low.

I may not be the most absent-minded person ever, but I'm definitely not the least either. I can now report that I've reached a new low in absent-minded-ness (previously the title was probably held by this incident). 

Yesterday (Wednesday) I was at a meeting at uni, and I returned to the office to find out Husband had called frantically looking for me. Apparently he was wondering whether I was home and had just stepped out for a minute. He had just returned home from work to find out the place was very warm. Very very warm. So warm, in fact, that something was on fire. That something was a tray on the stove. Husband thought perhaps I'd been cooking and had stepped out briefly and forgotten to turn the stove off. 

This is quite concerning for a couple of reasons:
1. I had been at uni all day, and definitely didn't cook that morning.
2. I didn't even cook the day before that, we had takeout. 
3. I'd left a big bottle of oil right next to the stove. If the flames reached it, the kitchen might have exploded!

The only possible conclusion therefore is that I had left the stove (and apparently also the oven) on from the last time I'd cooked - Monday night. Yep, that's two whole days. 

I'm not looking forward to the next electricity bill. I'm also a little freaked out that I nearly made the house burn down. 

I'd like to blame the dreaded thesis for this absent-minded episode, but actually Husband and I had been away relaxing for the long weekend (where 'thesis' was a banned word). So really, it's just me.

Oops.

P.S. The weekend away was to a place called Sanctuary Point, about 2.5 hours drive from Sydney. It was lovely. We also went on a short whale and dolphin watching cruise which was awesome (besides the sea-sickness). 

This is the view from the ruined light house in the national park near Sanctuary Point. Pretty.

Back

I've been home for over a week now. My thoughts have definitely gone back to the 'aargh thesis' dark side. My trip feels like it was so long ago that I can't remember it that well anymore. I will say though that the people I met at the course were nice (I guess it pays not to be antisocial sometimes), and I was able to cross another 30 before 30 item off my list - visit another castle. Oh, and we went to a Ceilidh, which was a big dinner in a hall with folk dancing afterwards. It was awkward dancing with a bunch of people I'd just met, but quite amusing. Except for the giant bruise that appeared on my ankle from one overly exuberant dancer accidentally kicking me twice.

As for the course, I'm very glad I went. All the brain dissection parts were very interesting, but in a slightly surreal and abstract way. By that I mean, it was sometimes difficult to reconcile that what I was holding used to contain the thoughts of someone. We also had case conferences, where patients with brain disorders actually came in so we could talk to them. These were great for bringing all the concepts back to reality, but it also made me very sad about how these people's lives have been permanently changed. It also made me want to wear a helmet permanently to avoid injury, along with aiming to get brain scans often - as you can see this course did not help my mild hypochondriasis. At the same time though it's amazing how much the brain does try to adjust and recover with injuries, and the way the patients dealt with their problems and got on with life was truly inspiring. One girl had to teach herself to walk and talk again after a car accident, and she ended up running with the Paralympic torch for part of its' journey to the London games. 

Anyway, before I head back to marking assignments (hey at least they make my thesis look like an attractive work option again) I will post a couple of pictures of my trip below.

Bodnant Garden, Conwy, Wales

Conwy Castle

The town of Conwy is still walled and you can get up on the walls and look around. The view is pretty impressive.

P.S. Brain research is super important so that progress can be made in preventing and treating injuries and diseases. It might be a bit morbid to think about, but please consider donating your brain to science. I plan to. 

**UPDATE: There is an awesome TV show called Battle Castle, and one of the episodes is about Conwy. Hooray!

Bangor

Part of Bangor University (via the uni website)

So I've been here in Wales for over a day now. Bangor and the surrounding areas are quite beautiful. There is a lot of greenery, a massive mountain and the seaside as well. Not to mention some really lovely old buildings. The train trip here from London was largely uneventful; I was worried about my luggage, but luckily standing by my giant bag with a perplexed look and making sighing noises worked at getting stronger people to help me lift it onto and off the train. I got here at 4pm yesterday and from what I could tell, being Sunday the shops were closed already so I just ate crackers for dinner sadly (I found out later a bunch of people found a pub to eat at, I wish I'd done that). At around 10.30pm I was drifting off to sleep when suddenly a beeping noise woke me up. At first I was very confused and thought my computer was playing up, but then realised no, it was the fire alarm and I had to evacuate. Everyone had to stand out in the parking lot in the cold (some people in pyjamas) until firefighters came to investigate. So overall not the best possible start!

Unfortunately this morning wasn't much better. I got extremely lost on the way to the first part of my course - so much so that I missed registration and the first talk. Thankfully a man specifically came up to me and asked if I was going to the course and if I was lost. It turned out he was the lecturer for the next part, so I was able to just follow him. He said my face was very successful at portraying the 'lost' concept which is why he approached me - so combining that with my 'my bags are heavy' look being quite successful too I will take this to mean I have a very expressive face. Perhaps poker is not for me however. Anyway apparently the first talk was just a general 'welcome' type thing so I didn't miss any important content. 

As for the content, it is very dense. Super interesting of course though, but quite an information overload. They also gave us all two books to keep, which is very nice. There are some very friendly people here too. I was a bit concerned as I'm not a fan of interacting with strangers, however I decided to put in an effort as I don't want to be a loner for the whole week. Especially as later this week we have a couple of outings. So shortly some of us are meeting up to go out to dinner - at least I don't have to just eat crackers again.

Nearly Taken.

Perhaps that's slightly dramatic but I did have a somewhat creepy encounter yesterday. I met up with my friend P yesterday afternoon and we headed out to a place called Shepherd's Bush to look at an apartment (P is moving to the UK - jealous!). On the way we got a little lost trying to find the address. P said "I'll ask this guy" - a guy that as soon as I saw him I got a bad feeling about. He looked a bit meth-y: not that I really know that well what methamphetamine-riddled people look like, but he just seemed cagey and scattered and was glancing around in a paranoid way. He also had a recent cut on his face that looked to me like it could have been from a knife slash. Before I could say "not him!" P called him over. His response regarding directions was to suggest we follow him into an alley to ask someone there (we could clearly see there was nobody in the alley - well unless he had friends hiding). Thankfully P shouted out "that's OK we're in a hurry" and we ran off. 

Kidnappers: 0, Lozzz123 (and P): 1.

[via IMDB]

Anyway P liked the apartment once we found it and is planning to apply for it. After that we had dinner at a pub in Notting Hill (the movie was actually on TV here the other day and I totally stayed up til 1am watching it - I'm such a rager). 

In other news I've now had three meetings and a phone call with another person about future research work here in London. Everyone has been so nice and helpful, which is really encouraging considering I'm a total stranger to them. Nothing concrete has been determined job-wise, but two of the people seemed willing to help me write an application for funding to come research here, and all said they'd keep me in mind if any positions came up. One did remind me though that in the UK they're cracking down on hiring non-UK/non-EU people which sucks. 

Today is the first day I don't really have any plans or meetings to study for, so I'm really going to try to do some thesis work and also prepare for my course next week (there are SO many readings to do). 

Obviously since I'm writing this, so far not so good.

Not Taken.

... well at the moment anyway. In other words, I arrived safely in London and made it to my hotel without incident. Well unless you count the fact that I didn't realise it's a bank holiday here today and therefore I had to pay public holiday rates for my taxi from the airport - ouch. I know I could have caught the train instead but I've previously had pretty bad experiences dragging around luggage in overly crowded stations - and that was with Husband there to do most of the heavy lifting!

When I arrived at my hotel my room wasn't ready yet, so I left my luggage there and wandered up the street to the British Museum to kill time. It was even better than I was expecting. The building is awesome and the exhibits are very detailed and interesting. My lack of sleep during the flights did start to hit me though about halfway through and I stopped paying attention and taking photos. I may have to go back another day.

I did take my own photos of the museum but the people taking photos for the British Museum website obviously did a much better job!

In other news, I have an update from my last post where I said I had no researchers to meet with. I am now meeting one tomorrow morning and another the next day, and I have another person I'm supposed to call soon too! Aargh. I'm really not great at talking to strangers anyway, but I'm sure this will be worse considering they're extremely smart and important and I'm trying to convince them they should hire me. So after getting back from the museum I had a nap and then went back to studying for my meetings (I hope there won't be a test!).

It also turns out a couple of my friends will be in London as well in the next few days, so things have worked out quite nicely in that regard. I also really like the suburb I'm staying in. So overall, if I pretend I don't have scary meetings coming up I can say so far so good and I'm looking forward to the rest of the week!