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!

Well it's about time...

Part of the letter I received today.

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]

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!

Dizzy

Disclaimer: The following post is not a bid for sympathy, more just an expression of my bemusement at events of late.

[via]

I have an ear infection that is causing dizziness. I think. I did go to the doctors, but I'll explain in a bit why I'm still somewhat unsure. Firstly, the irony of the whole thing. 

I have mentioned previously, that one of my 30 things to do before I turn 30 is to swim in the ocean. The reason for this is that I nearly drowned once, and since that time have never gone in the water at the beach above my knees. I basically have stood there for a little bit, started to feel a bit uncomfortable with the waves and just gone back to the sand. However not this past weekend but the one before I'm happy to report that I did go for a swim. Husband and I went for a nice walk on the beach that is not far from our place, and realised it was great swimming weather. We quickly came home and got swimming attire and went back, and I swam! I had a great time (with Husband being told to stay close just in case he had to rescue me), and was especially pleased when later I realised I'd crossed another thing off my 30 before 30 without actually intending to. So the ironic part is, it's most likely that this is where my ear infection is from. D'oh!

So after a few days of dizzy, I decided to go to the doctor. Unfortunately the one I like was not there, so instead I saw this very old dude. Seriously, he had to lean closely towards me to hear what I was saying, and would sometimes go off on waffling tangents. When I told him I felt dizzy, he asked me to follow his finger with my eyes and then said "you have an ear infection" (is it mean I also found it a bit ironic/amusing that the hard of hearing doctor was telling me I had something wrong with my ear?). I haven't actually had much ear pain, but apparently no further tests were necessary and he said "the dizziness might go away in a couple of weeks". Err - great. There's the slight problem of not really being able to go anywhere or do much in the meantime however, but he actually wasn't going to prescribe me anything for it until I specifically asked. Just as I was about to leave, he said "Oh wait, is your cycle regular? BUT DON'T GIVE ME TOO MUCH INFORMATION! You're not pregnant are you?" I found this also amusing, since well firstly I wasn't going to give him too much information, but also surely he's heard it all by now since he's obviously been a doctor for a long time!

When I went to the pharmacist to pick up my prescription, it turns out it was for anti-vertigo medication, and nothing to treat the infection. When I expressed my surprise at this the pharmisist looked at my prescription and said "Oh you saw Dr -----? Yeh he's... interesting isn't he?". Not the most comforting thing to hear! However I will say that I Wikipedia'd Labyrinthitis (cool technical name hey) and since it can be from viral infections, antibiotics may not have done much anyway. So I guess I have to wait, and hope this medication helps until the dizziness subsides (unfortunately a big side effect of the medication is being drowsy).

Irony #3: I actually feel like doing uni work, now that it's quite difficult to do so! 

Question for you:

Have you ever had an illness with a cool sounding name? Feel free to share - but perhaps refrain if it's something a bit overly personal or gross :P

P.S. To answer a potentially obvious question: If you're so dizzy, how did you write this? Well, it took a long time, that's for sure! 

2011 - A Review

Fireworks over Sydney Harbour [via]

For some reason I always am surprised when it comes to the end of the year. It seems as though the year went by so fast, and yet it takes as long as it always does! In the past New Years Eve (NYE) has been a big deal, and unfortunately it is often a let down when it doesn't live up to the hype. This year our celebration will be a fairly quiet one (hanging out at my sister's), but should still be quite fun. 

Usually on NYE just before the countdown to midnight I quickly take stock of the past year, without much proper time to reflect. So I thought I would put a bit more effort in this time, and I'm glad I did because I remembered some cool things. 

For me, 2011 was a year of NEW...

Challenge Accepted!

So for a while I've been wondering which thing to next cross off my 30 before 30 list, and then went and did something that I'd completely forgotten was on the list anyway!

It all started on Saturday, when Husband had the day off work for once. We went out for lunch, and on the way back to the car I spotted a tattoo shop that had a sign saying "we do piercings". I mentioned to husband that I still meant to get my lip pierced one day, to which he laughed and said something along the lines of "Sorry but I don't think you're ever going to be able bring yourself to do that"... challenge accepted!

#12 complete! Sorry for crappy quality iPhone pic!

Thankfully, it was nowhere near as painful as I thought it might be. It's still a tiny bit swollen, and eating, drinking and brushing my teeth are still a bit of an issue, but overall I really like it! I think the owner of the tattoo place thought I was a bit precious though asking if the piercing would permanently mark my face - especially since he had a spider web tattoo covering half of his!

In other 30 before 30 news, I'm a bit closer to also completing #7 - get my drivers licence. I've always argued that I don't want to learn to drive on husband's car as I'd feel terrible if I wrecked it, especially since he needs it for work. Although potentially a lame reason, yesterday I got my own car - hooray! 

Husband named it Kirby...

...Like this little guy! [via]

It was a very busy weekend!

The time I almost died.

Jess over at Insignficant, Yet Important is currently doing a series on near-death experiences, and she kindly invited me to talk about mine, in which I nearly drowned in the ocean. This event is the reason that 'swim at the beach' is on my 30 before 30 list. One day I hope I can get back in the water without freaking out!

The post is obviously not overly science-y, or silly, for that matter. However it is a little bit spouse-y (new word and spoiler alert), so check it out if you're interested. 

[source]

If I believed in past lives...

London

I'd probably say my lives all must have taken place in the UK. It's difficult to explain, but even though I've only been there twice, for about 3 weeks total, I often feel pangs of home sickness for it. Looking at pictures of England, remembering my trips there, and watching certain TV shows (e.g. Time Team), make me miss it badly.

Windsor Castle

In particular, I love the history. One of the best things we did in London was the Jack the Ripper tour. While quite gruesome, learning about all the gory details, I loved hearing about London back in the 1800s. It's probably also why Sherlock Holmes is one of my favourite movies (also check out the Sherlock Holmes Pub in London - pretty cool). More than that though, I love the castles.  Some of my favourite places so far in the UK are Windsor Castle in England, and Cardiff Castle in Wales. One of my 30 things before 30 goals is to visit more castles. If I had the time, I would spend ages researching ancient and medieval history from that area. In fact, one of my favourite subjects and the best mark I ever got for an assignment at uni was actually for the medieval history course I did (so why you ask, did I do a science degree and am currently doing a science-based PhD? Well that's a story for another time). I almost considered joining the medieval society at uni (nerd alert!), however the guy I was speaking to about it was just a bit too into it that it creeped me out. I also tried to convince Husband that we should get married in medieval attire, but he didn't really go for it (though I almost got him to agree when I said he could wear a suit of armour)! Maybe this is a little sad to admit, but hearing the icecream man truck go past (which in Sydney plays Greensleeves) also makes me a little nostalgic. 
 

Awesome Stonehenge

When Husband and I went to the UK as part of our honeymoon in November, it was freezing. Call me crazy but I have to say I actually like the cold weather and much prefer it to Sydney's heat. In fact my two favourite days while over there, (visiting Windsor, Stonehenge, & Bath; and going to Cardiff Castle) were the two coldest days of my entire life. It actually snowed in Cardiff while we were there and it was amazing.

 

Snow at Cardiff Castle

So how come we don't move there? Well to be honest, I've thought about it. Perhaps as a post-doc after my PhD (which is usually 2-3 years in length). Husband even said he wouldn't mind. However at the same time, my whole life is here in Sydney (family, friends, church...).

So for now I'll just have to dream, and somehow organise nearly every future trip to involve a stop there.

Sigh.

Something I was not expecting to think today:

"I should go for a run!" 

So I did. If you know me at all, you'll see why this is surprising. I am in no way a sporty person. I have been in the 'contemplation stage' for a couple of months though about running. I even installed the couch-to-5K app on my phone, and it's been sitting there unused for those months. It's also on my 30 things to do before 30 list to start and complete this programme. At least I can now say I've made a start, and completed day one:

Well let me tell you - I really didn't go very well. Lots of walking during the running phases occured. Also I saw someone chucking out a couch on the side of the road and was very tempted to give up and have a nap on it (a bit ironic considering the name of the running programme)! My other problem is other people - I went to the park and saw lots of skateboarders and didn't want to run near them in case they laughed at me. Hopefully I can get over that at some point.

However, I can say overall I liked it, and I do aim to try again. 

Do you run? Are you as terrible as I am (Please say YES)?!

New York - A Review

Due to popular demand (well, one request from Anide), I'm going to talk about the places I went to in New York, and the things I definitely recommend doing. Like I mentioned, I did not get to fit in everything I wanted to, so my first recommendation is: spend more than a week there! My second is to plan what you're doing in advance, because time gets away from you quickly.

More after the jump (it's long, you've been warned)!

Hello from New York!

I have arrived safely, you'll be happy to know. Flights were fine (will update another post on fear of flying when I get the chance), though had zero sleep. Also had to rush at LAX to get through customs for my connecting flight - made it just in time!

So I got in to JFK airport yesterday evening and caught a taxi to my hotel on 5th ave (love that the uni is paying for this). The taxi driver was interesting, asked lots of questions about Australia and asked to see Australian money. "This is Queen Elizabeth right?" (looking at $5), "yes that's right", "you guys still follow him?", "err, yes?".

I had a quick look around near my hotel last night, in search of food. Since I was super tired I settled with Wendy's (as far as I know, there aren't any Wendy's in Aus, or at least Sydney). The guy was very confused when I asked for chips, "you want... juice?". Haha I have to remember the American words for things. Also they were shooting a TV show outside as well. I overheard the following conversation between a girl passing by and a guy from the film crew:

Girl: "What you guys filming?"

Guy: "TV show called White Collar"

Girl: "Anyone important in it?"

Guy: "Not really". 

Hehe. So not an overly exciting first night for me, as after that I went back to the hotel and watched NCIS to drown out all the cars beeping until I fell asleep (it was a DiNozzo marathon yay). Today I am catching up with a uni friend who has also come over for the conference. I am supposed to meet her near Times Square, so I guess I should work out where that is!

Feel free to give me some suggestions of where I should go while I'm here :)

P.S. Now I get to cross #11 off my 30 before 30 list. YAY!

An update of sorts.

I don't have anything particularly gripping to share today, but more just a combination of tidbits of information (I don't think I've ever said tidbit in my life, so there you go).

So attractive...

If you look over at my 30 before 30 page, you'll see I've crossed another thing off my list! I vowed to wear my horrible banana coat out in public, and the other day I did. Husband and a few friends had quite the laugh, especially when I matched not only some road workers with their high visibility vests, but also the curb at a service station, which was painted yellow to make sure people don't fall. It was fun though. Still not sure I'd wear it seriously however.

Secondly, I've lost my wallet (I know I was joking about being an absent minded professor not that long ago, but this is a bit much)! Somewhere over the long weekend it must have fallen out of my bag. I didn't even realise until Monday. Pretty crummy since I have to get replacements of all my cards etc., and particularly bad timing since...

I'm going to NYC next week!! Next Friday, to be exact. Hooray, but also, AARGH! It is very soon and I'm still working on my data and talk (and trying to make sure all my cards get replaced). I'm still not really looking forward to the flights either. However stay tuned for a post soon about getting over fears of flying... it's probably mostly to convince myself but maybe it will help some other people too! 

Lastly, I have a Productive June update for you. June has been very productive so far, I really only have one day of procrastinating to report, and that was the day before the long weekend, which everyone pretty much just phones in anyway. Also, I was very excited to find out that Productive June has now taken off in a whole different department in the uni, thanks to a friend over there. They're displaying guilt-inducing posters and everything! HOORAY! ...how is your Productive June going?

OK that's it for now. Sorry if that was particularly dull, but hey, the posts can't always be about the zombopocalypse (or can they...)!?