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?

Wales

...I got accepted to the neuroanatomy course in September! This is the most excited I've been in ages. The course sounds super interesting (even if it is only for 1 week), and I'm so grateful that my flights will be reimbursed and accommodation is sorted. The scary part is the flying (which, while I'm better at I still don't love), and the potentially organising meetings/job interviews while there. 

That's my main news for now, so here a picture of a castle near the place I'm going in Wales - perhaps I'll get to cross off my 30 before 30 item #17: visit another castle!

Penrhyn Castle near Bangor, Wales [via]

P.S. Did anyone see the Transit of Venus today? I did, it was awesome, and made me decide to add an astronomy degree to my just-for-fun medieval history degree I plan to do when I'm an old retired person with nothing else to do. If you missed it, don't worry, it happens again only 105 years from now :P

Well here's what happened.

I didn't mean to take a 5 week break from blogging, honest. It's not that I was super busy, or super unhappy or unwell or something. I just didn't have a lot to say, and then I kept thinking I should wait until I have something super important or interesting to talk about. I still don't really. However I just thought I would write an update (that is potentially non-important, non-interesting, sorry) anyway. Like previously, I've broken it up into three categories:

[via]

Science: Some good news and some good/scary news. The good news is that my first first-author paper has been accepted for publication (old news for twitter followers)! This is a relief, as it had taken a while for it to get accepted somewhere. It will be out next month. The good/scary news is my PhD scholarship has been extended for 6 months. Good in that I will not be poor for the next 6 months, but scary because the confirmation email also included the date the scholarship stops: November 12. This then gives me a very specific date to try and finish my thesis by, and it really doesn't seem all that far away now... gulp. As for the fact that I have no idea what I'll do after that, well that's the especially scary part.

Spouses: Yep, still got one of those (although he's been slightly MIA recently since the release of computer game Diablo III). It's actually Husband's birthday tomorrow, and we're going out to play laser tag, which should be fun / slightly nerdy. We're also going out on Saturday night to a Brazilian BBQ place, which essentially involves being served larged quantities of meat.

Silliness: Well on a whim about two weeks ago I did something I've never done (or planned to do) before: I gave myself a haircut. I decided I was sick of how long my hair was, and impulsively grabbed some scissors and started hacking. After I did the first snip I regretted it immediately, but obviously had to continue. Towards the end I decided I should be sensible about it and used my hair straightener so I could make sure it was all even. It went from being half-way down my back to just above my shoulders. My (post-hoc) reasoning was that I'm contemplating getting a more drastic haircut (see picture below), but I hate going to the hairdressers (I'm sure they're very nice people but I really don't like all the pointless chit-chat). This way when I do go there's less hair to cut and dye, and therefore I'll be there for less time (??). 

[from my pinterest]

Well enough about me:

What have you been up to lately?

Have you ever done something strange/impulsive and you're not really sure why?
Is anyone else afraid of going to the hairdressers?

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!

Thanks!

Just a quick note today, to say thanks very much to YOU - the regular readers of my blog. It's very affirming to see (according to google) that at least 50 people think I'm interesting enough to follow. I really do appreciate all the comments I get, and also always try to comment back.

What else...? Oh, um - look at this cat. 

You actually really should visit the nyan cat website. It has a song!

That is all.

10 Reasons Why Doing a PhD is Awesome

1. Legitimate excuse to sit around discussing ideas

2. You get to research an area you're actually interested in

3. The expectation that you will travel to international conferences (often with the uni paying - woohoo!)

4. It's largely your own schedule (can choose when experiments are, when to tutor, when to get up even, when to work from home)

5. Funding: scholarships, research costs, travel

6. You're still considered an apprentice so you're not expected to know everything yet (phew).

7. Don't have to leave uni and be a grown up

8. Nobody cares (well I don't think anyway) if you wear comfy clothes every day

9. Everyone else in the PhD programme is just as nerdy as you so it becomes normal - you get to realise nerdiness can be cool

10. At the end you get to be called 'Dr' :D

[source]

Something Cheerful.

I have been a bit mopey of late, not due to anything particularly serious, more just a combination of a couple of small things - such as my paper for my first experiment being rejected by a second journal. However I don't particularly want a blog of complaints, so instead I choose to focus on a few of the things that made me smile this week:

[source]

• Babies. My friend gave birth on Friday night and yesterday Husband and I had the privilege of going to meet this new little person in hospital. It still astounds me how one day someone just has a big stomach and the next time you see them they are holding a baby (obviously a lot of pain occurs in the mean time, but the result is pretty good!). You know what gets me every time? Seeing their tiny tiny fingernails. I don't know why but it just makes me marvel at how amazing the human body is.
• Seeing knights at uni. During O-Week (orientation at the start of semester) there are a lot of stalls for people to join various clubs and societies. I was particularly amused by the Quidditch Club and the silent disco. Also seeing the knights getting ready for a fight (I'm assuming Medieval Society) was fun. It's days like these that I really enjoy being at my uni. 
• Smells. Nice ones obviously. I came across this article about a group of people who are trying to recreate smells of the past. Interested in what type of perfume Egyptian Pharaoh Hatshepsut wore 3500 years ago? They're working on it. Awesome.
• Fingerprint scanners that can stop Zombies getting in. Very clever!
• Walking on the beach. There is a beach a bit over 20 minutes walk from my house. Yesterday was a lovely clear day and a good friend and I went for a long walk. It was great to catch up, and to see blue everywhere (my favourite colour). Thankfully my knees are also a lot better than they were so walking was fine (I'm ignoring the part where I got a giant blister hehe).

[source]

 

...why was I grumpy again?? :P

What makes you smile when you're grumpy? I'd be happy to think about more cheerful stuff!

P.S. Check out this website: 1000 awesome things. Always cheerful.

Combining Two Favourites

A song from one of my favourite childhood shows, about one of my most favourite topics! Always puts a smile on my face.

That is all.

Cookies!

So the lovely Kirsti from A Quick Succession of Busy Nothings had a competition on her blog (check it out, it's great), and I won! The prize was to be sent some of her homemade oatmeal choc-chip cookies. Yay! Husband was a little concerned that an internet person now knew our address, but considering we actually went to visit one of his internet friends when we were in England I don't think this argument sticks hehe. Anyway, I was quite excited on Friday to find the note from the post office saying I had a package waiting for me (don't worry, I didn't leave my keys in the mailbox this time). We recently moved, and so I didn't realise that our local post office is not open on Saturdays. I was a bit disappointed that I had to wait until today to pick up the package. When I picked it up this morning, this is what I found:

YUM. They are super tasty. Thanks so much to Kirsti (cookies entitle you to be allowed to come hide in the lab in event of zombie attack), and now I'll try to think of a way to pay it forward!

P.S. Kirsti please let me know if you want the container back hehe.

My Experiment Worked!

...well kind of. I haven't finished collecting data yet (stupid saliva being a biohazard delaying my experiment), but since I have to present what I've got so far at the conference in NY I've had to analyse it already.

Professor Frink, my favourite nerd

And things actually happened! While you might expect that when you have a reasonable idea, and test it, that it should work out as expected, this actually happens a lot less than you'd think. Then you have to set out to look for why things didn't happen how you wanted. So for this to work is very exciting (well for me at least). In short (see here for longer explanation of my experiment), people that experienced a greater cortisol (stress hormone) change following watching a film, were more likely to have false memories of the film a week later. Also, those who experienced a greater cortisol change were also more likely to report more distress symptoms in the following week too. HOORAY! Well, not hooray for people having distress symptoms (nothing too bad don't worry), but considering I thought they'd be related and they are, I'm very happy. Hopefully that made sense and you can see why I'm excited.

Or you can see why I'm a giant nerd.

Awards!

I've been a bit slack in getting around to this, but I've been nominated for two blog awards!