Belfast

Today was spent on busses on the way to Belfast. I had to make myself get out of bed as soon as my alarm went off because last night I got distracted and didn't end up packing. I made bikkies instead. So this morning I had to get up, pack, and get myself to uni so that I could get the barnacles fed before leaving. Just like having a pet really, except not as fun. They are just not sentient enough for my liking. I have never felt the need to have pet fish and now I have a heap of barnacles to keep alive. They are interesting enough to look at, but far more of a decoration than a pet.

So I go the barnacles fed and left a note for the honours student who is looking after them while we are away. Then had to get to the bus stop which is alway further than you think, but we made it on time and the bus didn't leave right away anyway. That bus to Dublin is so fancy. It's double decker and has really comfortable seats, and the seats at the front of the bus are facing each other with a table in between, how cool is that? And the bus has wireless internet! Plus it is a non-stop service so it seemed really fast. There were four of us - myself, my supervisor, and two other PhD students. We talked most of the way, quite a lot about science and quite a lot about the Antarctica because of this lecture that was on yesterday and because one of the PhD students has been there diving and stuff. I would love to go. So other people might have been bored by our conversation but I thought it was quite a good trip. I took my knitting, I am knitting a shawl out of this really fluffy sor of sparkly wook, sort of a fawn/gold colour. And I had the bikkies that I baked last night which of course everybody loved.

At Dublin airport we changed bus and the second bus was just fine but not at all fancy. Once again most of the ride was spent talking, but we were all starting to feel quite tired I think, the way travelling makes you. It starts getting dark so early aswell, which leaves you feeling like it is late and bed-time already.

So we finally left the Republic of Ireland and entered Northern Ireland. My supervisor explained to me how it all works. It turns out that it isn't a part of the UK anymore, so I am not in the UK. It isn't part of Ireland though either, it has it's own parliment. It is supported by both Dublin and London but leans more towards London. It seems that while a good proportion of the Northern Irelanders would like to be part of Ireland, just as many want to be a part of the UK, so they can't really choose because either way would piss off too many people. Instead they will probably end up becoming their own separate state.

The country side looks different, though of course I am no expert (not yet anyway). It is still farmland but more green rolling hills, less bogland and big rocky areas. Instead of stone walls around the fields there are hedges. The city of Belfast also looks different, but it is hard for me to say for sure. My supervisor tells me it looks very different from Ireland here, more like London. It does look different from Galway but Galway is a smaller city and very medieval, so perhaps it is not a good comparison? I will have to see Dublin properly before I can really say. The buildings are taller though, and the roads are proper roads. The cars are also different, the cabs look like the British ones that you see on the tele, and some of them are black like in England. The accent is strange, I couldn't Also they use the pound here so I will have to get out some money in case I need anything (and so that I have pounds because having foreign money is fun). I haven't got any decent photos yet, only blurry in the dark ones, and probably won't have time to get any. I will have to come back up here one day instead.
So soon we are going out for a meal, and the next couple of days will be very busy. Luckily the workshop does not start too early. Before it is time to meet for dinner I will have to go down to the reception and see if I can get some bandaids, because my new boots have caused a couple of blisters. The are the type of boot that you can tuck your jeans into so I am trying that, I mean everybody else does it and it does keep the hem of your pants nice and dry in the rain. This hotel is also very nice, though I am not actually sure if it is a hotel or a B&B. My room is large, the bed is big and very comfortable, the bathroom is large. It has no bath, only a shower, but that is okay (yet among the free toiletries is bath salts?).
There is not much in the way of free stuff to swipe, just some soap and lotions, your general tea and coffee, a couple of bikkies. No hot chocolate so I can't even make use of the little kettle. There is free wireless which is always great. I would like to see if the other rooms are as nice, you see another supervisor was supposed to come with us but cancelled so maybe I have her room and it is fancier than what would generally be given to a student? We will see. It is a shame that it gets dark so early, it is only 5.30 but too dark to go out and see anything.

And what would you know but my bag has broken. Trust Mum to bring me a shoddy bag. The zip broke and won't go back together so I will have to find some big safety pins. And I was going to take it to Abu Dhabi too, so I didn't have to take an actual suitcase.

Student accommodation is cause for a good rant

So anyway you know how I was saying how ridiculous the cost of laundry is at the place I live? Well these student apartments are called Dunaras, and you would think laundry would be free but it isn't. So when I want to do washing I have to first go to the office and by a token for the machine because they are not even coin operated. And this is a problem because the office is only open from 9 till 6 and closes at lunchtime, but I am usually at Uni by 9, and I don't go back during the day because is is a 25 minute walk, and I am usually not home before 6. So in order to get to the office I have to be late for Uni, or leave early.

So I go in the morning, and this has happened about 3 times now just so you know, and I try not to be early but still I am stuck waiting because the office guy is never on time. Not only are their opening hours completely unsuitable to a normal university schedule but he can't even be on time. It's not like he has to be there at 8 or on weekends or anything, how hard is it to be on time? Especially seeing as he lives either inside the complex or right behind it, I'm not sure, but it's pretty close. Because you see, I am waiting there outside the office and when he finally shows up he comes through a gate about halfway down the complex (so maybe 100 metres at the most?). And his car is parked right there so obviously he lives right through that gate.

And what does he do then? You won't believe it.

He gets in his car and drives up to the office!

It would take him what, 1 minute to walk to the office? But he drives. Even if it is raining you would barely get wet walking between that gate and the office. No wonder he's a bit chubby. And it's not like it was a one-off thing either, I've seen this more than once. How can you drive to work when you live at work? How lazy is that.

It always rains on me

So who would have thought that it could be not rainy for 5 whole days! But it was, so Mum did not get rained on while she was here. Now last night I was walking home, after a day of on-off showers, and it is terribly windy. I brought boots yesterday (yay) so I was walking home with a stupid bulky shopping bag because boots come in such a big box. And it is terribly windy so I have to hold my shopping bag up close to my side because it was just blowing everywhere, meaning that I can't keep my hands in my pockets so they are getting freezing cold. So what happens next? It starts raining of course. But not just any rain. No, it is terrible wind-driven sharp cold rain. Far too windy to even think about getting out the umbrella, you just have to let yourself get wet. Which I did. Luckily the shopping bag kept my body dry but my legs and arms got soaked and my hands were so numb with cold that I had trouble getting in the door. It was a miserable walk home.

But I have new boots which is nice. My pay cheque didn't go through you see because someone at the finance office fucked up. So I should have been paid two weeks ago, and instead my supervisor has loaned me the money at of some grant money or something that has been squirreled away. Maybe even her own money but it sounded like it must be from University money. And I have met somebody else who also had problems with their first pay, and she in turn knows of at least a half dozen people who have had the same problem. You would hope that somebody is getting seriously reprimanded over this. But they probably aren't.

Anyway I have the money now, although the cheque hasn't cleared. It should by tomorrow.I brought boots, and I have to pay for my Christmas travel, and other than that try not to buy lots of stuff. I have to keep in mind that I have to be able to pack everything up to take to Austria so I really need to try not to buy lots of stuff.

I worked for most of the weekend although I didn't get much done. I intended to do reading but I ended up spending a lot of time organising my files. The barnacles don't seem very healthy, their shells are beginning to look sort of see-through, like they are decalcifying or something. But other than putting some sort of supplement in the water we don't know what can be done about that. Don't have to do a poster any more.

Tried some histology over the weekend. Basically, we took one of the fixed (preserved) barnacles, and embedded it in agar, which is just like really thick jelly. Then we put it in this machine called a vibrotome, and tell it what thickness we want our sections to be, and then push a button, and it cuts a slice. And you keep doing that until the whole thing was cut up. And you put each slice on a microscope slide. But it didn't really work so I don't yet have any photos to show you. The outside was fixed properly but the insides were still too soft, so instead of being cut they just got all mushed up. And it's the insides that we want to look at, so just didn't work. And then the slide is supposed to be dried out, but after drying they just looked all crusty which is not supposed to happen, and not sure why that is. Possibly because we cut sections of about 300 micron (which is 0.3 of a mm) when other people usually cut stuff at 10 micron. Or maybe we overdried them? And then staining did not work either, it is supposed to just stain bits of tissue and wash off of everything else but it didn't wash off. But still, it was interesting. It doesn't really matter that it didn't work, I will be learning it all properly in Vienna soon enough.

Today the new PhD student arrived from Malaysia so now our lab will be really full for awhile. He seems to be really on-top of things. He agrees with me that it is cold here and also that some things here are really weird. Like the normal working day here is not 9 till 5. The bank isn't open 9 till 5, isn't that crazy? It is open from 10 till 4, 5 if you're lucky, and it's more than likely that at lunchtime they will just close for an hour. And it is so annoying. Also when people here ask if you would like to go for tea, they mean a cup of tea. Like instead of saying go for a coffee or a drink. I keep getting confused and thinking that they mean the meal, not just a drink.

On Wednesday there is this workshop to go to. 7 hours on a bus with my supervisor and the other PhD student. It will be interesting. And then again on the way back on Friday. The workshop itself will be pretty full on, one and a half days and 36 talks! Hopefully they will all be interesting. But how are you supposed to meet any of your colleagues at these things when you are being bombarded with lectures? It's not like it's a conference, it's just a workshop.

Also I have decided that since I am going to Austria and Germany and the big collaborators are in Austria and Germany that I should learn to speak German. I have downloaded pod-casts to listen to on my i-pod and some free e-books, and we will see how that goes. I will begin listening to them tonight. It will be very cool if I can arrive in Austria able to speak some of the language.

So I have to go home and do washing and stuff so things are all tidy before going away for a couple of days. You would think that in paying so much for a student accommodation the laundrette would be free wouldn't you? But it's not, its 4euro for one wash. That's like 8 dollars! For just one wash. What a rip-off. At least in Austria I don't have to pay for my own accommodation, I am so looking forward to it. I will be going in one month, I am to begin to look for good flights from any time after the 7th of January.

Now what is the chances that as soon as I pack up to go home it will begin to rain? Pretty high I would say.

Mum's Visit to Ireland

Well, today is Thursday and Mum has gone back to the UAE. This week has been so incredibly busy and I am very tired. Work will also be busy for the next week. And of course it is only about three weeks until Christmas and then I will be going to Austria. Perhaps I am just going to always be busy forever now?

Anyway on Monday I took Mum to see Galway and we went for a walk around Galway Bay. First we went to the big cathedral which is right beside Uni. I have never been in before, I wasn't sure if you were just allowed to go in for a look. It is so impressive though, I have never been is such a big pretty church. I lovew all the stained glass windows. If I had to choose a religion I would base it on the prettiness of the church, because then I would have something nice to look at.


There is always a very large number of birds around the docks, swans and gulls mainly, and sometimes you see people feeding them. So we took my loaf of stale bread and we fed the birds. Only we were completely mobbed, those birds really wanted our bread. There was a pile of pigeons at our feet, they are so tame that when I wanted to walk through they didn't fly off, I had to shove them aside with my foot. Then there were all these gulls swooping around our heads, just sort of hovering, and catching the bread in midair before it could get anywhere near the poor old swans. And these huge swans are just sort of sitting there in the water waiting, getting some bread every now and then, but they also had gulls swooping around them and even landing on their backs. So when the bread was all finished we got out of there because having birds flying right around your head is a bit freaky.



The rest of that day was not quite so amusing. I am not saying it was bad - it's just that the birds were really funny. We went for a walk around the bay, and the weather was clear but freezing cold. Still, nearly a whole week of clear weather has been a bit strange. We had a quick look at some shops, went to a tea-house, went to a restaurant suggested by a friend for dinner, and then went to see a show. The tea-house was called Griffin's Bakery and was really cute, a lot of the buildings here a little old medieval buildings, the ceilings are low and the doorways are really small. The restaurant was called McSwiggans and I was expecting a pub, but it was a bit fancier than that. We went up about four flights of stairs for one thing, the buildings here are sort of poky and winding, due to being so old, with a lot of small levels instead of a proper first floor and second floor. So despite all the staircases I think we were only one floor up. Everything is all old wood and stone, and a lot of the establishments have stories and a history behind them. For instance the bakery is the oldest family-owned business in Galway, or something like that.


The show that we went to is worth a mention. It was these brothers who won the Irish talent show last year, which is like that show America's got talent. They play Irish music and sing and dance, but they are very young. The youngest looked about 7 or 8, and played two instruments, sung and danced. So they were very impressive and it was quite entertaining, and makes you want to learn irish dancing and to play the fiddle. And of course Mum managed to find another cat to pat.


On Tuesday Mum and I did another tour, this one of Connemara. This is a region inside of Galway county, and is primarily made up of farmland, bog-land, lakes and mountains.

First we stopped at an old ruined friary. It was a really good stop, I would have like to spend a bit longer there. It was rainy but that was okay. There were only five people on the tour, and the tour guide was very informative and full of information. I was very tired though.


We drove by a big old castle which is now and fancy hotel and then s stopped at a village where the filmed some film that I have never heard of but is apparently very good, starring John Wayne. It was a cute village, but it was cold and Mum was the last to get back to the bus, we were all waiting for her.


The tour went through a lot of farmland which is very different to any you would see in NZ. We stopped to look at things like round-towers, a ring-fort, a fairy-tree and a stone-circle (which is in the photo below), but we did not get out of the bus at those stops. I think because the things that we were looking at were on private property. They are things that are pretty common in the Irish countryside.


The main stop was Kylemore Abbey, which is now a school for girls run by the Benedictine nuns. It was originally built as a castle, and the nuns have opened three rooms to the public, which are all done up as close to their original state as possible. Of course you pay an entrance fee to get in and there is a restaurant and souvenir shop for tourists to spend all their money in. It wasn't as impressive a stop as the Cliffs but was still quite nice.


There was a walled victorian garden. It was interesting but really it was still just a garden. There is a neo-gothic church, which didn't seem overly impressive it wasn't bad. I mean in New Zealand you don't see churches which are full of marble and carved figures with big stained glass windows. Lastly there was a mausoleum, which is really just a little stone building all completely closed up (as is to be expected considering that there is an embalmed body inside). All in all it was a pretty good tour, a much slower day than the Cliffs tour. Between the two though I am definately all tourist-ed out.


Yesterday was almost as tiring as going on a tour. I went into work in the morning, and then in the afternoon we went to see more of the city, look in some of the interesting shops and do souvineer shopping. We ate a lot. We did today as well actually. Ireland may be lacking in the familiar junk food but they are very big on their bakeries, their tarts especially, and pastries and cakes. We brought souvineers and Mum brought christmas stuff - some headbands with bobbly santa heads, earrings, hair clips and you won't believe it but she brought santa outfits for her cats! She expects me to help her take a christmas photo of them when I go to Abu Dhabi in a few weeks. We went to a pub called the King's Head for dinner, another poky medieval building with a history - apparently Charles I was beheaded there or something like that. I can't quite remember.


Anyway as I said it has been a few very tiring days. Today after popping briefly into work to feed the barnacles we went into town again to see the Eyre Square market which was not open any of the previous days. You see they built the shopping centre around the old town walls, which have something to do with the Anglo-Norman's that invaded Ireland at some point in history and set up camp in Galway. So there are these big stone walls and two towers inside the shopping centre which are not some new thing built for show but actually the old town walls. Crazy ay. They have a little market in there, stalls of local produce mainly. Mum brought a couple of last souvenirs for herself and then we had to get going so that she could get to the airport. Despite being quite organised we had to repack her case and then we couldn't find stuff and while she left with plenty of time to spare I have a messy house to clean up.


So now the week is nearly over and I have to get back to work. There is so much to do in the next week. Tomorrow I will be doing some basic histology, learning how to use a machine called a vibrotome which will slice a barnacle sample into to tiny little sections. Yet despite being tiny they might still be too thick to see anything. But at least we will know how to use the machine. And then the sections have to be stained so that you can actually see stuff like cells and muscles. Then all the sections have to be looked at, there will probably be a couple of hundred.

On top of that all of a sudden the barnacle larvae we are trying to rear are just not surviving all of a sudden and I don't know why, and the adult barnacles are not very healthy either. The last thing I need is for them to all die on me, that would just screw up everything. And then my supervisor suddenly wants a poster for this workshop next week, when I have been asking all along if she would like something like that. So now she does and it is about 6 days away. And what results are there to put in a poster anyway? None. So it will just be like an introductory poster, maybe with some aims. Also because of the whole intellectual property thing we are not to actually let anybody know what species we are working on, it is a secret! So that nobody can steal our idea and finish the work before us! It seems a bit paranoid. But good new is the things being looked at by the collaborators in Vienna and Bremen seems to be going well, although it has seemed so before and been misleading. We will wait and see I guess.

So like I said, busy busy busy.

Cliffs of Moher

So Mum arrived on Saturday night. Her suitcase was full of new clothes for me, it was like Christmas! And they are all very nice as well, sometimes she is not so good at choosing.



So yesterday we had to be up early and we did the Cliffs of Moher tour. Basically it is a tour of the next county downwards, it's called the Burren which means the rocky place.



It is all limestone, rocks everywhere. We stopped at a couple of castles, after the first one we stopped for a coffee break. Mum managed to find a cat, it wouldn't let her pat it though.



Then Ballyalban which is an old earthen fort, now called a fairy fort.





The next big stop was Polnabrone Dolmen, one of the better preserved megalithic tombs.



Then this was this ruined cathedral with big old celtic crosses.





And after that we stopped for lunch in a place called Doolin, and the food was really good. There was a wee souvenir shop but it was just a quick visit so we only looked.



Then finally the Cliffs of Moher, where we stopped for about an hour or so. They are very impressive. Except the driver kept telling us that a few weeks ago a woman was blown off the top. It was a warning, because she was up where she was not meant to be. It was so windy, but the day was clear which was good.





After seeing the cliffs we were cold so we went down to the souvenir shop and brought some stuff. Not much though. And Mum managed to break the bus door.



On the way back it was getting dark already and there were not many stops. We did stop a couple of times to see the coastline, it is a very rocky and harsh sort of landscape, not like anywhere else.



There is a place just near Fanore called leprechaun head, and it is called that because the shape of the cliff side looks like a face, but it was dark and late so we stayed in the bus, which meant I couldn't get a good photo of it. But I will have another chance I am sure.



The tour was quite good, would have been better if I wasn't so tired. The driver was a bit annoying though, and kept going on about the ladies, ladies this and ladies that. Still, he was really friendly, and we will do a tour of Connemara on Tuesday.




We were so tired by the end of it though. I took Mum by uni to see the barnacles and stuff. We went into town but after our huge pub lunch didn't much want dinner. So we went home and Mum complained the whole way about how far I live and how cold it was. And then we both went to bed real early cos we were so whacked. But before that I managed to put my hot chocolate in the microwave too long and it overflowed and went everywhere, and I had just cleaned the bloody thing!

Now looking at Mum's photos, half of them are upside-down! How she managed to take upside down photos I don't know.

Big week ahead

Today I ran out of money. I have 1 euro and 70 cents left. My pay didn't come in, everybody else's did but it is not the end of the month for another couple of days so I will not worry about it yet. If it is still not in my bank account come Tuesday though then I guess something has gone wrong and I will have to get hold of the finance people.

So Mum arrives tonight. She should have been here ages ago actually, but they switched her flight because of the fog. You can't really see the fog in the photos so you will just have to trust me that it is really foggy. Yet when I arrived we flew through a terrible storm.

They switched her flight and she went to the West Ireland airport, and as far as I know she is now on a bus on her way here. But seeing as she is the expert at ambiguous text messages I can't be sure. I think maybe the bus will only go to the airport and then she will have to taxi from there. But you see, she keeps sending stuff that doesn't make sense, like just a half sentence you know. like 'airport closer' whereas she probably should have said 'the bus goes to the airport' and so I have to reply to ask what she means. So I finally replied that she should just tell me where and when she will arrive and stop wasting my money. Haven't heard since. And I was being dead serious and not grumpy because I have no money left, so I can't top up my phone, so if she got stuck somewhere and had already wasted all my credit with nonsense texts then I wouldn't be able to get hold of her. And sure she probably realises that but now she hasn't replied, which is just what she does cos she's a bit hopeless, but so not helpful. How hard is it to just say where you are and exactly what is happening every now and then?

Anyway it doesn't matter, not like we had plans. If it's not too late when she arrives we can go out and get something to eat, but if it's late that's okay. I got the apartment cleaned up because I live very messily really. And with Mum being late I had time to finish my book. It was really good. I found these two books at the op-shop you see (actually here it is called a charity shop) and they are written by Irish authors. Which makes sense, in NZ you get loads of kiwi authors so of course here there are loads of Irish authors. The first book was okay but the second book was really good. It's called Superchick, it's contemporary fiction, sort of like those chick novels all about some women, or several women, who've been dumped and have lots of funny things happen to them as they go about finding someone new. Except it's written by a guy, about guys, and is a bit of a piss take, and ends with a bit of joke instead of all your smoochy crap. Anyway, it was really good.

And now to bed because it is going to be a big week, going an a tour of the Cliffs of Moher tomorrow.

I get to travel to lots of cool places

This week has been full of big plans. The week began with a lot of stress because the supervisor was on my case about all this stuff that she wants right now. Plus all the travel that is being planned has been very up in the air. And I have been steadily running out of money. And of course Mum is coming to visit this weekend so I have been trying to get everything tidy and sort out stuff for us to do.

So today is only Thursday but it feels like this week has been going on forever. Work has been sort of slow, but in a good way. Suddenly my supervisor has had a huge mood-swing and doesn't seem at all concerned anymore with having any results produced at all. Must have other things on her mind. But it's great for me. So the last couple of days have been spent with looking after barnacles, doing a lot of reading and research, doing a wee bit of practical work and quite a lot of goofing off I guess. But that's not the point. The point is that now I am definately going to Austria in January!

So first of all, it is Thursday today and Mum is coming on Saturday for 5 days. She will leave next Thursday. And then the Wednesday after that we are going to Belfast to go to this workshop being run by the organisation that is funding the other barnacle PhD who is working with me. So there is no presenting for either of us, it is more just that we are going along for the hell of it, and it will be a good experience and hopefully interesting. And they are putting us up in a fancy B&B and everything. Then about a week and a half after that it is practically Christmas time and I will be flying to Abu Dhabi to spend Christmas with Mum. And finally, I will return by the New Year, in time to pack up all my things and go to Austria! And even better, in Austria I don't have to pay for my accommodation, the grant pays for it! Lastly, it looks like there will be a further trip to Germany in February, and then possibly staying in Austria right through until April.

So things are all finally happening now and happening very quickly. Yet for once I don't have to do any organising, all the travel and accomodation and everything is being sorted by my supervisor and these big grants that she has. In Austria it will be freezing cold and snowy! It all sounds really good. I will miss my first Irish St Patricks day but there will be plenty of those still to come. Austria will probably be very hard work of course, I have to learn histology and all sorts of ultrastructure techniques in quite a short amount of time. But still looking forward to it.

And of course nothing further has really been planned yet but the trip to Germany to learn protein stuff will probably be next year too, so that the first year of the PhD will focus on training and then the rest of it will be working. So heaps of travel and exciting stuff should happen this next year.

Also in a couple of weeks yet another PhD student is joining our lab, which will make four of us. This new PhD is a more mature student, a physiologist, and he is from Malaysia. He is studying something to do with fish I think. And while we are away in Austria there will be an undergraduate student from France coming to do some work here, I am not sure why, but it is very helpful because he can look after the barnacles.

Now it is 5 o'clock and I am going to go home at a decent hour, I usually stay later but I have a lot of housework to do before Mum arrives, because I have been living like a slob. I have just had a delivery of algae so the barnacles will be happy for another week or two. I have had lots of deliveries the past few days because we have been ordering all sorts of supplies. They send the smallest of things with the most ridiculous amount of packaging, it's crazy. And it hasn't all arrived yet either. Hopefully it will arrive tomorrow, along with my long-awaited pay check. So I am going to go downstairs now and turn the recirculation tank back on so that the barnacles will have clean water and still be happy and active when I come in in the morning. It is dark already which makes it feel very late but really it is not.