What can you say?!

Yet more reasons why we don't need to have the government creating huge cross-referencing databases of information on us. They lost all the data (including bank details and national insurance numbers) of every person with a child in the UK cos they send it by CD via an external courier company. If they can't even get CDs right, how on earth do they think they can keep safe our data on a 'secure' network which can be accessed by hundreds of thousands across the nation and no doubt will be hacked within 5 minutes of being operational?

I'm so embaressed by our 'great' britain. If our big brother nation wants more of our freedoms in return for 'security' they should probably start proving they can be trusted with our security.

We must be loved!

THREE birds in one night!! That's how much our cats love us! All neatly lying at our back door. I'm starting to think they know they're gonna get given away and that they're trying to convince us to keep them. I really wish we could.

Careful what you wish for!

(Un)fortunately the people who were supposed to be taking our adorable little bundles of fur now can't take them any more, so we're back to square one! So be careful what you wish for. Whilst I didn't wanna give them away, now we still have to give them away and we don't have a happy home for them to go to!

In other news, the writing is still going on. I haven't gone mad yet, but it's only a matter of time.

And does anyone else think the French are dumb?! They vote a man in to reform the country and then when he gets started, the whole nation goes out in the streets to protest! THEN DON'T VOTE FOR REFORMISTS, DUMMIES!!! I don't get why all the public servants want to help the train drivers retire more than ten years earlier than them anyway - I can't imagine the job of a train driver is harder than that of a high school teacher. I think they take the fraternite bit a little too seriously! Oh well, I guess French politics (of which I only know what the BBC and Al Jazeera tells me) is not really something I should be getting into. I'll get myself in trouble with certain readers!

Back to the writing with you, girl. Hope ya'll are well.

Furry friends

(Un)Fortunately we've managed to find a new home for our little cuties. The parents of a friend will take them both, and it'll be great cos it sounds like they're really excited to get them, plus they live on a farm so the cats will be able to get up to all sorts of exploring and killing! Only problem is - I DON'T WANNA GIVE EM AWAY!!! We know we have to though (not fair to take them on a 28 hour flight when we don't even know where we're moving to), so I've been taking lots of pictures. It's been a while since I subjected you to pictures of the wee fellas, so tough - you're getting more!

Snoozin. Now's the moment for that fart, Grey!

I guess this means it's time to mow the lawn then?

You kill, I'll supervise.

Story catch-up continues

One of the other exciting new things I've done recently is learn to ride a road-bike. Sounds easy given I've been riding a mountain bike for years, but I've always been a bit nervous of road-bikes. But a month or so ago there was a police bike auction and so me and Sean picked up a bike each for 20 bucks (about 8 pounds)! Mine needed a few bits replaced, but I am now happily screaming round Christchurch on my new ten-speed! I don't think I'm much faster (much to my disappointment and Sean's relief) but I'm definately quieter. A couple of photos of the new noble stead below with Grey checking out the new addition.



And this weekend it was a gorgeous day on Sunday - beach weather, so we went to the beach! Christchurch is on the coast but New Brighton is boring to look at and windy, and Sumner is always packed if it's a nice day, so we went to a beach I've never been to before called Taylors Mistake. It's a small and sheltered bay with lovely sand and walks on the surrounding hills. So we had a lovely chilled Sunday at the beach. No ice-cream man there though - gotta plan ahead better next time!

Is it a swindle?

I know I'm getting boring now, but I came across the Royal Society's simple guide to the science behind global warming, which nicely gives the counter arguments to some misconceptions put forward by, amongst others, 'The Great Global Warming Swindle'. It can be quite difficult to syphon out any real scientific information from the media (terrified as they are of being too alarmist or not alarmist enough), so why not go right to an excellent source of scientific knowledge - the national academy of science for the UK and Commonwealth.

No stories? - Rubbish!

It's been more than a month and not a story has been told! That's not to say I haven't had any stories - just that I never bothered actually writing any! I've even had plenty of procrastination moments where I could have, but I did less interesting stuff like staring at bbc news website, or playing dumb games. Ahh, the joys of a PhD.

So stories, eh? Well, obviously there was the rugby world cup, which we had some very drunken and fun evenings staying up to watch, and some obscenely early mornings for the last games. Whilst I was chuffed England got as far as we did, I'm still so disappointed the All Blacks got knocked out. The fact the French didn't even have the decency to come third makes it even worse - the All Blacks would have TOTALLY won it if those evil Frenchies hadn't brought their curse again (and indeed if the referees hadn't been playing for the French!).

Then of course there was Raikonen winning the F1. Wahoo. Not. That said, whilst I dislike Kimi most intensely (anyone who gets his name written in diamonds on his helmet is a complete loser if you ask me), to see a McLaren win this year would have been a travesty. I'll be firmly reserving judgement on the current 'it' boy Hamilton until I see him in a season where he and his team weren't blatantly cheating. I know Ferrari are cheating scumbags too, but at least they have the decency to keep it quiet! I used to have a lot of respect for Ron Dennis and the team, shame. If it was just the car design they were cheating with I wouldn't mind so much, but from what I've heard they could listen in to the Ferraris radio and find out about pit-stop strategies, so the drivers totally would have benefitted. And I might add Hamilton is NOT the only rookie to fight for the championship (as the BBC would have us believe), Jacques Villeneuve did as well. And he wasn't a cheating scumbag! ANYWAY! Moving on...

Yeah so, things are pretty much fine over here. Not done much recently so no photos for ya'll. Went to a lovely wedding last week though, for two of the most well-suited and nice people you could find! And then the next day my friend Emelie gave birth to a gorgeous little girl! So that's all the major milestones in one weekend! Big kiss to you, Mickey and little Maxime.

We were supposed to be going off tramping the Routeburn track this week coming, but it's still closed cos of avalanche risks. It sucks, cos I was TOTALLY ready for a week off! Except a week off last Christmas I haven't had a day off since March 2006 and almost never take a whole weekend off, so I figure I'm due a holiday! Hopefully we'll rebook it when it reopens, but in the meantime it's onwards and upwards. I was supposed to finish absolutely all labwork this week, but I still have a couple of reactions left to do. Unfortunately I got supremely close to making my target natural product, but just couldn't get what should have been an easy step to work. At a certain point you just have to finally admit defeat, though, and finish the thesis. Maybe I'll come up with a cunning plan which I can try when I've submitted, but in the meantime I think I'll just have to accept it. It's been an awesome journey though, and there's plenty to write about in my thesis. Finishing the synthesis means the difference between a publication in a mediocre journal and a publication in a fantastic journal though, so it's a big shame to get so close. Next stop is finishing my thesis, which should be largely done by Christmas, but no doubt it'll drag into the new year. Definately gonna be submitted by end of January though.

So, any other stories? Not really. Guess I should sign off then. Hope you're all well. Thanks for dropping by!