UrbanGreenie

'If there's one thing you can say about man-kind, there's nothing kind about man'

2008-09-07T10:06:00.009+12:00

You may recognise that I am having a Tom Waits period. Fear not, my faith in mankind has not been crushed entirely! His 'dulcit' tones are the soundtrack to this post, and I couldn't think of a better title, although it's not quite as amusing if you don't 'sing' it like he does! Maybe my new theme for post titles will have to be classic Tom Waits lines. That man is a musical genius!

Not much been going on round this neck of the woods, but I'll try to hussle up a couple of stories. Just about surviving a legendarily crappy English 'summer'. I've been promising Sean an Indian summer for a couple of months now, but what we currently have is flash flooding. Nice to know the man upstairs has a sense of humour! Been to Bath, an ancient Roman city right next to Bristol, twice in the last couple of weeks, so can show you a couple of photos. As the name might suggest it was the site of Roman spa baths so my mum and I went for a lovely relaxing girly trip to marinade ourselves. The week before Sean and I had done the opposite of a relaxing trip by cycling there and back! There's a cycle path which follows an old trainline, which, whilst pleasantly hill-free, is pretty long at 16 miles. My intention was to cycle there, and then take a leisurely trainride back. Sean had other ideas and convinced me to cycle home again too - so it was a 35 mile trip once we'd also cycled up and down the hill to uni. We were knackered that night, but not at all achy the next day, which was a pretty proud moment - all those morning hill climbs must be paying off!
Here's a cuppla photos:

Bristol seems to be king of the festivals, with harbour, balloon and kite festivals already this summer. The Bristol Balloon festival is particularly nice, with hundreds of balloons taking part in a mass ascent. Unfortunately the weather prevented all but one of the evening flights, but below is a shot of the one that made it, although the resolution doesn't do justice to the number of balloons and majesty of the event. My poor schedule reading skills meant we missed out on seeing the 'night glow' where anchored balloons light up their flames in time to music with fireworks, but we did get to see the red arrows. The kite festival we also missed, although ironically whilst it was the wind (and rain for that matter) that brought the balloon festival down, there was a distinct lack of wind on the weekend of the kite festival. More evidence for God's sense of humour!

And in other news, to cheer myself up in a brief moment of glum (regarding other kittens which I don't think I've ever mentioned) I wrote to the guys who took our little cuties, Monty and Grey (now Lucy) and...got photos! They definately look a bit bigger and more grown up, but look as happy as ever. Evidently enjoying each other's company/killing each other as much as ever. And they have their very own little tent - something we never afforded them, so they've obviously landed on their feet with their new owners! Lovely to see that we did the right thing by at least some of the 'maison de bonheur' kittens.

So yeah, no other tales really. I'll have to start writing a few posts about ideas and thoughts, rather than waiting for interesting stories, which are relatively few and far between! Hope ya'll are well.

Procrastination Entertainment Service

2008-07-29T10:36:00.009+12:00

There have been complaints amongst the crowd that I am not providing adequate thesis procrastination distraction - a well-observed complaint. My apologies go to you, my favourite bovine biomass expert. Soon to be Dr Bovine Biomass Expert.

Well, Sean arrived a couple of weeks ago, so we've been doing all sorts of exploring and fun stuff. He's met all the family and a lot of my mates, and can even remember most of the names! After pouring down with rain solidly for a week and a half (during which time he complained continuously) the summer has finally returned so he's more keen on England now. We've been having a lot of post-work, beer-garden beers which always helps. And there are lots of wicked bands for us to see. Including a ridiculous weekend of fun this last weekend involving my personal favourite live band - Kora - as well as Lyrics Born who we've wanted to see for ages (and who I subjected Dr BBE to many times in the lab). And boy did both Kora and Lyrics Born kick some bootie! By the end I ached all over from dancing like a crazy fool at the front at both! There's a couple of photos below. Lyrics Born was playing on a boat venue in Bristol which was pretty small giving the gig a very intimate feel (he bashed me a couple of times in our combined crazy dancing!). And Kora were there usual simply fabulous selves. The crowd was about 90% Kiwis which made me a bit 'home'-sick for NZ! Got Kings of Leon, Goldfrapp, Roots Manuva and a pile of other great acts to look forward to as well and we were even too lazy to go back to London to see Manu Chao - I love being back in Europe!

The fabulous Thekla - the boat venue LB played on, complete with authentic Banksy painted on the side (that white dot - couldn't get a close up this time, but I'll try to get one - must have been a bit of a logistical coup to get grafitti on the river side of a boat!)

We really were right next to LB!

Get down!

My favourite bro's driving the crowd mad

Atmospheric scene at the Kora gig (get back on there Brad!)

The slug battle seems to be finally coming to an end. Whilst my efforts were partly responsible, we suddenly have a load of frogs living in our garden, and I'd say they're helping us out. We can even hear them croaking away in the evening. And we have our first courgette!

We've been keeping our eye out for banksy's and have seen a couple - including this one which is just down the road from uni, but it still took me 3 months to notice! It's next to the children's hospital - I didn't realise before but he often designs his graffiti to tie in with a nearby landmark.

So yeah, life in Brizzle is treating us well. Missing a lot about NZ, but the novelty of being back, the excellent entertainment, plus the fact it's STILL summer (a double summer really is a bit surreal and winter will be tough I suspect!) stops me missing it too much. I'm missing a lot of people though - y'all know who you are!

And on that note, hope all's well with you all.

PS Right, there you go, young lady. Now GET BACK TO YOUR THESIS YOU SLACKER! (you may make a cup of coffee first though)

Settling in

2008-06-18T09:25:00.002+12:00

At this rate of posting everyone will bugger off, and quite rightly! Things are mostly going well here and I'm settling in pretty well. Our flat still isn't completely sorted, but I have now lovingly planted out a variety of slug foods, also known as vegetables. I like to avoid killing critters unnecessarily so have discovered an exciting new passtime - snail picking. This is where I lovingly 'rehome' snails and slugs from my back garden, to my front garden, where they can't do much damage. And despite having quite literally taken hundreds of them out in the first few weeks after I cleared the garden, I still managed to pick at least 50 of the little darlings tonight. Apparently they don't much like if you put eggshells around your plants, so I've been eating a lot of omelettes. It may be helping a bit, but while you're picking snails off the eggshells you begin to wonder. Must say, if we'd had the same slug problems in NZ I doubt we'd have got as into growing veggies - it certainly takes the shine off it!

Otherwise life in the new flat is ok. I've only ever lived on my own for 6 weeks before this; I went partially mad then and I'm probably getting a little loco now too. It's the talking to yourself which is the big worry! Sean arrives in early July, so hopefully my sanity will return then! Been spending a lot of time at uni anyway, after having decided not to spend so much time working when I finished my phd. I figure it's ok cos there's nothing much for me to do at home except talk to myself, and the snails, but when Sean gets here there will be no more late evenings in the lab. I intend to take full advantage of the fantastic local pub at the bottom of our road and to develop a beer belly. They do great pie and mash there too! One of the things I complained most bitterly about in NZ was the lack of small local pubs that you can just have a quiet midweek pint in, so to have one of the nicest little pubs I've been in as our local is a bit of a result! They even do a really tasty local beer (as well as local ciders, which I still don't feel I'm ready for).

I haven't seen Bristol's most famous (indeed, realistically, only) tourist attraction; the suspension bridge, but I promise to bring you a photo of this fine piece of British architecture as soon as I can be bothered to cycle over there. Well I'm actually lying, I can see the very top of the bridge from the end of my road (we're on a hill), but that doesn't count. Bristol is quite a nice looking city, not entirely dissimilar to Sheffield (where i did my undergrad). Lovely rows of terraced houses, often painted bright colours. There's a nice, I guess, cathedral thingie (I've only seen it at speed as I come hurtling down the hill on my bike) as well. The city shopping centre is an absolute dive though - very depressing place somehow. Actually that may be partly for another reason. I've discovered recently that my increasing awareness of ways to limit my impact on the environment has taken all the fun out of shopping. Bugger! I finally now get paid properly so I could buy any clothes I wanted (well, within reason) but I find myself saying - yeah but do I need this? Where was it made? Where were the raw materials grown? Do I not already have something similar? And before I know it I've spent hours wandering round the shops and couldn't find anything that I 'needed' enough to get rid of the guilt! Now realistically, this is an entirely healthy position to find myself in - I DO have plenty of clothes already, and I DON'T need any more. But I still hate it, there's no joy in shopping anymore!

Work's going ok. I'm feeding my bugs some special precursors to see if they put them into their natural products, which I reckon is kinda cool! Never done anything like that before. The people are all cool, although there is definately a bit of politics and eggshells you have to avoid treading on in the group it seems. Still, they're all very welcoming and it's quite a giggle usually.

Well, I'd like to have some photos to show ya'll Brizzol and our new flat and stuff, but I don't so it'll have to be in the next exciting installment! Hope all's well with you all.

2008-05-22T03:20:00.007+12:00

I haven’t updated for ages because life has been ridiculously manic! A month and a hlaf ago I finished my PhD, and since then I’ve corrected and submitted my final thesis, submitted a paper for publication (and unfortunately had it rejected), been for a week holiday with my parents in NZ, graduated, sold all my stuff, packed up and sorted all my life out ready to leave NZ, left NZ, had a couple of flying visits to family and friends, moved to Bristol, found a flat, moved into it, been cleaning all the stuff that the landlord was too lazy to do (which is a lot), turned the garden from a jungle back into a garden and started my new job! That’s a long sentence, cos it’s been a long month and a half!

The holiday with my parents was great – one last cruise round the south island before leaving. We did stuff I’d never usually do, which was great – like fishing (my dad caught a big red snapper which made a fantastic lunch!) and horse-riding (with me on the one who thought he was a race horse!). Also got a chance to go see an ‘exhibition’ organised by Banksy and other street artists in London. They took over a tunnel and sprayed on most available surfaces! Plus there were installations and stuff, like a tree filled with CCTV cameras including a nest with baby cameras in! Random other artists could come in during the day and do their own work wherever they wanted, so you could see people working on it too.

The new job is going well, with really friendly people in my office. Already been out for drinkies a couple of times with them and got invited over for a fantastic home-cooked traditional English roast! It’s gonna take a long while to get the research up and running cos the cells I’ll be working with take a week to get to the useful stage! Plus there’s equipment which I’ll need which isn’t ready yet, but I’m keeping myself out of mischief.

The new flat is nice, although it takes a while to make it feel like home. We have our own garden which needs A LOT of work, but is slowly getting there. Hopefully the veggies will be in soon, and hopefully I can find a way to keep the MILLIONS of snails away from them. I’ve never seen so many snails in my whole life.

Well, I did get a few nice photos along the way this month, so here ya go:

Dad captured this photo of a fantail - he also got lots of shots of branches upon which a fantail had once sat! They're fast little buggers!

Kayaking in the Marlborough sounds

He also caught this impressive fish, which made a SUPERB lunch!

And dad ALSO captured this once in a lifetime shot of a dolphin in the Abel Tasman region.

And a couple of pieces at Banksy's street art exhibition:

That's Dr Murphy to you lot!

2008-04-01T15:22:00.007+13:00

So guess who's now a Dr?! I had my final exam yesterday and a minor hangover today! Gave a talk in front of the department first, and here I am in full flow:

Then after lunch, I had a two and a half exam which went mostly well, except for a couple of questions that threw me, but most was fine. Then when I came out I got given a VERY tasty bottle of champagne by Sean, which unfortunately I ended up drinking three glasses of! Couple of photos of the momentous occasion below!

Me with my thesis and bottle of champagne at the desk that was my home for 4 years.

Long time, no blog

2008-03-26T23:00:00.014+13:00

It's been manic here, which explains my lack of blog activity. Despite the fact that stress levels were going to be increased exponentially as a result, I decided to go to Glenorchy (near Queenstown) to do a walk I've been keen to do since I got here - the Dart-Rees track. It was a four day tramp, which took a fair chuck of time away, leaving my extensive list of things-to-do-before-I-can-leave-the-country undone. It was worth it though, with great views, ideal weather and great fun. Seemed that every mountain down there had its own glacier. Was a pretty tough walk covering something like 60km (I think), but without any electricity, and being too lazy to make friends with my fellow trampers meant I got 11 hours of sleep every night!

Now I'm back in chch and facing the carnage which is the next couple of weeks. I have my final PhD exam as well as an hour seminar to give to the department next Monday, plus papers and lab work to finish and packing up my life before heading home. Can't complain though - I'll be taking some more holidays with my parents who are visiting soon, before heading for the mothership.

Oh yeah, and go on Monty Panesar!

Anyway, so here's some photos of the trip. Wish me luck next week! Hopefully by then I'll be a doctor!

Rees valley

Lucky cows

Top of the glacier-formed Rees valley

Over the saddle and looking down into the top of the Dart valley

Dart glacier

Further down the Dart valley

Dart river

View back to towards Glenorchy

Goodbye little buddies

2008-02-25T18:48:00.006+13:00

On Saturday we bade a very teary farewell to our lovely little cats, Monty and Grey, who adopted us a year ago. We found them a great home with two lovely people and apparently they're settling in very well. Of course that doesn't make up for the big hole they've left in our lives. They were so much a part of the life in our house that it seems really quiet and sad without their friendly faces. They were great buddies to have around during the stress of a PhD. Well here's a last couple of photos of them.

A slightly teary goodbye

Fair trade fortnight

2008-02-25T18:15:00.003+13:00

Apparently it's fair trade fortnight in the UK, so I thought I'd mention it. I heard somewhere (although I can't back it up) that the UK is one of the forerunners with fair trade products and that we buy more than any other country. Good on us! It's certainly gaining ground here in NZ, and our uni just went 100% fair trade coffee across campus. Can't get fair trade bananas here though, so there's room for improvement.

Not that long ago, a major portion of a families income would be spent on food but these days its a very small proportion (haven't got the figures, but there was an article on BBC news about it a wee while back). Admittedly we now spend a lot more money on housing costs, but our attitudes have changed to thinking that it's our right to have a new mobile phone and a big TV and a etc etc. I admit to liking being able to have quite a lot of luxuries in my life, but we should probably start to remember that they are actually just bonuses and to be able to eat a huge array of great food (and indeed we throw large portions of it away) is a privilage we shouldn't take for granted. We should be willing to pay a fair price for our food, both from a social point of view (ie fair trade) but also an environmental point of view. If we spent more on our food we'd have less money to spend on junk that we really don't need and we'd only buy those luxuries that were genuinely important to us.

It should go without saying that all trade should be fair so lets support it.

Some more pics

2008-02-21T18:10:00.008+13:00

Last weekend I met up with an old friend of mine, from my days living in Switzerland, on the Queen Charlotte track near Picton. She's recently moved to Wellington for a year, and since I'm heading back to the mothership soon, we decided to meet halfway between. Of course, we weren't dedicated enough to actually walk the Queen Charlotte track, but fortunately for us it's one of the few tracks in NZ that has road access to many points and hostels (no pesky camping!). We had a great few days, we did a small bit of the walk (enough to wear ourselves out and justify several beers afterwards!), some serious chilling in the sun and I was forced to endure more pop in the car than I've listened to in ages! OK, I'll admit that I secretly enjoyed the ol' Britney best of, though!

So here's a few piccies for your enjoyment.

Myself and the wonderful Princess G

Punga Bay Cove

Yay - the SUN!!!

Miss G braving the somewhat chilly waters

The Mosquito

2008-02-12T23:25:00.003+13:00

I just read about something on the BBC, and I have to hope that it is some early April fools joke and that they were dedicated enough to put an entry into Wikipedia, cos it's there. Apparently we fabulous Brits have come up with a way to annoy teenagers enough to stop them hanging around places, without effecting anyone over 25. A machine generates a high pitch buzz at 17 Hz, which only those under 25 can hear and it's loud and unpleasant enough to annoy them away from the area. (indeed the company that makes them claims it's unbearable) Apparently they're routinely used in shopping malls. Is this seriously true? If so we are a sick, sick nation.

Is Britain a free country or not? Are people under 25 allowed to stand in a public place, without being discriminated against on the basis of age? Obviously, if they are doing something illegal (although in Britain these days, there's not much which can't be deemed illegal under some fancy new law or other) then they can be removed from the area and dealt with. Now I'll admit, mall rats are kinda pitiful. But does anyone else remember being a teenager? It's dull. Anything you might like to do, you haven't got any money to do. If you're not happy staring at TV or playing computer games, what on Earth are you supposed to do? I spent most Saturday's hanging around our local shopping centre with a couple of mates, and was lucky enough to enjoy the death throes of our funky little local cinema which had cheap tickets just before it got turned into a Tesco's carpark. I didn't do anything illegal. I didn't even annoy anyone (to my knowledge). And I would like to extend the courtesy of a similar experience to today's teenagers. Why do we have to chase them away? What's wrong with letting them have a bit of community? They have a place in our society too.

And remember, any readers with kids/babies - if you're trying to do your shopping and your kids are being complete brats, maybe it's not their fault - maybe you just can't hear the incredibly annoying sound that you're forcing on them unwittingly.

Things I love about New Zealand

2008-02-09T22:58:00.000+13:00

My time in New Zealand is finally coming to an end, and I'll be heading home in April. Most of the time I've been here I've been looking forward to coming home, and maybe even looking for negatives. Which are, in fact, only two. The distance from my family and friends, and the lack of suburban pubs. I think this may have been partly to stop myself getting attached to the place. But I recently encountered a nice expression, which has been cause for concern. Boomerang Poms. For much of the 20th century there was actively encouraged immigration from the UK out to Australia, and many of those who arrived initially hated it, hence the term Whinging Poms. They went home, then realised what a winner they'd been onto, so returned to Aussie, becoming Boomerang Poms. I'm beginning to wonder if I might end up falling into this category.
Some things I love about NZ:
Gardens - even your average student flat has a big garden with plenty of room to relax and grow vegetables.
Climate - it gets cold here in winter, but it's almost always sunny. It is a bit excessively windy the whole blimin time though!
Big wide roads - with plenty of room for bikes to cycle past even the most rude and inobservant Fendalton mum's SUV car door.
Cabbage trees, tree ferns, flax and just all the other awesome plants they have both in the wild and in their gardens.
Awesome scenery. Obviously.
The open road - no motorways round here. The main roads are always single lane and have to contend with all of that pesky awesome scenery which makes for winding hilly crazy roads which are a lot of fun to drive (and not so much fun to be a passenger if you get car sick!). On the west coast they even have a couple of quite sizeable bridges which are shared with trains. Problem is that you can't tell if a train's coming until you've got onto the track, and guess who gets right of way?!
And what I love absolute best, and indeed what inspired today's blog - cicadas. Cicadas are just the best thing about summer. On a warm day every tree in Christchurch is alive with the sound of cicadas, which sound like grasshoppers with megaphones. In the UK I used to love the sound of light aircraft buzzing overhead - it was always the sound of a sunny Sunday. Here cicadas give the place a sunny Sunday feeling every day!

Overall, NZ is a great place to live. What would be really handy would be if we could lasso it, and pull it just off the coast of Spain. Seems reasonable huh?!

my budding new career!

2008-02-05T16:25:00.000+13:00

Well, I've just embarked on my exciting new career as a biochemist and I'm having initial success! To get the hang of some of the techniques I'll need in my chosen post-doc project, Sean is letting me loose in his lab, isolating an enzyme from bacterial genomic DNA. And below is my first, very impressive DNA gel of my two new genes!

Now I get to put them into cells and get the cells to turn the genes into proteins which I can study. Fun!

Absurd week!

2008-02-01T16:04:00.000+13:00

It has been an unbelievably manic week, even though I submitted my thesis on Monday. After that I got a paper (my first first-author paper) accepted, although I had to make loads of changes which have taken me all week. Best thing was it got accepted just before I had to submit a funding application so I got to include it. The funding application had to be submitted last night and after much to-ing and fro-ing of emails and panicked midnight phonecalls to UK finance offices, it was all finished and submitted in time. And then finally, the guy I'm planning to work for has offered me some work from as soon as I get home til I get my own funding - which is fantastic! I won't get funding til at least the end of this year, so being able to get on with something useful and interesting in the meantime is a big bonus. It means that I'm gonna get pretty much no time to say hello to everyone and get over the flight before I have to dart off to Bristol, but hey - at least it's a couple of hours in the train instead of a day in a plane to get home and visit people!

So yeah - it's been mental! I've got a huge pile of things still to be done, but there's been quite a few things ticked off the list this week!

And yes there were three pisco sours (which were still great) and a glass of wine on Monday followed by a slightly slow Tuesday!

All done!!! (Well, sort of)

2008-01-28T17:45:00.001+13:00

This afternoon, I submitted my thesis! WAHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! I actually feel a lot less excited than I thought I was gonna feel, probably cos I was always imagining how it would feel whilst having a horrible time in the lab, or whilst stuck in the middle of a difficult bit of the writing. Usually finishing a thesis involves a desperate last-minute dash, not sleeping for the last several nights and handing in just in the nick of time. As it worked out, I managed to get it finished 3 days early (well, that's a lie actually, technically it's 362 days late!) and it was surprisingly close to ready when I gave the first draft to my supervisors, which made this month less stressful. The massive booze-up I'd envisioned, surrounded by all my friends, I can't really be bothered to organise, cos it's a monday so not really a party appropriate night. It's cool though, that'll wait til the weekend and tonight I'm going for pisco sours (I've discovered a bar in town that makes them) and mexican dinner.

Turned into an even better day when Norman passed his warrant of fitness without any work needing to be done. Maybe he just needed the holiday too! My eco-conscious took a bash when the mechanic said that he's getting to be a bit smoky, but he's doing about a million miles a gallon so I don't see how bad it can be. I've seen what they allow here in NZ for smoking, though, and its not pretty. They only take your car off the road if it pumps out smoke continuously for more than 10 seconds - mental. And they claim to be clean and green. One day I'll actually get paid and I'll get a hybrid or summit! In the meantime, I just won't drive much.

Anyway, back to the point - I SUBMITTED MY THESIS!!!!!! All 300 pages of it. I'm sure after the fourth pisco sour it's gonna sink in!

So cute!

2008-01-21T20:51:00.000+13:00

We just got back from a weekend away near Akaroa (just an hour from Christchurch, but it feels like its a million miles away) and I thought I'd put up some pictures. We went cos it was my birthday on Friday (I'm now officially in my late twenties!) and Sean had organised for us to go swimming with dolphins. And it was SOOOOOOO much fun! There are hundreds of Hector's dolphins living in Akaroa harbour and they are the worlds smallest and rarest marine dolphin. And they're SO cute! Their markings are really beautiful, with black silver and white - they remind of the McLaren F1 cars when they looked awesome, a few years back. There were loads around us at one point, and they kept flying past us - they're incredibly fast. I had one coming straight towards me and it only diverted at the last minute - I got quite nervous, and I suspect that's what he wanted - they're really playful! Anyway, it was an incredible experience and I've put a couple of photos of it below, plus some others from round Akaroa.

Sun, sand and Christmas!

2008-01-20T22:19:00.000+13:00

This year I finally experienced a hot and sunny Christmas by the beach! There was beer, there was bbq and there was sun-burn! We spent two weeks cruising round the north island, seeing a lot of the stuff I still had on my 'to-do-in-NZ' list. We spent 5 days including Christmas on the East Cape, which is a corner of the country which is particularly ignored by tourists and indeed by Kiwis, making it a very pleasant place to spend a relaxing Christmas. The East Cape remains very much a Maori stronghold, and there was a lot of great Maori architecture. In this area the film The Whale Rider was filmed. It has gorgeous beaches, a tropical climate and great scenery, plus friendly people.
Next, we went to the Coromandel for the period between Christmas and new year. What we didn't realise was that for new year the entire of Auckland empties out onto the Coromandel, making it really busy. Was still great though. Then we headed down to Mt Taranaki (or Mt Egmont), which is the second most symmetrical volcano in the world (after Mt Fuji in Japan). We walked a bit of the way up, but didn't climb to the top. Then we headed back down to Wellington, via a short stay in a Yurt (a cool Mongolian version of a tipi, which, it turns out, are quite noisy places to sleep when perched on a hill by the ocean near windy Wellington). We saw Charlie again in Wellington (he came with us for Christmas) and then headed back down to chch. Here's a few photos, with stories, where appropriate.

Christmas day on the beach - and might I add I have IRISH skin - ok?!

An ornately carved marae

Gisborne got hit with a 6.8 earthquake just days before we passed through, and we (plus everyone else in town, it seemed) watched the workers pulling down a big chunk of building, cos part of it had fallen off. The building was too unstable for them to go in, so they had to pull this window/roof off with the curtains still attached!

Pahutakawa tree in full bloom

Mercury Bay

And again.

Cathedral Cove

On the way back from Cathedral Cove

A cool statue of Wairaka, who, according to Maori legend, saved her people from losing their waka (large canoe), with all their belongings after they first landed on the shores of NZ by 'becoming a man' and manoevering the large boat (which girls weren't to handle) single-handedly. Girl power! Those who have seen Once Were Warriors will know that this moment of female emancipation didn't last, but she got an awesome statue at least.

Stormin' Norman proves that he's still stormin' after 270,000 km. Good man!

Here he is again next to Mt Taranaki

Mt Taranaki, the world's second most symmetrical volcano (so I've been told).

I can make no claim to this awesome photo which Sean took of a Tui feeding on the flowers of a flax plant.

Another of Sean's photos of Tui's where you can see their beautiful, but subtle, blue colouring.

This sunset was taken as it set over the sea just north of Wellington on the north island, but as the sun approached the horizon you could see the hills of the south island (Abel Tasman region) silhouetted.

The drive home.

Back from the wild

2007-12-19T22:07:00.000+13:00

We're back from the wilds of the Routeburn track, freshly showered and all stinky clothes washed! The Routeburn track is a three-day hike in fiordland. We had pouring rain for the first day and showers all the second day, so our packs (as well as ourselves!) were completely sodden. It was a beautiful walk, even in the rain, because when it rains on the west coast, BOY does it rain, and thousands of waterfalls, creeks and raging rivers come down the mountains. Makes it very pretty, even if you do get wet feet! The third day was sunny though, and we had some great views. Here's a few photos.

For perspective, that speck on the edge of the next ridge was another tramper

Lake MacKenzie

Hollyford valley

2007-12-10T15:57:00.000+13:00

To celebrate nearly being off on some holidays (finally!) I thought I'd spring clean the site and put a new title photo on. It was taken on the Hump Ridge track a few years back and seemed appropriate since I'll be off doing some more tramping for the first week of our trip. We're doing the Routeburn which is a three day tramp down in fiordland, in the south-west corner off the country. Then its off on a road-trip of the north island. So hopefully in the coming weeks I'll have lots of new photos.

I finished my introduction last Friday (it took just 6 days!) and got a compliment on my writing from my supervisor, so there were cocktails on Friday night! Had a margarita and a very tasty pisco sour. I haven't had a pisco sour since we were in Pisco (Peru), and it was just as nice as I remember it. I'd left two weeks for the introduction, so I now have all this week to tidy the thesis up and get some of the stuff done I didn't think I'd be able to. I love when a plan comes together!

Paradigm free thesis!

2007-12-04T19:33:00.000+13:00

That's right, my friends, I've managed to write most of my thesis, and critically, half the introduction and I've managed to avoid the word paradigm completely! It's been touch and go at times, and its still early introduction days, but I'm very proud of myself! I don't know why I find it such an offensive word in the literature (and even more so when used in talks) but I do. I really do. It's an awful word. Should be banned. I have to admit to having to use ridiculously pompous language, but as long as the p word isn't in there, I'm happy.

In other news, my supervisors are now officially scientific rock-stars! They won two research prizes this week, including one very prestigious international one! Most readers will think I'm very sad, but as a chemist I get quite star-struck by top organic chemists (handing a microphone to Amos B Smith the third at a conference this year will count as a highlight in my life!) and I'm increasingly aware of what an honour it is to work with my supervisors, even if I am in a different field to their specialty.

And in related news, I'm still writing, but it's getting there now. Not crazy yet and it's almost looking like I might get away without any serious mental scars. We submitted my first first-author paper to a peer-reviewed journal last week, which is very exciting. Fingers crossed. It takes a while to go through the peer review process, but I'm really hoping it'll be accepted by next January so that I can be gainfully employed on my return to the mothership.

No other news. Hope ya'll are well.

What can you say?!

2007-11-21T09:03:00.000+13:00

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!

2007-11-16T17:28:00.000+13:00

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!

2007-11-15T21:00:00.000+13:00

(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

2007-11-07T16:01:00.001+13:00

(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

2007-11-06T17:57:00.000+13:00

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?

2007-11-06T15:58:00.000+13:00

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!

2007-11-02T22:14:00.000+13:00

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!

Wellingtron and lab boredom

2007-09-21T20:57:00.000+12:00

I have had a very unmotivated couple of weeks in the lab, fortunately punctuated by a wicked weekend up in Wellington visiting Charlie (Sean's bro). We were only up there from Friday to Sunday, but we packed loads in, whilst still saving time for chillage. Went to a brilliant party on the Friday after getting in at 11pm cos our flight was delayed, but it was well worth livening up for. Met some supremely friendly and fun people including two girls from Essex, of all places! It was a funky party complete with crazy folk band and was very reminiscent of the party's we used to have in the old WG in Basel. God I miss Basel and that WG, with its wonderful musicians, alternative therapists and youth social workers! I felt like such a capitalist working for an actual company! At least I was an intern and wasn't getting paid much!

Anyway, I diverge. So yeah, the party really reminded me why I wish I lived in Wellington and not Christchurch, with it's cool vibe and style. Got to go shopping which was lots of fun, and Sean even cruised round with me for most of it. I was very impressed, but he said he was exhausted by the end after all that walking! See boys; shopping's hard work, not fun! Managed to buy and bring back to Christchurch coffee eclairs from a little French cafe which my pregnant French friend Emelie has had cravings for since she went up there a few months ago! Anyone visiting Wellington should go to Simply Paris on Cuba Street - brilliant desserts and apparently very good coffee too. We also went out to a bird sanctuary which is basically in Wellington which was cool.

Below is a photo of the awesome view Charlie has from his bedroom window.
Wellington is crammed into a bay so a lot of the houses are built up on the hills around which makes it a really pretty and cool city. The houses are all timber-built and have to be built on some pretty ridiulous angles, with one part of the house dug into the bedrock and the other end often up on stilts a couple of metres tall! All very precarious given that Wellington is particularly prone to earthquakes (it's right on the faultline at a twisted point where on one side the east plate is trying to go above the west and the other side the west side is trying to go above the east - no idea how that's supposed to work but nevermind!) and they get landslides occasionally.

Apart from that, just been stuck, being slow and slack, in the lab. I'm losing momentum at the moment, cos of spending two weeks at a time laboriously trying to make the starting materials I need, only to get like 2 mg of the compound I need! Not sure how long I'll be stuck in the lab before I can finish off my writing, but at this rate, it'll be a while!

Been enjoying the rugby, despite the ridiculous times of the matches. We did an all-nighter on Saturday to watch SA/Tonga and England /Samoa. Whilst it may be treachorous to my nation, I'm kinda hoping the All Blacks will win the world cup this time, cos it's such a rugby mad country and it'd be cool to be here if they did. Plus they've got so many hotties on their team, it's a pleasure to watch em! I love that new haka they're doing sometimes as well; so exciting!

So anyway, not been up to much else recently. Hope ya'll are well.

Another lovely sunset!

2007-09-17T19:46:00.001+12:00

Incredible Feats of Will Power (inherited from my dear mother)

2007-08-20T18:35:00.000+12:00

Well, I'm bored waiting for my ketone reduction so I thought I'd share a thought. Why is it that you can hardly find a can of coke anymore these days. They tell you a can of coke contains 6 spoons of sugar, which is a thought I don't like to think about. But sometimes a girl just NEEDS a can of coke. But can I find one on campus? No. Only 600 mL bottles, which by rapid mental arithmetic I can tell you is 11 spoons of sugar. Now maybe there are those amongst the readership who would say - but that's fine, you have half today, and the other half tomorrow. An admirable concept, but quite clearly ridiculous. I had a headache all afternoon cos I'd drank far too much, but then still demolished the last of the bottle whilst beginning this blog.

I think we need a Bring Back the Can campaign. Coke tastes better out of a can anyway.

"How to care for your house elves - a beginners guide" or "using one's blog for therapy"

2007-08-14T17:21:00.000+12:00

So, you've just got some house elves? Whilst house elves are a wonderful addition to any student flat, be sure to look after them properly by following this simple guide, which is punctuated by illustrative examples.

The number one rule of house elf maintenance is that they are highly sensitive to your needs and must be made to feel AT ALL TIMES that they are serving you and that you are not having strain yourself. Whatever you do, do NOT attempt to carry out any menial household tasks. Or at least no useful ones. If you really must satisfy any yearning to clean, do something completely useless like mopping the kitchen ceiling.

At absolute worst, you may wash your own dishes, but do ensure that you leave them lying around on every available kitchen surface (no neat piles next to the sink, now) surrounded by crumbs and grease for a few days first. Then when you "wash" your dishes, ensure that they have a good amount of grease or bits stuck to them so that the house elves can redo them for you later, and do not attempt to clean any surfaces you may have sullied.

If you can find ways to make your house elves tasks more difficult, this will only heighten their sense of worth. A good example of this is placing unwrapped broken plates on the top of the bin bag that they will be taking out (because obviously you must avoid taking it out yourself at all costs). In this way they may cut their hands, and feel much better about the task. If they take out the pieces of broken plate and suggest you might like to wrap it in paper, for safety - DO NOT BE FOOLED. What they actually want you to do is leave the broken plate lying on the floor for 3 days so that they can wrap it up for you on bin collection day.

Beyond menial tasks, you should also allow them spontaneous pleasures, as special treats. If you set off the fire alarm, for example, you should stand still. Do not address the house elves, and wait until one of them has turned the alarm off for you. Do NOT thank the house elves once they have done this for you. Alternatively you could fill the freezer up to bursting with tupperware pots of nuclear war rations and then leave the door open so that the only thing they have in there, icecream, melts and dribbles all over the freezer and fridge. They then have the pleasure of cleaning the whole sticky area as a special surprise.

Now we come to how to address your house elves. When they say hello to you, you should ignore them. This may seem a little rude at first, so you may say hello to the cat instead, if this makes you feel more comfortable. If they wish you a pleasant day, the appropriate response is 'I will'. Under no circumstances should you engage in pleasantries with them, such as 'you too'. It should go without saying that you should never ask them how their day was. You may describe at great length any mundane stories you have, however. You should avoid giving these stories any context, so that your house elves will not really know what you are talking about, if possible.

Finally and probably most importantly, make sure that your house elves get to pay for the pleasure of serving you - not paying your rent for anywhere up to 5 weeks is probably sufficient. If you can leave the country for several weeks without telling them and without paying them rent for several weeks before or during your trip, you can earn extra brownie points with them.

If these simple guidelines are followed, you can expect a happy and enjoyable time with your house elves. And when you leave, they will shed a little tear.

Wow. That's audacious.

2007-08-13T18:15:00.000+12:00

Johnson & Johnson are suing the Red Cross. Yep. I don't think I need to say much more, but I should probably give some context. Apparently whilst the red cross was given international rights to 'the red cross' back in 1864, the american branch of the red cross didn't open until after johnson & johnson had trademarked the symbol in 1887. Those kind hearted people at J & J put up with it til now, but have now changed their minds (cos the red cross sell some stuff for profit which is then syphoned directly back to their charitable work). So not only are they suing them to get them to stop using it, they're demanding back all profits made to date by the red cross and all their lawyers fees paid. This is the company with a yearly net income of 11 billion US dollars.
Personally I'm now boycotting their products which, unfortunately, are many. Course some people may agree that they've got a right to protect their brand, and I'm not suggesting anyone else do likewise. But in my opinion, if you choose to trademark a symbol which is already being used by a major international humanitarian organisation, you're a) an idiot or b) asking for trouble.

London calling - KORA!

2007-08-09T15:33:00.000+12:00

OK, my fine and fabulous friends in the london area. Here's your chance to catch the boys that i have been talking up SOMETHING CHRONIC! Quite literally the best live band I have seen in all my days (and I've seen a lot of big rockin names in my time) is coming to London in September. I know this is a little early, and there's basically no chance that they will sell out far in advance, but I thought I'd give ya'll a bit of advance notice so there's no excuses.

So all you crazy kids who like their music both rockin and incredibly funky, go and see KORA n give the fellas a good welcome to the UK. They're playing Koko in camden (near Mornington Crescent tube station) on the 20th of September.

Bonus chocolate fish for those who shout CHUR BRO at the fellas and get a grin! I have no idea what it means either!

Exciting new skills!

2007-07-29T16:59:00.000+12:00

Yesterday I successfully tried my hand a new skill. I made paneer, an Indian cheese that you often get in vegetarian Indian dishes over here. I'd never seen it in the UK, but I guess you get it there too. And it's easy! Takes an hour or two, but was surprisingly easy. You just boil 2 litres of milk, take it off the heat, add three or four tablespoons of lemon juice, leave it over a gentle heat whilst stirring for half a minute, til the curds crash out of solution then filter it through a coarse weave piece of cotton in a colinder. Once it's cooled down a bit, you squeeze as much of the water out as you can, then wrap it in the cotton, put it between two plates, and put a big saucepan of water on to press it. Leave it pressing for an hour, then unwrap and use it in your favourite curry instead of meat. Easy!

And since I've recently learned something of the chemistry of cheesemaking, I'll share the following interesting fact. Milk has all the proteins dissolved (well, suspended is more the word) in solution because it's at just the right pH to dissolve them. If you change the pH (eg by adding acidic lemon juice) they are protonated to insoluble forms and crash out as curds which you use to make the cheese. Sometimes it's surprising how long you can study a subject without knowing basic chemistry of real life stuff. Oh well. Hedumacation, eh?!

Well, off to read some exciting chemistry papers now. On nice inaccessible things like spirobisnaphthalene synthesis. Hope ya'll are well. By the way Little Miss Sunshine is a good movie.

Addendum: I must point out that most cheese is not made by changing pH, they add rennet which is a mixture of enzymes usually taken from calf stomachs (but also available from vegetarian approved sources) which cuts the main milk protein into two, an insoluble half (which forms the cheese) and a soluble half which is washed away.

ANABELLAMIDE!!!!

2007-07-20T14:18:00.001+12:00

That's right my friends - anabellamide! I have my very own natural product! Spelt a bit dodgy, but that's ok; poor ol guys at University College of Science, Calcutta, must have just been havin a bad spelling day. Best of all, I get to put it into my thesis cos its got N-benzoyl groups!

Bet none of you losers have got your own natural products! HAHAHAHAHA!!!

Thesis procrastination

2007-07-17T17:14:00.000+12:00

How I'd like to write my thesis:

"It was pretty wierd that the NMR showed something completely different to what HPLC said, but since the HPLC said what I wanted to it to, I just ignored the NMR results."

What I have to write in my thesis:

"Analysis of HPLC and NMR data shows conflicting results. Rationalisation of this observation is as follows....."

If anyone can rationalise my conflicting results, please feel free to let me know. In the meantime I'm gonna tell you about my tramp on the weekend!

Me and Sean decided to (almost) get out of town and climb Mt Herbert on Saturday. Thought I'd show ya'll a couple of photos. Mt Herbert is the highest point on banks peninsula which is the remnants of a volcano which Christchurch is right next to. We drove to Lyttelton and took the boat across to diamond harbour. (by the way, e and m, we did consider dragging you guys with us, but since we only came up with the idea late on friday, it seemed a bit short notice!)

Turns out Mt Herbert is somewhat higher than it looked. I foolishly claimed to be able to see the top, but the top turned out to be very much in the clouds. Was a good walk, took about 6 hours and 2 days for my legs to recover. You walk through sheep fields most of the way which is pretty, and you pretty soon give up trying to avoid poo. The last third or so was in the cloud. It hadn't been snowing up there but ice had formed mental shapes on one side of everything, including tussock - giving some cool ice finger shapes.

Hopefully we'll do it again sometime so we can see what is apparently great views, with Akaroa on one side and Lyttelton on the other. (and maybe that time, e and m and ?, we'll come haul your asses up there with us - so the D2 engine can show us what it's made of!)

Nice boat on the crazy blue water in Lyttelton harbour

Typical tourist shot

Port Hills with Lyttelton

Meeting locals...

...who are just enjoying the view

Cool ice formations

Nice day for it.

Glorious views of Akaroa

Well earned

A little respite

2007-07-13T13:41:00.000+12:00

As quite rightly pointed out by my dearest Miss G, this blog has become very serious of late. I think it's high time for a little lightening of the tone, so I took some photos of the ol kittens, cos lets face it, kittens cheer EVERYONE up!

We've been having plenty of adventures with them recently, cos it's been ridiculously cold over here the last week or two (-6 C frosts and hardly above zero all day at times). And what with grey's little bald patch, we've let them stay in most nights. And such things give you a great deal of insight into cat habits. Such as the somewhat surprising penchant for muffins. Apple muffins to be accurate. I'd left some fresh muffins on the kitchen table, well covered, but they managed to pull one off (very naughty - we've been trying to train them off the table, obviously). I noticed soon after, but since it was wasted anyway I thought I'd let them keep it, expecting them to give it a bit of a lick (guess they like the buttery smell). A couple of minutes later I wandered back and...nothing but a couple of crumbs left! Turns out kittens will demolish entire muffins! And kittens don't get sugar highs (thank God, they're bad enough without being high), they just crash out in a daze for a few hours! At least muffins contain a reasonable amount of butter; they've since polished off several slices of bread when left unattended! And we have started feeding them now, so they're not just starving or anything - they just like baked products! Wierdos. I need to explain 'carnivore' to them sometime, obviously.

Here's a couple more photos of em taken over the last wee while.

On a cold night, they both got tucked up in Sean's coat - super adorable!

Comfort levels - very high.

Scientific community take matters into their own hands.

2007-07-11T21:16:00.000+12:00

I spent far too much time today trying to get hold of the original source, but failed miserably. But I still want to highlight this story, and hopefully come back with some real data or at least knowledgable commentary when I get my hands on the RS publication.

The BBC did an article on the release of a study which should apparently finally put the nail in the coffin of the sunspot theory trumpeted by "The Great Global Warming Swindle" swindle (grrrrrrr....). I like the study author's comment: "All the graphs they showed stopped in about 1980, and I knew why, because things diverged after that, ...you can't just ignore bits of data that you don't like"

The story's covered by the BBC and the Guardian. Nice to see that the scientific community won't put up with the media willfully abusing them. It's one thing to give the other side of the story, quite another to make stuff up when the other side of the story is vanishingly small. Basic premise of the show - bash the naughty, apparently money-grabbing climatologists. And of course all those poor defenceless oil companies, with no money to research their defence. People complain that there's not enough evidence that global warming is happening, so money gets put into research to look for it. But apparently now that they're getting lots of evidence, all that (minuscule amount, comparatively) money is going to their heads and their integrity must now be questioned.

Several major scientific organisations have pointed out that the program adjusted data, misrepresented some of those interviewed, presented antiquated and discredited data as new, and even told outright lies (eg volcanos produce 100 times less CO2 than human activities, not more, as claimed). And unfortunately, the story panders to the audience's desire to ignore the problem.

So anyway, this was supposed to be a quick post, I wasn't planning to bash the GGWS! It just came out cos it annoyed me SO MUCH!! Anyone who has no idea what I'm talking about (ie anyone in NZ, I guess) can get a copy of the show from me, if you're interested.

Live Earth Complainers Part 2

2007-07-09T10:17:00.000+12:00

After my ramble last night, I've managed to figure out the thing that annoys me and have finally managed to form a succinct point! I dislike the fact that complaining about live earth is a self-fullfilling argument. By that I mean that if everyone decides Live Earth is deeply uncool, then yes, it will be a complete waste of time. If, however, people get behind it, ignore all the little 'oh concerts for causes is SOOOO last season' losers, just enjoy it and get into the spirit of it, maybe it will actually be a success and help get the ball rolling.
So yeah. I really am done now!

Live Earth Complainers

2007-07-08T19:28:00.000+12:00

Well, I hate to be a bore, but this is MY blog and I get to say my bit! I have heard from quite a few people recently that Live Earth is just a way for a whole bunch of celebrities in their private jets to feel good about themselves and organise a wasteful environmentally unfriendly waste-of-time festival. And I'm getting more annoyed about it the more people say it.

There seem to be a number of misconceptions about the festival. For a start, those who watched will have noticed that many of the artists who performed weren't in their home countries. That's because they were asked to play at the concert they were closest to. So most won't have had to fly more than an hour or so and many won't have flown at all. The website for the event had a great deal of information on it for how to get to the venues by public transport to help the audience avoid using cars and planes. And besides, if it wasn't this gig, the venues involved would all have had some other major concert going on anyway. Do you seriously reckon if these gigs didn't happen they would have closed Wembley for the weekend and planted trees over it instead? I don't think so.

It has been shown that these sort of events can raise awareness, to the extent that much needed change actually happens. After all it was just after Live 8 that a great deal of debt was cancelled for the poorest countries in the world, giving them a chance to start again and improve their lot. On that occasion about all people were being asked to do was write a quick letter to dear ol Tony. Unfortunately this time they're being asked to actually think about their own lives, find those areas where they are being wasteful and trying to tighten the belts a little. I don't think you'll ever hear Al Gore suggesting we all have to live by candlelight and ban all vehicles. We only have to make small changes, but we have to all do it. But of course until we're actually screwed and we have to squeeze into the last little band of the earth that's still hospitable, everyone prefers the ostrich position. Nice and easy huh? And if, as seems to be popular, the media tells us that actually it's all just a hoax (which they say is in the interest of giving both sides of the story) using misrepresented data and outright lies (don't get me started on The Great Global Warming Swindle!) only panders to our desire to ignore the possibility that we are shooting ourselves in the foot unnecessarily.

Now I don't want to debate whether climate change is really going to happen and/or happening. Cos I just don't know. Of course the number of scientists whose data and models all agree on climate change (and have done for 20 or 30 years) provides compelling evidence, but the major problem with this issue is that we just won't know for SURE until it's too late. I really don't understand what is wrong with using precautionary tactics. Some people compare the precautionary policy to the absurd concept of "pre-emptive war", but this is a bad and dangerous analogy, since war necessarily involves violence, death and environmental damage. The only thing needed to solve this potential problem is to tame our rampant desire to consume. As such, a 'pre-emptive war' on climate change is a much more wholesome beast. People claim that there's no point in each of us making an effort as long as china is still growing and polluting, but they forget that the main market for what China produce is US - half the time buying pieces of tat that we don't even need. And making these small changes will have other benefits - if you cycle to and from work each day you'll feel healthier and happier (as I now do since I made the change) and that way you won't have to pay to drive to the gym, then pay when you get there to run on an electronic treadmill. So saving the planet saves you money too! (not to mention your cheaper electricity bill)

One small point on the lack of consensus on if climate change is really happening, though: go turn your engine on, and sit down next to the exhaust pipe for a few minutes. What do you think? Does that smell like good, wholesome, natural goodness? Even if you don't believe in climate change, surely you'd have to agree that that air isn't good air. Not the life-giving, healthy stuff we like to breath, huh? So really, would it be that bad to minimise it - even if there is no such thing as climate change?

At the moment most of the debate for stopping climate change revolves around 'how can we produce electricity with less CO2 emissions?'. This sort of question is clearly very important (and as usual ol Georgie has set his heart on arguably the worst of all the options). But first and foremost, the easiest thing to do is just use less.

To return to Live 8 it is important to remember that poverty and climate change are linked. Our reliance on oil fans the flames of most major problems facing our society. Many wars (both outright and subversive) have been fought over 'strategic resource management' and many of these wars promote extreme counterreactions like terrorism. Usually the discovery of oil in a third world country does not cause the growth and development of that country; it throws them into turmoil. And realistically if climate change turns out to be true it will be the poorest countries that will be least able to adapt and will suffer the most.

I was, therefore, horrified to hear that Bob Geldof is one of the chief amongst the Live Earth complainers. Get this quote from our great saviour, Mr Geldof: "I would only organize Live Earth if I could go on stage and announce concrete environmental measures from the American presidential candidates, Congress or major corporations. They haven't got those guarantees, so it's just an enormous pop concert. ... I hope they're a success. But why is Gore actually organizing them? To make us aware of the greenhouse effect? Everybody's known about that problem for years. We are all [expletive] conscious of global warming."

Riiiiiiiiiight. I don't remember the bit of Live Aid when Bob got on stage and announced 'it's ok everyone; George, Tony and the boys have agreed to give all those poor people a few quid, so you can all go home now'. As I recall it was 'just an enormous pop concert'...which managed to generate awareness and force change. And dude, seriously, YOU organised the one twenty years before...we are all [expletive] conscious of poor African children. I'd say Bono was pretty conspicuous in his absence at Live Earth too. Seems like sour grapes to me - throwing their toys cos someone else found a cause too.

So anyway. I should close this rant and congratulate those of you who reached the end of such an ill-constructed and train-of-thought hodgepodge of ideas. All those of you who did will receive a free chocolate fish (those in the UK can have a rolo instead) for making it. Claim your prize next time you see me! Feel free to write abusive comments if you think I'm talking rubbish and if you can convince me, you'll get a bonus chocolate fish!

PS I must say, some of Live Earth did get on my nerves and some of those videos were particularly over the top. It also seemed like it was mix and matching different issues rather than concentrating on the main one. Plus I'm not convinced that changing lightbulbs alone is the answer (which is the impression the sum of those videos gave me), personally I'd suggest the humvees and Ford 25o's might have a little bit to do with it too. Although that video with Prunella Scales was genius! Anyone who can tell me who the guy in it was also gets a bonus chocolate fish!

Forgiven!

2007-07-03T18:34:00.000+12:00

It would seem that all is forgiven! As soon as the kittens came out of their boxes from the vet they were all over us and desperate for some attention! They're even more affectionate than usual.

I had a laugh at the vet's suggestion that they avoid exerting themselves for 3 days - how on earth are we supposed to stop them flinging each other and any other inanimate object around for 3 days?! And sure enough, I've already had to break up a monster fight that was kicking off, and they've only been out of anaesthetic for 5 hours! Grey doesn't seem fussed about her cut, although I'm sure she's a bit miffed at the humiliation of wandering round with her new hairdo.

Uh oh, the tell-tale bangs and crashes. Better go check out who's winning the fight next door!

2007-07-03T10:18:00.000+12:00

Now I feel truly evil.

The kittens were so well behaved last night, quiet as mice and cheerful this morning. And then I signed away their bits.

Poor little things.

West coast trip

2007-07-02T23:05:00.000+12:00

Thought I'd put up a couple of photos of me and Paul's trip to the west coast just before he headed back to the mothership. We went over to stay at my favourite NZ hostel - Te Nikau retreat. Hidden in amongst the rainforest in the middle of the back of beyond on the slightly crazy west coast. We took it easy over the Southern Alps and stopped off at Castle Hill (where they filmed large chunks of the chronicles of Narnia) wandering between the Maori sacred rocks. Then a chilled evening at a west coast pub, a couple of short walks through the rainforest and to the beach and the obligatory pancake rocks visit for the blowholes, which were in fine form and put on quite a show.
All in all a great weekend and nice to get out of town again.

By the way - anyone noticing a contradiction in my putting a whole bunch of photos of a roadtrip and a LiveEarth badge on my blog in one day should know it's the first time Norman's had a run out for ages, he hardly leaves his parking spot! But I hear you!

Castle Hill

Castle Hill

The main divide

Paul and Norman

He didn't pull that pose willingly!

Me n the bro at the beach on the west coast

Oh yeah, and me.

2007-06-29T17:20:00.000+12:00

In case you're wondering what I'm up to these days, I am surrounded by precarious piles of journal publications, scrap-paper and lab books and I'm becoming very intimate with the backspace key. That's right my friends, I am indeed writing. Or doing tippety tappety, as it's know in this office.

Fear not, my lab work is not finished yet - I still have a fair bit to do in there before I can finish. But I decided to get a large chunk of the writing out of the way and then go back in there once I've knocked a bit of writing on the head.

Writing is kinda fun, cos when you get to the end of the day you can scroll back through your day's achievements and say - yeah - I did achieve something today. In the lab you can do a 70 hour week and end up further behind where you were, cos all you've managed to do is smoke your precious starting materials and bleed the chemical stores dry of solvents. That said, writing is pretty painful; when you manage to get a real tough bit done, you pat yourself on the back...and then start the next tough bit! Continuous stream of fighting with the literature (eg discovering someone else did half your work - and got better yields!) and trying to make sense of your garbled lab-book.

Still, it's going quite well and overall I'm kinda enjoying it.

Little bugger!

2007-06-29T17:01:00.000+12:00

How did he know? Maybe some higher level of reproductive self-preservation kicked in.

So our kittens were supposed to get neutered today. Something which I feel quite guilty about in a way, not helped by both my parents (jokingly) saying - "oh how could you, when they trust you?!", and especially when Grey is so pretty and they both have such nice temperaments. Shame to take them out of the gene pool. But I know it's for the greater good of our cat infested neighbourhood. Just the other day, another kitten of about the same age as our two and who also looks suspiciously like Squish (their dad) showed up miaowing his little heart out! He's disappeared again so I'm hoping he was just a figment of my imagination.

But anyway, since we don't know who's feeding them, we had to keep them in last night to make sure they didn't eat anything. We've kept them in a few times before to let them get used to it (and Grey has now figured out kitty litter - I was so proud!) and each time they've been pretty chilled about it.

So this morning, bright and early I go out to find a happy Grey sat in her box, but no Monty. Anywhere. And there's nowhere to hide in our hallway. Was getting slightly spooked until I realised that our bathroom window was open by about 3 inches. Little bugger had managed to climb his way up there, then squeeze himself through the crack in the window and then drop down a good 6 foot. So now of course they both have to wait to get done next week.

So how did he know that this was the occasion to scarper? Did he get suspicious that we were being so nice? Has he had words with his homies round the neighbourhood? Beware the box, they say in hushed tones. I told Sean it was a bad idea to show them the boxes the night before!

Orwell - working on it.

2007-05-25T11:39:00.000+12:00

The UK has more CCTV cameras per person than any other country on the planet.

80 % are not signposted to warn people of their presence (as is required by law)

And now the police have spy drones.

John Reid : "Sometimes we may have to modify some of our own freedoms in the short term in order to prevent their misuse by those who oppose our fundamental values and would destroy all of our freedoms"

Our current government is spreading paranoia and fear throughout the people as effectively as the American administration

Americans at least have a constitution to defend their basic civil rights.

NB. No kittens were harmed in the making of this post.

Daft kitten!

2007-05-13T17:29:00.000+12:00

I hate to be so kitten obsessed and have every post devoted to them - but I'm gonna start this post with a few funny shots I got this arvo, playing with Monty. I was trying to take his photo, but he was more interested in the cord on my camera:

Step 1 : Monitor the enemy

Step 2 : Toy with it

Step 3 : And ATTACK!

So, now to prove I can write about something other than the kittens. It's been a cool weekend out of the lab, with Paul up to visit. He came up cos we went to see the very funny (and very handsome!) Dylan Moran (of Black Books fame) who came to town for a show. He was really funny and we had awesome tickets, right up near the front. Fortunately the lights were too bright for him to pick on the audience, so we were off the hook. I actually wore a dress and we went to a very posh winebar after, which for once I was appropriately dressed for!
Then today, we did a mini road trip over the port hills to Lyttelton and a bit of a cruise round the port hills. It was the perfect weather for it with a hazy sunny day. We stopped in Lyttelton to pop into the Wunderbar which is a super-cool little bar and finally I got a chance to take a photo of their wicked lampshade made of dismembered dolls heads. Pretty wierd! It's got a foosball table and for the first time EVER I beat Sean! Not that I'd wanna gloat! Anyway - a couple of extra photos and I'm off.

Nice view on the drive

Wishful thinking

Surreal - especially at night when it is lit up.

Kittens!

2007-05-09T18:41:00.000+12:00

Well, an update on the kittens is very due. Unfortunately, one has disappeared (although it was the least cute one in my opinion), but the other two kittens are very much still round the place. In fact our garden (and indeed our laps) have become their territory - much to the annoyance of Squish - their dad. It took an unbelievable amount of coaxing and occasional feeding to finally win them over, but Monty (the black one) eventually sussed out that he loves being stroked and about a day or two after first being able to touch him, he was up in our laps like a shot. Grey would just stand around and watch and clean herself, but eventually (with lots more feeding - she's a smart cat!) let us touch her and now she fights with Monty for our lap! They even sit on one lap together and fall fast asleep, which is adorably cute, if a little uncomfortable.

So I thought I'd put up a couple of pictures of them. They're still very small, even though they must be nearly 6 months old now.

It's great having the mountains out of your office window!

2007-05-09T18:38:00.000+12:00

Naming competition

2007-03-04T21:45:00.000+13:00

We have a cute little wild tomcat who we've known since he was a kitten who hangs out around our house (cos we don't have our own cat so it's now his territory). He is the most unbelievably affectionate and chatty cat and will even come over for a quick stroke late at night when most cats are in killer mode, which is most wierd cos he's a stray cat. We call him squish, for lack of a better name (I think it might of been my fault he ended up with such a stupid name!) . And anyway - Squish had kittens! Three of them and they're incredibly cute! We finally managed to get photos of them, but they're wild too, and they're still really scared of us. Sean is gradually getting one of them (and by coincidence it's the one which I think is the cutest and am seriously considering stealing when I leave!) to come near him so hoepfully eventually we'll be able to play with them all. They're super-playful and chase each other round our garden at night - so cute!

So anyway - we've named one of them (the black one) Monty (after Panesar - at Paul's request!) but we're trying to think of good names for the other two so all entries on a postcard! If any of ya'll have got a cool name for cute little grey/white stripey cats let us know!

My favourite! Look at that cute little face!

Monty

Rockin Aotearoa!

2007-03-04T19:54:00.000+13:00

Oh yeah - finally Kora got their asses back to chch, chur bro! They played 'cheap as chips', a oneday festival at uni today. They were on first and absolutely rocked the joint leaving us all wanting more, and then Fat Freddy's came on and played another pretty lacklustre set (at least compared to kora) although they did finally play Hope again - which is this awesome track they did when they first formed which they refused to play live again. Obviously they're starting to take themselves a little less seriously and chill out at last. Then we had Shapeshifter - a drum and bass act who were pretty awesome too. Got meself a nice sunburn (I mean healthy glow) and some cool pics a couple of which are below.

Paul came up to chch for the gig and it's been cool to see him and hear some tales from the vineyards. Quite surreally, John (Stalley - for those of you in the Enfield crew) moved into the bunk below Paul down in Wanaka which was pretty freaky! Paul and John came over for three weeks travelling when I was in south america a few years back so they'd met before and certainly Paul said it was pretty mental to just bump into each other in a random hostel on the other side of the planet! I had heard a vague rumour that he was travelling this direction but had no idea when he'd be around. Just goes to show how much I suck at keeping in touch with my mates, doesn't it? Apologies to all of you - especially John!

It's been Orientation week (freshers week in England) this week and so there were some cool concerts that we went along to. Saw Katchafire, Minuit, Concord Dawn and Black Seeds - a mix of dub, reggae and drum and bass, all fine Aotearoa music.

Well, time for those photos I promised. Hope you're all good and havin fun!

Kora rockin - chur bro's - you get your asses down here more often!

Which pill will it be, Neo? (Francis Kora doin his best Morpheus impression!)

Another bit of Sean's soul stolen. (note resentful photo face)

Connie wearing the Tshirt I made for her. She claims Kiwis are very dangerous creatures!

Me n my bro!

Why my boyfriend's great!

2007-02-19T23:11:00.000+13:00

That's right; my boyfriend is wicked! He's always great but he excelled himself by packing up a picnic basket and driving us up to the top of the port hills (the crater just south of chch) to an idyllic spot just before sunset on Valentines day! It was such a lovely evening and a complete surprise. Yep, I'm a very lucky girl! It's a really nice view up there and I took a couplie photos:

Conference time

2007-02-19T18:18:00.000+13:00

It's been seriously busy since Christmas (when isn't it though!) with visitors, uni work and a conference. The conference was organised by my supervisors, on marine natural products and included some of the biggest names in natural products, including some very cool synthetic types, including the uber-famous Prof Amos B Smith the third! Means nothing to this audience, but suffice to say, I didn't pluck up the courage to talk to him, cos I get star-struck by chemists - what a loser I am!

The conference was down in Queenstown so Paul came along with me to check out the scenery and maybe look out for jobs as Christchurch was surprisingly devoid of jobs for a man of his many talents! We had some good weather both on the way there and the way back and there's a few pictures below. Paul's birthday was on the day before the conference so there was some booze-fuelled madness that night! Unfortunately my supervisors made me work on his birthday and even worse made me go to the airport to meet and greet all the fancy scientists on the day after so I couldn't get too mad drunk, but Paul certainly made up for that and was great fun all night! Queenstown is kinda wierd, cos all the tiki-tour kids are told what time the happy hours are at each pub and schedule their nights so that if you just sit in a pub it'll be dead for a couple of hours then go absolutely mental for an hour, with these really annoying, drunk young tourists and then they all leave and it's pleasant again! It's an odd town, really, with nothing but tourists visiting and travellers working there. I don't think many actual Kiwis live in Queenstown!

I was planning to go tramping for at least a day or two after the conference, but unfortunately, despite it being glorious weather every day that I sat through 8 hours of talks, the weather was pretty dodgy when it ended, so in the end I picked up Paul in Wanaka (he went there half way through the conference) and we drove back to chch. Cool thing is that Paul managed to find some work in Wanaka and Queenstown had jobs around too, so it seems like he should be able to stick around and work for a while - which is sweet.

Since Christmas we've also been looking for two new flatmates which is always kinda stressful but hopefully we're all done now. My project at uni is feeling neglected and since the conference I'm trying to get my ass back into gear, but it's been distracted with housemate hunting and visitors - we have Gerhard who used to be in our group at uni staying with us which is cool cos it's been ages since we saw him and also met up with some other ex-group members who we hardly ever see. My project is getting really interesting though, and whilst I still have loads left to do, it's really enjoyable stuff. Fingers crossed it'll work soon and I'll be able to start writing.

Well, best show ya'll a few photos and stop waffling!

Lake Tekapo (and some wierd tourist)

Lake Pukaki (bloody tourists keep getting in the way of the view)

The beginning of a long and booze-fuelled night of fun!...

...But somehow I still managed to look relatively presentable with a sizeable hangover! It's kinda ironic that they made the English girl who's spent about 2 days total in Queenstown 'meet and greet' at the airport! "Welcome to Queenstown - I've never been here so please don't ask me any questions!"

Lake Wakatipu (Queenstown)

Me n my BigLilBro!

Lindis Pass

Christmas holidays!

2007-01-02T19:11:00.000+13:00

Happy new year ya'll! Hope you all had a great Christmas and lots of fun. We're back from a fun road-trip on the north island for 10 days n I've put a cuppla photos below. We did a mad dash from chch to Hamilton via Napier, Gisborne and Whakatane (missed Kora in their hometown by one night - how disappointed was I?!) in 3 and a bit days, which Britte's admirable steed managed despite being laden down with 5 of us, and a monstrous amount of luggage! We picked up my big lil bro in Wellington and it was awesome to see him - it's been a whole year and he's always full of tales of mischief! Then we had 4 days in Hamilton with Sean's family who were lovely and made us feel very welcome. Must have been a bit wierd for Paul to spend his first Christmas away from home with a big family who he'd never met before, but I think he still enjoyed it. After that we had a more sedate drive back down to chch via the desert road (which isn't very deserty!) and a cool little seaside town called Castle Point near Wellington. Great, crazy little lagoon which would be awesome except that all the fancy-pants Wellingtonians drive their bohemoth SUV's up onto the beach and park all over so that it looks more like a car park than a beach. Oh well, can't have everything. It was still great fun; Sean managed to get really sunburnt on his feet and I didn't, so I got to be plenty smug! Me and Charlie (Sean's bro) did a cool short walk up to the whitehouse and of course many Tui's (the local tipple) were adrunken! Then it was down to Wellington for a very boozy and amusing new years eve (Ah, those Tui's!). We managed to find a crazy, cool bar for midnight (just, thanks to Charlie's boozy directions!) which didn't even stop the music to mention new years, which suits me fine. Many more beers later and my hangover was nicely set, ready for the boat home the next day. Despite it being a beautifully calm crossing I was still pretty sick and I've decided that planes will just have to do sometimes! Can't go saving petrol all the time now, can I?! (Sorry Fiona)

Well it was a great holiday, but to be honest being back at uni feels good - almost like a holiday itself! Sometimes holidays are just too tiring and fun and by the time you're back you need another one! Paul is now staying with us and looking out for some gainful employment. He's already found a good pub for watching le cricket so he's happy! Come on England - surely you could manage one little draw for us?! Poor ol Brits over in Aussie - you'll ever hear the end of it!

Well, thank you to everyone who made it such a great fun holiday especially Charlie, Britte and the Devenish clan.

God smiling on wee Picton

Rough seas, oh ah me hearties!

Sean and Paul in Napier

An awesome waterfall for exploring; note size of charlie (bottom right)

Me n my bro at said waterfall

The boys getting ready to go black water rafting in waitomo caves

The bush around waitomo caves

Me and Sean planning our next move of the roadtrip

Mt Raupehu seen from the desert road

Mt Ngarahoe

Me and Sean with pahutakawa

Castle point

Charlie and the lighthouse at Castle point

View over the lagoon at Castle Point

Me and my handsome bro, boozed on New Years Eve!

The boat home

tongariro crossing 2

2006-12-17T22:28:00.000+13:00

I went up to Rotorua (or stinky ol Roto-vegas as it's more commonly called here!) a cuppla weeks ago to go to a conference and afterwards I did the Tongariro crossing which is a one day hike over a volcanic range just south of Taupo. The north islanders claim it to be the best one-day hike in NZ, which having lived on the south island for a while, I'd have to say is not true at all, but it was still a great tramp and the scenery is not like anything you get down here. You walk up a saddle between Mt Tongariro and Mt Ngauruhoe, which looks exactly like Mt Doom (in fact I think it was used as Mt Doom in the Lord of the Rings film) and apparently is about as much fun to climb! I decided against climbing it and therefore, for the second time in my life, allowed a volcano to defeat me. But I'm cool with that! (the first was Cotopaxi - Ecuador, which is the highest active one in the world and which I came to within 100 m (in altitude) of the top of but didn't manage to get right to the top) It's a great walk with some wicked blue lakes and crazy landscapes.

Mt Ruapehu

Mt Doom (also known as Mt Ngauruhoe)

The emerald lakes

The emerald lakes n some wierd tourist

Ruapehu in background with Ngauruhoe and the red crater in front

tongariro crossing

2006-12-09T20:33:00.000+13:00


me at the blue lakes on the tongariro crossing

Down on the farm!

2006-11-25T10:41:00.000+13:00

Well that's it, we officially have green fingers! I think I mentioned that we got a little crazy growing seeds and then had to dig up half my garden to plant them all, but its been unbelievably worthwhile cos EVERYTHING is growing! So cool! We've started getting courgettes, sugar snap and snow peas, and beans growing in the last couple of days and the tomatos aren't far off. These are, of course, in addition to the ridiculous amount of spinach and lettuce we're having to eat to stop the whole garden being taken over, plus the coriander we had in our thai curry, the oregano, thyme, rosemary and mint! We already had a couple of baby carrots too. I doubt the sweetcorn is gonna give us any, but it looks sooooo cool! What with the peach tree and walnut tree we're gonna eat well this summer! There's a couple of photos below of me pyjama gardening (my favourite weekend past-time!) and some of our vegies. Sorry to make all y'all northern hemispherites jealous with the sunny, warm looking weather - if it's any consolation it is ridiculously windy here as usual.

proud gardener
courgette (bottom middle)
pyjama gardening!
snowpeas
sweetcorn
Sean reluctantly having his photo taken!

my lovely laydees!

2006-11-11T17:55:00.000+13:00

I went to Lyttelton and Corsair bay with two of my most favourite and beautious french speaking buddies, Emelie and Jenna, and thought I'd put a couple of delightful piccies up.

Not had much interesting stuff to say recently, but will hopefully start having more photos and stories as summer gets in full swing, especially since my crazy bro will be over here to entertain me for the summer!

Beer, sun, surf and fun German stick throwing games!

2006-10-15T21:14:00.000+13:00

Just had a lovely (apart from the tired beer-induced headache I'm enjoying) weekend for Ben's birthday (the fabulous French guy who's been a great friend almost since I stepped off the plane here) in Gore Bay - a really nice secluded little village halfway between chch and kaikoura. There was a whole gang of us camping there and the blazing Nor-wester (hot hot dry wind) kept us all warm. Paula (see photo), my friend Anna's sister, who is staying with us for a while came along and met a grand total of about one Kiwi! Bit of an international crowd! We drank beer til there was none, played a fun German stick throwing game (which seems largely just to be an excuse to drink beer in the sun - those Germans know what they're doing!) and argued loudly into the night of the worlds woes! Then we all nursed our hangovers on the beach, watching Frenchies surf, in the warm sun. Perfect. Happy birthday Benoitito, and thanks!

My first peer-reviewed publication!

2006-10-15T20:48:00.000+13:00

My first publication (peer-reviewed) has finally been published in the excellent journal Journal of Organic Chemistry! Yay!!! You probably won't be able to access the paper but anyone who's interested, you can see the abstract online at the JoC website (2006, p7947). One hell of a lot of work went into that paper; two horrible years of a PhD (and I still have stuff to tidy up in that bit of my project) on my part and a lot of work by Cherry who found the compounds (we finally got the stereochemistry Cherry - sorry for the long wait!) and Maya and Gerhard for sorting out lots of details and writing it, so it's SOOOOOO nice to finally have it published! Maya said there must be a curse on the Malaysian fugus that the compounds were found in (the funky bonsai tree looking thing in the abstract) cos it seemed that anything that could go wrong (or at least slowly!) with the project, did!

Non-chemists may be amused to know that what took two years to get the paper published was the two dotted lines on the bit of the molecules labelled MePro. Ridiculously frustrating! But published, so thanks to everyone involved!

An Inconvenient Truth

2006-09-27T09:32:00.000+12:00

I had no idea that An Inconvenient Truth has only just come out in the UK. I got a chance to see it a couple of months back at a film festival (since when is NZ ahead of the UK?!) and I really recommend it. It's funny to think what the world would be like if Al Gore had only won that election! It is a very well put together documentary and he is a very good speaker. Even if you don't usually go to see documentaries at the cinema, go see this one - if we make it a box-office hit maybe then governments will listen.

There are many who doubt the existance of man-made climate change and as is always the case in science, it's much easier to disprove than to prove a concept. However even if you're not convinced, the changes that are needed are not necessarily that large, and the catastrophe that would face us if the scientists are proved right is too disasterous to play chance with. Go see this movie, then sell your SUV and get on your bike or hybrid car if you really must be one step ahead of the Jones'!

the beautiful people!

2006-09-24T17:11:00.000+12:00

Last night was our department's annual ball, and despite always promising not to go again, we of course ended up going. It was actually a very good night, with the required TERRIBLE music and equally terrible dancing, no dramas or toilet hugging - just good fun! Best thing was it was a masquerade ball so we spent all week making our masks! Ah, the joys of paper mache and glitter! Sonia's brilliant mask deservedly won the competition for best mask, her's is the blue one with the rose. Mine was (of course) the purple one.

cluster bombs

2006-09-20T23:41:00.000+12:00

I hate to get all political again, but I like to think that people power is still alive and kicking and that we can make a difference. I guess most will know that Israel chose to drop a monstrous number of cluster bombs in the last three days of it's war with Lebanon in civilian areas. This just as they were finalising the terms of the ceasefire. Even the Americans are like 'hmmmm...not too sure that was appropriate' and that really takes something!

Cluster bombs are specially designed to be indiscriminate and with a large number of the bomblets not exploding on impact they lie in wait to explode sometimes many years after the war is over. If they are disturbed later, for example while trying to rebuild a house or often when kids are playing in the rubble, they can explode causing severe injury or death.

Clearly these weapons have no place in civilian areas, but even in completely military cases they are of dubious morality given how indiscriminate they are and how long they can remain on the ground unexploded after battle lines and military targets have changed. These weapons are produced, used by and exported by our very own British government. In my opinion we should be pressuring our government to set up and heavily lobby other countries (in particular the USA and Israel) to sign an international agreement stopping the use and production of these weapons. There is a petition online for just this cause so if you're interested go along and sign it. Go to the British petition site or the international site.

As an aside the Israelis are still refusing to give the UN a map detailing where they dropped cluster bombs making the job of clearing them much more difficult and much more dangerous for the peacekeeping troups who have the job of clearing up Israel's mess. Yeah, cheers guys. We'll come bail you out again anytime.

codename e.

2006-09-18T23:06:00.000+12:00

It's time to blow my favourite petite demoiselle's cover and expose the wonderful codename e.! That's right ladies and gents, she who doth actually leave comments on my blog and make me feel like I have friends! Meet the lovely Emelie! The only art historian I know. That's a lie actually, sorry Morgan! OK, the first art historian I ever met! And by her side is the wondrous codename mpy (Mikki!), also a frequent contributor to this blog. They just moved into their lovely house on the hill in Lyttelton which has a fantastic view over the harbour and banks peninsula (for a great picture see Mikki's blog http://mpydesigns.blogspot.com/).

Lyttelton is a really cute little town on the inside of the volcanic crater that Christchurch is just north of. It has gorgeous oldstyle colonial houses and the most cool bar near Christchurch - the Wunderbar. I'll have to go there again and get some photos cos that bar is so wierd (in the good way).

So anyway - thanks mpy and e. for a lovely bbq on Sunday (I managed to get my chickpeas peeled in time by the way!) and for always leaving messages on here! Love you crazy kidz!

Subversion part II

2006-09-17T01:05:00.000+12:00

I saw "V for Vendetta" when it came out a few months back and whilst I knew it was a good movie, somehow the circumstances (being on holiday and having all sorts of other fun stuff to fill my mind) deflected me away from it. I saw it again tonight and I have to say - it is a faaaaaaaaaakin awesome movie. One of the best movies I've seen in a while and it really benefits a second viewing.

It discusses how fear and its use to manipulate the people can allow a nation to accept increasingly idealogical and fascist rule. The analogies to current issues in the world seems to only have made the film more relevant since I last saw it 6 months ago, and I hope that this doesn't represent an ongoing trend. Our acceptance of the loss of civil liberties in the face of terrorist attacks must be very carefully considered and while America may be showing a more extreme aspect of this fear, we are certainly not exempt from it in Britain. A very obvious example would be the killing of an innocent man in London by our own police force after the London terrorist attacks. I don't say that we should tie the hands of our government and police force, but we should be very wary of how slippery the slope can be.

I really recommend this movie; if you were disappointed by the second two Matrix movies, watch this one. The Wachowski brothers got it right again.

Subversion!

2006-09-15T00:01:00.000+12:00

Banksy just gets better! Most Brits probably know him but for those of you who haven't come across him, go check out his website www.banksy.co.uk. He's a cheeky and subversive graffitti artist from Bristol and he's over in the states causing some mayhem! He snuck a life-size guantanamo bay prisoner model onto a ride at Disneyland and apparently he snuck an elephant (well hidden in pink!) into a warehouse for an exhibition. Keep an eye on the bbc news website for his ongoing stunts.

I don't usually understand art, but his stuff I get and I love it! I'd say he's the best artist Britain's generated in a long while. Anyone with the audacity to paint on the Israeli's illegal wall is pretty rock and roll in my books!
So cool!

stuff

2006-09-10T22:08:00.000+12:00

I've been slack with this recently cos it's been all go here! I finally managed to get a pretty important step in my research to work but it only works when it feels like it and so I've been frustratedly working pretty hard recently. If I can get the thing reliable it's a very important step though, so it's well worth the effort and pretty exciting stuff. Well I think so anyway. But chemists are wierd. I wouldn't trust their definition of exciting if I were you!

It's not all work though, cos the spring is finally here in Christchurch and we went snowboarding today. Perfect conditions for it - gorgeous sunny day and good snow and we didn't even have to get mucky trying to put snowchains on cos the snow was all on the piste and not the road! What more could you ask for?! Couple of pictures below.

Also become quite the budding horticulturalist recently, cos we decided to grow a couple of vegetable plants from seed for the summer and I didn't really expect much to work, but actually they've pretty much all grown perfectly! So now we'll have our own classy vegetable and herb garden. Of course we may never get any actual vegetables out of it, but it's still fun to try! What with cycling to school everyday, our own "worm farm" (which is posh for compost heap!) and our own vege plot we're becoming right little hippies! I've got a lot of carbon footprint to make up for with these flights to NZ though!
Hope you're all hunky dorey and having fun! x

Earthquake!

2006-08-13T20:34:00.000+12:00

I've been in New Zealand for 2 and a half years now, and the one thing I really wanted to experience was one of these earthquakes it's famous for. And today at 4.29pm I FINALLY felt one! Initial readings say it was 5.9 on the Richter scale but it was miles away (Murchison) so it wasn't very strong. Which is pretty much what I wanted - a nice gentle one! So cool, just a gentle rocking motion; I was on the 7th floor of the chemistry building so I guess it was amplified. Sean wouldn't believe me when I phoned him, but 5 mins later it was already up on the geonet website. Apparently some people could hear a rumble here in Christchurch too. But the birds carried on flying and it certainly stayed windy so I can discount a few myths for all you friendly folk!

OK, that's my excitement for the day! I also saw a ridiculous French movie called the science of dreams (which was mostly in English) and it was great in a whacked of sort of way. I love Gael Garcia Bernal anyway - such a hottie! Hope all's well with you kiddies!

chemistry's glamour girl!

2006-08-12T14:25:00.000+12:00

Well if the volumetric flasks don't convince them, the hot sheila on the HPLC will! That's right my friends, I'm now the fresh face of chemistry! Go check out our uni's chemistry website (http://www.chem.canterbury.ac.nz/) and you shall see just how cool chemistry is! I'm ready for my champagne and cocaine now - the heady heights of the modelling world must be going to my head!
(Please note, there is no way that any chemistrician would ever be seen dead in such a clean lab coat under normal circumstances - it even has creases down the sleeves!)

Go Jenson!

2006-08-10T14:58:00.000+12:00

SO my man finally won a grand prix! Wahoo! He got into F1 quicker than I expected but took longer to get his first win than I thought. Hope it'll be the first of many! With Alonso coming second and Michael Schumacher crashing out!

Very frustratingly the terrestrial TV over here gave up the rights to F1 and I don't have sky so I didn't get to see the race. I probably wouldn't have seen it anyway though, cos it starts at 1am on a Sunday night over here! That said, it's nice to have the option!

A big rant! Arguments against my position welcome. Unless you're some psycho rightwing Fox-viewing neocon religo freak.

2006-08-09T23:02:00.000+12:00

Well, since I warned I was gonna allow myself to ramble aimlessly, I should get on with it! One of the things that has obviously led to the most debate recently and the thing that winds me up unbelievably is the current situation in the middle east. I guess some people might call me a bleeding heart leftie, but I'm reasonably comfortable with that label and if you don't like it don't read any more! However, I can't believe that the international community has let the situation get anywhere near where it has and that the Israelis weren't forced to show restraint right from the start.

I should probably say first up that I'm not anti-Israel (although I think the world would probably be a safer place without it) but I find their way of dealing with its neighbours absolutely counterproductive, short-sighted and incomprehensible. Incomprehensible because only a couple of years ago, even Ariel Sharon was making great efforts towards a peace with Palestine by giving back some of its settlements (although really only very limited amounts compared with the amount to land that they have taken since the original 1947 UN partition plan) and now they will have to restart the peace plan (if indeed they ever want peace) from a much weaker position. By weaker I obviously don't mean militarily weaker, but as history has shown them again and again, military strength and the threat of nuclear warfare doesn't equal anything like a peace. To be respected as cooperative neighbours would go a lot further towards a lasting peace. I also realise that many argue that Israel only gained all its extra land due to Arab aggression, however showing a genuine willingness to return it would help moderate parties like Fatah gain genuine power in Palestine. Whilst Israel constantly undermines Fatah how can it possibly expect it to be a strong partner in negotiations. Whilst it constantly alienates the Palestinian people with concrete walls and blockading its borders how can it expect them not to become extremist and certain members aggressive.

The thing I find the most depressing and ridiculous is the fact that all this was started by the fact that Palestinians voted DEMOCRATICALLY for Hamas in government. The context of this vote has to be understood. Most commentators agree that this represented a lack of faith in the Fatah government with regard to internal issues rather than pushing for aggression against Israel. Indeed Hamas did not go on any sort of warpath upon coming to power even when it's funding was withdrawn. I do not wish to show support for Hamas, as obviously terrorism in any guise is wrong (including when military powers do it). However, for several months Hamas were keeping their heads low and there seemed to be real hope that they may be more moderate now that they were in power. In fact there were reports on the BBC that Hamas had drawn up a statement implicitly recognising the state of Israel - a monstrous step forward.

Also interesting to put in context is the original "kidnapping" of an Israeli soldier (a military target and therefore in my opinion not a terrorist act). This act came after a series of shellings from Israel into Gaza including the missile which killed a Palestinian family of seven on the beach (I guess you remember the pictures). This sounds quite provocative to me, but then the day before the "kidnapping" Israelis also launched an incursion into Gaza and "arrested" two Hamas members. I realise that Hamas is defined by Israel as a terrorist organisation, but given that it is supposed to have given control of the territory to the Palestinian authority, the lawful course of action is to approach them. By undermining the Palestinian authority's territorial control and carrying out "arrests" in Palestinian territory its actions effectively add up to no more than a "kidnapping". Is it hugely surprising then that certain radical groups (which apparently did not include Hamas) chose to carry out their own border crossing raid and attack one of the MILITARY outposts that had been shelling innocent families on beaches? And what is Israel's response to this retaliation? To bomb the only power station in Gaza, the university, the parliamentary buildings, the foreign office, to threaten to assasinate the democratically elected prime minister and to take prisoner a large chunk of the government. Hmmm. Good, I like what you've done there. Not enough you say? Oh ok, close the borders completely cutting off all trade, and severely hamper any access of aid. (Remember people, trade aid sell Palestinian olive oil - buy it - it's great!)

And what exactly do the international community do. The lefties go 'that's ridiculous, completely disproportionate and collective punishment' which is against Geneva conventions and all that is humane. The powers that be do nothing. A week passes and still Gaza is under siege. Powers that be : nothing. Another week passes. Hezbollah enters the fray. I guess my point is - TWO WEEKS passed before Hezbollah got in on the action. In that time I was about ready to bomb the IDF and I'm not a crazy muslim extremist! (Not Israel I hasten to add, but God did it annoy me that their army were allowed to get away with it) Can the international community lay the blame for what was to happen afterwards anywhere but at their own door? Tony Blair, I can't imagine how you're going to get on at the ol pearly gates, mate. You can't even represent your own party, let alone your country. Then again most of our fair nation is populated by Sun and News of the World readers - maybe you do represent the majority.

So Hezbollah deflect attention away from Gaza. One particularly interesting fact is that many news sources are now saying that actually Hezbollah captured two soldiers during an Israeli incursion into the Lebanon at a village called Aitaa al-Chaab. Sounds to me like Israel are on pretty thin ice when they claim "kidnapping" when they were actually arrested by Lebanese police on Lebanese land. Even if they were "kidnapped" the ensuing carnage that the IDF have unleashed on the population is absolutely criminal. To bomb highways and bomb convoys of civilians trying to flee the absolutely indiscriminate attacks on the Lebanese infrastructure is inhumane on the highest level. I don't know the most recent figures but a couple of days ago the number of children killed by Israeli fire in the Lebanon was 35 % of all casualties. The average % of the Lebanese population under 16 is 27 %. Now to me that, at best, represents a complete ineptitude of the IDF and Israeli intelligence (unlikely given that they're known to be amongst the best in the world) or a deliberate terrorist style emphasis on killing innocent people. I would find it very hard to believe that statement until two events occurred. Firstly check out the following picture (I don't wanna copy it in case it's copyright) http://www.sfgate.com/c/pictures/2006/07/25/mn_mideast_lebanon.jpg
That pretty much sums up for me the IDF's attitude. A high precision missile right through the centre of the red cross sign of a red cross vehicle evacuating wounded civilians. If you read about it you'll find that while the medics in a second red cross van helped to pull injured children out of the first vehicle, their red cross van was also bombed. A RED CROSS vehicle. I mean, seriously. I actually can't describe how mad that makes me. Two RED CROSS vans taken out by precision guided weapons. How the HELL did they get away with that. As if that isn't enough, they then kill four UN peacekeepers after those peacekeepers contacted them 10 times to tell them that they were PEACEkeepers and that they were in very serious danger of being killed. Each time they were told shelling would stop. Clearly UN peacekeepers don't harbour Hezbollah militants or terrorist rockets. What does that say about Israeli intelligence if being told 10 times by peacekeepers not to bomb here doesn't prevent them from bombing.

I'm sorry if this post has got a bit out of hand, but I figured if I put all my political crap into one post you can at least ignore the whole thing! If you've made it this far that means you either want to write a scathing comment in reply (most gratefully accepted, cos I have maybe been getting a biased view - although I do try to get as balanced sources as I can) or you agree with lots of what I said and are reading this on your way out to the protests against the IDF aggression! If the latter is the case PLEASE make a life size effigy of me and take it with you! It's so frustrating not being able to go to protests here. We need to put pressure on our government to take a stand against Israel and show them that what they are doing is not acceptable. Within days of the invasion into the Lebanon the French prime minister visited Beirut as a show of solidarity with the Lebanese. What has our own prime minister done? Four weeks later and there is still no ceasefire. Stalling only leads to escalation as seen when we did nothing to halt the collective punishment in Gaza. This is not part of the war on terror, this is the reason for the need of a war on terror. Every day that we allow this carnage and aggression we create a hundred new terrorists and a hundred new excuses for terrorism.

I leave you with a quote from the Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon: "We received yesterday at the Rome conference permission from the world... to continue the operation". Please help change his mind.
I hope you're all hunky dorey. Things are good here; cold drizzle. Excellent! Miss y'all.

Rah!

2006-07-30T22:11:00.000+12:00

Hi! All is pretty good over here in NZ, my work has slowed to something of a snail's pace recently which is quite frustrating since now is the time when I need to be finishing up the experimental part of my PhD and getting started on writing, but motivation levels are at an all time low and it seems the easiest things take days. I managed to spend most of last week doing one reaction (partly because it turns out it's the sort of reaction that likes to empty itself all over your fumehood, or indeed your face(!), no matter what you do) and I still haven't managed to purify the product. Ahhhh! However I've broken out of ChCh twice in two weekends and it's been awesome to get back out into nature again. Went snowboarding yesterday at a great little ski station and hopefully below (if I figure out how to upload pictures) is a picture of lake tekapo and the MtCook mountain range from the top of the station. Plus there's also a picture of me and some hairy brute I picked up on the chairlift. (I should probably clarify that I am indeed referring to the lovely Sean!)

Also went up to Hanmer with two lovely girls from my group, Jenni and Anna. We did a mini walk before marinading ourselves in the hotpools up there. We more or less boiled ourselves alive and all had stinking headaches after nearly 3 hours sitting in the 38 degree pool, but it was so cold outside we couldn't face getting out! Below is a photo of us.
Other than that not been up to much. Saw Kora, the band that I've been raving about on my previous blog, a couple of weeks ago and once again, they blew my socks off! I really have never seen such a good live band. All those in Aussie, keep your eye out for them supporting Salmonella Dub (the original and still one of the best of the Aotearoa dub scene) in October. It's a concert not to miss and Rich I'm sure will back me up! They have an unbelievable energy on stage, I really hope they'll get big enough to play Britain so you guys back home can see them.

No other exciting news my end. I hope you're all doing well and having fun. Drop me a line sometime.

Hello!

2006-07-22T00:27:00.000+12:00

Hello!

Well, since Sean (my bloke) won't go to my other blog on myspace cos he gets scared when pictures of him flash up on screen, I've been instructed to get a sensible blog! That's cool with me, cos the myspace one I've only put newsie stuff up on, but this blog will largely be a more rambling affair, which may prove either very dull or far more interesting, we'll have to wait and see. My apologies in advance if it has no narrative, is political at times, if I make arguments which I then blatantly contradict a week later, or if I get excessively excited about rather uninteresting things. Hopefully you'll bear with me!

Since I have become seriously slack with keeping in touch with my friends recently, including (in fact especially) the people who I miss the most, I hope that you'll pass by from time to time, and get into a heated argument or a bit of banter or some good ol reminiscing with me. When you only see/contact people from time to time, you spend so much time 'catching up' that you don't end up having the sort of chats that you miss most.

So I'll leave my first entry at that for now. Thanks for visiting my blog and 'please come again'!
LuvMe x