... being stranded in Budapest!
At -17 deg C!!!!
With lousy cheapo 11GBP trainers and two pairs of socks and double gloving and truly amazing frostbite!

It was amazing how everyone was crowded around Keleti station, locals and internationals alike, all with heavy suitcases and backpacks, and flooding into the platforms only to stand around as the throng grew bigger and bigger without anyone actually departing or otherwise leaving the station. Even the schedules stopped updating at 10am when they realised that all the trains were delayed for 40min-2h and counting. Entschuldigung Sie, Wien, we will try to catch up tomorrow! (and please for heaven's sake be warmer than -10)



It kind of beats being in London though. The UK is absolutely pathetic when it comes to snow and the weather is bollocks there. All the snowstorms and no machinery or people used to removing their remnants. At least the cold here is rewarded with pretty scenery, instead of a really lousy sheet of powder that turns into slush too quickly or comes down together with rain that immediately washes it off. Also the whole country is shutting down again just because of a sprinkle of snow compared to what central Europe gets every year. Frightful.

1. Have just completed Evil Presentation Signalling The End Of Term 1, and am glad to say that I didn't get too badly killed for questions. I am terrible with questions, and being half-awake on a (-1)-feels-like-(-5) degC morning with a 8am sunrise does not help you talk about theories of lipid order which are still not yet part of standard biological belief. For once though a doctorate holder has complimented me on clarity and Shawn thought it helped his interest in the lipid raft theory!!! I think I am growing up scientifically. *sniffles and melts a little inside*

2. First snow! The only year I've been here when London actually snows at a "traditional" time. How weird. It appears to be sleeting instead now. Well that was short-lived.

3. My heart's greatest desire is for my bed, lots of sleep, and either a mocha frappucino (damn you, Starbucks) or hot tea.

4. Actually come to think of it, it would be for BA crew, union and directors to bloody make up their mind about whether they're going on strike.

5. I am typing in the cluster room with gloves on and feel just a little lame.

6. Budapest tomorrow, Vienna next, and if BA get their act together I will be back Christmas eve!

I've lost an entire day of possible paper-reading and protocol-writing productivity to dysmenorrhoea. Sometimes I wonder how much precious work and time I could stand to lose from this, if it's going to carry on into the rest of my life. To think I was rid of this because I haven't had a cramp rendering me quite unable to stand or sit for years. What I would give for naproxen and no practicals tomorrow! I pity whichever poor sod who becomes my lab partner tomorrow, for having to work with my immobility and utter crank and tutor's Very Vague And Incomplete instructions. >:(

My life revolves around the wrong things these days.

I want this project to work so badly. It seems ridiculous that it still doesn't and that I am still doing the analysis wrongly. :/ Come on, science!!

It's actually very liberating not to have lectures about every day at strange hours just so I can do this stuff and feel like I am moving things along.

I am not happy, although my frustration lends itself to things that are impolite to speak of here before I do the polite thing and approach involved parties first. There are sometimes never convenient times for those things, though. I think I have grown comfortable with "getting along" with people and in the process I have lost both the audacity to offend and the integrity to evade considerations of politics.

I put my last gamble of faith for the weekend in someone's hands one hour ago, let's see how things unfold.

Scientists outdo themselves again with titles.

Nat Immunol. 2009 May;10(5):447-9.
Aimez-vous Brahms? A story capriccioso from the discovery of a cytokine family and its regulators.
Taniguchi T.

"Do you delight in Brahms? Do you delight in immunology? Tada Taniguchi recounts the story of Type 1 interferon and its downstream regulators."

Granted it's an essay though, but, seriously, are we trying a bit hard here??
The full text even comprises one image of a "sillhouette of Brahms". Hooray.

I'm actually starting to download papers on my own volition while browsing past issues of Nature, and recognising names I want to download. I take this as a milestone in the loss of my educational innocence.

... :)

Well I've spent my first ever Reading Week
1. Sitting through 6 hours of student presentations.
2. Wondering if I'm fated to get a 2.1 and what I've gotten myself into, changing degree like that
3. Wrestling with the LSRII, which has a grudge against me. The old LSR wasn't quite as stubborn, but maybe it's just because CellQuest is more primitive software and hence harder to screw up.
4. Waiting around for patient blood of dubious arrival status. Dear future volunteers for research, please keep to your appointments for poor students' sanity!
5. Bashing my head in over laboratory reports with very vague instructions.
6. Borrowing guides for Vienna and Budapest. :):)
7. Buying 32842093482 snacks from Chinatown.
8. Sorting my ancient receipts for the first time in the past 1.5 months.
9. Filing my notes and discovering with horror that I haven't printed past the third lecture for the Inflammation module.
10. Killing my printer.
11. Being reminded of Singapore by the semi-tropical rain and utter silence of the flat past 3am.

It's Sunday and despite having told myself that I need to spend Reading Week reading, all I've covered are the first two pages of Janeway. Hoho

I have also been not-so-secretly Crumpler shopping and while I've so far been able to stay off the stuff for 5 years since silent craving I've stumbled on this little thing that looks AWESOME. I do desire a new laptop+messenger bag and the compartments are utter love, especially the zipped side pocket. Also it is the cheaper side of Crumplers for its size and I have an unfortunate soft spot for mid-greys... HOW DARE YOU TEMPT ME SO, HOW DARE YOUUU.

Having the most dreadful combination of headache and nausea. Why does this happen when I need to be quick with the LSR time?? I can't postpone my booking because Graham's on the machine right after. I hope this isn't the winter headache thing I keep getting these few days, it's going to be a huge damper on productivity seeing as the daily neverending rain has begun already. :/

Do thy thing, paracetamol, for the sake of my project!!!