13 March 2008
It didn’t take long for my procrastinating over blogging to become total abandonment of the idea.. god. A typical example of how lazy I become with these things and why my imaginings of a regular, witty and insightful blog are never likely to come to fruition (never mind that I would struggle with with witty and insightful bits).
In fact, I’m only writing now as it means I don’t have to do the washing up, although instead I should be actually working on ethics proposals for my PhD. Or playing on Xbox.
For the 2 people who might have stumbled across this cheesefest of a an excuse for a couple’s blog (I’m thinking of you Jack), you might be excited to know that Matilda is once again safely imprisoned back in her cage. Happy days!
The neighbours found her wandering around outside their flat three floors down from us. Thank Jesus/Allah/Buddha/whoever that they own guinea pigs and knew what to do and what to feed her. How the bejeesus she managed to get down there without killing herself is still puzzling us, but more so, we’re still wondering how she managed to escape from her pretty secure jail.
I’m convinced I closed the cage properly before we went off to Puneet’s party but I (and Mae come to think of it) have complete lack of faith in my memory, so chances are I just left it open like the gimp that I am.
I’m supposed to write about my PhD, I’ll put some photos up as they look pretty cool and make what I do sound more exciting than it is. This week the neuroimaging has been on the back burner and I’ve been in the Chem. Eng. lab working on methods to extract fatty acids from the blood samples I collected during my MRes.
It’s a pretty laborious process, and I have zero experience in chemistry so its been pretty hard going, but I can’t complain cos its also pretty fun! I have two guys in the lab who have been very patient with teaching the ins and outs of the process and lab technique which has been great. If you’ve ever wondered what it looks like if you add chloroform and methanol to blood then get ready to be happy:
Tomorrow I’m sticking my supervisor in the MR scanner while he takes some melatonin to make himself drowsy. The idea is to use the same technique when we get some of the kids in but we need to know how effective it is and more importantly what kind of effect is has on the spectroscopy data.
All of this is just gobbledegook I imagine as I haven’t actually explained what my PhD is about. Can’t really be bothered to do that right now, but I promise to in the next couple of weeks. Bet you can’t wait!
Also had the idea of doing a Radiohead song of the week. Every week for about the last 2 years I have one Radiohead song that bores in the very base of my brain and I end up looping it hundred of times over while at the gym or on the train. This week its been:
Radiohead: How to disappear completely
In order to try and create some sense of continuity here is a list of things that have made me happy this week:
- Getting past Inter in the CL (and actually having another person as well as a pint to accompany me during the match)
- Feeling like I’m getting somewhere with the blood analysis
- Flying through Halo on heroic while picking up the rest of those buggering skulls
- Getting promoted to the top division with my Master League Liverpool team. Just can’t seem to have a bid accepted for Ryan Babel though!
- FINALLY buying a new watch. Although Mae thinks it’s supremely ugly. In her words: “Oh, you picked function over form, that’s nice.”
I’m sure there are other things but they can’t have been that great if they don’t come to mind immediately.
Things that have ground my gears this week:
- Paying the extortionate train fare to uni and not even being able to get a seat
- When I’ve spent hours waiting around for some blood samples to settle and one of them becomes inexplicably cloudy and crap and the other comes out perfect. Even thought I’ve treat both EXACTLY the same way!
- Feeling motivated to learn Norwegian with my book and mp3s on the train and then just falling asleep with the book my hand. Trains really sucks the energy out of me, no matter how perky I feel before I get on.
- The horrible feeling of being underprepared for my Norwegian oral exam with Mae’s parents (just like when I was at school)
I’ve written far too much and it all feels far to trivial for me to continue. Its really easy to just keep gabbing once you sit down and get typing. But I guess that’s why Mae named one of our categories “Ramblings”.
Bye!
Sajid Nawaz Khan
17 March 2008
Wow, that’s amazing! My favourite Radiohead song is Karma Police.
Hope you, Mae and Matilda are well otherwise. Hoping to pop down with G after his exams!
Mae
17 March 2008
Your witty ramblings, bullet lists and photos of blood really help increase the standard of our blog! <3
Kjersti
17 March 2008
There are more than two people reading your ramblings, Tulpesh! So keep writing! I read the first post a couple of weeks ago, and I almost died with laughter :) Hope you Norwegian oral exam goes well, by the way. Looking forward to seeing you when you come to Norway!