The 39 steps to a thoroughly British experience

Well we survived the 5 day mad dash tour of the UK- even managed to squeeze in some

wonderful English riots along the way. I won't say much about that except that I have seen some of the worst and best in this country, I've been ashamed, infuriated, saddened and uplifted all at the same time.

Anyway we/they managed to

1. Have close encounters of the cow variety- in the city courtesy of the Town moor in Newcastle

2. Listen to choirs practicing Parry and Elgar in Durham Cathedral

3. Eat vast quantities of fish and chips- in fact it was fish and chips 3 days in a row- score 1 for British food, or was the other food that bad??

4. Walk through Heather and wild mountain thyme

5. Eat haggis (and like it!)

6. See Salmon jumping up the Shin falls

7. Take a red London bus and sit up front, upstairs

8. Be accosted by a Dumbledore clone on the Royal mile

9. Hear bagpipes on the breeze ( the best way in my opinion) and up close and personal

10. Kilts, kilts, kilts

11. Be delayed on a train due to disruptive passengers being removed,

signalling difficulties and waiting for other trains

12. Been searched through airport security with grumpy, unhelpful staff

13. Sticky toffee pudding

14. Drunk Irn bru (I think I may have 2 coverts to the cult of Irn Bru)

15. Been munched by the terror of the west coast of Scotland...the midge

16. Whiskey tasting at 11.30am

17. Met a real Highland cow

18. See some of the (in)famous nightlife of Newcastle

19. See some of the craziness of the Edinburgh festival including synchronised leg waving, victorian magicians and a full on street musical Sound of music/austin powers cross

20. Watch the sunset behind Edinburgh castle

21. Squished on a tube, with luggage

22. Pose outside Center court in Wimbledon

23. Cross the swinging bridge of Doom over a gorge and waterfall- witnessed by a million

tourist (that one joyous terror was all mine)

24. Enjoy a pint in a proper pub

25. Insulted by Neds on Princes street

26. Sitting on a london bus, watching a Hindu festival pass by

27. Experiencing a rowdy 40th birthday party in a restaurant including joining in singing 'happy birthday'

28. Superdry stores- which have nothing to do with Japan, but have random Japanese labels on the clothes, its the reverse of Engrish

29. Pub Lunch

30. The endless wait for luggage at Heathrow

31. Sheep, everywhere

32. Toasted bacon sandwiches and mugs of tea- first class on the train

33. Wrapped up in blankets eating BBQ outside

34. Oyster cards- I'm a lucky holder of a special commerative Royal wedding one...lucky me!

35. Splurging in a Cath Kidston store- we were in there for hours

36. Takeaway Ramen - Tokyo style in Newcastle

37. toast and jam for breakfast- no random salads or hot dog sausages

38. black cabs with british flag designs...the olympic fervor is stepping up a pace here

39. Collapsing in a big heap at the end of this and needing to sleep for a week

And a few snaps from the madness...

Tour guide duty....British style

Well...hello blog, been a while again hasn't it. Not really my fault- work and life got in the way.

I came back off my management course full of confidence and ideas- which I got into practice at a meeting down in head office of the company who's part funding my project.

It was my first time there so I was a little nervous about what to expect. You know how you get these ideas of how places and people should be? that was me- I had visions of suits and suits with shiny white coats, glass windows, uber security, golf carts (like all the movies show) and well.... I got security, which was not unexpected, a few suits and mostly jeans and casual and lots of jogging people and an atmosphere like most university campuses.

Anyway the meeting went fine- it was a little weird at first not really knowing what everyone else knew, but apparently everyone seemed happy so I guess- yay for me!

From there I went off down to Wiltshire for a camping/christening weekend with my friends from uni. It was a lovely break, even if the weather was pretty terrible- heavy rain, then heavy rain and gusty winds. I think if it hadn't of stopped for a few hours each day it would

have been a pretty miserable trip.

With all this travelling on trains I wish the companies would give out train miles or loyality cards- I'd been in first class all the time with all the travelling I've done recently.

I had last weekend off to recover and this weekend by brother and family are up. Next week however, I'm on tour guide duty.

Two of my Japanese friends will be arriving for a mad dash around the UK for 5 days (as you do). We went on a 2 day bus tour of Rishiri and Rebun islands together 2 years ago- that was a strange Japanese experience.

Everyone one else (who were significantly older too) got up at ridiculously early hours in the morning and stomped around the ryokans we stayed in and then we had to practically run around all the stops we had on the tour to keep up with the rest of the group as they zoomed around the various sights of the islands. This time we're travelling by trains, planes and automobiles as opposed to trains, buses and ferries. It should be good fun, we're heading up north to my parents house for a couple of nights-a cultural exchange. Hopefully my Mum will not fully implode with stress before they arrive (and that my Dad and sister remain sane in the face of my mother in full on Visitor mode).

Can I eat my own words?

Well here I am in my luxury hotel- just checking in with my email and life before another 3 course dinner. Dare I say it- I'm actually really enjoying myself on this course- I have learnt even more bizarre terms and acronyms- SWOT and PESTLE and all sorts of goodies like that and you know what- its all starting to make sense. Maybe there is a manager lurking under this scientist.

I've got another 2 days left here in my little luxury manager course bubble before the realities of the project might taint this happy feeling, but I think I may even be able to take charge a bit more and be more assertive.

It is a lovely break away from lab life- get up in the morning from my giant soft bed and black out- curtained room and amble along for a buffet breakfast, then an hour and half of work before tea and biscuit break. After another hour and a half it's lunchtime- another buffet with hot and cold food and desserts of chocolate cake. Then another session before afternoon tea and brownie or tea and scones. A bit of a break before dinner to take in some pool and sauna in the hotel before the next feast arrives and then we've been heading off the pub. I could get used to this life- though my stomach and liver may not.

Learning the language of *%@#**

Oh hell, I know I've not been very good at blogging. Its been hard to find the energy and something to write about too. Truth be told I've not been very good at getting anything going recently. I think I've been caught up in getting used to my new job and learning the ropes of all this new job entails, as well as catching up on friends, family and carrot cake.

Part of this is learning the business side of research and the language that apparently goes with it. And boy has it been frustrating at times.

The research side I love and really enjoy, already I've learnt some new things and I think I've nearly got the whole working with other people down pat (I'm almost surprised how easy that's been), but my funding is part university, part company and part government and this means I have to attend courses and fill out many forms along. Things like personal development plans, forcefield analysis, executive reports- things that take me far from my comfort zone. I'm happy in my world of PCR, western blots, shRNA, siRNA and transfections etc. (I'd explain, but that would take hours- so try the font of all knowledge known as wikipedia for an overview of those terms should you wish to know more;or bore yourself to death)

Now I have to take on a whole new world of language, and I've found it kinda frustrating because so much of it seems like rubbish. So much of it seems like stupid terms which hide what are in fact simple things; executive summary? Actually just a summary of work:forcefield analysis- nothing to do with Star trek, is just a list of people or things that influence the progress of a project. I think its this whole perverting simple ideas by wrapping it in crap terminology that has me bugged.

Unfortunately, I've got to embrace this language to complete this project; I'm off to a course in a couple of weeks which will will involve all of this so I'd best start embracing this sooner rather than later. The only consolation is that this course will be in a luxury country house hotel with pool and spa.

Wordless, but not soundless Wednesday

Wanderlust weekends

Phew...I'm having day 2 of resting up and its so good. I feel like I haven't really stopped for the last couple of months, moving flats, getting to grips with work and then I've been out and about visiting friends and family. I popped to Edinburgh at the beginning of April to meet up with my friends, who were across from Sweden on a conference and a fresh arrival out from Sapporo to here to wait for their work permit to head to Sweden. O was in Tokyo getting his visa for the UK on the day of the March 11th earthquake so it was good to see him.The weather was a lovely early spring day

From there I decided to pay a surprise Mothers day visit on my family- another 4 hours north of Edinburgh. It paid off, she had no idea and was grumping at the lack of card before I arrived unexpectedly; of course later she says she knew I was coming...

It was a lovely trip up and down, through some of my favourite scenery. Parts of Hokkaido always reminded me of parts of Scotland (maybe thats why it was easy to live there...). The following weekend, it was party time at the racecourse in Newcastle, where I managed to bag a prize from the prize draw, not the tickets to New York, but still very much appreciated.

A couple of weekends at home and then I was off travelling for Easter- down to London to meet up with some more friends for a trip to see the fantastic Legally Blonde musical and chill out in pre-wedding, heat wave tourist infested London.

Well, after all that its been nice to be a tad lazy, although when I say lazy, I have spend most of my weekends popping into the lab with various experiments to do and paperwork to try and catch up on. I think its all the work thats been keeping me really, really busy recently. and I still feel like I've got loads to catch up on and get to grips with...still, but more on that later (if I have time).

Golden weekend

Yes, I'm still around. I'm enjoying the super extended weekend, thanks to a certain wedding (what! you mean you haven't heard about it? or seen the highlights repeated or the special edition newspapers/magazines/mugs or chocolates? have you been in a coma?).

I should be able to catch up on all of my recent travels, this being the first weekend in well over a month that I'm not somewhere else or having people over.