It's just another week...

Its been another week, and its definetely been interesting! The best way to tell it, I guess is to start from the start....

Monday: Ok, this was one of the days where nothing much happened. A typical lab day.

Tuesday: I had my first "Meet the Aussies" session (1), which went quite well. All the members of the group turned up (although some were late) but the great thing was that they were all enthusiastic and were willing to talk/contribute. Its great, as I can take a more passive role and allow them to talk. Funniest thing was all of them looking skeptical when I told them I was doing a PhD. I really must look young! But I explained that the postgrad system is different here, and that for science its the norm to do a PhD when you're 22. I guess that most of them have a postgrad commerce background, which involves masters before a PhD. Also today, I began my quest to discover why one of the pieces of equipment in the lab is not working (the Microrotorfor for 2D gel electrophoresis (2)) as the sales rep came in. It was basically a waste of time, but at least its a start to figure out what's wrong.

Wednesday: Had an OVA meeting (3), but got there late, so I had to stand outside the door and try to listen to the talk. The freaky thing was that I bumped into Lily, who was one of the other biochemistry honours students last year. Since I couldn't hear the talk, Lily and I talked for a while. It was good to catch up and hear what each other was up to...she's working as a RA (research assistant) at WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute) and she was surprised I was doing a PhD as I was a bit undecisive last year. It just shows that anything can happen in a few months...

Thursday: The most interesting day! I went to the lab at 6:30am to start my bacterial expression experiment (where you need at least 8 hours) and found out that the power had gone out in South tower (where the lab is). As it was pitch black, I couldn't go to the lab until it became light. It ended up being no power for South Tower for the whole day and as nothing was working in the lab, no work could be done. As I had my 2nd year microbiology tutorial that day, I had to stay. So instead, I ended up playing trivia with Brett and Roza, which was lots of fun even though we came 2nd last and signing up for a Fitness First gym membership, as I wasn't assertive enough and couldn't say no. In my defense, I thought I was getting a free session, but that wasn't the case :P

Friday: It was a big relief to come to the lab and find the power was back. Yay! The quest of the Microrotorfor continued, but there are a couple more other explanations for why its not working. Last resort is to get it sent to Sydney to be fixed. We will see next week. Did not do much work other that - just killed time until the first BAMBII (4) meeting. Now I have an idea of what is involved this year with BAMBII - it sounds like heaps of fun, but a lot of work! Also caught up with Despina and Mariam for dinner, which was good to chat and catch up! :)

The weekend: My lab meeting talk tomorrow! Trying to sort out the explosion on my desk. Watch Princess Mononoke. Watch the Amazing Race...well I've done that already - so glad its back! Have another shot at Laura's muffin recipe (which I didn't end up doing). Get some sleep.

(1) The "Meet the aussies" program is an initiative of MUOSS (Melbourne University Overseas Students Society) which basically allows international students to speak to a local student in an informal setting.

(2) 2D gel electrophoresis is a technique that is routinely used in biochemistry as a way to separate proteins in a mixture based on their pI (the point where the overall charge of a protein is zero) and their size.

(3) OVA meetings. Once upon a time there were two scientists, Frank Carbone and Bill Heath who were both using a protein called ovalbumin in their research. They felt it would be a good idea to have meetings at WEHI to discuss ideas and their immunology research. It has now grown exponentially in numbers, so it feels like a formal seminar than an informal lab meeting...but everyone there has a link to ovalbumin in some way...

(4) BAMBII somehow stands for Biochemists and Molecular Biologists at the Bio21 institute, and is the postgraduate student association for the biochemistry and molecular biology department.

United by the moment...at the Commonwealth Games!

Hee hee, today I went to my first ever live sporting event...which happened to be the athletics at the Commonwealth Games!

The only drawback to it was the fact I had to get up early, which seemed kind of wrong for a Sunday morning. Normally, an early morning doesn't bother me that much, but I had been at Ryan's birthday's party...

So, being a bit blerry eyed, my brothers and I headed off for the MCG via the train. At 7:30am in the morning. It ended up being that we got to the MCG at 8:30am (events didn't start until 9:00am), but at least we were able to find our seats easily (it also helped we had previously been to the MCG during the Commonwealth Games Open Day of all the venues). Our seats were actually all right - we were on the ground level (not in the stands) so we had a pretty good view of the track - just before the back straight. However, we were in the coldest part of the MCG...the sun didn't come our way until 2:00pm!

But we were able to see a variety of events - the 100m events, the marathons, the 400m events, javelin and shotput. Plus some medal ceremonies. My favourite had to be the women's marathon - it was such a close race between Australian Kerryn McCann and Kenyan Hellen Cherono, and when Australian Kerryn McCann arrived back to the MCG, the atmosphere was absolutely amazing - we were all (76,500 people!) on our feet, cheering her on and being 'united by the moment' and I got in touch with my inner hooligan! And when she was presented with her medal, the stadium was on their feet singing the Australian anthem. I now understand why people get so involved at sporting events! There were many other highlights, but the ones I'll mention here are:
- at one of the 100m events, the athlete kept running and ended up doing an entire lap of the track until one of the officials told him the race was over
- doing mexican waves - very cool watching it go around the stadium!
- cheering on the last competitors of the marathons
- watching the marathons on the big screen and going "Look there's Melbourne Uni/Royal Parade/Grattan St/Royal Exhibition Building etc...
- and the crazy spectator who decided to run across the MCG. It was funny watching the police trying to 'figure out' the best was to stop her!

We ended up staying until 3:00pm when the last of the athletics was done. The plan was to then check out some of the festival events in the city, but we ended up either just missing the session or went to the wrong venue. So after that, we headed home. But it was fun to watch and I'd probably go to other live sporting events in the future! You feel a kind of kinship with the everyone else there as you cheer and barrack for a particular athlete/team to win.

*sigh* now its back to uni and the regular lab routine...but that's got its own surprises!

The one and only first post!

Geez, blogs are seductive things. There it is, a link at the bottom of an email and being a link you click it to see where it goes...and you find yourself in another world completely different to your own. You start to read it, then keep read it as you become more and more engrossed in the blog entry. The next thing you know, you want to read the next post, and find out more about this place.

Well, it has gotten to the point where I have created my own blog, so I can comment about these other places. I also feel like I'm invading their privacy by just entering these worlds, but never acknowledging my presence. I feel obligated to say

"Hi, pleased to meet you. I felt that I should just let you know that I've been reading your blog and been reading about your deepest, private thoughts despite the fact we have not met. Just thought you should know."

However, you could also argue that by putting your thoughts onto a blog, its anyone's game and that you put it there at your own risk. Therefore anyone can read it. I guess as someone who values her privacy, I feel I should at least inform the person I'm reading about them.

I guess that means now I also now have the opportunity now write about whatever I want, and have my own space. That's seductive in itself. The problem is it kind of contradicts my views on privacy. Well, I guess that's apart of the conditions of a blog. Plus I'm someone who tends to contradict herself anyway *lol*...well I lose arguements because of this.

So, what else can I write in my first post? At the moment I'm listening to "Listen to your heart" by Roxette. Love this song, it would have to be one of the songs that would have to be played at my funeral, or if I don't have one, just play it when you've found out I've left this planet. I'm procrastinating at the moment, as I have a research plan to write. Welcome to the fun world of a PhD, which something I will probably mention more than once in this blog!

Hmmm, its hard to write something when you're trying hard to come up with something interesting and the waffle gods have deserted you, so I guess I shall end this entry with a quote from someone else that always makes me smile, remind me of the small things in life and that anything is possible:

"Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest complement, or the small act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around." - Leo Buscaglia