Its funny how some little things bring your mind back to the big picture - I did my lab talk about the progress of my PhD project, and I realised that in seven (now, its nearly eight) months, I really haven't done anything at all ie. I'm still doing the same things I was doing at the start of the year.

*sigh* Talk about feeling like you're stuck in some place.

Anyway, that's an ongoing thing that will require attention. But to take my mind off that, I've been trying to do other things while my project moves sluggishly along...

Monday to Friday. A combination of
- experiments - they never ever seem to end
- lab lunches - this is not the norm - it was to celebrate Jess and Danielle's new jobs! but that means they're leaving the lab :(
- meetings - Number of meetings I fell asleep - only one!
- seminars - Number of times I fell asleep - in both of them :P
- demonstrating

The working week ended on a bright note though - Chris and I went out for dinner on the Friday and managed to walk from one end of Southbank to the other. Luckily it didn't rain while we were walking outside. But I think even if it did rain, it wouldn't have ruined the night at all.

On Saturday, I had breakfast with James at the Fairfield Boathouse. If you're ever looking for a nice, quiet, scenic place to have breakfast, I'd definetely recommend this place. You can also walk/bike ride along the river. Although you're not limited to breakfast, you can have coffee, tea, cakes and sundaes which I'm dying to try. Unfortunately, they didn't have pancakes :( A highlight had to be the hot chocolates, which they serve on a holder containing a tea candle which keeps your hot chocolate warm. It was nice to be able to drink a still warm hot chocolate after finishing your breakfast. The marshmellow they give you as well was different - its a big block that is very sticky and it melts in your hot chocolate like an iceburg.

On Sunday, it was the Melbourne Uni Open Day, which was a lot of fun. Plus it was one of those beautiful Sunday afternoons that I have missed - and made me realise that I'm lacking some good old sunshine. Pulled off the hyperactive crazy person quite well I think. Plus I get a bottle of wine. Can't decide if I want red or white though. A tough choice, because I have no idea which one to pick!

Yesterday, I also started my Basic Car Maintenance course - I can cross another item off my to do list! Its for 8 sessions, and hopefully by the end of it, I'll be able to look after my car and not freak out if I ever break down on a lonely highway late at night...

But there's still a while to go, as at the moment, I only know what the spark plugs are (they provide the spark to ignite petrol and air in the piston chamber which is found in the engine) and that batteries are much, much heavier than you think. Oh, and that you're supposed to replace our spark plugs every 20,000km. But it looks like it will be fun - its not a big class, and we'll be able to bring our own cars in for the later sessions so we can learn how our own cars work.

:P Had demonstrating today as well, and found out we had taught the class the wrong thing. *sigh* The lecturer in charge of this subject will go through it again with the students, but arrrrgh. Felt very stupid. But I did learn that I can really talk crap and sound kind of convincing though. I don't know if that will be useful, oh wait, if I ever decide to start my own cult...At least we don't have to do any more demonstrating this week.

And its not even Wednesday yet. It feels like its the end of the week though. Until then its the combo of experiments/seminars/meetings/anything else that happens unexpectedly because that's the way life goes...hmmm, that sounds like a song. Oh, I hate it when I can't think of the title :P