Days have gone by, and its suddenly Wednesday. Thought I'd try something out, with the onset of this really warm weather. Its summery weather, and I thought, why not wear my skirt to the lab today? Problem with that, is that you can't wear open shoes in the lab, in case you drop something (which is highly likely in my case). So I spent today changing my shoes around depending on if I was in the lab or not :P Have to admit, it is a bit annoying, but its more comfortable with my other shoes (well, flip flops/thongs), it makes me feel more summery, which puts me in a more upbeat mood (they're red and colorful!) and help me face that big mountain of work that is facing me at the moment. Arrrgh....

Anyway, don't want to complain about that anymore. My basic car maintenance course is coming closer to the end. I managed to change a tyre on my car this week! Woo hoo! Although it did take me a good 15 minutes to find that spare tire. But at least I know how to do it. Oops, wait that was last week, this week was learning about the fuel system which was so interesting that I nearly fell asleep. But at least I know there are 3 types of fuel (petrol, diesel, LPG) and that all have their advantages and disadvantages. Its all confusing, but the easiest thing I find is that all you need to remember that everything is interconnected and if one thing is broken, eventually everything else in there will be affected. Which basically means I don't want to touch anything in case something explodes. Who would've thought a car would be so dangerous? Like a wolf in sheep clothing.

Oooh, I also started radio training this week! The one thing that is quickly becoming apparent is that it is easy to listen to what you need to do and what the 'radio rules' are, but actually doing it is a different thing completely! It is sooo nerve racking, much like the nerves I get before I have to do a oral presentation. Can just feel that adrenaline flooding through me. Hopefully we get to practice! The other thing we need to learn is to how to use all the equipement - there's so much of it! You have a mixer desk in front of you which is your control panel. It allows you monitor how loud everything is, and to turn on/off the microphones or the CD player. I also got to know some of the other people I'll be working with - Chiara and Somayeh. Although there are meant to be a lot more people - there's supposed to be 13 of us on the team for the show.

On the lab front, just doing the usual experiments, though since my supervisor is now back from his holiday will now have to show him what I've been doing. Plus that little thing called confirmation. Also doing demonstrating, so I have to fit my experiments around it. I'm so lucky I don't deal with cells yet - only with protein, and the great thing about it is that you can freeze until you want to use it. But I can't do that all the time, as its not a good thing to do repeatedly to your stuff. Its very traumatic, to be frozen, then placed in a nice warm, bright environment, then back to be frozen again...

Its a strange paradox - I like to keep busy and do a range of things - not just my PhD project, but its such a fine line between keeping busy and having way too much going on at once. Especially since things seem to be going towards the way too much side. (can't wait till november when confirmation is over) So it was really nice today to spend some time with Chris today and enjoy his company :)

:P I know I'm tired and lacking energy when I find all I can do is focus on a screen on a power pack watching the change in voltage. Watching those numbers go up and down...

But that's ok b/c there's only one more day in the week to go! If I can handle these last four days, then I'll be fine :) But arrgh, just remembered to do something, so can't write a proper post - was going to write about the movie "Little Miss Sunshine" which I saw last night with Chris. I could rave on and on about, but I'll sum it up in three words: It was brilliant! I haven't laughed so much throughout a movie :)

Movie reviews: Thank you for smoking and The Devil Wears Prada

Its now the end of the mid semester break, which means that demonstrating and my basic car maintenance course starts again, and things will become a bit more hectic. Plus the fact I'm going to be on the radio as a part of the Dr What program on SYN FM - woo hoo! :) (if I get through training, that is) And that stupid 6 month confirmation. But that's not what I want to write about. Its been movie season at the moment - I've seen two movies this week despite the fact that the majority of movies are aimed at the kids that are on school holidays.

Movie number 1: Thank you for smoking

I have to admit, I had no idea what to expect from this movie. I went and saw this one because I was going with my lab, and this was the only one we could all agree on. I'd already seen Kenny; Roza doesn't like scary movies, which eliminated Silent Hill; I don't think Geordie or Jess were too keen on Monster House; and the sessions in the Half Pipe at Melbourne Central (which is where Brett wanted to go) were not at the right time, and were showing Silent Hill and Kenny. No one wanted to see Garfield 2, or The Wild.

Luckily we had discussed this before we had left the lab, so buying tickets was a speedy process and also ensured we were in time for the previews (the new Hugh Jackman movie, The Prestige, looks interesting). As the movie has been showing for a while, we did hope that we would be the only ones in the cinema, but alas, that wasn't the case (I still haven't been to a movie where I'm the only person in the cinema). It was still pretty empty though.

Hmmm, the best way I can think of to describe what it is about is to imagine a long winded battle. On one side, you have the anti smoking people, who fight to have smoking outlawed due to its effects on your health. On the other side, you have the tobacco companies, who are fighting to sell their product. The twist to the movie is that it is told from the tabacco company's point of view, rather than the anti smoking guys. I know its a very simplistic view, but I watched this movie thinking of it as a battle, so as a result, I was barricking for the tobacco company (?) as they were fighting against "poison" stickers to be placed on cigarrette packets to the American senate. There's betrayal, secret deals, love and comradeship galore in this movie. On the whole, it was very entertaining, the acting and characters gets a big thumbs up and I'd recommend to anyone who wants to watch a well made movie.

Movie number 2: The Devil Wears Prada

After some frantic text messaging, Mariam, Despina and I arranged to see The Devil Wears Prada last night. Just a warning to anyone who orders dessert at the Groove Train at Melbourne Central - the slices of cake are HUGE! I ordered a slice of the Mars Bar cake (yum!) but it was absolutely huge! It was literally death by chocolate, and I was feeling a bit sick as we walked into a packed cinema. Ironically, it was the same cinema that I saw Thank You For Smoking. In a nut shell, the movie is about a recently graduated journalist, Andrea (Andy) Sachs, who becomes a personal assistant to Miranda Priestly, who is the editor-in-chief of Runway, THE fashion magazine. She is also the boss from hell. As I'd read the book, I already knew what would happen, and had wanted to see this movie mainly b/c I wanted to see how it would be done.

The key to enjoying this movie is that you need to leave your brain at home and don't think. Oh, and check out what kind of clothes they're all wearing. Some of what they were wearing was just plain wrong, but there were other things that were ok. At one point, Andy was wearing a VERY nice pair of boots, and when she's in Paris at the launch party, she's wearing a really sophisticated black dress. *sigh* They looked really nice, but I wouldn't be able to wear them anywhere. Well, the lab, since I'm always there. The soundtrack to the movie was quite good as well, very upbeat and poptastic. Overall, I'd say the book is better, but I think with movie adaptions from a book, the book is usually better.

This has nothing to do with the movie, but we were looking for a place to have coffee afterwards. I was feeling pretty sleepy. You would think that it isn't that hard, as it was only 11pm. But all the places in Melbourne Central around the cinema were closing, as were Starbucks. How hard is it to find a place to have a coffee? We ended up going all the way to Lygon St and choosing one of the many cafes there. It was quite funny as we were hunting for a place, as there was people everywhere celebrating West Coast winning the Grand Final. A lot of drunken antics. *lol*