All blogging activity suspended until I get this bloody thesis written. Very very merry Christmas!

My goodness. I've not posted anything of substance since Saturday.

Well, I had a great weekend. Did a small bit of work, did a small bit of Christmas shopping then went to stay with Gemma. We got takeaway pizza and watched The Machinist with a freakishly skinny Christian Bale. It was horribly brilliant.

I was pretty jealous of Gemma's very beautiful flat - she's decorated it right nice. And turning 27 this week I felt a bit of a loser that I have yet to qualify and yet to buy a house but my baby sister has done all of these things. But then I'm not prepared to work the crazy hours she does so fair's fair. And I got my own back by flooding her bathroom.

Not my fault. Stupid fancy square taps. I was in the shower and adjusting the cold tap with my foot, a tried and tested method in my own bathroom. I applied slightly more pressure than was necessary and turned the ice cold water on full blast. The water pressure was such that the shower head started to rear up. I was a bit on the frozen and shocked side, and by the time I had worked out what was happening, turned the cold water off and wrestled the shower head back to its rightful place, there was about an inch of water on the floor. Nicely done.

Then ma and pa popped up to deliver birthday pressies. I got GREAT pressies this year. Including one of these things...



A 'Time Machine'!!! Isn't it cool? It's a dock for your pod which is also an alarm clock - you can either be woken up by your pod or by the radio. It's so funky looking, it really does look like a portal to another world, like if you put your arm through it, it would actually disappear. Also when I opened the card from ma and pa a massive butterfly flew out! It was a huge cardboard butterfly with a simple elastic band mechanism that you wind up before putting it in the card, so when you open the card the things flies out right at you. Shit myself I did. I jumped a mile. But it was brilliant - it looks like a real butterfly in flight. Genius.

But mostly I've been silly busy this week, hence the lack of posting. I actually managed to do no work at all on my birthday but I have been out seven nights in a row. I am sleep deprived and a bit manic. I have just over 2 months left to finish all my lab work - I may have to admit defeat and lay off the blogging for a while. I'm sure I'll still find time to read and comment and that, but I just can't keep up at the moment. It won't be forever though I guess. REALLY looking forward to it all being over...

Toccata and River - I can't comment on your blogs!!! Grrrrr!!! I'm sure it'll be ok soon but just so as you know I AM reading, just not commenting!

I have big news. Thursday night us knitting ladeez got together as it was the birthday of one of our number. We did some knitting and drank some mulled wine. Somehow we all got around to measuring each other, like you do.

I have been 5' 5" since I was 12. Three years ago, at a science fair, I was measured by some infrared thing as 5' 5" dead on. Not any more. I HAVE GROWN 3/4 OF AN INCH!!!! Woohoo! I am 5' 5" and 3/4 which is a bit of a mouthful so I think I'll round it up to 5' 6". I'm king of the world.



I'm off to stay with my sister for the weekend. Before I go I have work to do, gifts to buy, cards to write. But it's not a problem 'cos I'm 5' 6", mate.

Sadly my boss has been signed off work with stress, which is terrible. I do feel sorry for her, she's under a lot of pressure at the moment.

BUT, she does have a tendency to stress me out by asking me what I'm doing, how it's going, do I realise I've not got long left now? Even if I'm in the middle of an experiment she'll say helpful things like 'we really do need to get on with this' and I want to yell 'I can't make the science go any faster!!!' in her face. But I don't. It's actually quite a relief not having her around. So first thing I did was to book myself a massage and hair cut. Lovely. What a great big enormous slacker I am.

My hairdresser always plays the CUTEST videos, this one is even cuter than the last one. The tune is 'Hi' by Psapp who are big in love with all things feline and throw hand-made (by them) cats into the audience at their gigs. I'd not heard of them before I went to get my hairs cut but I'm liking their style, and I LOVE this tune...

Hi

The most exciting thing of the week so far? 'Five US' is showing series one of Dawson's Creek, the most ridiculous TV show ever made. I'm not sure I've seen the first series before, I fought long and hard against watching it at all but Anna made me. Every time I watch it I end up yelling 'but they're 15!!!!' at the telly like a mad old woman. Dawson has truly remarkable hair. It's MASSIVE and clearly blow-dried. He's 15!!! And he has a permanent 5 o'clock shadow and HUGE carefully manicured topiary for eyebrows and looks very much like someone in their early 30s. But my favourite thing about it has to be the script...who talks like that? I mean who talks like that anyway BUT THEY'RE 15!!!! Actual quote...


Joey: So the friendship? You don't think we're friends anymore?
Dawson: I don't know. Are we more? Are we less? All I know is it's just not the way it used to be. Nothing is anymore.
Joey: It's called social evolution, Dawson. What's strong enough flourishes and what doesn't we look at behind glass cases in science museums.
Dawson: You and I? Are we museum bound?

15 year old boys say thing like 'dunno' 'whatever' 'dunno' 'yeah'. 'Are we museum bound?' WHAT??? You're 15!!!! Honestly.



In tonight's episode Jen's ex-boyfriend came to town. I actually really liked him as he was rather hateful to stupid moaning miserable Dawson. He picked up his E.T. doll and started stretching its little brown arms and Dawson bleated weakly about it being a collector's item. See how it has sucked me in? I wallow in my hatred of it I can't help it.

I've been crazy busy with a research meeting today and yesterday. It would be being a bit harsh to say it has been deathly boring, but it's been hard going. The talks have all been interesting but it's really difficult to sustain interest and concentration for 2 days solid when none of it is that relevant to me.

But last night made it TOTALLY worth it - I went to a big meeting dinner on the SS Great BritainSS! I swear my life isn't normally this exciting.

The ship, Brunel's luxury ocean-going liner built in 1843, has been restored and is now kept in museum-like conditions in a dry-dock in Bristol. Although it's in a dry dock they've built a beautiful glass floor at water level which is covered with two inches of gently rippling water and lit from underneath. It looked absolutely glorious when we turned up last night for the champagne reception. We had full reign of the ship and once everyone had a glass of fizz the purser took us all on a big tour. Then we had dinner (caramelised onion tart, lamb shank, apple upside-down cake) in the 'first-class dining saloon'!!! It was brilliant.



In other news, I got me a new phone. Very quick work on the part of the insurance people. I have lost all my numbers though. I've still got the same number so please text me if I used to have your number!!! I have a bare address book and it makes me sad.

Well you can't have everything. Turns out the price for appearing in a Nick Cave video is that you lose your mobile phone on the way home then your boiler breaks so you have no heating or hot water all weekend. I had to make a million phone calls to sort out my mobile (the nice insurance people are sending me a new one) and I had to listen to Stu make a million phone calls to the gas people. They turned up on Saturday afternoon and when they couldn't find a parking space IMMEDIATELY they turned round and went home. But they didn't tell us this, oh no. They left us waiting and shivering. Idiots.

I'll just post this then that's it for the Nick Cave waffle I promise. One of my favourite Nick Cave tracks - best use of a glockenspiel (or whatever it is) ever

Come Into My Sleep

Just another day at the office

So there has been a couple of days break in my attempt to blog every day. I have a really really really good reason for this.

The most unbelievable thing EVER happened. On Wednesday I was at my desk, eating my sandwich, updating my links for this page, when I saw an advert. I replied to the advert and spent all day Thursday in London filming a Nick Cave video.

Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, Martyn Casey and Jim Sclavunos have formed a new band Grinderman and they put out a request on myspace for people to be in the videos for a few songs. As it was the day before the shoot I didn't think anything at all would come of it. After a small amount of arguing with myself about the fact I had a hair appointment booked and if I did go I'd have to cancel, I copied a photo from a blog entry and sent an e-mail not expecting a reply. By 6pm they had said they'd love for me to come down and asked me to bring a hot boy along. So I rang dogga and off we went to London. By 11am Thursday I was dancing like I was possessed while the band played live in the tiny upstairs room of a pub in east London. I was also required to strip down to my undies and do a bit of snogging. This involved making a fairly unusual phone call to Stu in Paris asking how he felt about me gadding about in my pants for a Nick Cave video. Literally unbelievable.

Funny really, but doing a PhD in neuroscience I don't get asked to do this kind of thing much. It was the most surreal day. It was fascinating getting to see all the behind-the-scenes stuff, all the fannying around involved in making a few videos. The things that Warren Ellis can do with a violin are astounding. And, of course, Nick Cave singing a matter of inches from me was a huge honour and privilege. The director (same director from 'The Proposition') was BRILLIANT. In fact all the crew were wonderful and the atmosphere was great. And the music is amazing, 'No Pussy Blues' ROCKS. It's difficult to blog about really - I'll never get to do anything like it ever again and it's hard to describe how completely unexpected it was, and how it far far exceeded any expectations I had about what it might be like. Back in the lab yesterday it was hard to believe it had happened at all.