emma

So I'm currently at a nuclear physics summer school in Newcastle. It's not so bad I suppose, apart from the weird schedule they have put us on (morning and evening lectures with afternoons free for sport, i.e no time for drinking) and it has just been made a little better by the fact that my talk is now out of the way. It went ok I guess, but I was very conscious of the fact that I didn't really have a nice complete topic to talk about, only some background into what will be interesting to study and how I might eventually go about it although I have made no actual progress towards my goal. I did have some encouragement and discussion with one of the legends of theory however, so that's something at least.

Before I came here though, I took a little road trip with some colleagues to Edinburgh for the bank holiday weekend, just in time to catch the last of the Fringe festival. It was a great weekend all round. We managed to fit in some walking and sightseeing, an exhibition of photography and a couple of the comedy shows. All the stuff we paid for was pretty good, particularly Rhod Gilbert and Dean Haglund (who is better known for the character Langly in The X Files). The latter was probably more funny for my friends, who got to sit and giggle as I was invited onto the stage to 'be' Dean's arms as part of his improv show.

I should probably go to bed now as we have lectures at 9am tomorrow (they are cruel people), although instead of doing sport in the afternoon I am going to be watching my first live football match when Newcastle play Wigan. It does mean I may have to sacrifice one tutorial though, but I wont tell if you don't...

This last month has been packed full of culture for me and Ant, with a trip to the Royal Albert Hall for the Proms and two Shakespeare plays performed by the Guildford Shakepeare Company. Not the kind of things we would usually get up to, but definitely enjoyable and something we will make more effort to do again in the future.

We have also attended a wedding in Suffolk, engagement party in Reading and my post-graduate summer ball. All of which were fun and eventful.

Unfortunately the weather hasn't been the best of late, which was most definitely true on the weekend we decided to go camping in the Cotswolds with Ant's university mates. We picked a day of torrential rain and flooding to make our journey and it took us 12 hours to get about 90 miles up the road to the campsite, but by the time I had managed to pick up the Old Man from a little village called Wantage (a few miles from where he works) it was not worth turning back to go home. We finally pitched out tent at midnight in total darkness, after navigating several road blocks and traffic jams, but luckily for us had picked a site on top of a hill. The nearest town had pretty much been drowned in water, so not much was open, but we managed to go for a walk, check out the farmers market and the rain stayed away just long enough to manage a BBQ. Thankfully, it only took 2 hours to get back home again on the Sunday.

This weekend was nice and quiet, but I'll be off to Edinburgh with my colleagues on Friday for the bank holiday, then back down to Newcastle for a two week Nuclear Physics summer school. I know how to live... and three weekends away from home, how will I cope! My return will pretty much signal the end of the summer, and a new academic year of work and still not having a clue what I am doing! Thank goodness I will have the new series of Heroes to look forward to...

I have been a little too distracted to post here recently, what with all the new toys to play with (flat screen telly, media centre, and my new work Macbook! Woo Hoo!) not to mention all the busy weekends...

This last month I have been to a Pet Shop Boys concert with Elizabeth (not who I would usually think to go and see, but they were amazing!), met up with some college friends, been to Cardiff to see Al, Cath and baby Seren, along with a night of drinking and clubbing with Jane. We have also been camping in St Ives for a weekend with Katy and Tom and attended several more BBQ's.

Perhaps one of the best things of the summer so far though was the Isle of Wight festival. It was a wonderfully chilled out weekend and we saw some great bands. I enjoyed Wolfmother much more than I did last year at Reading and thought James Morisson and Paulo Nutini were pretty good. I was a little disappointed with Amy Winehouse's set as I'd been looking forward to seeing her, but was glad when she came out to perform with the legendary Rolling Stones on Sunday night. Muse are still the best thing I have seen live and were even better this time than at Reading! A big surprise for the weekend was Groove Armada... I love them!

Things aren't too bad at work. I can't believe it is almost a year since I started my PhD though! I'm currently in the process of writing a report containing the things I have done this first year, which will hopefully focus my work for the next year and beyond... scary, since I don't think I have done nearly enough...

I have recently embarked on a new daily routine in effort to be more productive during my day and also get fit for summer (not that I have any reason to).

It involves getting up at the crack of dawn (mainly out of sympathy for the Old Man, who has to be at the train station by 5.45am) and being in the office ready for work by 7.00am. I actually prefer the early start, since there is a distinct lack of distraction for a good chunk of the morning, and it allows me to leave the office guilt free at 5pm, for some (sweaty) fun. I am participating in several circuit training classes a week, a cardio kick class (I particularly enjoy this one. The instructor has the enthusiasm of Mr. Motivator and it is possible to imagine you are kicking and punching the people that have annoyed you in the week) and a pole dancing class (no plans to change my career path just yet though!).

All the exercise is probably just as well, since the BBQ season has most definitely kicked off. There has been one already and another 2 planned for next week by various friends. Not to mention the 'all you can eat Pizza Hut lunch buffet' that the PhD lot helped me indulge in for my 25th birthday celebration (yes that's right, I'm a classy lass!), as well as the greasy fry up that my mates from undergrad watched me struggle with after our night on the town last weekend! I was also taken for a lovely dinner last night as a 'late birthday treat'.

This weekend should be fairly relaxed. So far today I have taken advantage of my improving pool skills against the_tiddler. We will be going to a BBQ at Pete's place tomorrow, and may take a trip to the coast or somewhere on Monday armed with a picnic and a bottle of wine. Any suggestions?

I really have no excuse to have left it so long between posts again, since the lovely Old Man and I have had the internet up and running at home for at least two weeks now.

Since my last entry I have given up the pub job I had in Wokingham, and we have moved to a cosy little place in Guildford. It's not as big or modern as our Crowthorne flat, but it certainly serves its purpose. It's quite nice to have regained the luxury of evenings and weekends again, and there are even nice pubs and things to do close by these days, however we have been rather slack about utilising them. That's not to say we haven't had plenty to occupy ourselves with most weekends since moving though...

We had a lovely 'skiing' trip back in February with Boulter and Marta. We were very kindly put up by Marta's Mum who has a chalet near Chamonix. I have to say I really didn't take to the actual skiing, but the surroundings and company were amazing. When I refused to ski any more (after a day!), Ant and I took the opportunity to do a bit of sight-seeing in some nearby Swiss towns. We also went for some lovely walks in the mountains.

Aside from that we went to the Madjeski Stadium for the London Irish versus Wasps St. Patrick's Day rugby match with some of the uni lot. We have also seen Monkey Militia's first gig at the Star pub, caught up with my old undergrad mates (including the much missed Liz!), been to Boulter's surprise 30th birthday party in Cambridge and reunited with our old Met Office friends (doctor_squale, the Marks and others) in Exeter.

The last two weeks have been pretty hazy for me, since not only did I have the graduation ceremony and celebrations for my Masters degree (at which I ended up very very drunk!), but there was also a workshop and conference at Surrey for nuclear and particle physicists, which provided a good excuse to catch up (and have more than a few drinks with) with Clare, Blair and other physicist friends old and new.

Last weekend Ant and I took a trip to Canterbury, along with my parents to see my sister and her fella. Katy suggested a restaurant that I could take everyone to, since I offered to buy us all dinner with the prize money from my masters course. I thought it was lovely, even though it hit my wallet pretty hard, but unfortunately Katy, Tom and Ant (who ordered lamb shanks as a main course) were less satisfied... Never mind, it was still a great evening! On Sunday Katy, Tom, Ant and I took a trip to Margate (to satisfy the Old Man, who has watched one too many Only Fool and Horses episodes), then Broadstairs, where we had a walk along the seafront and (of course) a cup of tea.

This weekend has been much more relaxed and we have in fact done absolutely nothing! Just as well really, since we have to gather our energy for a few more busy weekends soon. Hopefully we will be heading to Suffolk to see Anthony's family in a couple of weeks and I think a trip to Cardiff is long overdue, to see my old housemate Janey as well as Al and Cath and their new baby Seren.

I guess I should have posted something here over xmas or new year like most other people, but my break was pretty typical of every other year... i.e. once uni closed for a week I took a bunch of shifts in the pub for the cash and as usual started to feel ill on christmas eve. I worked the xmas eve shift in the pub again, but this year I drove up to Suffolk on xmas day to visit the Old Man and his family. It was a nice day, but unfortunately I was feeling rather ill by then, so spent most of the day spaced out on the couch. New Years Eve was also spent being ill (as was the time in between) and on New Years Day we visited my parents along with Katy and Tom. I was back to work on the 2nd, just as I started to feel better...

I think I have got the new semester off to a good start though and feel things are going well. It's still pretty busy with various courses that have to be taken, not to mention the three different book clubs (quantum mechanics, nuclear structure and superfluidity) I have managed to get myself involved with, which of course means I'm forever juggling mountains of reading and preparing discussions with work on the mini project that I am supposed to be doing. Makito seems pleased enough though and has even trusted me to be let loose on a piece of code he has written that he wants developed further.

Circuit training started up again last week, since the undergrads are back so the usual bunch and I went along for the Monday, Tuesday and Thursday sessions. I was rather sore by Friday, but glad I went, so hopefully we can maintain it until the summer.

In just over a week Old Man and I should be getting the keys to our new flat in guildford, providing they have accepted my reference from the University of course (they didn't like the fact I'm a student). Then in two weeks I will have my last shift at the pub. There is a lot of sorting out and packing to do and I wish it could all happen now, but as they say 'patience is a virtue' (bull s***t...!)

After a disheartening start to our flat hunting trip last week Old Man and I finally found a place that was within our price range and sufficiently nice to put down the holding fee so we can start the process of moving to Guildford! It's not as shiney new or even as big as the place we are in now, but we never really expected anything to be. It will just be nice to be somewhere close to uni for me, near the station for Ant and it means that I no longer need to work part time, so I will have more time and energy to study hard and spend time with my lovely Old Man...

We spent this weekend doing Christmas shopping in Guildford, then went to Amy's party. It provided a nice opportunity to catch up with everyone before they head off for Christmas and there was a rather fun (if not smokey!) sparkler session on the balcony, as well as the chance to hear the impressive drumming skills of Aaron and Dangerous.

It's much more quiet in the department this week, mainly due to the fact that the undergrads have broken up for a month, but several academics are also away at various conferences or filming tv documnetaries etc (it's a tough life for them...!). As for me... I'll be in for the rest of the week, along with my office mates, trying to make some progress so that I have something to show for myself when I have my next supervisor meeting on Friday.

Anyway, in keeping with Julian's post...

After another bout of silence, I am back (mainly to check that my newly designed web page gets updated correctly when I post a new entry on my blog). As usual I have nothing of much note to report, only that I am now feeling settled in to the life of a PhD student, and for the first time since I started I feel I have some idea of what I'm supposed to be doing (temporarily at any rate... I'm sure the feeling will pass shortly).

The social calendar has been pretty full of late, with random cocktail parties, poker nights, several birthday celebrations to attend and the department christmas meal on Thursday, all of which have been great fun, but have left me feeling rather drained... that of course, and the early morning starts and late nights working in the pub. Hopefully I'll be able to put an end to that after the New Year though, since the Boy... sorry, Old Man and I are planning to look into moving to Guildford. It makes it a little longer for the poor Old Man to get to work every day, but the trains run more frequently, so hopefully it will balance out in the end...

Aside from that I had a lovely day yesterday visiting my Nan and then Grandad Pete in Essex with my folks, Katy, Tom and Ant. It was the first time in a while that we were all free to get together, so there was much gossip and interesting stories, particularly from Katy and Tom's new jobs(?!) and many many cups of tea throughout the day. I only hope it's not so long to wait for the next visit...

Firstly,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANT!

The Boy has now reached the grand old age of 30, so from here on in he shall be referred to as 'Old Man'...!

Well I'm now officially a PhD student, very exciting!! Things seem to be going ok and I'm enjoying the work and the people. It's been almost 4 weeks now, and in that time nothing much of interest has happened. I went with Clare up to York to help her get moved and settled in for her PhD a few weeks back. It seems like a nice place, although I didn't get much of a chance to see it (will hopefully visit her for longer next time) and hopefully she is enjoying it.

Old Man and I went to a very lovely wedding reception the weekend after for James' sister with James (obviously), Amy, Aaron, Jon and Zoe. There were fireworks, ceremonial swords, amazing food and a fantastic band! It was just a shame we had to cut our evening short to ensure we got a taxi home.

Apart from that I've seen Rachel a few times and accompanied her to a wedding fayre, been for a meal, played poker died at circuit training several times and represented team 'Alpha-Q' in the department football tournament with fellow postgrads.

This weekend should be good since 'Old Man' is having some friends over to celebrate his birthday. In true old man style we have a game of golf and a dinner party planned for the weekend.

The Boy and I were in Cambridge this weekend catching up with robbster and his lovely lady. They took us to see some of the sites in town before going for a fabulous ride along the River Cam.

We visited a few pubs (of course), bought probably some of the best selection of chocolate in the world and had a Sunday roast on the way home.