Well it's been so long since I blogged that I practically forgot my password.

September has probably been the most hectic month this year. Preparing for my PhD viva on the 12th, having to give a presentation in Germany for the DPI on the 18th, completing my corrections, going to Malaga for 1 weeks holiday, then doing another presentation on my new work.

This week has been slightly less hectic than most. Friday night I was in the lab giving my thesis the last once through, which I finished reading on Saturday. I then went round to Cristina's to watch a dvd (Bourne Ultimatium), good film, though I think I fell a sleep half way through.

Today, I spent a fair amount of time in bed, then went for a walk to Granchester and had a meal at the Red Lion - sausage and mash. I must admit there was rather a large amount of gravy, though it tasted really good with a refreshing glass of pimms. The price wasn't too bad either. We then decided to go to the orchard for a quick look around and then up to Jeffery Archer's mansion - hoping to get a good of sip of English tea -> unfortunately the area was barricaded off and probably patrolled by rockweillers. We continued a little further onto the Unicorn pub where we got a lemonade and lime. I must admit I was feeling rather tired today, particularly walking in the sun, I don't know why. On the way there and back we spotted Lukman and said hello. I think she was a bit surprised to see us going to Granchester, we also saw the lot from Queens' college.

Tonight I have just finished off the polymer properties ontology, I hope Nico likes it!

Tomorrow I think I'll start work on the polymer builder, maybe go down the gym and dance later on in the evening. We will see.

Bank Bureaucracy and the rest...

OK, so it has been just over a month since I last blogged. What have I been doing you may ask?

The short answer is: a lot!

Where to start?

• I have been to Pembroke for a formal (the food was pretty nice, not a patch on Queens' though).
• Got myself some new accommodation lined up (modern, ensuite, fairly close to the train station, department and the gym with wireless internet- 8mbp).
• Joined Fenner's Gym- trying to go down about 3 times a week plus balance salsa and work.
• Been down to Bar Salsa in London.
• Went out to Volker's leaving do at Chillis Mexican Restaurant (another postdoc, who has just left Peter Murray-Rust's group, and joined BASF in Germany).
• Got a new pair of shoes - laid back pair of brown shoes.
• DVD - marathon -> I must have watched at least 5 DVDs over the last weekend (I would recommend watching Enemy at the Gates, Master & Commander is a bag of W***).
• Clothes shopping - bought a new shirt.

Banking

I think I will start a fresh paragraph, so I can comment on the lameness of the Natwest bank. How hard should it be to transfer money from one account to another...my goodness! Transferring from an ISA to an internal reserve account is fine and also to the current account . But making a payment to a different account is a whole new kettle of fish!
The problem is that you need a card reader which they do not send in the post when you create an account. Nor do they tell you that the Natwest ISA no longer comes with a card to get money out of through the wall. Anyway after jumping through about 10K hoops to login to your online account, you then have to phone up an 0800 number and go through the whole security checks again...by this point in time I just wanted my money and went into the bank to complain. Having a reasonable amount of money locked away but not being able to access it is a pain in the buttocks!

The account now works finally! (On a different note, btw I have just received the pin after opening the account about 3 months ago).

Work seems to be going ok, I have now moved on from the ontologies to expand and develop the polymer builder. So far I have developed a much nicer interface. Later I intend to implement much of the functionality and extend it to include information generated from the OWL ontologies and the polymer repository.

Right I'm off down the gym..will speak soon.

Ed

ps.

Very jealous of someone in California!

What happened to the one week holiday?

Well I feel as though I could do with another week off... but that's life. From the 23rd of June I submitted my PhD thesis (nice moment, I don't think my viva corrections will be so nice though!), what a relief, it will be nice to have the weekends off and get a decent pay.

So what have I done with the one week I've had off (most PhD students would probably take a month, possibly 3 or even a year off- evidently I'm not bitter), well been out drinking, sleeping (a lot), washing (3 cycles-ridiculous, washing machines are expensive), I've been dancing, gone round the Fitzwilliam museum (a real education, there's a lot paintings, pottery and weapons to see). I also went to the movies and baked a cake on Friday, I think the audience was suitably impressed - one person living on my floor thought I'd bought it (sorry for the modesty!).

At the weekend I went back to Notts. It was quite relaxing, watching the TV, went for a walk and just lazed around on the sofa.

Tonight, I maybe down at Bar Salsa, depends how tired I am, as I don't want to come into the first day of my job as a zombie!

Clare, John, Pembroke, Submission and pub!

May week is always packed with things to do, garden parties, events and of course balls. This year I was lucky enough to become a member of the Cambridge University Salsa Dance Team, which entitled me to go and perform and enjoy 3 balls in Cambridge.

The first one was Clare on last Monday. I was a bit nervous performing for the first time, the floor was a little uneven with nails in it and quite crowded. It didn't help that we had previously listened to some classical music <40> so we were feeling a little rushed, to put it politely! The lesson and dancing after went well.

Tuesday was St. Johns- probably the best ball I've ever been to, the fireworks were mind blowing, the entertainment lasted all night. I particularly liked our pew at the start of the night right in front of the belly dancers. The performance out of the three nights was the best at St . Johns, probably something to do with the alcohol in me and the great dance floor they provided us with.

Wednesday, the Pembroke event. I think the night just got better as it went along. I missed out on a hog roast which I should have really got at the start..nevermind. I did not tempt myself with the chocolate fountains at the start either... didn't want anything heavy until we'd done the routine, which went ok though I forgot my footwork at one point, probably attributed to the 3 glasses of wine I had before hand (note to myself.. only one if I'm dancing!). After, I was feeling a little hungry and got some doughnuts and met up with Cristina (hopefully spelt correct), we ended up chilling out, going to the Casino and bouncing on the bouncy castle. We managed to stay up until the survivors photo, it should be interesting to see that if it gets published on the web somewhere.

The rest of the week was spent reading/correcting/reading and writing my thesis. Which is now submitted (Thank God- and I'm atheist). I will have 1 week off then start my post doc in Peter Murray-Rust's group. In the mean time I'm going to get down the gym, then join my friend the 10 year old bottle of laphroaig! Apparently having bought the bottle I am now entitled to one square foot of the island, which I've claimed. I think I'll need to drink a few more bottles before the island is all mine!

Garden Party Season Kicks Off

Just come back from a great party at Lucy Cavendish. It had a Brazilian theme to it: caipirinha cocktails, a capoeira martial arts demonstration and some brazilian/latino music. It was good to catch up with Neil, Alex, Lauren, Charlie and a few others, though I will probably see them at the Garden party tomorrow. I have got to admit there seems to be so much going on this weekend and the coming week! I'm particularly excited about St Johns ball. Lead acts include: SHY FX, Dizzee Rascal & wait for it... LESLEY GARETT. Hopefully I can get my conclusion out the way this weekend as the next week will evidently be a write off! The sooner the better = more holiday!


On a last note I see Jesus have rowed over again, looks like Christian will not be getting blades this year, nevermind! Wolfson W2 have unfortunately been bumped everytime, so Zhenzhi I guess will not be too happy either.

Lets hope this Ice age thaws over

Friday night was a bbq at the OC, the food was ok from what I saw + they were providing some free alcohol, I reckon there must have been about 30 people there. Saturday I was down the gym fairly early on, then went dancing for two hours. We then went into town to get our uniform (the old one had to change because the girls stuff didn't fit with what we had previously bought), which looks good though the trousers were quite expensive. Sunday was fairly relaxed. I was invited to Trinity May Ball by person X but had to decline on the basis that I'm performing at Clare on that night...such a pitty I would really have liked to have gone.

Monday was Charlotte's birthday, I think she really enjoyed the dancing and the cake in St Ives. I probably shouldn't have tried to force her to do a quadruple spin in 4 beats (as she nearly toppled), but hey that's life! General dancing was ok, I enjoyed the routine earlier. Tuesday was the day to order a fathers day present...I think he'll like it!

Wednesday..what a day!

• Work - is going well, the thesis seems to be on track.
• Virus - Queens' are apparently having a problem with a trojan -> internet on sporadically.
• Email - I don't think person Y is particularly happy with person Z on the basis of an email sent to person Y's boss. It was meant to be a like hearted way of getting person Y to give person Z a document. Hopefully person Y will look at it in that light and forgive and forget so there is no 'tension.' Otherwise we'll have to be standing to attention to account for this tension!
  
• Conversation - Probably the longest conversation I've had with Hamse about research since I've been in Cambridge, it must have lasted ~ 45mins (I didn't think we could collectively talk for that long).
  

Dance, dance where ever you may be because I am the lord of the dance say he -> well that equates to practice tonight. One of the comments my maths teacher used to make before we were about to sit an exam was that "this is not a dress rehearsal", well today it is!


On a last note I've booked myself a place on the GBSEx congress should be great fun! Yes I know I use too many exclaimation marks!!

Oxford Extravaganza

If last weekend wasn't enough travelling, the weekend that's just been I went down to Oxford for a formal hall exchange with St Hughes. All-in-all I enjoyed the experience, bar the hangover on the bus on the way back. We started our tour of Oxford at the market place, where Oxfam were out in strength. Our first port of call was the Bodleian Library, I got to admit I was quite surprised they'd let a group of Cambridge students in there, though apparently if you have an Oxford card you can invite 4 people. An interesting experience, though I couldn't help but feel embarassed when the librarian was looking at the Cambridge guys using flash photography in the library (idiots!).
We had a quick tour of the Radcliffe Camera and saw some people from one of the colleges doing a 24 hour ergo (30 mins on, I pitty the poor bugger having the 1-4am slots). One of the main points I've noticed about Oxford is that it is so much larger than Cambridge, however it is very similar (architecture, bikes wizzing by, loads of pubs etc) and you believe you're back in Cambridge expecting to see someone you know around the corner or in the high street. Anyway back to the story. We ended up going to Magdalene College to look at the chapel and the deer park. The chapel was nothing special, nor the deer park until we realised we were just looking at an overgrown field and in fact the deer park was to our left not right. The day was topped off with a Dim-Bar ice cream from G&D's and a drink down the pub followed by a cracking formal and late night party.

Sunday everyone was a little less enthusiastic, probably due the alcohol, so we all went for a walk around the botanical gardens and town to clear our head. We ended up spending most of our day in cafes and the natural science museum.

A highlight of the trip was that I came second in the bus quiz on the way back.

ps.

Cristiana if you're reading this, thanks for the apple. I like the golden delicious, whilst the granny smith are ok a little sharp for my taste buds, my favourite are probably the royal gala apples or pink lady.