Last night, and again tonight, the security guard on duty has given me a packet of Continental 'Cup-a-Soup' to warm me up, and keep me from going hungry.

Just quickly,

to those awaiting email replies,

I want to write them, I really do.

But the chances that anything, besides my results section, gets written before this Friday is very slim.

That's not to say I'm not thinking of you all.

And I'm *really* enjoying hearing all of your news!

Everything is good here. Yes, I am little stressed. Yes, there is a huge amount of work to do in the next 6 days, before my draft is due. Yes, come this Friday night I am going to go out for the first time in weeks!

I am starting to get excited because the finishing line is in sight........

Not just the draft's deadline, but the real thing

November 3rd.

Eek!

Written Monday night 5:00pm

So instead of sitting in the lab for hours tonight I decided to come home, with laptop in tow. My windows are wide open, the afternoon breeze is making my curtains move and my wind chime twinkle ever so slightly. The air is warm and I am comfortable sitting here in a singlet and shorts. My latest purchase (Telemetry Orchestra, Children Stay Free, bought on a whim after hearing their single on JJJ) is playing on the stereo and the room seems to be awash with shades of blue (the walls, my sheets, the carpet, the desktop, the light from outside…….)

Yesterday and today have been very good days for me (hmm, I seem to be saying that a lot lately). See, one of the problems I have been having with my thesis results is that the pictures that I have been taking are all just too dark. They look semi-respectable up on the computer screen but once they have been through Photoshop and printed they are just not good enough. It has been very frustrating for me to spend hours on the confocal microscope only to have all my efforts be in vain. It takes time to work out all of the problems associated with getting crappy pictures – is it the slides? the tissue? the antibodies? the microscope? the user? – and time is something I am quickly running out of. So for the next two weeks, as I gather the last of my data, everything needs to work and the pictures need to be perfect. Yesterday afternoon, after two confocal sessions, I started processing the pictures (resizing, adjusting colour levels, importing, and labeling) and I was happy with the results. I have them sitting beside me now, for when I finished writing this I am going to start composing figure titles and descriptions for them. They look good. More importantly, Ian is happy with them. Some of them are not as sharp and don’t depict as much as he would like, in order to include in our paper, but for use in my thesis, they are good. We have vesicles colocalising. We have vesicles that only contain one type of protein. And more importantly, they provide plenty of information for me to write a thesis about.

More little things that have made the past couple of days especially wonderful
Waking up to warm weather. 15 degrees at 8am – beautiful!
Sending birthday wishes and tangible objects to two friends
Sunday morning mobile calls, whilst shopping for said tangible objects
Receiving emails full of good news
Having an impromptu girly chat, complete with good icecream, Sunday night
Being excited about the prospect of holidays and freedom and choices

The wind is picking up,
there is a chill in the air and
the light is fading.

Time to do some work.

When Louise is happy, the whole lab is happy!

Yesterday was a very good day. Ian and I sat down and went over the structure of my results sections, sketched out what each figure would be and put together this little story that I will be telling. Even though I have a lot (and I cannot stress that enough) of pictures still to get, it feels really good to have a clear direction for my thesis. I have written up the plan and taped copies around the place (at my desk, in my room at Fenner, on my computer) so that everywhere I look I am reminded about what it is I am doing here.

The weather is turning again; 19 degrees today, low 20's over the weekend and the rumour of 24 degress (24!!!!!!!!!!) sometime next week. Hallelujah!

How do we celebrate here in Canberra? By going to Uni House for lunch of course! Ian buys the wine, Ian buys the (hotsaltyyummy) chips, we sit outside in the sun and bask.

(Now to all those people out there that are thinking I am having too much fun whilst I should be working hard, I will point out that when I return from Uni House, I will be working on the confocal micrscope for a good couple of hours, then retiring to the dark room in order to process and develop my Western blots. Estimated time of departure from lab on a Friday night: 7:30pm)

To everyone out there reading, I hope that the end of your week has been as uplifting and enjoyable as mine :)

Last week was beautiful; not much wind, blue skies, happy, fluffy white clouds, warmth from the sun, birds singing and plants awakening. The local radio station ran a poll to see on which day people thought we would reach 20 degrees for the first time since, hmmmm, maybe April?

This week has been horrible; stormy, black and blue clouds gathering in the distance, icy, icy winds coming down from the snow covered mountains, cold nights, cold days, the beautiful, new, pink blossoms landing on the ground.

Come back Spring! We miss you already......

Heaven, thy name is 'Sticky date pudding with butterscotch sauce and vanilla ice cream'

Amen

Last night: Finding Nemo

Tonight: Dinner with my Auntie and Uncle

Tomorrow night: Legally Blonde II

Friday night: Fenner Fifth Floor Dinner

Um, doesn't the world know I have a thesis to write? I don't have time for this kind of social life!





..........you know I'm not really complaining, don't you? ;)

When I woke up this morning and looked in the mirror, my eyes were blue.





Now I just need to remember what colour my eyes were before this morning. Does anyone know? I know they had flecks of brown and gold through them, but what was the background colour? Were they brown? Or grey-ish? Whenever asked I've always replied that my eyes were hazel. Hazel isn't really a definable colour though....

And I'm wondering what has made them change? Maybe it was the fact that when my alarm went off at 8, I switched it off and crawled back into bed for another 40 minutes of sleep. Happy Lou = Blue Eyed Lou?

I've just checked them again in the mirror, the brown and gold is back.

Since I've tried every variation they have come with so far (including that disgusting concoction known as Diet Coke with Lemon - will nothing ever make Diet Coke taste acceptable?) I succumbed to my inner consumer and bought a bottle of Cherry Coke along with $17.50 worth of petrol today. The verdict: pretty good. I had horrid thoughts, just as I was about to take my first sip, that it was going to taste like bad cough medicine, so the fact that it didn't was a pleasant surprise. Actually the taste of cherry (similar to maraschino cherries) was quite subtle and only really noticeable as an after taste.

Further on the topic of drinks, supposedly Absolut is bringing out Absolut Vanilla - finally! I remember having vanilla vodka with Coke with Sara when I was the US and it was (surprisingly) delicious! Straight vodka with vanilla Coke just doesn't taste the same.....

I want to go out and buy books. I've already checked out Dymocks for titles and prices. It is obvious that I can't really afford to buy many, nor can I really afford the time to read much. But that doesn't change the fact that this is all I want to do!

Oh, and if you are at all interested in books and more importantly, free books, check out BookCrossing.com. Great concept and well thought out - too bad I haven't been able to capture one of the released books yet....

Last night I dreamt I was in "Freddy vs Jason"! I only remembered just now as I saw an ad for the movie and though, "Hang on a second. I was being chased around a lake by those guys just recently... oh yeah, last night!"

Anyway I spent most of Sunday in bed, hungover. It is the first time I have been truly hungover since I moved to Canberra (normally when I drink big I have lots of water and food and stick to similar types of alcohol so that all I wake up with is a dry mouth). Unfortunately Saturday night was different - I can't pinpoint an exact reason although there was not enough water, too many types of alcohol (who puts champagne in their stomach after cocksucking cowboys?), too much Mexican food and already feeling, all of Saturday, that I was already coming down with something (at least that didn't eventuate further). I'd been up late on Friday night and has a very intense yoga session on Saturday morning which made Sunday all the worse; I was aching all over.

Sunday morning I woke up feeling like shit, spent four hours lazing in bed, trying to drink water and get rid of a killer headache. Showered around 3pm, went out for pizza (which was my breakfastlunchdinner yesterday) and lazed in bed for the rest of the day. Luckily after some food my headache disappeared so I could read a little and amuse myself, instead of laying there imagining I was dying!

Oh and Saturday night itself was fantastic! As Monique said, "I should get married more often!"