Wednesday, 22 July 2009
WJ
Oh yeah, forgot to mention last night in my exhausted haze that Will's beard stole the show.... all of Wales was very impressed (or horrified, I couldn't tell which!) My friends were a little surprised by his penchant for composing sermons at parties rather than dancing, but pronounced him "cute as a button".
Tuesday, 21 July 2009
a post through the jet lag...
Back safe from the UK. Back in Guelph. SIGH. Man, was it ever hard to leave. I kept thinking, "oh well, at least the weather is generally nice in Guelph" and returned to pouring rain. Hmph.
Had a great trip, though. Far too much rushing around the country (there was an extra trip to Bournemouth that I totally could have skipped but didn't want to disappoint Del) but a great time in general. I got in to Gatwick after telling my ride that it was Heathrow (oops). Luckily he checked the e-ticket I sent him before leaving, but it was an extra hour's drive for him. Double oops. But since we were down in that end of the country anyway, we decided to see Brighton while we were there. We drove down and had a gorgeous English breakfast - exactly what I needed. Brighton was pretty awesome despite the rain. I happen to like crashy waves, and there were plenty of those. We also played around on the pier and I got to ride on a Mary Poppins-style carousel. I rode side-saddle, of course.
Brighton is actually a really cool town. I wish we could have stayed longer. Even in the rain, we had a great time. I remember trying for weeks to get down there when I lived in London, but there were railworks at the time and the only option was a four-hour coach ride. Needless to say, I didn't bother. Will definitely have to go back some day, though. Lots of tacky seaside stuff, jellied eels for sale, excellent-looking places to go out and (for some reason) a designated gay charity shop.
I spent Wednesday and Thursday lying low around Oxfordshire and recovering from jet lag - one day out in Oxford, one in Banbury. Nothing too exciting. On Friday we drove up to London for Del's friend's wedding. We had two nights in the hotel where his friends were staying, which was excellent as his friends were awesome. My mate Aonghus from my Masters was there too. I was very pleased to see him, as he skipped grad. We also ended up randomly going to a tiny Italian restaurant run by tiny Italian women - the food was AMAZING. It was clearly the kind of place where you have to reserve days in advance - but we happened to wander in just as a two-person table came free. Yum.
The wedding itself was amazing. I loved it! It was a backyard wedding and absolutely lovely. They had set up a tent with a table for the wedding party and family, and the rest of us were on rugs on the grass under a marquee thingy. Each rug had a picnic basket with a loaf of French bread and two or three types of cheeses, plus a bottle of champagne. (There was even a seating plan - "You're on rug two, back corner"!) It was BYOB, but all the alcohol was put on one table and served to you as you asked, so it was essentially a full bar for the cost of a bottle or so per guest.
The ceremony was Humanist - new one to me, but pretty nice. Lots of stories about the happy couple and lots of poetry readings. After the ceremony, we all queued for a fish supper - they actually had a fish'n'chip van parked outside the house! This was the only party that sucked a bit, as it took a LONG time to serve everyone. Still, the fish was really nice so I can't complain. Then, later in the evening, there was a hog roast and everyone got a bun with meat and apple sauce. This must be some kind of tradition, as it has featured in both UK weddings I have attended.
The best part, of course, was the 1940s theme. The wedding invitations were designed like ration cards from 1947 and looked amazing. Everyone really got into the challenge of dressing the part. There were a lot of RAF and army men, one Biggles, one Rosie the Riveter, and countless women in excellent hats. I even saw Indiana Jones wander past. Del was in an RAF uniform (very dashing, although one of his friends commented, "Although I don't dislike the uniform, you have to admit that there is something of the bus conductor about the man.") I cobbled together an outfit from the Vintage Advantage here in Guelph, pulled together by a few key accessories. I found a perfect red necklace at BHS for three pounds (plastic jewellery had just come out right about then, and was all the rage) and made Del pick me out some red lipstick because he is so much better at that sort of thing. I think it made the outfit, in the end. Black dress, black lace top, black pillbox hat with veil, black shoes, stockings with seam, and then red necklace and lipstick. Very striking. I also attempted victory rolls (that 40s rolled hair look) and Del was kind enough to curl the hair down the back for me!
Of course, everything didn't go as planned. Someone had told Del that the wedding was "five minutes around the corner". We were late getting ready, of COURSE, and late leaving. However, we decided to walk so as not to have to worry about the car. 25 minutes later, my feet were bleeding and there was no sign of the wedding venue. I asked Del if he had Mapquested the route, and he said yes. "How far did it say it was?" "Er, 2.3 miles" "!!!" There was no way I could walk that far in my fancy shoes, so I sat down on a wall in full 1947 regalia while Del ran back to get the car in full RAF uniform. In the end, we turned up almost 45 minutes late - and missed nothing at all. PHEW!
The most amusing moment of the wedding was during the ceremony. Del's friend Edelle was giving a gorgeous rendition of "Danny Boy" and it was totally silent. Suddenly, there was a huge BANG as the person beside me accidentally let off a champagne cork. In his struggle to control it, he caught the cork with his face! Champagne sprayed everywhere and it was almost impossible not to giggle through the remainder of "Danny Boy". Sorry, Edelle.
Being an Irish wedding, it went on all night and I had a great time. The next morning was not quite so pleasant, but never mind. I definitely wouldn't have missed it.
On Monday, I went back into London to see some friends. Man, I don't miss that place. I felt grimy, stressed and exhausted by the time I got back to Banbury. And my eyes were itching! I totally blamed it on London when I got conjunctivitis twice in a row when I lived there, and I think I was right.
Following London was a flying trip to Bournemouth (about 3 hours' drive) to visit Del's friend Ciara. I was promised beaches, so despite being exhausted I went along. We got there and sat around in Ciara's backyard chatting for a while. Finally, we packed up the gear for a picnic on the beach and headed down. We arrived, sat down, and... the heavens opened. Ciara's boyfriend made a run for it back to town, but luckily for me she was made of sterner stuff. We grabbed our gear, found an arch to shelter from the rain, lit the portable BBQ and had our picnic while watching the storm!
Wednesday, we drove back from Bournemouth and then up to Bangor. Long, crappy journey, not helped by the roadworks that diverted us through Flint - INTO another set of roadworks. The queue of cars was endless, and so slow that the locals were sitting on the walls of their gardens, chatting with passing (sort of) motorists. Once we were through that, the detour then directed us up a mountain... ah, Wales. Sigh.
Having finally escaped Flint, I texted Thandi for directions. "Take Junction 9", she replied. So we duly took Junction 9, only to find that none of her other directions seemed to apply. After some discussion, Del managed to bring up a map on his Blackberry. It told us to do a loop, head back in the same direction, and take Junction 11. After finally arriving, three hours late, Thandi said, "I DID say Junction 11, right?"
Grad itself was quite good, and not nearly as long as I had feared. Everything was in Welsh and English, but they kept it quite snappy. One shortish speech and a nice harp recital, and that was about it. Walked across the stage, collected degree, took obligatory photos. I was quite excited that Will was able to make it, though. I didn't think it would matter, but it made a huge difference having a family member in attendance. And anyway, he gave me a gorgeous necklace for grad!
Anyway, this is getting insanely long and I want to go to bed (jet lag!) Suffice it to say that the after-grad party was seriously fun, Bangor was same as always, complete with pouring rain and restaurants that are always closed just as want them to be open, and a good time was definitely had.
Oh,and I managed to collect a bunch of stuff I had left with Thandi and Del and bring it back here. My bags were 10kg overweight, but the guy didn't even mention it and just waved me through. Del was watching and later told me he looked at the scales, looked at me, looked at the scales, looked at my chest and waved me through. This is unconfirmed, though (ie. I totally didn't notice) so I will just be happy for the lack of extra fees!
Had a great trip, though. Far too much rushing around the country (there was an extra trip to Bournemouth that I totally could have skipped but didn't want to disappoint Del) but a great time in general. I got in to Gatwick after telling my ride that it was Heathrow (oops). Luckily he checked the e-ticket I sent him before leaving, but it was an extra hour's drive for him. Double oops. But since we were down in that end of the country anyway, we decided to see Brighton while we were there. We drove down and had a gorgeous English breakfast - exactly what I needed. Brighton was pretty awesome despite the rain. I happen to like crashy waves, and there were plenty of those. We also played around on the pier and I got to ride on a Mary Poppins-style carousel. I rode side-saddle, of course.
Brighton is actually a really cool town. I wish we could have stayed longer. Even in the rain, we had a great time. I remember trying for weeks to get down there when I lived in London, but there were railworks at the time and the only option was a four-hour coach ride. Needless to say, I didn't bother. Will definitely have to go back some day, though. Lots of tacky seaside stuff, jellied eels for sale, excellent-looking places to go out and (for some reason) a designated gay charity shop.
I spent Wednesday and Thursday lying low around Oxfordshire and recovering from jet lag - one day out in Oxford, one in Banbury. Nothing too exciting. On Friday we drove up to London for Del's friend's wedding. We had two nights in the hotel where his friends were staying, which was excellent as his friends were awesome. My mate Aonghus from my Masters was there too. I was very pleased to see him, as he skipped grad. We also ended up randomly going to a tiny Italian restaurant run by tiny Italian women - the food was AMAZING. It was clearly the kind of place where you have to reserve days in advance - but we happened to wander in just as a two-person table came free. Yum.
The wedding itself was amazing. I loved it! It was a backyard wedding and absolutely lovely. They had set up a tent with a table for the wedding party and family, and the rest of us were on rugs on the grass under a marquee thingy. Each rug had a picnic basket with a loaf of French bread and two or three types of cheeses, plus a bottle of champagne. (There was even a seating plan - "You're on rug two, back corner"!) It was BYOB, but all the alcohol was put on one table and served to you as you asked, so it was essentially a full bar for the cost of a bottle or so per guest.
The ceremony was Humanist - new one to me, but pretty nice. Lots of stories about the happy couple and lots of poetry readings. After the ceremony, we all queued for a fish supper - they actually had a fish'n'chip van parked outside the house! This was the only party that sucked a bit, as it took a LONG time to serve everyone. Still, the fish was really nice so I can't complain. Then, later in the evening, there was a hog roast and everyone got a bun with meat and apple sauce. This must be some kind of tradition, as it has featured in both UK weddings I have attended.
The best part, of course, was the 1940s theme. The wedding invitations were designed like ration cards from 1947 and looked amazing. Everyone really got into the challenge of dressing the part. There were a lot of RAF and army men, one Biggles, one Rosie the Riveter, and countless women in excellent hats. I even saw Indiana Jones wander past. Del was in an RAF uniform (very dashing, although one of his friends commented, "Although I don't dislike the uniform, you have to admit that there is something of the bus conductor about the man.") I cobbled together an outfit from the Vintage Advantage here in Guelph, pulled together by a few key accessories. I found a perfect red necklace at BHS for three pounds (plastic jewellery had just come out right about then, and was all the rage) and made Del pick me out some red lipstick because he is so much better at that sort of thing. I think it made the outfit, in the end. Black dress, black lace top, black pillbox hat with veil, black shoes, stockings with seam, and then red necklace and lipstick. Very striking. I also attempted victory rolls (that 40s rolled hair look) and Del was kind enough to curl the hair down the back for me!
Of course, everything didn't go as planned. Someone had told Del that the wedding was "five minutes around the corner". We were late getting ready, of COURSE, and late leaving. However, we decided to walk so as not to have to worry about the car. 25 minutes later, my feet were bleeding and there was no sign of the wedding venue. I asked Del if he had Mapquested the route, and he said yes. "How far did it say it was?" "Er, 2.3 miles" "!!!" There was no way I could walk that far in my fancy shoes, so I sat down on a wall in full 1947 regalia while Del ran back to get the car in full RAF uniform. In the end, we turned up almost 45 minutes late - and missed nothing at all. PHEW!
The most amusing moment of the wedding was during the ceremony. Del's friend Edelle was giving a gorgeous rendition of "Danny Boy" and it was totally silent. Suddenly, there was a huge BANG as the person beside me accidentally let off a champagne cork. In his struggle to control it, he caught the cork with his face! Champagne sprayed everywhere and it was almost impossible not to giggle through the remainder of "Danny Boy". Sorry, Edelle.
Being an Irish wedding, it went on all night and I had a great time. The next morning was not quite so pleasant, but never mind. I definitely wouldn't have missed it.
On Monday, I went back into London to see some friends. Man, I don't miss that place. I felt grimy, stressed and exhausted by the time I got back to Banbury. And my eyes were itching! I totally blamed it on London when I got conjunctivitis twice in a row when I lived there, and I think I was right.
Following London was a flying trip to Bournemouth (about 3 hours' drive) to visit Del's friend Ciara. I was promised beaches, so despite being exhausted I went along. We got there and sat around in Ciara's backyard chatting for a while. Finally, we packed up the gear for a picnic on the beach and headed down. We arrived, sat down, and... the heavens opened. Ciara's boyfriend made a run for it back to town, but luckily for me she was made of sterner stuff. We grabbed our gear, found an arch to shelter from the rain, lit the portable BBQ and had our picnic while watching the storm!
Wednesday, we drove back from Bournemouth and then up to Bangor. Long, crappy journey, not helped by the roadworks that diverted us through Flint - INTO another set of roadworks. The queue of cars was endless, and so slow that the locals were sitting on the walls of their gardens, chatting with passing (sort of) motorists. Once we were through that, the detour then directed us up a mountain... ah, Wales. Sigh.
Having finally escaped Flint, I texted Thandi for directions. "Take Junction 9", she replied. So we duly took Junction 9, only to find that none of her other directions seemed to apply. After some discussion, Del managed to bring up a map on his Blackberry. It told us to do a loop, head back in the same direction, and take Junction 11. After finally arriving, three hours late, Thandi said, "I DID say Junction 11, right?"
Grad itself was quite good, and not nearly as long as I had feared. Everything was in Welsh and English, but they kept it quite snappy. One shortish speech and a nice harp recital, and that was about it. Walked across the stage, collected degree, took obligatory photos. I was quite excited that Will was able to make it, though. I didn't think it would matter, but it made a huge difference having a family member in attendance. And anyway, he gave me a gorgeous necklace for grad!
Anyway, this is getting insanely long and I want to go to bed (jet lag!) Suffice it to say that the after-grad party was seriously fun, Bangor was same as always, complete with pouring rain and restaurants that are always closed just as want them to be open, and a good time was definitely had.
Oh,and I managed to collect a bunch of stuff I had left with Thandi and Del and bring it back here. My bags were 10kg overweight, but the guy didn't even mention it and just waved me through. Del was watching and later told me he looked at the scales, looked at me, looked at the scales, looked at my chest and waved me through. This is unconfirmed, though (ie. I totally didn't notice) so I will just be happy for the lack of extra fees!
Friday, 19 June 2009
one degree of Kevin Spacey
Am in Hamilton at a conference. (Yes, I know - I get to go to all the most exotic ones!) The conference is pretty informal, but it's all people from the universities in the area who study attention and performance. So pretty interesting. It's only a two-dayer, but my supervisor put us up in the dorms on campus. It is kind of fun, as I never actually lived in a dorm room in undergrad. It smells exactly like camp rooms did. I have to say, living in a one-bedroom basement suite with Stephie was cozy, but I never would have survived sharing a three-meter-wide room with some random roommate for an entire school year.
Anyway, the most interesting part of the whole experience (sorry, attention researchers) was watching the filming of the movie Casino Jack. We first realised something was going on when some guy brandishing an umbrella started yelling at all the passing academics, rolling his hands above his head and yelling, "Quiet! Rolling! QUIET! ROLLING!!!" You could practically see the question marks above the heads of the venerable academics. ("Rolling? What?") But they had a big crane with a camera on it pointing at a balcony just above our heads.
Turned out the balcony in question was attached to the grad lounge, so there was nothing for it but to go have lunch there. Alex, the post-doc, Asma, my labmate, and I managed to end up seated right in front of the window to the balcony. We were gazing right over the directors' chairs (who knew they actually use chairs like that?!) and into the monitor showing what was being filmed. We watched Kevin Spacey on the monitor screw something up and burst out laughing, and just as I said, "I wonder if we'll actually see him?" he came wandering over to our section of the window. Neat! We walked past the equipment trucks on the way back - so many cables and bits of equipment, and like 50 shades of what I assume were filters for the lights. To anyone in the film industry: I will happily give you a tour of my lab if you show me what all that interesting equipment actually does!
Oooh, speaking of our lab, my supervisor has managed to secure the funds to build a brand new one. And in the meantime, they are moving us out of our basement dungeon (accessed by walking THROUGH the janitor's closet) and into a new space with WINDOWS! I am very, very pleased with this turn of events.
Anyway, the most interesting part of the whole experience (sorry, attention researchers) was watching the filming of the movie Casino Jack. We first realised something was going on when some guy brandishing an umbrella started yelling at all the passing academics, rolling his hands above his head and yelling, "Quiet! Rolling! QUIET! ROLLING!!!" You could practically see the question marks above the heads of the venerable academics. ("Rolling? What?") But they had a big crane with a camera on it pointing at a balcony just above our heads.
Turned out the balcony in question was attached to the grad lounge, so there was nothing for it but to go have lunch there. Alex, the post-doc, Asma, my labmate, and I managed to end up seated right in front of the window to the balcony. We were gazing right over the directors' chairs (who knew they actually use chairs like that?!) and into the monitor showing what was being filmed. We watched Kevin Spacey on the monitor screw something up and burst out laughing, and just as I said, "I wonder if we'll actually see him?" he came wandering over to our section of the window. Neat! We walked past the equipment trucks on the way back - so many cables and bits of equipment, and like 50 shades of what I assume were filters for the lights. To anyone in the film industry: I will happily give you a tour of my lab if you show me what all that interesting equipment actually does!
Oooh, speaking of our lab, my supervisor has managed to secure the funds to build a brand new one. And in the meantime, they are moving us out of our basement dungeon (accessed by walking THROUGH the janitor's closet) and into a new space with WINDOWS! I am very, very pleased with this turn of events.
Wednesday, 17 June 2009
Monday, 15 June 2009
weekend stuff
Oops, started this Saturday and forgot to post:
"
Wow, looks like a beautiful day, and I am feeling motivated. Going to make a cheesecake for the neighbour's birthday and work on some projects. I love Saturdays.
Projects = making lampshades for two AWESOME kitschy lamps I found at Value Village last week (although as they are clearly from the '60s, I am going to get dad to check that they are actually safe to use!) and making a coffee table out of a board covered in trashy romance novel pages with a fruit box base. You may ask why my house suddenly looks like someone lives in it (rather than as if the occupant were still in the throes of unpacking, as it did for the first six months) and the answer would be that Steph came to visit. Stuff happens when Stephanie is around. She bought me a bookshelf, for one thing. TECHNICALLY my arrangement of fruit boxes was working, more or less, but I have to say having an actual piece of furniture certainly adds something. And since we had a lot of time to play (as I skipped out on most work for her visit) there were crafts galore.
"
And now it is Monday and the cheesecake was delicious (did NY style with a strawberry-mango topping that turned out AMAZING - the neighbour was very pleased) and I got lots done. Went to Costco (and spent too much, but it is all useful stuff), cleaned the house, and spent most of yesterday in the garden with Oliver and Katie. Everything is coming up and now that it is weeded it looks so good. Also went to two bonfire parties and stayed out till 5am again. Pretty awesome weekend, in fact, in a quiet kind of way. This week, like last week, will involve much hard work to get a few projects off the ground before my parents arrive. I'll still have to work during those two weeks, but with a bit of effort now I should be able to escape for a while here and there as well. And I fully plan to do nothing at all useful (well, very little) while I am in the UK in July!
And with that note, back to work. Am trying to learn how to program in Python... getting there, but we have skipped straight to Classes in three lessons, and I have had to get a book out of the library to try and catch up! My last official programming experience was intro Comp Sci in second year undergrad...
"
Wow, looks like a beautiful day, and I am feeling motivated. Going to make a cheesecake for the neighbour's birthday and work on some projects. I love Saturdays.
Projects = making lampshades for two AWESOME kitschy lamps I found at Value Village last week (although as they are clearly from the '60s, I am going to get dad to check that they are actually safe to use!) and making a coffee table out of a board covered in trashy romance novel pages with a fruit box base. You may ask why my house suddenly looks like someone lives in it (rather than as if the occupant were still in the throes of unpacking, as it did for the first six months) and the answer would be that Steph came to visit. Stuff happens when Stephanie is around. She bought me a bookshelf, for one thing. TECHNICALLY my arrangement of fruit boxes was working, more or less, but I have to say having an actual piece of furniture certainly adds something. And since we had a lot of time to play (as I skipped out on most work for her visit) there were crafts galore.
"
And now it is Monday and the cheesecake was delicious (did NY style with a strawberry-mango topping that turned out AMAZING - the neighbour was very pleased) and I got lots done. Went to Costco (and spent too much, but it is all useful stuff), cleaned the house, and spent most of yesterday in the garden with Oliver and Katie. Everything is coming up and now that it is weeded it looks so good. Also went to two bonfire parties and stayed out till 5am again. Pretty awesome weekend, in fact, in a quiet kind of way. This week, like last week, will involve much hard work to get a few projects off the ground before my parents arrive. I'll still have to work during those two weeks, but with a bit of effort now I should be able to escape for a while here and there as well. And I fully plan to do nothing at all useful (well, very little) while I am in the UK in July!
And with that note, back to work. Am trying to learn how to program in Python... getting there, but we have skipped straight to Classes in three lessons, and I have had to get a book out of the library to try and catch up! My last official programming experience was intro Comp Sci in second year undergrad...
Tuesday, 26 May 2009
I didn't think I looked addicted...
Did my first day of testing at the addictions treatment facility yesterday. It went remarkably well, in that I had one person booked and three actually agreed to be tested. They are super disorganised there, but also super friendly and helpful (which I think I prefer). Anyway, it is a pretty boring experiment involving pressing buttons on a computer, but at least it is short. I set up the laptop for them and gave them chocolate afterwards - that seemed to go over well. And nobody was phased by being asked pointed questions about their drugs of choice. They were all lovely about sitting through the experiment and happy to help, and also curious about what the point was. Much better than bored/hungover undergrads any day!
The best part, though, was when I showed up to the Admissions building to try and get someone to show me the room where I could test, and some woman asked if I was checking in.
In other news, Oliver gave me a giant box of asparagus from a yield trial (where they just need to weigh the produce and then get rid of it). It has taken over my fridge. I have made asparagus quiche, asparagus soup, asparagus fried rice, and asparagus tacos (not really recommended, though), plus have barbequed them a couple of times with butter, PLUS have had a lot of normal steamed asparagus. Am running out of ways to use it before it all goes bad! I used to hate asparagus as a kid - good thing that changed before now.
The best part, though, was when I showed up to the Admissions building to try and get someone to show me the room where I could test, and some woman asked if I was checking in.
In other news, Oliver gave me a giant box of asparagus from a yield trial (where they just need to weigh the produce and then get rid of it). It has taken over my fridge. I have made asparagus quiche, asparagus soup, asparagus fried rice, and asparagus tacos (not really recommended, though), plus have barbequed them a couple of times with butter, PLUS have had a lot of normal steamed asparagus. Am running out of ways to use it before it all goes bad! I used to hate asparagus as a kid - good thing that changed before now.
Friday, 22 May 2009
Garden!
Don't worry, my leg didn't fall off. Only the skin on my ankle did (after two weeks of two kinds of antibiotics). Now I have nice pink new skin there and all is good.
Had a pretty busy couple of weeks getting a studentship application in. They are a LOT of work and I don't feel it's very likely I'll get this one, so a crappy return on investment. However, when your supervisor says "apply for this", you can't really say "No, it's probably a bad ROI." I suppose it's good experience, blah blah blah, writing up research proposals and all that. No fun, though.
So I killed myself working on that all last week, handed it in*, and promptly got completely ill and stayed that way for the whole long weekend.
Unfortunately, we also put a good bit of our giant garden in that weekend, and I felt compelled to get out there and do some work despite being diseased. Don't think that helped me heal too quickly. Garden looks great, though. It is actually in two bits - our grand plan for MY garden fell by the wayside when the landlady's husband's daughter and her boyfriend moved into the bottom of my house. They seemed very nice, so the first thing I asked them was, "You guys don't like gardening, do you?" The answer, sadly, was an enthusiastic "YEAH! We can't wait to get out there and get a garden in! We can share the space, right?" Sigh.
So, it was time to rethink. We didn't want to halve our grand garden plans (considering there are five of us in on this, and a tiny garden = not much yield per person). So I cut a deal with the Boys Next Door, who have a massive yard and had just let it all go to weeds. Oliver and I dug a 1050sq ft garden on their side of the fence in return for cutting them in on the food produced. So then the garden looked great but the yard was a mess. This guilted the Boys N. D. into mowing the weeds, getting rid of the garbage, and making a gorgeous fire pit plus two benches. Now their yard looks amazing, we have our garden (half in their yard and half in mine), and the unemployed downstairs neighbour is spending all his time landscaping our yard, so now it looks great too. Moral of the story: always make nice with the neighbours.
So far we have planted potatoes, rocket (arugula), lettuce, cilantro, tomatoes, tomatillos (which Del thought would be a cross between a tomato and an armadillo), and huckleberries, which are mysterious to all of us but someone gave to Oliver. This weekend we will do the big plant, although I'm not sure when we will fit it in. I have a conference on fMRI all weekend (organised by my supervisor, so no skipping), a party tonight, and the Boys N. D. are hosting the Beer Olympics tomorrow afternoon at their place. Probably a bit difficult to plant a garden in the midst of people performing the Keg Put and the 100 Litre Dash.
*not without drama - my supervisor did not give me his letter of reference until 2.30 due to printer issues, and the post office closed at 3.00. Although I was only sending it across campus, the instructions declared that the envelope had to be postmarked by 5pm on the deadline. So I ended up sprinting across campus clutching an envelope in one hand and all my attachments in the other, bursting into the post office two minutes before it shut, and frantically scribbling the envelope while the post office lady (who was keen to get started on her long weekend) stood over me ranting about how the mail guy would be there AT 3PM and I better hurry. I only hope it was somewhat legible...
Had a pretty busy couple of weeks getting a studentship application in. They are a LOT of work and I don't feel it's very likely I'll get this one, so a crappy return on investment. However, when your supervisor says "apply for this", you can't really say "No, it's probably a bad ROI." I suppose it's good experience, blah blah blah, writing up research proposals and all that. No fun, though.
So I killed myself working on that all last week, handed it in*, and promptly got completely ill and stayed that way for the whole long weekend.
Unfortunately, we also put a good bit of our giant garden in that weekend, and I felt compelled to get out there and do some work despite being diseased. Don't think that helped me heal too quickly. Garden looks great, though. It is actually in two bits - our grand plan for MY garden fell by the wayside when the landlady's husband's daughter and her boyfriend moved into the bottom of my house. They seemed very nice, so the first thing I asked them was, "You guys don't like gardening, do you?" The answer, sadly, was an enthusiastic "YEAH! We can't wait to get out there and get a garden in! We can share the space, right?" Sigh.
So, it was time to rethink. We didn't want to halve our grand garden plans (considering there are five of us in on this, and a tiny garden = not much yield per person). So I cut a deal with the Boys Next Door, who have a massive yard and had just let it all go to weeds. Oliver and I dug a 1050sq ft garden on their side of the fence in return for cutting them in on the food produced. So then the garden looked great but the yard was a mess. This guilted the Boys N. D. into mowing the weeds, getting rid of the garbage, and making a gorgeous fire pit plus two benches. Now their yard looks amazing, we have our garden (half in their yard and half in mine), and the unemployed downstairs neighbour is spending all his time landscaping our yard, so now it looks great too. Moral of the story: always make nice with the neighbours.
So far we have planted potatoes, rocket (arugula), lettuce, cilantro, tomatoes, tomatillos (which Del thought would be a cross between a tomato and an armadillo), and huckleberries, which are mysterious to all of us but someone gave to Oliver. This weekend we will do the big plant, although I'm not sure when we will fit it in. I have a conference on fMRI all weekend (organised by my supervisor, so no skipping), a party tonight, and the Boys N. D. are hosting the Beer Olympics tomorrow afternoon at their place. Probably a bit difficult to plant a garden in the midst of people performing the Keg Put and the 100 Litre Dash.
*not without drama - my supervisor did not give me his letter of reference until 2.30 due to printer issues, and the post office closed at 3.00. Although I was only sending it across campus, the instructions declared that the envelope had to be postmarked by 5pm on the deadline. So I ended up sprinting across campus clutching an envelope in one hand and all my attachments in the other, bursting into the post office two minutes before it shut, and frantically scribbling the envelope while the post office lady (who was keen to get started on her long weekend) stood over me ranting about how the mail guy would be there AT 3PM and I better hurry. I only hope it was somewhat legible...
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