Garnet's Life Adventures

exhausted

I've just been at Imperial ALL morning long & am absolutely shattered, but I wanted to check in & say hello. Tricia's sugery was sucessful, you can read the post here.

One thing I'm learning is now that I know I need glasses and wear them most of the time for reading, but I can tell when I'm tired & trying to read without wearing them cause my head really hurts and I can't concentrate as well!

Even though my March Challenge is over, I wanted to let you know today I'm thankful for my sight, even if it is not 20-20 anymore 8-)

Labels: eyes, march challenge, thankful, tricia

posted by Sara @ 3:33 pm 3 comments

Camera Photos & last of my March Challenge

So this weekend started BST (British Summer Time) for those of us who were on GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) which means we're back to being 5 hours ahead of New York. The part I enjoy most about the switch to BST is that it's light out MUCH later, making me a happy bunny!! So I took a few photos on my camera phone tonight to show you how light it was, but then realised I had lots of old photos on that memory card from in & around London, so here they all are for your viewing pleasure . . . (I know you've been dying to see them ;)

Labels: BST, march challenge, mates, photos, Russia, sun, thankful

posted by Sara @ 7:57 pm 2 comments

Brazil 1 - 0 Sweden

Got a free ticket to the Brazil v Sweden football match last night at Emirates Stadium (where The Gunners play). It has a seating capacity of 60,355 and last night there were 60,221, darn good for an international friendly match, I think.

So you're wondering how I'm so lucky to get a free ticket are you???? Well my best mate, Jim called me up while I was on the bus heading home. He asked if I was free, I said yes, he said to meet him at the Tup (our local) in 20 minutes, I said okay. He showed up & off we went to the match. It wasn't raining hard when we got there, but by half time it was raining what I would say is not heavy, just consistently, so it became very damp & the wind really picked up, so we were a bit chilly. Of course I wasn't prepared to sit outside at the stadium since I was coming home from work, but it was still fun :)

The part which also played a key role in keeping us warm was doing the Mexican wave. The second best part was when Brazil scored in the second half . . . to be honest the first half was a bit boring, aside from a bit of fancy foot work from Robinho (who btw shares my b'day!)

And for those of you wondering how my March Challenge is going, I'm thankful to have such generous mates to give me free tickets to football matches and wonderful mates in Germany who let me visit for Easter!!

Labels: arsenal, football, march challenge

posted by Sara @ 11:47 am 0 comments

Thursday Meme from Ms. CheeseWiz

Four films I’d watch again:
1. Silence Of The Lambs
2. The Notebook
3. Office Space
4. What About Bob

Four places I’ve lived:
1. New York
2. Vermont
3. Rhode Island
4. England

Four TV shows I watch:
1. Grey's Anatomy
2. Army Wives
3. Re-runs of Friends
4. BBC news (not sure that's considered a show, but I watch it)

Four things to eat:
1. spag bol
2. curries
3. chicken & biscuits
4. mac & cheese (homemade of course!)

Four places I'd rather be:
1. My bed
2. Germany (I'm going tomorrow but wish I was there already)
3. travelling - just about anywhere would be wonderful
4. eating blueberry pancakes with REAL maple syrup in the ADK General Store (in NY)

Four things I'm thankful for:
1. ability to travel pretty often
2. my mum being sober for 27 years & 1 day (yes, that means her 27th anniversary was yesterday!!!!! How cool is that?!?!?!?!?)
3. my mates in London, who make it easier to be so far away from my family
4. my job- allows me to live overseas, to pay the bills, learn new things about immunology of infectious diseases and over all keeps me entertained M-F :)

Labels: march challenge, meme, thankful

posted by Sara @ 9:48 am 4 comments

PhD or not to PhD that is some peoples question

A good mate of mine, who I shall call Miss A & I have been discussing getting a PhD. She's waaaaaay further ahead of this planning process than I am, as she actually has applied & gone for an interview & toured the campus. She emailed me today to say she doesn't think she wants to do it anymore & did I think this was weird. Here is my reply, which some of you might find interesting since I'm sure you've wondered, when or why has she not gotten her PhD yet. If you have more questions feel free to ask away.

Miss A,
I never even made it as far as an interview & visiting a campus, I just have this gut feeling like I'm not meant to be a PhD student. I don't think it has anything to do with me not being smart enough, just the stuff they (PhDs) do seems less like what I actually enjoy about the lab. I'm not into the writing of papers & grants. I enjoy the lab section of the job - I like playing around with media & bugs & at times even enjoy the LFU (email me if you haven't figured out what that is yet) work, that is when they're BALB, but even the B6 I'm getting use to - did I tell you I can now ip inject a B6 . . . I'd never done that before in my Trudeau life (as I like to call it).
I see Greg, Ulrich, John, Helena & Quentin pulling their hair out over money & grants. All worried they're research will be scooped by another lab or PI (principle investigator). Maybe I'm just not cut-throat enough for that position. I wish I knew exactly what it was, though I guess in a way it doesn't really matter, I just know I don't want what they have. That's not to say I won't want it in the future, just for now, I can't or maybe I don't want to handle it. I don't think it's a bad thing by any means, as I love my job & the work I'm doing now. If/when the day comes when I suddenly have the urge to go for the PhD, then hopefully I'll be in a position where I have the time & can pursue it.
Anne-Marie (a receptionist) had a bit of a go per say with me over this issue just last week when I bumped into her whilst on my way back from getting my new glasses (see photo in older post). She said, so when you gonna be done with your PhD? To which I explained I wasn't a PhD student, just here working for now. She said, oh come on, what a waste of time, you know you want one. I thought, the cheek of her to tell me it's a waste of time, how the heck does she know what I want & if what I'm doing is a waste of time?!?!?!?!
There are lots of things I still want to do in my life, like more travelling & in my mind signing up for 4-6 years for a PhD doesn't really sound like fun when I could spend that money & time doing other things. Some might call it laziness, but as Greg always says PhDs come & go, but the technical & administrative staff are the ones who run this place! So my point is that your decision not to get/want to get a PhD right now is nothing to be ashamed/embarrassed/worried about at all!

Anyone have thoughts/ideas/comments about Miss A & me not wanting a PhD?

On a completely different topic, today I'm thankful to the porters who scrubbed, cleaned, polished, and waxed our lab floor - it looks beautiful!!!

Okay off to have movie/curry night with Shani & Ellie now.

Labels: march challenge, PhD, thoughts

posted by Sara @ 6:19 pm 9 comments

Europe's TB capital

Some of you may have guessed it from the title, but I'm referring to the wonderful city I live in, London, England, named the TB capital of Europe, now who wouldn't be proud to have that title?!?!?!

Luckily researchers over at Imperial College (where all of my FLUs currently are - if you don't understand that email personally & I'll let you in, but for obvious reasons I cannot write it out on the blog) have come up with a new faster TB test, check it out here. Currently the way to test for TB is long and invasive procedure, consisting of 3 days in hospital, procedures to get sputum samples, and then growing the TB bacteria in the lab - that's what they currently call the "gold-standard" test . . . doesn't seem so gold standard to me, but I guess when it's the best you can get it's gold.

This new test will look for interferon gamma proteins being produced from immune cells from infection & not vaccination (remember until only a few months ago the UK gave the BCG vaccination to all children) which the Mantoux test (aka PPD test) cannot do.

For those of you not in the know about the TB vaccination, BCG, here is a bit more info than you actually ever wanted to know. Bacille Calmette-Guérin (Albert Calmette a French bacteriologist and Camille Guérin a French vet) is the attenuated (aka weakened but still live) bovine tuberculosis bacillus. It has lost its virulence in humans due to years of culturing in an artificial medium. It was first given to humans in 1921 and depending on geographical location and time post vaccination it can be up to 80% effective in preventing tuberculosis. It has been shown to be efficacious against tuberculous meningitis in children, but much less so against pulmonary tuberculosis. Another interesting tidbit, should you ever be in London & fancy a chat with Mr Paul Fine about it's efficacy, be sure to plan a few hours, he LOVES this topic!!

So today I'm thankful for this discovery & the fact that it's Friday :)

Labels: bcg, infectious diseases, London, march challenge, news, TB

posted by Sara @ 5:22 pm 3 comments

glasses & sewing machine photos

Here's the sewing machine I bought a few weeks ago:
Here I am 4 eyes and all!
Spent ALL day in Croydon today at my visa extended interview - they warned me to be available for up to 3 hours . . . the short of it is that after paying £550, sitting around from 11am to 4.30pm I got it, so I can stay till Dec 31st!! Yes that means I have to do this whole fun filled process again in a few months, but in my March Challenge of being more thankful, I'm just glad I got this extension :)

Labels: glasses, march challenge, sewing machine, work permits

posted by Sara @ 8:24 pm 3 comments

4 EYES

let's start with my thankfulness first off! i'm thankful for dan who organised & cleaned the shelves in the tissue culture room. i'm thankful to tash, mel & laura for helping me clean the main part of the lab, we still have LOTS to do, but we made a valiant effort today & everyone will see the difference immediately.

for those you of dying to hear about my new four eyes . . . no longer have to wait as I got my glasses today so instead of :-) I suppose I need to start making 8-) smiles to show off my lovely glasses (lol) i do apologise that i have no photos of them yet as i was super busy spring cleaning the lab & then sorting out my paperwork for the much awaited visa extension interview tomorrow in croydon, so you'll all just have to wait . . .

Labels: glasses, march challenge, thankful

posted by Sara @ 9:40 pm 3 comments

March PS Challenge

So how is everyone doing with their "be more thankful & try to take fewer things for granted" March challenge?

I'm rather proud of myself for my participation. For example yesterday, I showed up at the pub to meet some mates who happen to all be running late. I sat there by myself for 35 minutes before anyone showed up & I was getting a bit impatient, but again I thought, "what would Tricia do?" and then I realised she'd probably give anything to be outta the hospital, even if her mates were running late. So I sat quietly reading until they all arrived. Instead of bollocking them for being late, I just said, "glad you made it, I was worried maybe I'd gotten the date wrong"

Today I went to the gym & went on the treadmill, walking for 2 minutes then running for 2 minutes for a total of 50 minutes. I had only planned on going for 20 minutes, but then I decided to push a bit harder & keep going for Tricia & my March challenge. When I got done, I was a sweaty mess, but felt good for having done it!

So how are you all doing? Leave me a comment so I know . . .

Labels: gym, march challenge, thankful, tricia

posted by Sara @ 10:18 pm 3 comments

What would PS do?

So some of you might have visited Nate's blog once or twice before, and maybe some of you are even following the story on a daily basis (like I am). Yes, I know there are thousands, if not millions, of blogs out there on the web to read, how do you chose which ones to follow & which not to you ask??!?!

For me that's easy, I follow only a few blogs on a regular (meaning daily) basis. I think all the blogs I visit are listed in my side bar, but not all of those are daily reads. The reason I mentioned Nate's blog earlier & why the title reads, "what would PS do?" is because after following what he tells of his story and I'm sure there is a lot more which he doesn't/cannot write about, I find myself throughout the day wondering what his wife is doing. Her name is Patricia Suzanne, aka PattySue or as you may see her called in the blog Tricia. I don't think for long, just a few seconds whilst pushing myself onto the tube in the morning, or when worrying about an issue at work, or even most recently tonight, when pushing myself to go to the gym.

Let me try to set the scene, though this maybe one of those hard to explain kinda things. It was a typical Monday at work, on the whole nothing to difficult, I put placed in charge of sorting out the ID card & 4 digit pin codes with our safety officer, IC's safety officer, IC's BSF 2 staff members (who I personally think are about as useful as tits on a bull to put it nicely), and the counter-terrorist police unit . . . at first I was very proud to be put in such a position - little me in charge of sorting this out with all this "big wigs", until I realised this was a much harder task than I thought it was going to be - my quick & easy solution was not so easy, which means it's not a quick fix either . . . back to the drawing board with that one tomorrow. But back to my point, at the end of the day, I was sorta feeling beaten by the first of what I can now see as being many meetings with all these people (and anyone who's ever had a meeting with more than 2 people understands how hard it is to try to get multiple people's schedules to match, try doing it with 3 from one institute, 3 from another, and 2-3 from a police branch in central London - you guessed it, NOT fun!) Sorry I got off track again. As I was saying, I was feeling a bit down, came home, had dinner, was checking my emails & debating if I should go to the gym or not. Thinking I could go tomorrow before work, which I know is never really a good plan since I have a rather large dislike for getting up in the morning, so waking up extra early to go to the gym is a ruddy bad idea!! I finally got up, put on my gym kit & walked over. About half way through the work out, I was feeling exhausted, I was wondering why I'd decided to put myself through this & suddenly whilst on the leg curl machine (I think my most hated machine at the mo) just as I was about to give up at rep 7 of my 2nd set (I'm suppose to do 3 sets of 15) suddenly I thought, "what would Tricia do?"
At first the other half of my brain said, "nothing she can't go to the gym"
To which the other half of me said, "but if she could go to the gym, she wouldn't give up, do the next 8 for her, since she can't"
So I pushed the next 8 out & went back to lunges & swats, before ending back on the leg curl machine for my last set. I cannot lie, I thought about skipping out, stretching and just grabbing my jacket so I could leave - I mean who would notice, who would care?!?!? But instead, thanks to Tricia & her strength to fight something way harder than 15 leg curls, I got on the machine & did all 15!!
Probably some of you are thinking so what - you finished your workout, big deal and maybe some of you are so bloody bored you stopped reading a few paragraphs ago. What I'm hoping you got out of my rather long winded stream of consciousness writing is that we take a lot for granted on a daily basis - it's not until you can't do something that you realise how lucky you are. I would bet that Tricia would give anything to have been on that machine doing leg curls (well maybe not them since I know how much they suck, but I'm sure she'd have loved to be at the gym tonight with me!)
Just take a second to reflect on the things you did today, what have you taken for granted? Imagine if you were in a hospital & couldn't have done those things - aren't you the least bit thankful for what you were able to do today?
So I'm going to try to make a pact with myself I'm going to call it my March Challenge (since it's just round the corner really) every day I'm going to try to be more thankful & try to take fewer things for granted. When I get pissed off about something at work - I'm going to try to be thankful I have a job. When I get frustrated at the airport b/c the plane is delayed - I'm going to think of those who can't get on a plane. I hope you can all join me in trying to be a bit more conscious of all the things around us that we have to be thankful for.

THANK YOU PATTY SUE!!!!!!!!!

I hope this post makes sense, since it's now 10.15pm, I'm not going to re-read it.

Labels: march challenge, nate's blog, remembering, thoughts

posted by Sara @ 9:38 pm 6 comments