Gardening tips - garden vs bathroom?

'Mary, mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?'

I'm pretty sure this rhyme doesn't end in 'by giving it my pee when I go' but that's what they recommend at Wimpole Farm in Cambridge. It makes sense, but perhaps if your garden is right by the main road you should consider using a different type of fertiliser?

Nightclub research

In case you don't read either the Daily Mail or The Great Beyond, the Nature journal blog, a 'scientific' paper on 'Evidence to suggest that nightclubs function as human sexual display grounds' has recently been published. I kid you not. Their findings suggest that males are supposed to approach females in nightclubs, rather than vice versa, while females dress provocatively to attract said males. And here I was thinking that girls dress (and I use the term loosely here) in skimpy miniskirts and boobtubes for the good of their health. For example, to increase blood circulation, in a 'kill or cure' manner.

Although I dress rather conservatively, i.e. normal-fitting t-shirt and jeans, on the few occasions that I go to a nightclub, I always seem to get dodgy-looking men trying to dance with me. Thus I normally go with (rather less dodgy-looking) male friends who can be relied on to rescue me from these unwanted attentions. I guess the dodgy ones are the ones who have been rejected by the better, or more 'sexually-suggestive',-looking women.

Anyway, if you want to follow the discussion on the Nature blog page, which promises to be extremely entertaining, here's the link.

Ladybird attack

I've always thought of ladybirds as being rather pretty and on the whole, quite friendly looking. Although I realised that they were a) poisonous and b) predatory (and are therefore good for your rose bushes), I haven't ever considered how they might look if you were a few centimetres high. However, I found this image of a ladybird munching on an aphid quite disturbing.

And the larvae are just as scary, in a sort of Zen Buddist/praying mantis/alien invader sort of way.There's currently quite a bit of interest in ladybirds, as they are important for natural biocontrol of pests, which affects not only roses, but also the whole ecosystem of insects, pollinators and disease vectors. The images above were taken from the website for Rothamsted Research, where there's a project looking into the threat to native ladybirds posed by invading species. Humans aren't the only ones to kill their own kind.

Weekend reading

When you receive a densely-typed, 17-page long, document from your supervisor to peruse at 4:52 on a Friday evening, and he says 'have a nice weekend' at the end of the accompanying e-mail, it probably indicates that he has a highly developed sense of humour. Good to know that.

To wed or not to wed?

Relationship-wise, it almost feels as if an ultimation’s been delivered to a subset of my nearest and dearest. There have been an avalanche of engagement notices and ‘save the date’ messages. The wedding invite count for next year currently stands at 6, although there seems to be a bit of uncertainty about the dates. It seems that weddings are now planned over a year in advance, probably to give you enough time to change your mind. If you want to get married the year after you become engaged, it appears that you need to be good at ringing people up and wrangling a hotel/cook/priest that can host/cater/officiate at your wedding.

There have also been a few new arrivals amongst my family and close friends, who have definitely stolen my heart and brought me over to the type of person who can sit patiently looking a little baby for ages on end (But I’m not having one myself yet – I still prefer babies that can be given back to mummy when they get cranky). I’ve also taken to browsing the baby clothes and toys sections in shops. As I know quite a few of my cousins have been doing the same, these must be the best dressed babies ever.

Some friends have swung the other way completely – relationships that appeared to be rock-solid from the outside have broken up, in a rather sudden way over the last few weeks. Some of the friends from whom I might have expected wedding notices have instead just broken up. You can never tell though, from outside a relationship, what is really going on inside. Hell, you can be in a relationship and still not have any idea what will happen next, or what the other person really thinks. It would be a lot easier if we could sit down and review relationships every few months, with a printed agenda so that important matters aren’t forgotten in any shouting matches that might ensue. Something like;

1. Apologies for absence of (him)/(her) from family dinner/wedding/funeral
2. How well and how far relationship has progressed since the last review.
3. Aims for the next 6 months – next step? (move toothbrush/clothes to his/her flat; co-habit; get engaged; marry; have baby(s); break up; leave for another man/women/other) – delete as appropriate.
4. Her complaints and views
5. His complaints and views (ordering of items 4 and 5 to be determined by drawing straws/volume of voice/ability to cry/power of fist)
6. Brainstorming of ideas to deal with issues brought up in items 4 and 5.
7. Summary and conclusions
8. Date of next meeting (if appropriate)

Note: Participants should come re-enforced with chocolate/alcohol/tissues/blunt weapons as needed. Also, if aim for next 6 months is to leave for another organism, it is probably best to end the meeting then and re-adjourn at a later date.

It isn't very romantic and there will still be lying, but anything that might ease the course of 'true love'?

telephone etiquette

Why is it that people ring other people for a chat when they themselves are doing something? It’s a bit disconcerting, and frankly, very rude, to be tapping away on the keyboard or to be absorbed in a problem when someone else is trying to have a conversation with you. The exception is when you’re calling for advice or information on a problem or work-related issue, and you’re looking for the relevant files or website. Alternatively, If the one working is the person on the receiving end of the call, then that can be excused. But when it’s the person making the call, then it begs the question as to why they rang the other person in the first place. Is it to save having to tune into a radio station that is sufficiently entertaining but not mentally demanding? When I pick up a call, I generally try and give the person on the other end as much attention as possible. When I call someone for a chat, not for anything specific, then I damn well make sure I can concentrate on what they say to me. This is perhaps why I rarely call people for a chat.

I’m quite used to busy friends ringing me for a quick chat when they’re waiting for a train or for an appointment, and to have them abruptly say that they have to go. Sometimes I get annoyed when it’s obvious that someone hasn’t been taking in anything I’ve said in the last few minutes of conversation. The degree of annoyedness generally correlates with my degree of tiredness, compounded with the amount of work I myself have to do and may have put aside to answer the call. My pet hate is to be asked why I’ve suddenly gone quiet after it’s obvious that what should be a dialogue has become a very one-sided attempt to keep the conversation going on my side with little help from the other. Surely a conversation must come from both sides? Then I feel either as if I’m a pet parrot that’s expected to just keep talking and entertaining people, or as if I’m being humoured and the other person isn’t really interested at all.

Of course, I too am guilty of many of these points. I might ring people if I’m watching TV, and sometimes what’s on the screen creeps into the conversation and possibly takes over. And I will take calls and chat sometimes when I’m with other people (kids, if you're reading, don't get into these habits. It's very rude).

I think one of my fears is to impose on other people and be a burden, and I dislike conveying my thoughts and ideas to people who are just plain not interested. Often, if I do talk about something that I think is important and the thoughts flow so quickly they come out of my mouth in a rush, I get told not to get worked up about it and that it’s not an argument. Why assume it's an argument? Can't I just be hoping for a debate?

I guess this might be why so many people have blogs.

Day 1: Job Hunt (Hunting for the place in which I have a job)

First day at work today - there was a bit of a hiccup actually getting to work as I appeared to have misunderstood the bus timetable and no bus arrived. Luckily I still have my parents' car, which I 'borrowed' to help me move my things to my new sticks. Surprisingly too, I wasn't late, although I didn't have a clue how to get there by car. Hurray for a semi-decent sense of direction!

Today was mostly paperwork, meetings, paperwork, reading literature - oh and more paperwork. I was introduced to so many people that after a while I gave up on remembering names. Most of them seemed to have been informed of who I was beforehand, so it was 'hi, you must be Sam' and from my side 'err.... yes, nice to meet you', before they disappeared without dropping the syllables of their name into the air between us.....

So, all seems new to me, other than the lab itself - a bit bigger and shared between groups, but the instruments and arrays of chemicals on the shelf are reassuringly familiar.