Chinese whispers

'Tis the season for sneezes, sniffles and infectious diseases. As I get older, I seem to become ill more easily. I've definitely had to take more sick days over the last 18 months than I ever did in the first 25 years of my life. Having never taken a painkiller at all until I was 25, I've certainly made up for it since.

My resident symptoms are usually a sore throat, after which the inflammation seemingly spreads to my ear canals before camping out there for a few days, sometimes accompanied by a banked campfire of mild fever. However, the main point of this post is not to complain and try to garner sympathy, but rather to muse on the relationship between vocal chords, languages, and throat infections.

Why? When my recurring throat infection reappears for an encore, enlisting nose blocking-mucous for extra effect, I find my voice becomes a little harsher and it's harder to speak more loudly. Interestingly, this is more of a problem when speaking Cantonese than when speaking English, whilst my Mandarin just becomes rather more nasal. When speaking Cantonese, I find it more of an effort to enunciate clearly and tend to whisper. English is less difficult, maybe it's because it is a less tonal-dependent language and so having a blocked nose is less of an impediment? Perhaps it's due to the different phonation of the languages, and how the vocal chords are able to oscillate whilst inflammed? Strangely though, I find Cantonese softer on the ears and requiring less concentration to understand when my ears are affected. This is rather inconvenient, as it means that it's easier for me to speak English, but less difficult to understand Cantonese. Maybe there is a non-tonal language that doesn't have many harsh tones and simple grammar that I could learn? Of course that would involve gaining a new social circle with whom I could use it.

A more practical solution would be to carry a writing pad and stylus with me at all times.


Photo credit: Taken from www.nottingham.ac.uk Microbiology departmental webpage

Anyone still here?

It's been a busy year, 2011, with an awful lot going on at work, some good and some not so good. Visits to friends and keeping in touch with both friends and family have been slotted in where I can, but my poor blog has suffered greatly, especially since I STILL don't have internet at home (and never will unless I move elsewhere I suspect) and I'm now too lazy to go to work to update it at the weekends.

However, after this list of excuses, which apparently labels me unmistakingly as Typically British, I will try and remedy my neglect of this webspace and resume usual sporadic service. Fittingly, it is just over a year since my last post, a similar period of time to the maximum available period of maternity leave. Although I most definitely have not been gestating or been pregnant, in interests of equal rights, if people get time off to have babies, there should be special circumstances under which childless people can take a corresponding time off, non? Something to discuss over the dinner table perhaps, if you run out of other contentious topics to explore, such as the Euro, homelessness, benefits, the NHS, politics and religion.

So that was my non-maternity leave. I will continue to bore you with the tears, tantrums and teething problems that crop up in my life. Discussions around baby food, nurseries and schools and the latest baby pushchair models are optional.

only to moan

I haven't posted anything for quite a while, as I'm sure you're aware. There's been a lot to do, and with no internet at home, there never seems to be a time where I can sit down and collect my thoughts together for a post. A lot of things have come and gone, but by the time I get a chance to sit in front of the computer and type about it, the timeliness, or the urge to discuss it and find the right words to do so, has gone.

These last few months have been mostly busy, and mostly happy, when I've managed to think about whether I am happy or not. Right now though, I sense that I'm starting to burn out, and things seem to be crowding in on me. I'm still a little lonely, away from my older friends and no chance to see much of my family this year. The good side is that there are several people now at work I'm getting to know better, though it's hard to find a day/evening when we can just get together and talk and laugh and drink a little. Unfortunately, some of my other friends are having relationship and family problems, and I'm finding it a struggle to drench up enough energy and support them, over long phone conversations that are cutting into my sleeping time. I feel a bit bad for feeling it's a struggle, but it's becoming very emotionally draining, especially since I can't seem to help them, and I'm listening to them going round and round in circles.

And sometimes I do feel as if I am more someone to talk AT and my input is not really needed. But isn't that what everyone wants really, just someone to listen to them?

I find that as I get older, I'm drawn more and more towards female friends. I have always had more male friends than female friends, generally because I found male friends more straight-forward, I didn't need to decipher their moods or their meaning. If they were annoyed at me, they told me, if they were pleased to see me, they showed it. I disliked the possibility of being forced to take sides if my female friends had an argument, or the petty bitching that teenage, not-yet-confident, girls could show.

As I grow older and the world seems more complex to me, and I no longer find it possible to see things in shades of black and white, I find more affinity to women friends, those who also see shades of grey and show more tolerance of things they don't quite understand or are unfamiliar with. The black and whiteness, the quick anger and intolerance of some (I hasten to add, only some) of my male friends wear me down sometimes. They are often right in their opinions and in their anger, but right in the sense that they are not wrong. And they hold fast to this righteousness and are unhappy with it, believing they have been wronged. If they were happy in their righteousness, or even unhappy but accepting, then I would not say a word. But to be unhappy and to ask my opinion yet be annoyed when I give them my true opinion and it differs from theirs..... I guess they don't expect me to not agree with them because they are certain of themselves.

One day, I will sit down and record all the phrases I might be expected to say in a conversation and just leave it running on a tape next to the phone whilst I do something more soothing.

For now, I will stop my rants and think of something more amusing/entertaining/light-hearted for my next post!

Sorry folks, thanks for your patience if you've managed to read this far. I think I do understand why I get so many late night calls and am only talked AT - a monologue can be soothing sometimes too.

Snakes on a plane

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11203270

Annual floods

Throughout history, it has been said that the Emperor or ruler who can tame the Yellow River and Yangtze River, and delimit the devastation caused by the flooding of their banks will win the people, heart and mind.

Thousands of years on, you can still understand why. Engineers over the millenia have struggled with the problem (early engineering was quite advanced in China), but the logistics are tremendous, given the size of China's prone-to-flooding regions and the sheer numbers of people and communities that rely and live on the fertile plains in those regions criss-crossed by the rivers.

Every year it's hard to tell how bad the flooding will be. I wish all the very best for the rescue workers working hard in Zhouqu at the moment, and hope that there isn't worse coming.

Herbal highs (for 6-legged creatures)

The lavender bushes in front of my institute are like opium dens for insects. It’s quite fun watching the big fat bumble-bees lumber between flower heads (or inflorescences if you’re being pedantic). There are usually quite a little herd of them grazing and looking rather comical as they perch on flowers that aren’t much bigger than they are.

The great thing about working in an agricultural research institute is that someone always knows exactly what flower/fern/insect you’re looking at. When I was taking these photos on Sunday, someone appeared behind me and mentioned that this was a Common Blue butterfly. There were also some Cabbage Whites (these, I knew the name of) but they fluttered too much for me to get a camera shot.

I saw some winged ants on my way home, but they weren’t so pretty and my photos of them crawling over the grey concrete pavement didn’t come out so well. But it's a good job I heeded their warning and brought my umbrella out today.

Foldit: Biology for gamers

One for those of you who like to tackle 3D models and spatial puzzles – protein modelling conundrums introduced to the internet gaming community. I think it’s a great use of crowd-sourcing, there must be plenty of gamers who like a challenging puzzle and are a bit of a perfectionist – precisely what you need from a protein modeller. After slotting a part of the protein into place, the gamers get not only the satisfaction of having solved a piece of the puzzle, but also the satisfaction that their work will help further scientific research!

It definitely sounds like a better use of crowd-sourcing than some of those put forward by the government.

(Image from the original Nature paper)

Assassins

People lurking in doorways, stalking their target on the streets, their weapon hidden in the folds of their clothes. You don't know who might be out to get you, but meanwhile, someone else has your photo in a manila envelope, trying to get you first. It might be at work, when you walk out of your door, as you buy your lunch, but there are rules. You are safe on public transport and in train stations.

Am I getting a bit paranoid?

Actually, I'm referring to I guess what would be called 'water pistol assassins' which is apparently becoming very popular in cities in the UK and USA - I presume also in different parts of the Western world as well. There's an article on the BBC website that explains it (or at least, explains it to those who can understand the attraction, regardless of whether it attracts them or not).

It's not a new concept to me. It used to be played around my university, although unless you knew the Assassins society existed you probably wouldn't have noticed. I didn't play, but I probably got the record for the 'innocent' that was killed the most times in my first undergraduate year. Practically every time I went to visit my friend, who lived in another part of my college and DID play, I set off some sort of trap meant for her, whether it was jam on the door (masquerading as poison), or a box sitting in front of her door (bomb). I was like a canary in a mine, squeaking (I can't sing) as I set off all the traps before their intended target. It did explain why I had seen a strange guy lurking around her part of college (it was a women's only college, which must have made life more difficult for the male assassins) - later on I got to see him a few more times; usually the back of him as he scuttled off when I opened her door and walked right into yet another trap. Once it was a talcum powder bomb, which I was less amused about. He was certainly tenacious, I give him that, and almost certainly frustrated by my unintentional suicidal tendencies.

Don't ask me why they do it. As to myself, I liked going to and from lectures without being attacked (at least I knew I would only be killed when I was in the proximity of my friend). I'm glad that their rules didn't mean you had to be killed by a water pistol though - otherwise I would have had to visit her with a towel, just in case.

Rats waz 'ere

Haha I saw this and just thought I'd share it with you. I had rats in my attic a few months ago, right above my bedroom ceiling - or at least, I think they were rats. They made so much noise they could have been badgers, except I think a badger shinnying its way up my drainpipe would have been quite noticeable. I've now got one of those electronic ultrasonic rat repellent machines myself - I don't know if it truly works, but I didn't hear any more scrabbling noises above my head at night after I plugged it in. I've actually taken it out now because, yes, it is sooo NOT inaudible to the human ear. Hopefully the rats will stay outdoors now that it's warm outside. I'll plug it back in in the autumn.

The comic strip was from Shrubmonkeys, a comic strip drawn by an animator called Katie Shanahan. It's great fun and she draws amazing facial expressions. Add the site to your procrastination list!

I told you it would be random.....

I read somewhere that sometimes, our early loves are those whom we sense to be the other halves of us, who complete us and fill a void within us. Before meeting them, we may not have known that that void was there but once we know it, we feel as if something is missing from everything we do when or if that person is gone. But when we mature and grow more confident in ourselves, we find loves with whom we can be complete people in our own right, not just half of a whole.

I think that a healthy relationship is one that brings out the best qualities in both parties, one where both can grow and change without growing apart. If it gets stuck at one stage and becomes stagnant, one day you might wake up and realise that you’ve stopped looking at the other person as a person in their own right, with their own ambitions and dreams, with their own struggles and needs. Maybe the person you thought they were no longer exists, if they ever did. We all try to change other people, it is much harder to accept them and love them just as they are.

Sometimes, love isn’t enough. Some may argue that if you love each other enough you can overcome anything. That could be true, but it is easier to say than do. Love alone isn’t enough. You need courage, faith and trust, not only in the other person but in yourself. If you don’t believe in yourself and in your own worth, how can you trust the other person will love you enough to overcome obstacles for your sake?

I think that before you can love properly you need to love to love youself. Once you’ve accepted your own shortcomings, you might be more tolerant of flaws in other people.

BacklogS of posting

EEKS - there are so MANY things I should blog about but haven't got round to yet. I'll try and update this blog more frequently from now on. The posts might get more random (if that's possible).

Trading blows

Ah, yet another brawl in the Taiwanese parliament. Haven't had one of those for a little while....

Old plates

Hurray! I need some antibiotic plates for a bacterial transformation later on in the day, but found out that a) the plates I have are getting on for 6-weeks old, b) I didn't have any bottles of sterile media made up, and c) there was no bacto-agar left. So I had a quick online rummage of Bitesized Bio, a site where scientists exchange technical tips and flag up new techniques, to see what the BBD (best-before date) for antibiotic plates were. My old supervisor always said 1 month, but it appears that my 6-week old veterans don't have to draw their pension just yet.

I also had a quick rummage through the plate stocks in the cold room, and there are some from last autumn, whilst several stacks are 4 months+. And those are the ones on the front shelves. I'm sure if I look hard enough I'll find some from the last millenium, maybe with weird and wonderful strains of bacteria on them.

The game has ended!

John Isner won - 70 games to 68!
Mahut looks like he's able to cry... T_T
They've been given a 'special memento', along with the (literally) long-suffering umpire. Poor Mahut has to hang around for photos, speeches, etc.

Is Isner due to play a doubles game later this afternoon?!
The people around me are following the football, apart from one person, who was listening on the radio and mentioned out loud that Isner had won, just when I was watching the final serve (TV is slightly behind the radio).

Phew....

Neverending game

I'm watching the Wimbledon, court 18 to be precise, the John Isner vs Nicholas Mahut match. It's very compelling, unbelievable how the games just keep going on and on. Currently 64 games each, and apparently they have each played enough games to theoretically win the Championship. I think practically all the tennis records have been broken too. The BBC live coverage, with the Twitter and text posts is very good.

P.S. Yes, I am sort of working, bringing my lab book up-to-date. And I didn't go to watch the football yesterday when everyone was skivving....

Work during the World Cup

My company has been quite 'understanding' about allowing us to go and watch the World Cup games. They've even opened the pavilion-bar with the wide-screen tv so that people can go and watch the games they want - as it has quite an international community a lot of the games have been shown, but for the England-Slovenia game (being played right now) my department resembles the Marie Celeste....

The office areas

The lab

Amazing given that it's only the first round, nowhere near the finals. Though it may be the 'final' game for England in the World Cup this year - let's hope that they play better than they did last week.

B-boy robot(s)

For all you engineers out there...

(Image taken from the ITN website)

mashimaro mp3 player

I've just taken a peek at the mashimaro website (when I should be working, shame on me) and fallen in love with the Mashimaro MP3 player - 귀여워! (translation: kawaii ne!) I don't know how to get hold of it in the UK though so I may have to call upon overseas friends to get it if I do want one. Sonyway appears to have it, but it ships in China only, and unfortunately Yesasia don't stock it.

Apparently, mashimaro has been described as the rabbit version of Hello Kitty.... I'm pretty sure mashimaro is a lot more violent and ruder than Hello Kitty is supposed to be. If you don't know what I mean, watch the animations on the mashimaro website (don't worry, still PG, or at the very least, not more than 12A)

Tip: there's a pink box in the top right corner of the webpage that links to the english version, if you don't read hangul

More public science events

I still haven't got round to blogging about the Rothamsted Research open weekend, and I have another event tomorrow. This time it's Cereals UK, which is more a business-orientated event. Farmers, agrochemical companies and agricultural research institutes will be there, so it should be fairly different from the RRes open weekend, as the public at this event have more of a vested interest in the work. There's a strong presence from our institute at the event, as a lot of our work focuses on cereals.

The ideal weather for Cereals UK would be rain for a couple of weeks beforehand, so that field diseases have a chance to develop and show strong symptoms in our demonstration plants (we take infected plants with us and they are 'planted' there, as the whole event is spread over several fields). Then some sun and dry weather for the actual event would be nice, given that we will have to stand there! Typically, it's been the other way round this year, with dry weather for the last few weeks, and rain scheduled for the next two days. I've dug some wellies out ready for tramping across the fields.

I also have a slot talking to the public about plant science and soil organisms at the Royal Society 350th anniversity Summer Exhibition at the Southbank Centre in early July. It runs for about 10 days, but I'm only helping for one day (11am to 8.30pm, it'll be a long day, although others have even longer days, from 9.30am to 11.30pm for several days). I have several papers to review too. How am I supposed to get any actual work done?!

It'll have to be an early night tonight, as we're supposed to reach Royston for Cereals UK by 7.30am tomorrow. I doubt that will happen, but it'll be a 6am start at the latest.

Looking forward to be up to my shins in mud!!

a rag-bag of jumbled thoughts

I haven't blogged about anything of much significance lately, partly because there have been too many things going on, and partly because I seem to be going through a 'rollercoaster emotion' phase. Rather than not finding enough important things to discuss, there are so many things I wish to talk about, they criss-cross in my mind, and I can't find the right words for what I want to say.

Work is very busy at the moment, I've been stuck at one point for a couple of months, but having finally broken through I can move on to the next stage. Unfortunately the next stage is the cloning of over 80 gene constructs, so I need to prioritise. In a way, it takes my mind off the other things crowding for attention in there.

I wanted to blog about the election, and the outcome after. I didn't believe that any one party would get a majority, so I was expecting a coalition or hung parliament of some sort. I'm not too surprised by the outcome, though I wasn't sure that a Tory/Lib Dem coalition would be agreed upon. Let's see how it goes.

South Africa and the World Cup, and London and the Olympics 2012- there seem to be so many expectations that hosting these events will have solid benefits for the host countries. Why is there always so much discussion over 'what's in it' for the host? Surely we've seen many times over that hosting the Olympics is always a huge monetary commitment? Hosting these events is never, or should never, be about the money (because hosts almost always make a loss), but may be about the political statements they make, and about boosting the presence of the host in the eyes of the world.

I wanted to blog, briefly, about the Olympics 2012 mascots and the arguments people have over them. Personally, I think they're quite cute, and it's possibly fitting that with such an angular and 'modernist' logo (which I don't like but no point in getting upset over it) we should have some non-traditional mascots. In any case, which British animal would we use as a furry mascot? Hedgehog (hiberates, is slow and gets run over)? Puffin (cute, small, but a bird that can't really fly)? Lion (good idea but it's not British despite what people might say)?

And please don't get me started on religion, social-economical issues or racism. I've been reading too many history books, both 'historical novels' (ok, stories) and more factually based texts. I seem to get steamed up over the unfairness both past and present and disbelief that some people don't believe history can tell us anything. At the same time, the steadfastness and braveness of others almost bring me to angry tears.

Short comments like the ones above are easy to write down, but when I try to discuss them more deeply, more in context, I find too many thoughts rushing in, too many side-issues and social issues murkying the waters. I'm not a 'black-and-white' person. Everything is in shades of grey for me. Sometimes I envy people who see things more simply, or rather, in a less complicated way. At least, they seem sure of the route they should take and less confused than I am a lot of the time. But at other times, I'm glad that I see so many layers to things. I find that my view of the world is ultimately more optimistic because I believe in shades of good and 'bad', although I can sometimes see ulterior motives in seemingly 'good' people....

But sometimes I find myself unable to see the wood for the trees. Everything in my life, whether it is personal, or events in the outside world, seem to crowd in. I need people to discuss with, argue over, analyse with, to be able to persuade my thoughts into a more orderly state. I miss my friends from Cambridge at the moment, the ones who I could spend time with talking about nothing much in particular but had lots of laughs with. I miss the people in my department with whom I could discuss anything, serious or trivial, knowing that the points we put across were not necessarily our points of view, per se, and so being able to properly discuss things from all angles. I miss my cousins, also my friends, who are soooo knowledgeable and great in every way. I miss my friends from Manchester, who understand where my own points of view come from, even if they don't agree with them. I see them sometimes, and catch up, or we phone each other and chat, but it's harder to get past the veneers we present to the outside world when we meet up for only a few hours, or when there are less familiar friends or partners around.

Anyway, I hope I snap out of this state soon, because I'm starting to get worn out just chasing too many thoughts around in my head.