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.