Quick update, very busy!

Hey! Guess what.... i ran 5K in 32:19...... which is a whole 16 seconds quicker than normal..... ooh, feel the excitement. Yeah, i know..... still slow, haha! I tried several 7mph sections.... which felt quite good, for about 2 mins!, I found that i needed to slow down a lot before getting back to my normal 5.8mph. Hence why overall it only helped by 16 seconds. But it was fab to watch the miles increasing more quickly!

I got three runs in this week, all 5k.... and would have got one more done on Friday, had it not of been for the monsoon-like weather, which i was totally unprepared for.... no coat, no umbrella (which would have been useless cos i was on my bike!). So, when i got home from uni i was literally completely soaked.... all of my clothes.... including my underwear! a stoopid amount of rain. I stood in my hallway and stripped, found dry clothes and mopped up the puddle of rainwater. I just didn't want to go back outside again, so skipped the gym. Boo hiss!

At university I'm still doing the bacteria time course...... so lots of spread plating.... and thankfully no more fires like last week! My only hiccup this week was due to my poor concentration while making an agar media to make the plates. I use a type of media that needs slightly more added agar to make it a lil firmer. I made two bottles.... and put double extra agar in one, and none in the other..... which i didn't realise until i took the bottles from the autoclave... and one was an amber colour.... which is far darker than it should be. My lovely technician said to use it anyway.... so i have 20 plates of too soft agar (should be fun trying to spread bacteria on them!) and 20 plates of super-firm agar. Jeez! Thankfully i'm only at the practicing stage!

So, thinking about swimming this week.... eek! me, in a swimsuit, in public, oh lordy! It's been about 2 years since i last went swimming, and i'm weirdly nervous about it! Ah well, it can't be that bad, i'm sure!

TaTa, *H*

Project time has arrived! Yay!

Hello, sorry its been so long since my last update... been very busy!

UNI NEWS FIRST!
My project supervisor finally let us start! It was supposed to be Thursday of the week before, but he postponed until Monday 11th. Not that i was surprised. I should have started my project in June.... I wanted to start my project in June..... I had told work I was leaving, and had arranged to move to start my project in June! Grr! oh well, c'est la vie!

But, Monday arrived.... and I had no email telling me that it was postponed so I set off for university! Its about 30 mins away. I got there, and just walked through the front doors.... the security man held it open for me!.... so much for security during the holidays!

My project is a microbiology related one, so I get to have lots of fun growing bugs! I can't say too much about it because of possible uses to companies at a later date.

The first day was just media preparation (for agar plates), and lab safety lectures..... I was instructed on how to use the autoclave three times, then given written instructions. Not that I'm complaining, an autoclave can be dangerous what with the high temperatures and pressure... and I'm scared! nah, seriously, its perfectly safe if used correctly. hehe!

Tuesday was actual microbio work.... practising techniques..... I thought I was doing so well, until.....

Wednesday, when I realised I had forgotten to dry the plates before spreading the bugs.... resulting in a bacterial lawn instead of the individual colonies I wanted. Opps! So, repeated the test again on Wednesday, and prepared more plates in the afternoon ready for use on Friday.

Thursday, went in briefly to check my plates for growth... Success! Individual colonies!

Friday, I checked with my supervisor that all was good to start a prelim-test... he said yes... so I did the first section of a time-course study. I'm so excited that I finally got to start my project! now, if only I can keep the enthusiasm up for the next 15 weeks!

erm... I should admit I had one slight "accident"..... I set fire to a beaker of 70% ethanol. opps! While sterilising my spreading rod, I dipped it in the ethanol.... flamed it in a busen flame to remove the ethanol.... realised I didn't need it straight away, so put it back in the ethanol. The rod must have had some ignited ethanol on it.... its a clear flame, so you don't see it. I thought it was odd when the plastic spreading rod started to melt! hmm, will try not to do that again! I have never set something on fire that has a clear flame, so it was a new (and interesting) experience for me!


RUNNING NEWS
Only got two runs in this week, should be able to fit more in next week.... I think the key is to take my running stuff to uni with me so i can go running after uni, but before i go home. Genius!

Both runs were 3.1 miles.... both at 5.8mph.... both followed by elliptical for 20 mins. Definitely have to go more next week. I seem to go crazy if i don't work out 4 times a week minimum.

Got in long walks and core exercises and sit-ups (boo hiss!) on other days, but i don't count that stuff as proper.

*E* did her first 5K run at the gym this week. She wasn't too impressed when i stood next to her at 2.99 miles and told her to keep going, but she did it, hurrah!

TaTa
*H*

Edinburgh, WoW!

Ok, got back from Edinburgh v. late Tuesday evening, after a crazy 9.5 hours on trains, 30 mins delay between trains, one ferry ride (a whole 3 mins!) and a taxi ride. Felt strange to be home, even after only being away since Saturday. The house had a nice but odd smell of flapjacks, which I decided to ignore. Hmm. Peculiar!

Anyway, Edinburgh is a...maz...ing! Such a pretty city, full of fab architecture. Very hilly tho. Going from street level down side-alleys brings you out onto roof-tops of other buildings, and the buildings are super-tall, which originates from the fact that building had to be down upwards rather than outwards to increase capacity owing to the big valley which was un-buildable on. As a result the city is in two halves, Old Town (with funky lil shops, pubs, restaurants and boutique shops *yay for the cheese-monger*) and New Town, which has more regular high street stores, and pricey designer shops.

We (thats me, *E* and my fellow course student *B*) stayed in a youth-hostel (hurrah for back-packers, ah, the memories!) which was literally being built around us, but was clean and secure enough, and most importantly.... cheap!

Although there was an issue with hot water in both the hot and cold taps, and little hot water in the shower, but, ho-hum.

Saturday night, we were so tired all we did was go for some Italian food, and then head back for sleep. Oh, get us, Party Animals!

So, Sunday, we did the touristy bus tour thing to get to grips with the layout, and learn a bit of history. Then *B* bought a fabulous dress from an indie store in Old Town. We headed back to the hostel to get a bit of a kip before heading back out in the evening. We ate food from a Jacket Potato shop (Edinburgh is over-run by them!). I had a pitta tho, filled with veggie haggis (yum) and cheese (yum). So Good! That night was nearing the end of the Edinburgh Festival (hugely famous) and there were fireworks from the castle, which funnily enough is on a hill!, set to the music from the ballet of Romeo and Juliet.

I really really strongly dislike fireworks. Yeah, I know, odd. Party-pooper. Whatever.

But it was ok. Most impressed by the heart shaped red fireworks. Don't even understand how they work!

Lil tip for touristy people next year.... head to Waverly Bridge for an excellent view.

Monday was the University of Edinburgh open day for undergraduates, so I wasn't expecting much info for me.... I'm looking to do a post-grad course, hopefully next year..... which is good, cos there was very little info available, even when I asked people (ahem, professors... try to help a bit more!). The most helpful person I spoke to was a PhD student, who, bless her, was very helpful. Yay! Even so, i went to the Biology talk... and the "facilities" tour.... which consisted of the science library, and the canteen (ooh, stunning views!), but alas, no actual science labs or equipment. I was shocked. This is a top five University for Biology.... yet no labs were shown or equipment demonstrated. Think I'd be disapointed if i was looking for undergrad placement. *E* spent the morning climbing a hillside called King Arthur's Seat. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur

The rest of Monday was spent eating at a fab restaurant....... buying fudge and shortbread.....and feeling kinda ill, so I went to sleep at about 9pm, and didn't wake up till 8am the next day. Crazy!

Tuesday was rainy, we bought yummy cheese from the cheese-monger http://www.ijmellischeesemonger.com/default.htm (hehe!) had the bestest-ever hot chocolate (Santo Domingo) at http://www.plaisirduchocolat.com/ Old Town Cafe and went to catch the train.

So, Just to recap. Edinburgh is Fabulous in every way that I can see. Love it. Just hope I can convince someone to grant me a studentship.

TaTa
*H*

P.S. *E* ran her first 3 miles on Wednesday, and no knee pain thanks to her brace. Hurrah!

Quick update...

Hey, v busy.....

quick update.... Didn't make it to the gym on Tuesday, but did loads of walking! yay!

Wednesday, went after work. Ran 3.15 miles, but I've forgotten the time, oops! *E* was running with her new knee brace, but pulled the safety cord out at 2.89 miles and couldn't be bothered to carry on... Boo hiss! how annoying!

Thursday, went to gym, my running was allllll over the place. hmm. ran until 1.5 miles (5.8mph) but needed the loo, but made the mistake of running the last coupla minutes at 6.3mph. when I got back from the loo 5.8mph seemed to slow, so notched it back up to 6.1mph for a while, but couldn't get into the right pace. dropped back down to 5.8mph (so little, yet such a big change!) but felt too energetic to run that slow. soooooo,

I decided to go mega quick (for me!) and went up to 7.3mph till I made 1 mile... then I was at the point where I probably coulda thrown up (lordy) so stopped.

went on the cross-trainer tho...

*E* didn't run cos she'd whacked her other knee at work on the corner of the door, ouch!

today I am packing for my lil trip to Edinburgh. I am going to check out the university for the possibility of postgrad courses (how excited am I?! erm, VERY!) and check the city out too, tho I hear its fab! just means sitting on a train for the most part of Saturday to get up there, and Tuesday coming home again. think I might go insane!

but I'll tell ya all about it when I'm back!

TaTa
*H*