I'm at the Australian Synchrotron at the moment, having attived on Tuesday last week. Cue 5 days of experiments (Wed-Mon), then the annual user meeting (Mon-Wed) then another 5 days (Thurs-Tues), the latter of which is where I am now.
Our first experiments were looking at crystallisation of zinc oxide from sol gels using X-ray diffraction. Conceptually quite easy (especially compared to other experiments I've tried to do here), but not without its challenges. Most of the problems were sample related rather than beamline so that's ok - and we have thought of some ways to alleviate many of those if we come back a second time.
On our final day I was at the beamline at around 4:30 am, finishing off a temperature calibration and tidying up. From there it was straight into the city to go to the user meeting, after which a group of us decided to go to dinner, which was nice, but made for a very long day! I had a poster to present which was a bit of a rush job given the timing but hey.
The user meeting finished on Wednesday afternoon and I managed to get a ride with someone back to the synchrotron, where I met up with collaborators who had started preparing things for soft X-ray spectroscopy experiments the following day. This brings us to right now, day 2 of experiments with another weekend of work looming. I will be glad to get home!
Friday, November 26, 2010
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Pics from Hobart
Here are some pics from my trip to Hobart in mid-October. The trip was for a badminton tournament, but there was also enough time for some sightseeing.
Day 1, Salamanca Markets.
The next day we walked (a long way) to the Botanic Gardens.
Later in the week the weather warmed up a lot and I had a whole afternoon to myself, so chose to hire a bike and head up Mt Wellington (4000').
This is about as far as I got - about 3 km short of the top but the view was well worth it and so was the adrenaline rush heading back down!
On the last day I went on a tour to Richmond...
... Tasman Peninsula...
... Port Arthur...
... Port Arthur...
... and a Tasmanian devil wildlife sanctuary...
... where they also had a birds of prey show. Bumped into some other ladies from my team there, one of them got to hold the tawny frogmouth.
I won't be going to another badminton tournament, but I wouldn't mind spending more time in Tasmania. It was quite laid back and just adds to my theory on the comparison between New Zealand and Australian cities:
Sydney = Auckland (big, bustly, not the capital but would like to be)
Melbourne = Wellington (arts centre, cafe culture)
Adelaide = Christchurch (gardens - and I only found out recently, they are actually sister cities)
Perth = Tauranga (laid back, nice beaches, place where people go to retire)
Hobart = Dunedin (southern-most, really laid back, friendly people, has a building that looks like a castle, Cadbury factory, both even have a Portobello Road)
I won't be going to another badminton tournament, but I wouldn't mind spending more time in Tasmania. It was quite laid back and just adds to my theory on the comparison between New Zealand and Australian cities:
Sydney = Auckland (big, bustly, not the capital but would like to be)
Melbourne = Wellington (arts centre, cafe culture)
Adelaide = Christchurch (gardens - and I only found out recently, they are actually sister cities)
Perth = Tauranga (laid back, nice beaches, place where people go to retire)
Hobart = Dunedin (southern-most, really laid back, friendly people, has a building that looks like a castle, Cadbury factory, both even have a Portobello Road)
Pics from Queen Charlotte
So I finally got around to sorting through my pictures. Here is a selection of shots from the Queen Charlotte Walkway (10-12 October).
There were a lot of shots like this!
Krista and Amanda on the track, day 2.
More nice views, although this pic is mainly to prove that I was there.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
300
I don't know if you know this, but today (27 October) is the 300th day of the year.
300 days since I started my devotional blog: The Honest Truth - where I'm taking one Bible verse a day and writing a short piece about what it means, or why I like it.
300 days since I started my devotional blog: The Honest Truth - where I'm taking one Bible verse a day and writing a short piece about what it means, or why I like it.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Hobart
I have one more day and two more nights in Hobart. The town actually reminds me quite a lot of Dunedin in a weird sort of way... quite hilly, cold, laid back culture, etc. (Sydney = Auckland, Melbourne = Wellington, Adelaide = Christchurch. Perth = Tauranga?)
There was snow on Mt Wellington on the first couple of days we were here, and with temperatures around 11-12 degrees (Celsius) we realised we hadn't packed enough warm clothes. But here we are at the end of the week and it's 25 degrees - shorts and T-shirts...
The badminton games have been reasonably good, but all the socialising has grated on me a bit. Particularly the relationships between me, the people in my unit, and the people next door. Anyway I'm trying not to dwell on that.
Then everyone is saying, 'See you again next year', and I'm thinking to myself, 'No you won't!' None of this has really been my cup of tea. Being a midweek ladies' tournament, the average age of the participants is probably around 55-60. But despite this, the mid-week dinner we had consisted of food, then music almost as loud as the conference dinner at ICONN earlier this year. I simply could not stay - and I don't know how the old people coped, but they were all up the front dancing... seems that they all see it as a time to get away from their families and let their hair down. I can't really relate to that. I guess I just haven't fitted in to anything. Was I expecting to? Probably not. Am I bothered? Not now. I had a good time by myself yesterday - had the afternoon off after playing early in the morning, so I hired a mountain bike and went for a ride up Mt Wellington. I made it as far as the chalet (about 3 km from the top), decided that was far enough so I turned around and rode down - biggest adrenaline rush I've had for a while :)
Tomorrow I'm going on a tour to Richmond, Port Arthur, and a Tasmanian devil sanctuary place. By myself (i.e. not with the people from my unit). Then on Sunday it'll be time to go home - and not a day too soon. I am so over all of this. It's just like school really - girls all giggly and stupid, gossipy and backstabbing. No, I won't be going to another ladies' badminton jamboree thing.
I haven't got around to downloading the photos off my camera (for both the Queen Charlotte trip and Hobart) but as soon as I do I'll put them up here...
There was snow on Mt Wellington on the first couple of days we were here, and with temperatures around 11-12 degrees (Celsius) we realised we hadn't packed enough warm clothes. But here we are at the end of the week and it's 25 degrees - shorts and T-shirts...
The badminton games have been reasonably good, but all the socialising has grated on me a bit. Particularly the relationships between me, the people in my unit, and the people next door. Anyway I'm trying not to dwell on that.
Then everyone is saying, 'See you again next year', and I'm thinking to myself, 'No you won't!' None of this has really been my cup of tea. Being a midweek ladies' tournament, the average age of the participants is probably around 55-60. But despite this, the mid-week dinner we had consisted of food, then music almost as loud as the conference dinner at ICONN earlier this year. I simply could not stay - and I don't know how the old people coped, but they were all up the front dancing... seems that they all see it as a time to get away from their families and let their hair down. I can't really relate to that. I guess I just haven't fitted in to anything. Was I expecting to? Probably not. Am I bothered? Not now. I had a good time by myself yesterday - had the afternoon off after playing early in the morning, so I hired a mountain bike and went for a ride up Mt Wellington. I made it as far as the chalet (about 3 km from the top), decided that was far enough so I turned around and rode down - biggest adrenaline rush I've had for a while :)
Tomorrow I'm going on a tour to Richmond, Port Arthur, and a Tasmanian devil sanctuary place. By myself (i.e. not with the people from my unit). Then on Sunday it'll be time to go home - and not a day too soon. I am so over all of this. It's just like school really - girls all giggly and stupid, gossipy and backstabbing. No, I won't be going to another ladies' badminton jamboree thing.
I haven't got around to downloading the photos off my camera (for both the Queen Charlotte trip and Hobart) but as soon as I do I'll put them up here...
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Queen Charlotte, here we come
Tomorrow, early, a bunch of us from work are taking the ferry down to the Marlborough Sounds, ultimately for our annual nanoparticle meeting between the research groups at IRL, Vic, and Canterbury. There are 14 of us who are getting to the venue (the Portage) via the Queen Charlotte walkway. I'm looking forward to it, even though 14 could be quite a big group and the weather is meant to be showery. Anyway the walking should take us 2 1/2 days, then the meeting is 2 days including a quiz on Monday night, which I'm also looking forward to... So here's hoping for smooth sailing on the ferry (definitely not my strong point) and that I'm able to exercise some patience and longsuffering with people in the group whom I'm expecting might get on my nerves from time to time!
Photos to follow...
Photos to follow...
Friday, October 1, 2010
When you just want to zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
I have 4 hours of beamtime left on these experiments - looking for evidence of iron carbonate precipitation in solution. We think we have seen it, which is great, but it has come at a cost.
You see, normally when we've run these experiments in the past we've had 4 people to cover the shifts 24 hrs a day - two electrochemists and two synchrotron people. This time, we had 4 people lined up, but then when the dates were scheduled, two of them couldn't make it. So it's just been me and one other person, and because both our expertise is needed for each experiment, it means we've not been able to get much sleep over the last 2 days.
So yeah, it's been a productive trip and good preliminary work for future experiments, but very, very tiring!
You see, normally when we've run these experiments in the past we've had 4 people to cover the shifts 24 hrs a day - two electrochemists and two synchrotron people. This time, we had 4 people lined up, but then when the dates were scheduled, two of them couldn't make it. So it's just been me and one other person, and because both our expertise is needed for each experiment, it means we've not been able to get much sleep over the last 2 days.
So yeah, it's been a productive trip and good preliminary work for future experiments, but very, very tiring!
Thursday, September 9, 2010
And now for something similar
Yeah, it's not really all that different - the beam time allocations came out a week or so ago. So my schedule from now until the end of the year looks something like this:
27 Sep - 1 Oct Experiments in Melbourne, SAXS (small-angle X-ray scattering) of iron carbonate scale precipitation
8 - 12 Oct Annual 'cluster day' meeting in Marlborough Sounds, following a group tramp on the Queen Charlotte Walkway for 2 1/2 days
15 - 23 Oct Badminton tournament in Hobart
29 Oct - 4 Nov Asia-Oceania Crystallographic Association conference in Korea, which I have been invited to speak at
18 - 30 Nov Experiments in Melbourne, X-ray diffraction of zinc oxide thin films and soft X-ray spectroscopy of bismuth oxide thin films, also the annual Australian Synchrotron user meeting - for which I am yet to obtain approval from work to attend...
On top of all this I have two book chapters to write, both due by the end of October, revisions to make to one paper, another paper nearly ready to submit, and several more that we would have liked to have finished by the end of the year... must... learn... to... prioritise...
27 Sep - 1 Oct Experiments in Melbourne, SAXS (small-angle X-ray scattering) of iron carbonate scale precipitation
8 - 12 Oct Annual 'cluster day' meeting in Marlborough Sounds, following a group tramp on the Queen Charlotte Walkway for 2 1/2 days
15 - 23 Oct Badminton tournament in Hobart
29 Oct - 4 Nov Asia-Oceania Crystallographic Association conference in Korea, which I have been invited to speak at
18 - 30 Nov Experiments in Melbourne, X-ray diffraction of zinc oxide thin films and soft X-ray spectroscopy of bismuth oxide thin films, also the annual Australian Synchrotron user meeting - for which I am yet to obtain approval from work to attend...
On top of all this I have two book chapters to write, both due by the end of October, revisions to make to one paper, another paper nearly ready to submit, and several more that we would have liked to have finished by the end of the year... must... learn... to... prioritise...
It's ok, I can take rejection
If it's not ok, too bad. This seems to have been a recurring theme this year, and I'm sure God is trying to teach me something through it. To rely on Him more, probably.
First there was the badminton rep team. Tonight I've just got home from badminton interclub after arriving and finding that not only is my regular doubles partner away, but nobody thought to let me know that I wouldn't be needed. Just as well it's only 3 minutes to drive back home.
Then there is work. Last weekend there was a hen party, this weekend there's a house warming, neither of which I was really keen on going to, both of which involve driving into Wellington and not being able to park anywhere. There's the being left out of important meetings and decisions because I don't spend half my time at the university; the always being the odd one out because I live in the Hutt, I don't drink, I don't enjoy crude stories, and a myriad of other reasons.
Lately I've been challenged to see everything that I have as belonging to God, every task I need to perform as being service to Him. So when I leave my clothes in piles in the lounge - neatly folded piles, but piles nonetheless - it's God's house that I'm leaving piles of clothes lying around in instead of putting them away. When I stop what I'm doing at work to have a quick read of a news website, that's God's time that I'm wasting. So in looking at life like this, in a bizarre way it is helping me deal with all these rejection situations. He sees it, and He will never reject me.
==================================================================================
On a more positive note, the quiz night at church last week went really well; everyone had a great time. I had the job of putting together questions for the 'Science and Nature' and 'Bible' rounds. Try your hand at these questions, if you like:
Science
1. To the nearest 10%, what percentage of bones in the human body is in the hands and feet?
2. How many kilometres does light travel in one second?
3. What is the chemical symbol for plutonium?
4. What is the only bird that has its nostrils at the tip of its bill?
5. What is a parsec?
6. What does BMI stand for?
7. What planet in our solar system is the third closest to the Sun?
8. What colour has a longer wavelength: blue or red?
9. In anatomy, what is the clavicle commonly known as?
10. What is special about an isosceles triangle?
Bible
1. What were the names of Naomi’s two daughters-in-law?
2. Who is the only woman in the Bible whose age is recorded?
3. How old was Noah when the Flood came?
4. How many books are there in the Old Testament?
5. How many books of the Bible start with the letter J?
6. Which book of the Bible contains the shortest chapter?
7. In which book of the Bible do we read of Satan being ‘the accuser of the brethren’?
8. When Jesus fed the 5000, how many loaves and fish did He use?
9. What was Jesus’ first miracle during His earthly ministry?
10. How many epistles did the apostle Paul write?
First there was the badminton rep team. Tonight I've just got home from badminton interclub after arriving and finding that not only is my regular doubles partner away, but nobody thought to let me know that I wouldn't be needed. Just as well it's only 3 minutes to drive back home.
Then there is work. Last weekend there was a hen party, this weekend there's a house warming, neither of which I was really keen on going to, both of which involve driving into Wellington and not being able to park anywhere. There's the being left out of important meetings and decisions because I don't spend half my time at the university; the always being the odd one out because I live in the Hutt, I don't drink, I don't enjoy crude stories, and a myriad of other reasons.
Lately I've been challenged to see everything that I have as belonging to God, every task I need to perform as being service to Him. So when I leave my clothes in piles in the lounge - neatly folded piles, but piles nonetheless - it's God's house that I'm leaving piles of clothes lying around in instead of putting them away. When I stop what I'm doing at work to have a quick read of a news website, that's God's time that I'm wasting. So in looking at life like this, in a bizarre way it is helping me deal with all these rejection situations. He sees it, and He will never reject me.
==================================================================================
On a more positive note, the quiz night at church last week went really well; everyone had a great time. I had the job of putting together questions for the 'Science and Nature' and 'Bible' rounds. Try your hand at these questions, if you like:
Science
1. To the nearest 10%, what percentage of bones in the human body is in the hands and feet?
2. How many kilometres does light travel in one second?
3. What is the chemical symbol for plutonium?
4. What is the only bird that has its nostrils at the tip of its bill?
5. What is a parsec?
6. What does BMI stand for?
7. What planet in our solar system is the third closest to the Sun?
8. What colour has a longer wavelength: blue or red?
9. In anatomy, what is the clavicle commonly known as?
10. What is special about an isosceles triangle?
Bible
1. What were the names of Naomi’s two daughters-in-law?
2. Who is the only woman in the Bible whose age is recorded?
3. How old was Noah when the Flood came?
4. How many books are there in the Old Testament?
5. How many books of the Bible start with the letter J?
6. Which book of the Bible contains the shortest chapter?
7. In which book of the Bible do we read of Satan being ‘the accuser of the brethren’?
8. When Jesus fed the 5000, how many loaves and fish did He use?
9. What was Jesus’ first miracle during His earthly ministry?
10. How many epistles did the apostle Paul write?
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Back and busy as ever
So I've been back home for a week, and spent most of it catching up on things that happened while I was away. The trip was really good: the experiments went well, the workshop was worthwhile, and visiting Perth was great.
Badminton has been a bit frustrating; the team was up north this weekend for the playoffs. Our coach had said before I went away that it was likely that I would be needed, but then last weekend at our final training session it turned out not to be. Oh well - there's always next year. And also there's the trip to Hobart for a tournament there, although lately I haven't been looking forward to that as much as I was.
Work-wise, things are going well and I have a lot to do - two book chapters to write, half a dozen papers, endless data analysis... This week the beam time schedule at the Australian Synchrotron should be sent out, so hopefully I'll be able to plan things for the rest of the year soon.
And for something different, we're having a church quiz night on 3 September. Should be fun :)
Badminton has been a bit frustrating; the team was up north this weekend for the playoffs. Our coach had said before I went away that it was likely that I would be needed, but then last weekend at our final training session it turned out not to be. Oh well - there's always next year. And also there's the trip to Hobart for a tournament there, although lately I haven't been looking forward to that as much as I was.
Work-wise, things are going well and I have a lot to do - two book chapters to write, half a dozen papers, endless data analysis... This week the beam time schedule at the Australian Synchrotron should be sent out, so hopefully I'll be able to plan things for the rest of the year soon.
And for something different, we're having a church quiz night on 3 September. Should be fun :)
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