Iron Age

I got stuck behind group of middle-aged American tourists at the airport yesterday. We were all queueing for security and although there always tends to be a bit of a wait, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM set off the metal detector. Generally patient, I was slowely but steadily getting annoyed at the backlog. After all, how hard is it to remove change and keys from your pockets? Really?

But then I noticed that all of them were holding up a little plastic card whilst advancing down the queue. Always the curious one, I stretched my head a little to read what was on the card of the woman in front of me. I had to surpress a little snort when I finally deciphered:

"This person has a prostetic hip"

Spritzers in Vienna

-My Brother Mattias, Vienna-

I could quite easily fill this blog with hundreds of little anecdotes relating to my weekend in Vienna, but according to recent findings, urban man's attentionspan aproximates that of a gnat. So in an attempt to accomodate, merely a few observations:

- family parties are the same, no matter where you are
- christenings are best attended in a foreign language
- twins don't necessarily have the same age (according to my dad ;-)
- continental food rocks!
- the smellier the cheese, the better
- artistic people dress in black
- Vienna is a haven for tacky snowshakers
- noses are a delicacy for infants
- "um die ecke" is NOT sufficient knowledge of German to find ur way home after a party
- people with punkhair & tattoos are big softies
- squirtie toys, red wine and drunken people don't mix
- when addressed in a language you don't know, a blank smile goes a long way
- priests are inherently bizarre
- my only pair of "decent" trousers are too short
- grown-ups like playing with pencils&paper, if it's disguised as a grown-up activity
- it's harder than you'd expect to find a decent pair of lederhosen



-My Lil' Sister, Vienna-

Allright I'll admit...

I feel like a bit of a tit admitting this, but oh well, we all know I'm not the coolest kid on the block:
I got terribly bored this evening after my experiments, so I wandered off in search of this Swiss Spring Parade. Well... I found it. And erm... *nervous cough* I kinda... I kinda joined... it. *grin*

Well it's not like anyone would recognise me here really, is it? The marching bands were really good, people were all happy and I just kinda got sucked into it all. Hurray for the Swiss! They do know how to party! After a while though, I noticed that I didn't really know where we were anymore, so I decided to tear myself away from the fun and tried to find my way back.



You'd think that after all those days of aimless wandering, I'd know the city in and out. No such thing. I discovered a whole new side of town. And a brilliant one at that! One with lots of tacky snowshakers that I can buy for Fi, gorgeous modern architecture, a very quaint trainstation and an Australian Bar! (There's always one isn't there :-) So, yup, I'd say my afternoon was a success.

Oh, and I've had the most random day of experiments today. One of our volunteers projectile vomitted all over our magnetic coil mid-experiment. We MAY have invented a non-invasive vomit inducer. Imagine the possibilities!!! Picture the demand!!! I'd be minted! ;-) Who says research doesn't pay?

Sechselauten

Well it's April and I'm in Zurich yet again. Only this time there's a twist: it's to be my second-to-last research visit. I'm a natural born sap (Fi's words, not mine) so naturally my otherwise aimless wanders about town have now metamorphed into semi-melancholic strolls along the lake and narrow alley-ways. And I finally grow to appreciate the beauty of this city.

Soon to be stripped of it's "yeah, I do my research in Zurich so I have to like, go there, ALL the time"-status, it gradually loses it's sharp edges and starts to take on semi-romantic allures...

*snorts a laugh*

Yeah right!

It's still an overpriced city where no foreign student could ever survive. Where no random stranger will engage in a conversation with you and where you're greeted with pity upon wandering into a restaurant on your tod. And it's still a cringfully *trendy* place-to-be. The kind where you have to add a thousand complicated and pointless specifications to order a simple cup of coffee. (Semi-skinned-double frothed-decaf-mocha-frappucino.... really, do we have to??? GROUND BEANS WITH HOT WATER!!!)

Don't worry. I have issues.

As cities go, this is still one of the better ones though. The type where you can easily still make it through the day without the irresistable urge to disinfect your hands and face every five seconds. The lake IS gorgeous, the alley-ways ARE quite romantic and the people I've worked with are highly enjoyable companions. So in that respect, I will quite miss it :)

If anything, it's an amusingly quaint place. Where else in the world would they celebrate the start of spring by burning a snowman? And predict the "greatness" of the summer ahead by the time elapsed before the snowmans head explodes? If you think I'm making this up, look at the proof below. It is also the reason why I'm stuck for things to do this afternoon, as my experiments are finished and all the shopkeepers, museumguards and restaurantiers have bummed off to watch the snow melt. I suppose I COULD always go join them...

Train Survival

I've been terrified of the railway system in britain ever since I moved here.

If the number of accidents don't scare you off, the fares will. But I had to go to Keele yesterday to pick up some equipment at uni and the prospect of yet another 9 hours behind the wheel finally swayed me into hopping on a train.

By the time I got back to Stirling yesterday evening, I was 100 quid out of pocket but I DID develop some highly effective tactics to avoid the rush-hour seat limitations:
1) plug a piece of toiletpaper up your noise*
2) eat a hard boiled egg with gusto
3) reply to everyone in flemish
4) generally look confused

FOUR seats to myself on an overcrowded train! Bet the missus is VERY proud of me ;-)

*I had a nosebleed... in case you were wondering ;-)

Ceud mil failte!

When the weatherforecaster announced "two days of severe storms and snow for the north-western parts of Scotland, followed by a milder weekend"... I merely sniggered. It's April for goodness'sake! I'd just woken up with the sun on my face, people were wearing T-shirts and I was about to set off for the Outer Hebrides with my mum & brother! Snow?!? I don't think so!

*coughs*

Well... how was I supposed to know? Really?!

By the time we'd reached Inverness we'd ditched our sunglasses, switched off Dusty Springfield and were staring incredulously at the roadsign signalling: "All Ferry-Traffic from Ullapool Cancelled". So we did what any self-respecting tourist would and made a detour to Loch Ness. Despite our best efforts, we failed to catch a glimpse of Nessie. But I DID find a brilliantly tacky snow-shaker for Fi's collection!



- Calanais Stones, Isle of Lewis -

We reached Ullapoool by dinnertime & were utterly charmed by the place. So when we were told the next morning that the ferry had again been cancelled due to snowfall, we didn't feel too miserable and immediately set off exploring the coastal path up to Lochinver. We have a Colin Prior poster of Inverpolly in our lounge, but I never really imagined I would actually once drive through there. It was amazing. (Lynne, I will want to fetch a ride up with you when you go there next year! ;-)

The Ferry-trip across was less memorable. I spent the best part of it hovered over a sickbag whilst the waves splashed over onto our deck.

The weather took a turn for the worst once we set foot on the Isle of Lewis. We spent the remaining days of our trip battling our way through wind and rain. And although my pictures may not show any signs of rain, it was absolutely pissing it down.



- Black House Village, Isle of Lewis -

We quickly came to realise just how different island life is. Granted, the whole of Brittain is an island, but unlike Lewis & Harris, it does not depend on a ferry line to get essential foods across for its 20,000 inhabitants. With the ferry lines cancelled so often the past few days, most restaurants had run out of supplies for their main dishes. So I suppose I oughtn't have been too surprised to get a few cheddar-sprinkled leaves upon ordering the Greek salad ;-)

We drove across the island & were absolutely stunned by its beauty. The crossover from Lewis into Harris is really quite dramatic. And despite the weather, I couldn't help but get excited by its beaches. (Although we did have to leave the bathing suits behind ;-)



- Seilebost Beach, Isle of Harris -

It was so worth the visit, and if I am to believe the missus, we'll be back there this summer to properly enjoy the white beaches & turqoise waves with some surf lessons. With the guarantuee of better weather it does sound very appealing. Although... I do hear those midges are a b*@%?! *mental note to self: check the guidebook before booking!!!*

Hebrides

I finally managed to pursuade my brother to come for a visit. The boy doesn't like leaving the hustle and bustle of his busy social life back home, but I'm keen to have him come sniff a whiff of my life for a change. Otherwise I'm doomed to stay that "weird older sister that fled abroad and stuffs her fridge with weird food" *grin*. So tomorrow, my brother, mum & I will set off for a gorgeous drive through the highlands up to Ullapool where a ferry will takes us to Stornoway in the Outer Hebrides. (The Isles of Lewis & Harris to be exact)

Fire in the woods

Yesterday, after what seemed like ages, I finally finished the analysis of my patient-data. It's been weeks and weeks of staring at the laptop-screen, writing macros, entering numbers, doing stats and drawing up graphs. And I've finally finished. It's a bizarrely satisfying feeling. Although I know that as of April 17th, I will have to start the same routine all over again on the datasets of my healthy controls. Still, it's a momentous occasion in the run-up to finalising this PhD of mine.

So tonight, I'm going out to celebrate. Some of our mates have organised a "fire-in- the-woods" party and as of 5pm this afternoon, I shall be heading to the kick-off of it all with a bag of torches, warm jumpers and drinks. (It's spring, so I've decided to live dangerously for once and will forsake the thermal blanket, iodine tablets, compass, OS-map and rescue flares).

Right. Off to make my supply of White-Russians for this evening. Kahlua! ;-)

e-Bay

Summer's in the air and the missus has started showing the first symptoms of the yearly festival-itch. We're highly effective procrastinators, and largely because of this, we managed to miss out on tickets for just about every festival last summer. Determined to avoid a repeat, fi'd taken to surreptitiously dropping hints...

And yesterday, I finally caught on. So we took the bull by the horns and went for a quiet stroll on e-Bay. What happend after this is a bit of a blur. All I know is that 30 minutes later we had two weekend-camping tickets for T in the Park, and somewhat bizarrely, so had our friend Cathy. A text on my mobile informed me that my mate Ryan would soon follow suit.

.

Once I'd gotten over the initial "omg, WHAT did we just do?!?"-feeling, I erupted into one of my embarassing celebratory dances. Upon which Fi shook her head disapprovingly and muttered "I'm going to be stuck with THAT for a whole weekend IN PUBLIC?!?" *grin*

You betcha!!!!

(Have a look here for the line-up. )