How many physicists does it take to...

... figure out the timer-mode on a camera to take a successful group picture?












It takes 6.

Life

If bloggers were honest, I think we'd all admit that part of the appeal of blogging is to "display" our own little achievements for the world to marvel in. Much like male birds cleverly concoct mesmerising ritual dances to display their plumage as signs of good, healthy, strong genes. In bloggerdom, feathers not as such, but perhaps a killer sense of humour or rather, proof that one really does know what to do in life and really has a clue of where one's heading. A quick browse through blogger.com quickly proves the point in case.

A minority of sites however, lament the trials and tribulations of life. Single beacons of sorrow amidst an abundance of happiness. When given a chance, we'd all steer clear of them. No good wallowing in the unavoidable.

Which is why I shall keep this posting succinct. Fi and I have decided to call it a day after 2.5 wonderful years together. Much to our distress, we reached the stage beyond the honey-moon days in which we both needed to figure out if whatever's left between us, is enough to carry on. It's such a tough decision. We've thought things through, taken time together as well as apart and while some things always have been so incredibly great and right between us, it seems we've reached a sort of stalemate which makes it impossible to continue as a couple. So, from now on, Zoologist and Physicist will be blogging seperate life stories. Though there will undoubtedly always remain parallels :-)

VOODOO

To the LOWLIFE that stole my moped: I am focussing ALL my mental energy on sending these your way:
-Bicycle Rash
-Hemmarroids
-Congenital Warts
-Crohn's Disease
-Anal Swelling
-Coccydynia

When you tire of WALKING next to MY cool bike, you know where to get your refund.

JACKASS!

Hot Hot Heat

Right. I'm back.

I know the southern Europeans among you might not have noticed the heatwave that's struck us these past few days (or in Val's words: "really? a heatwave? I think it's fairly normal for where I am"). Well, for those of us not lucky enough to be stranded in ROME (!!!!) on a daily basis, it's been quite a miraculous start to the summer.

Having said that, my enthousiasm about the 3.5km run I embarked on at 8 o'clock this morning rapidly deteriorated as soon as I set off, and by the time I got home I had to be rescued from the delusion that I was Lawrence of Arabia, struggling to find my bit of oasis. Or 'tapwater' as my mum kindly reminded me.

I used the entire village's water supply on a refreshing shower afterwards, and I feel no remorse.

For those of you who haven't caught on, I am back in Belgium for the time being, and I am ready to receive phonecalls and invitations to do exciting things. This is not a despairing hint, merely a chance to give you lot an opportunity to set up a meet&greet with me on your own terms, rather than me turning up at your doorstep, work, jamboree class or swimming lessons on MY terms. Take it or leave it. I did warn you!

correction:

*Aaaaaaaand I almost left my mobile number on here for you....
thank god the brain kicked in just then...

Bleh

Yes yes, lack of postings.

bottom of the pecking order

Visiting Fi's family in Carlisle is always a bit of a jolly weekend away. Garantueed to involve joyous dinners, merry chitter-chat banter, naughty cheeses and lots of drunken sing-a-longs. Ever since I've met them, I've been made to feel part of the family. It was as smooth a transition as it can possibly get.

But then there's the dog. Jodi. (A deceitfully innocent name if you ask me) She's clearly an alpha-bitch forced by social circumstance to obey Fi's mum. Which means she puts on the feistiest struggle she possibly can to ascertain she does not descend the ranks. Over the years she seems to have built up this "on-a-par" stand-off with Fi. The two of them fight, growl and bark like equals. And for years there's been some form of equilibrium in the small pack.

Then in comes me. Now, I'm not even remotely tuned into dog-speak, so when I see a dog, I take my time to figure out whether it (a) wants to bite me or (b) wants a cuddle. Not doubt Jodi really just wants a cuddle, but my hestitant approach seems to have led to me being degraded to the bottom of the established pecking order. I really ought to have made my mark on the dominance battle the minute I walked in the house.


A few months ago, I stayed over at the house without my usual bodyguard (Fi). And when I left the bed to go for a wee, I came back to find... a Jodi in my bed. You have to understand that being the bottom of the pecking order, this was a bit of a problematic situation. I tried my hand at the softly softly approach first. Trying to "play" her out of the bed by making silly runs around it. Big dud. Then I resorted to raising my voice and attempted to come across as threatening as I possibly could. Jodi just stared at me defiantly. As a last resort, I decided to try and PUSH her off the bed. Now, this is a 5 stone, quite toothie canine, so my hand was trembling before first contact. I found out rather quickly this was NOT the way to go.

So there I was, in the middle of the night in my jimmy jammies about to surrender to the fact that I might just have to curl up on Jodi's dogbed. Thank heavens Lynne is a light sleeper and the stand off had awoken her. One quick shout and I was finally able to return to my own warm bed. But it's made me think I really ought to take dogspeak lessons from Fi. Either that, or simply always make sure I bring my own sleeping bag.

Uninspired

Utterly Butterly Uninspired... which might explain the lack of blogs these past... oh sod I don't know when I last blogged....

So yes.

1. I finished my very last EEG experiment in Zurich and whooped loudly.
2. Ran out of petrol in the middle of nowhere on my way back from Zurich and had to charm some workmen out of their petrol supply.
3. Spent 8 hours driving in this year's first proper heatwave and am now the proud owner of a trucker's tan.
4. Had to share a cabin on the ferry across with an 80-year old woman.
5. Ladies that age SHOULD NOT be allowed to fart that loudly.
6. Got off the boat on the wrong side of the road and nearly crashed.
7. Came home to find my cat's fur had desintegrated all over the house.
8. Also came home to find my cutie (yes, the zoologist) struck down with tonsilitis.
9. Fi and I have spent the Gross National Product of Bulgaria on utterly unnessecary but oh so delightful luxury goodies for ourselves this week.
10. We are now nursing a spending hang over and suppressing waves of guilt.
11. The sun rises at 3.30am here now, which has this flemish lowlander utterly confused.

So there.