| 2 months of rowing gets in the way of life |
[Nov. 24th, 2009|02:46 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | IBME | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  anxious | ] |
| [ | music |
| | High and Lifted Up, Hillsong | ] |
So it was pointed out to me last night that 2 months ago i wrote 'I'm about to start rowing, you may not here from me'...well that proved to be true, so what have I been up to (in small chunks)
Rowing - twice a day, every day - 90 minute ergs twice a week, 5 outings (with 9 mile cycles to get there), 3 weights sessions a week, a 30 minute test, endurance circuits and whatever else they throw at us, again and again with no letup and screams of 'cambridge are laughing at you'. It's hard and horrible but the improvements are unbelievable, even having rowed for 5 years already. But I'm always tired, and this makes Mike sad :( and I'm poor because we still don't have a sponsor/enough people and are therefore splitting the horrific costs between us (1500 pounds for 6 months) and I'm constantly frustrated at when I try to gauge my progress against others. I have a 2k test tonight though, so we'll see for sure how I'm comparing.
Because of the rowing I also spend alot of time eating, I get to eat about 4000 calories a day, although I keep forgetting and so have ended up losing weight (ordinarily a 'woo' but not when you're trying to gain muscle). Mike's enjoying that part though (the eating, not the weight losing part, I'm sure he'll not be impressed to discover I've gone down 2 cup sizes and my already resized ring may be feeling slightly loose if it carries on)!
More sadness about bikes/the flat....they never did put the doors on, and Mike's entire £1000 bike got stolen. I have literally no idea how to make him feel better about the excess he has to pay on the insurance, and how difficult they make it to actually get any money back. It took the thieves no time atall to get through a motorbike chain, insanity! And of course the police don't care (errr...surely if it's worth as much as a small car they should look into it?). My road bike is still in bits so we're both going woefully slowly on townbikes at the moment.
I finally finished the heart project and so am reinstalled in the stroke-research lab looking into the way the brain regulates flow to prevent/following a stroke. My funding body are not best pleased at me being funded to do something 'cross-interface' and i'm still doing medical engineering, but never mind it's an awesome and useful project. I've done a bit of teaching too which I think I'm not horrific at, though I feel I might be one of those geeky enthusiastic rather than cool teachers.
Mike and I have had our last anniversary before restarting the count in June, we went to straford-upon-avon to H&M, and bought ridiculous gloopy hot chocolate (mmmmmm) and walked along the river. I had the day off rowing due to the stupid weather and we went out for dinner too :) Acutally, I'm quite bored of being engaged, I just want to be married. Planning the wedding isn't really happening because I need to find 1 dress for 3 different bridesmaids that they all agree on, I'm just basing the colour scheme on that!. But we have the church, weddingdress, band, food and vicar so we can acutally get married. Unfortunately, our miniscule budget (£5000, it doesn't sound small but for this is sort-of is) means that we are staying here for our honeymoon, that my dress is not my dream dress (but is still gorgeous), that we can't afford a photographer (and are therefore trusting that people will take lots for us), that we can't invite half our friends (because my parents think a wedding is for them to invite their friends to) and that the alcohol may not be of excellent quality. It's a shame, but I'm glad I'm not someone for whom the point of marriage is the wedding (which when I read things on the internet about what I can't possibly have a wedding without infuriate me), the point of marriage to us is that we become one flesh with God's blessing on our lives together and that we leave our old selves behind, laying them down for the new body that is us both with Christ. And this means that we have all we need.
Anyway, I should always be working - keep in touch in real life! |
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| lab stuff, rowing |
[Sep. 11th, 2009|10:54 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | office | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  busy | ] |
| [ | music |
| | pleased | ] |
I should take advantage of sleeping in tomorrow since it will be my last lie-in until I stop rowing again (which is basically now when the money runs out). Training (twice a day) starts on Sunday and potentially lasts until the boat-race in March.
Since my birthday, I've been working on a 10 week project on perfusion imaging of hearts, this was another potential PhD project (the alternative was the Stroke project I'd worked on for 10 weeks before). Even after the first week I think I knew that strokes was where I wanted to be, as a result I've been finding it hard to get enthused about ths heart project and am a bit ashamed of my progress actually.
Of course I have been busy seeing people (visiting Linden in London when I was collecting data from guys hospital, doing wedding planning, meeting people for coffee and getting a new house etc).
Wedding planning: we have the date, venue, pudding, vicar, band and have made a website (not live yet). So just have to sort out the outfits, confirm the caterer, confirm the honeymoon venue etc then wait 9 months :) Wanted to get as much done early as possible since I'll be rowing/doing a PhD and Mike will be doing his final year of degree. It's exciting though! Also, trying to work out when the best time to buy wedding rings, make invites, send invites etc is a little confusing - there's so much 'etiquette' to think about. Mike and I have somehow made it to 7 weddings over the summer between us so we've got lots of ideas of what and what not we like.
My new flat! After years of living in student digs I've moved into a georgous (and woefully expensive) two-bed-two-bath flat with kirsty. She's been friends with Mike for a long time and it's only really this year that we've got to know each other. She helped Mike choose my amazing ring etc. She moved in properly last night (I'd got used to living there by myself) and I'm very excited! We were offered a 10 month contract (which would have been perfect for the wedding) but Kirsty needed 11 months, so potentially Mike and I will be paying three rents for next July straight after the wedding but I guess that's what you get for being a 'good christian couple'. It is fantastic though! We're thinking about renting out our spare parking space since we're the only flat with two and the visitor spaces are always suspiciously full of the same cars in the evenings.The flat's very expensive, but we got a £120 a month reduction just by asking (and because I do similar research to the professor who owns it). It's got these weird african paintings everywhere which I hope we get used to! It also has a lazyboy which Mike loves.
I did have a huge hitch with it though, in that the bike sheds don't have front doors...and yes half my racing bike got stolen. My insurance, however, only covers the whole bike being knicked (apparently a locked front wheel is considered to be an accessory). Massive bummer but a good outcome is that we've now been promised doors on the sheds which would be a bit of a deterrent. Actually I'm tempted tothink it was kids who liked my specific bike since there were lots of 'normal' and barely locked bikes intact...including my town bike thankfully. I have bought another 'massive chain' though meant for a motorbike to secure everything and, for now, the remains of my racing-bike are safe in Mike's garage.
I miss everyone though, happily there's a leaving party tonight to which lots of people who've left Oxford are coming (yey, although huge woes that it is my bridesmaid leaving Oxford for London). Also students I know are back in a few weeks. I'm graduating in two weeks (yes Oxford is ridiculous and it takes a year to book the ceremony) and my parents and Mike's parents are meeting for the first time (we can't really put it off any more), i'm pretty worried about it because they're so different but, according to friends who've done it, parents are good at talking about pretty much anything including an hour long conversation about biscuits and they'll always have weddings to discuss and hats and stuff. I'm keeping my ring until then with the little plastic bit on it (which makes it fit) for the pictures then going to send it away to be resized, will be sad to not have it for a week but it will be good for it to finally fit and feel like mine. I'm going to buy a cheap costume-type ring to wear in the mean-time.
I enjoyed the time traveller's wife!
well, back to work (boring) |
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| wedding |
[Aug. 5th, 2009|09:53 am] |
Mike and I (Provisionally) booked the church for our wedding yesterday - not going to publish the date until it's all confirmed (although will probably text ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) karohi ) but...wooo it finally seemed real seeing 'Mike and Claire's Wedding' written on their calendar. Awaiting confirmation from Gordon that he is available to marry us, then just got to find somewhere for the reception (or have it at church) and figure out how on earth we can afford to have all those we love (and all those our parents want) there.
I now have to find one of those 'things you need to budget for but probably haven't thought of' lists...lots of people getting married on my flist should come in handy
I had a very unproductive work week last week because I was distracted showing everyone my ring and having my best birthday party ever (I got to share the happiness with Mike because we made it an engagement party). Plus they gave us free champagne (very nice free champagne too!)
Moved labs this week, new lab is quiet and always busy at 9am, which is different from my old lab where people worked 11-9
Oh well, back to it
Claire
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| the story of the proposal |
[Jul. 25th, 2009|04:49 pm] |
hello people.Thankyou for all the congratulations so far, but in case you haven't heard yet, Mike and I are engaged!
Well a lot of the evening is a blur but mike and I are currently driving back to oxford from carlilse so he's describing it to me to post when we get home.
on the evening of thursday 23rd july, after a day cycling over very steep mountain passes, mike and I drove to the seaside to buy pattie and chips.pattie is a northern dish which is best described as a deepfried shepherds pie which mike wants every time he visits cumbria.
We took the food to a beach between silloth and allonby remembered by mike for it's amazing sunsets over the scottish mountains across the water:
The beach is several miles of sand and was at very low tide so after eating we walked along the waters edge with mike giving me piggybacks through the wettest parts as appropriate.
As the sun was setting we huddled into one of the sand dunes and mike built and lit a bonfire whilst I helped gather wood and dry seaweed, eventually it gained momentum despite the stiff sea breeze.
Mike then started to blab a lot which gave me a clue as to what he was trying to do, I therefore made it difficult with inappropriate answers to his leading questions and retaliations such as "more special than your bike?" etc.I saw it as fair after the 5 month lead up there's been to the proposal,
Eventually I was quiet enough for him to get me to stand up and look at the view, though the sun had unfortunately dropped behind a cloud.
Mike told me to close my eyes but couldn't get the ring out of the bag in his pocket so hid behind me and said surprise. After closing my eyes again he eventually said some more nice things and then said he had a question to ask and dropped to one knee with the ring and asked me to marry him. I, obviously, said yes and forgot tradition and kissed him before he had a chance to put the ring on.Once order was resumed and he put on the beautiful green amethyst and diamond ring he'd bought me.
With the last of the dying sun and fire we rang our parents and then set off home for champagne.
For any boys reading this, this was a very perfect proposal...but copyright mike lucas 2009
Today mike gave me my birthday present, a leather bound notebook from aspinal of london with claire and mike's wedding planner embossed in gold....perfect and I'm excited about filling it in with chief planner bridesmaid Kenners.
Thankyou to everyone who's such a massive part of our story so far and we look forward to sharing forever with you.
Claire and Mike
X
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| Rowing, work, life |
[Jul. 14th, 2009|09:54 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | labs | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  content | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Handel | ] |
Hello,
So I didn't end up watching gossip girl because the internet was too woefully slow, instead I made banana and white chocolate flapjack (so very yummy) and soup and chilli for the freezer and watched buffy. I also sat down after my (4 hour) outing to read a chapter of the half blood prince (since it comes out tomorrow) and then it was 9 oclock and I'd read the whole thing. I do not feel like this is a waste of weekend though :)
Rowing in the pair the last few weeks in training for molsey regatta has been fantastic! A pair is just two people in the boat, each with one oar.
( a photo )
Thus it is very unstable, and each person has to apply the same power (else you go off diagonally) and you have to be exactly in time (or you'll fall in). However, there are also less people to make mistakes and so when you both get it right it's the best feeling I've ever had in rowing. After lots of beautiful outings in the rain (rain makes water calm for some reason) we actually seem to be getting along quite well (although I have to steer, backwards, using my foot which is too small for the shoe and so we've met a few bushes). Unfortunately, people seem to be have been intimidated by seeing 'Oxford Pair' entered and nobody else has entered, so we don't get to race (sniff). Although that does mean I get a lie-in cos I don't need double outings this week! I am trying to enjoy not doing as much exercise at the moment (rather than feel fidgety) because from September to March (with 10 days off) I will be training twice a day every day in preparation for beating Cambridge in the boat race.
The decision to trial for the boat race hasn't come lightly - rowing often sucks in the winter, and that's a lot of time to spend away from Mike - especially when next year could be an important one for us in terms of planning our lives together etc. It's also expensive (we don't have sponsorship - anyone fancy sponsoring Oxford University Women's Boat Club?). But, I love rowing, I have rowed for 5 years and I feel like rowing for the university is a good way to end my rowing career with a bang!. Also, I got a pretty handy God-type coincidence which has confirmed my decision. But be ready for lots of rowing-woe posts for the next 9 months.
My first Master's project finishes on Friday. Whilst I haven't made world-breaking progress in stroke-treatment, I've made a heck of a lot of progress (unfortunately - my writeup is currently double the word limit). I'm taking next week off to go home for my birthday with Mike and then I'm doing another 11 week project on imaging blood flow through the heart - then I get to decide which project I want to carry on for THREE YEARS until I become Doctor Claire.
I have to decide soonish though whether I want to be Doctor Claire Lucas, or Doctor Claire Millican because once I start publishing I really shouldn't change. I suppose it might be quite nice to keep academia out of marriage (because you don't necessarily want bank accounts and letters addressed to Mr. and Dr.) but...hmmm I don't know.
Oh well - 3 days until the deadline and 5000 words to remove - anyone enjoy pruning scientific articles?
Claire
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| Weekend! |
[Jul. 10th, 2009|05:18 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | bedroom | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Red Hot Chilli Peppers Savior - old school | ] |
Mike is going away for the weekend to a stag do. I've already hoovered and cleaned (though not ironed) and so may make some quiche to last me the whole weekend and then sit back with beer and gossip girl catch up. How will I watch gossip girl when we're married? it will have to be in secret somehow...maybe I can take my laptop into the bathroom and use my headphones? This is why men have garden sheds.
Claire |
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| a decision about glasses/contactlenses- very dull but then maybe you're bored |
[Jun. 26th, 2009|01:49 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | labs | ] |
| [ | music |
| | the truth is Jesus | ] |
I would like some advice please
I love my lime green prada glasses...
( Prada Glasses )
But I've had them for nearly 3 years and am getting a bit bored...also, despite getting new lenses put in them last year I need ANOTHER new prescription because I forgot about taking eye breaks when your job involves sitting at a computer all day long (which now sadly I do from 9-5.30 every day)...
I, obviously, don't wear prada glasses to row in so I have some old ones for that (which I also occasionally wear out when lime-green doesn't go)
( rowing glasses )
these glasses, however, have had the same prescription in them for 3 years
finally, I've had my sunglasses since I started uni (5-years) and recently crashed my bike into a bench (not THE accident, another one) whilst cycling with them
I've found some similar prada glasses which are matt black
( New Glasses )
which are the same dark silver (I like) and similar enough to my old ones
but they also cost ~£350 (including lenses): now this is expensive but I do also wear them every day and have had enough joy out of my current glasses to make it worth it to me, and these could also be going out glasses...
update
yes I am approximately blind in one eye which means if i don't have a coating then I look like I have one huge eye and one not - hence lenses costing about £125
however
I have lots of thoughts:
I really ought to get new sport glasses and new sun glasses before I crash into something worse than a bench...but this is probably ok with a bogof offer from specsavers or such - though I can't seem to find many deals at the moment
and I've found the frames + lenses on the internets for about £225 which is considerably cheaper or could buy the frames online and get lenses put in in specsavers for ~£260
I'm dubious about buying lenses online - especially given mixed reviews of the quality that I've read...but maybe the second price would cause the opticians to drop their price to match?
anyway - this still would cost me over £400 probably for 3 pairs of glasses - which is over 2 years of direct-debit-contact-lenses.
I've tried and failed with contact lenses before, but this was a few years ago and apparently the ones necessary for astigmatism are much better now? Do you know anything about them? this would be good if my prescription changes again in a year too
there's always surgery but i guess if my prescription has changed in the last year I'm probably not elligble?
I'm not sure I can face the thought of buying glasses every 3 years or so for the rest of ever,
or putting contact lenses in at 5.30am before rowing
bad eyesight = rubbish
so yes, in conclusion:
online frame+lenses?
online frames, high-street lenses?
loyalty to local optician and assurance but ask for a better deal? (also has benefits 'cos they constantly adjust my glasses for me and clean them properly etc)?
contactlenses?
and do other people buy expensive glasses or is Mike right in telling me I'm a fashion victim? I just think if you wear them every single day they've got to be worth more than all other things you might wear - and my sister would happily spend that much on a bag or jacket or something
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| holiday time! |
[Jun. 22nd, 2009|12:06 pm] |
Hello! I'm currently on holiday for a few days (from rowing and labs)...I was going to go away with Mike but he got offered £10 an hour to do manual labour (which he can't really turn down). Thus I spent saturday and sunday mornings sleeping (sort of - not past 8am but that's a lie-in for me). I did some shopping (bought a dress to replace the trousers that were cut off me after my accident - oh more on that later) and just wandered around a bit whilst Mike went to the grand prix. This afternoon we're going to London, tonight we're seeing stomp, tomorrow I'm preparing a *gourmet* hamper and taking Mike punting (via botanical gardens with polaroid camera) and wednesday perhaps a walk?
I don't actually get a summer - most of my favourite people have just finished university and are going home for the summer, I will be here working the whole time. :(
Last weekend was mum's surprise birthday party - I'm not very good at secrets so wasn't allowed to come up early...I did come up early, however, and had spoiled one aspect of the surprise (mum's brother being here) within a couple of hours - FAIL. It was good though, and there were lots of people there. I spent the longest time with People thought she was me - mostly I feel because we're not so polished as the rest of the cousins....yey to natural-ness and glasses wearing (was pointed out that in photos we look the most naturally smiley)
The reason I went up on friday instead of saturday is because on Wednesday I had an accient. I was cycling down a hill and had to brake suddenly, this locked up my wheels (it was raining) and thus I spent the rest of the time going downhill on my side with my bike on top. I scraped most of my right-hand side (scabs almost gone now though 2 weeks later). I also got a huge bruise on my hip - and swollen knee, hip and ankle. Bleugh. I passed out and so an ambulance was called - they were convinced that I had a broken femur and therefore booked me into traction for *a long time*...I cancelled rowing (was rowing for Oxford at Henley) and then fainted again. Once I was stable and morphined up I was x-rayed alot...and it wasn't broken, doctors shocked etc etc....Mike eventually was allowed in to me with tubes and wires going in and out monitoring me - they wanted to keep me in but that would have forced mother to come down (and therefore not be there for her birthday) so I was brave(ish) and came home where Mike looked after me.
I managed to hobble myself to an erg and sit on it and row, and therefore considered myself able to compete - we lost to cambridge (boo tabs) but it was fun to be at henley (we got a medal for qualifying) and I'm now definitely trialling next year....which means hopefully I'll be in the big-blue boat provided I can find £1000+ to pay for kit/coaching/training camp and spare 2 hours every morning and evening until Easter. Mike is supportive - which means the world, because he points out that despite the money and time - it's something I'll look back on it with joy and pride and our children will know about it etc.
Mike and I have made lots of breakthroughs recently - as a couple and as a couple wanting a common purpose with God, we're now sure about our giftings together...this makes me happy. This, however, came out of a tough couple of days where some things had to be sacrificed - which explains the fb/twitter status' of late.
I'm currently re-watching buffy season 3 until Mike finishes work so we can go to London - if you have any ideas for recipes for punting picnics let me know?
Claire
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| the last few months |
[Apr. 27th, 2009|04:40 pm] |
Wow I'm getting worse and worse at this updating. I think it's mostly because I use twitter as a sort of live blog of my day (clairemillican if you want to follow) and so don't really think to update lj.
Maybe you should ask me questions if you want to know anything specific. Meanwhile a list of some twitter updates (newest first):
is wondering how to align breasts
row row row
is working in combibos on a saturday after meeting greg, the most undergrad like week I've had all year
has lost both bagels and eggs, so scrambled eggs on bagels not gonna happen for breakfast - making granola instead
notes a flaw in the DPhil at the IBME, no wireless and no 3G = no emails on phone :(
has a huge lumpy swollen muscle in her neck, hopefully there will be more competence tomorrow evening
has de ja vu...is spending this week doing the same set of lectures as last year with the same lecturers
sunburnt but fantastic rowing weather, a happy training camp camper am I
is making something random involving cheese and mash as comfort food for mike
is oh so very much in love
Oh, what a glorious day, what a glorious way, that you have saved me
should check the weather before buying and making and packing food for a picnic
the reasons for my bad mood today are many and varied, sorry everyone
thinks that msn viruses are getting ridiculous when you get messages from your soon to be two anniversary of death dead friends
enjoyed the people dressed up as a donkey more than she probably would have enjoyed the real thing
good morning school children, I hope you're having a happy drumming lesson outside my bedroom window
made rice and saw fly embryos :(
please somebody rescue me from drosphillia doom
is in cumbria relaxing and finding summer clothes to bring back
quiche...thus a real christian
has successfully quivered and found minimum energy
BLAAAAAAAAAAADDDDDDDDDDDDDEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSS!
This is my last week of lectures before I start my PHD proper. It's also the best lecture course so far (medical imaging) with visits to the hospital and seminars by the famous and by industry thrown in. Am currently working on a discussion of breast MR alignment (taking a series of images over time and lining them up to show how a tumour changes). I'm good at this stuff, and interested in this stuff. which is excellent.
I won blades in torpids. Which means that I get to hang a painted oar in my house for ever more commemorating the fact that we bumped (won) every day for 4 days. We also did ok in head of the river (300 boats, we came 100th ish) beating our nemesis St Johns by 5 seconds (which translates to about 30 places). Since we'd done no long-race (25 minute) training and were up against lots of proper clubs and university (rather than college) teams we did pretty well.
I attempted to row for the university for a few weeks, this didn't succeed on account of me already having a very busy life with church / mike / lab commitments and also because most of the girls had not been rowing for very long. It was frustrating to sit in an inexperienced boat which caused me injuries and also problems when simultaneously rowing for college.
I also went camping for 2 nights on training camp with awesome weather and awesome rowing. I managed to lock my keys in the boot of the car though (well, Mike's car) forcing his parents to drive for 1.5 hours to rescue me - not good!
Most recently I got 7.45 in a 2k, this was my time before summer VIIIs when I got my PB (7.35), so hopefully I'll be back on it soon! It's taken far too long though to get strong and fit again.
Anyway, enough rowing.
I managed to get home for a couple of days before Easter due to a random gap in my schedule and it was lovely to be looked after for 2 nights and see the family. I do wish that I could get home more often though :(.
Over Easter I went to Mike's in Salisbury. Mostly he wanted to chill out and play computer games so i systematically read through all of his mum's magazines and newspapers. He did take me walking one day to Godshill where some off-piste adventures forced us to cut through a bog. I got sick though, eating 'vegetarian' food at a carvery. I also ended up playing piano at his church's Easter service which was very cool. We fell into the 'married young couples' group despite obvious excluding factors. Not that I minded.
I've been trying to meet up with people as much as possible recently, because I've been rubbish at keeping in touch and because I wont be in the centre of town (and thus easily accessible) after this week. Thankfully those finalists I know don't seem to be actually leaving next year but still...dinner with Rach, Andrzej and Becca (yey) and many coffee/breakfast and lunch meetings. I even managed to meet old-college-husband Greg who lives in Surrey (but visited Oxford) and Iain from Carlisle (whilst at Mike's since he was visiting his family in the same area). Emma came to visit and I'm subtly (ish) trying to persuade her to come here next year to study. Everyone's lives are so different now despite the general float back towards academia. They have money and real jobs and real stress to deal with whereas I still do the same stuff I did last year with stress caused by academic crisis rather than proper problems. Which works out well for me! I do find though that most of the people in my lab/boat take this to the extreme and want to go out often and get drunk whereas I have no interest (or time) in anything other than afternoon tea or early cocktails/dinners...and I'm not even that old! I guess I just did all that when I was an undergrad and now my life has a different focus.
It's sad to be finishing in this lab though, it's a bit like leaving school since we've spent the year here with 30 of us eating lunch together in our common room and working on group projects and going to lectures together. A few people will be up at the hospital with me though which will be good.And actually the last few weeks of last term were infuriating as we mostly just wanted to start our DPhils. I had to work in a fly lab - yucky yucky yucky.
Actually other than rowing and church I've been working my way through One Tree Hill from the beginning, Mike and I are watching House - that is our evening entertainment (especially whilst he is revising for exams in a few weeks). He did take me on a date though, to see Monsters vs. Aliens in 3D. I was astonished by the 3D aspect (the film itself wasn't as good as I'd hoped) and spent a while looking up papers on digital 3D.
Everyone is getting engaged.
Pastorate is the best thing about church at the moment, there are people and prayers and people who notice. Hopefully Mike (seen as though he'll be in his 5th year of uni) will be able to join next year :)
Ok, well is there anything else people want to know? I suspect you haven't actually got this far.
much love
Claire
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| catchup |
[Feb. 19th, 2009|01:58 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | dtc | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  tired | ] |
I'm not very good at updating and can't even remember what's really happened.
I *think* I've finally chosen my DPhil project...well it's definitely between 2 (MRI or modelling of strokes). I do both for a 10 week project and then start properly in September.
Not much rowing has happened for the last couple of weeks due to snow and melted snow. We've been doing alot of ergs/weights/circuits instead and I have started swimming so hopefully base fitness hasn't dropped *too* much (though I didn't get a trophy on my heart-rate monitor this week because I'd only done 5 hours of exercise).
On Saturday we left Oxford at 5.20am to look for less flooded waters in Dorney lake, unfortunately (and after an hour long drive) it turned out to be 'like narnia' and was frozen pretty solidly...pretty though right?
so instead we spent an hour in Starbucks warming up before driving all the way home again.
On Saturday afternoon I slept and then made valentines day cupcakes for Mike and decorated a table in my room with photographs and candles...Mike made a surprise dinner and we had a wonderful giggly evening. He did very (!) well cooking: goat cheese and rosemary soufle, heartshaped potatoes and salmon and asparagus and caremelised orange with honeyed ricotta and almonds....mmmmmm
I'm falling more in love with him all the time.
On Sunday we ate lunch in the rain outside the vaults for Ken's birthday....raindrops so big that they splashed tea onto the table. I then had to come into the lab because the current module is Statistics and it sucks.
I have a new teapot though, it's pink and pretty and living in my lab to improve my day.
I'm quite excited about playing piano at risky tonight because I haven't done it for the whole term and (having only played at the late service) haven't had too much time to practise properly...
This morning I rowed in Worcester's boat (pink stampfli oh yeah) and it was as good as I remembered....unfortunately it required a 4.45am alarm which is less than fun.
Over the next couple of days I'm playing at the Next Generation Conference at church, hopefully getting in our own boat on the isis (if the river goes down another couple of inches) and having a lie-in on Sunday :)
Next week is Torpids (rowing racing) then the weekend after Head of the river race (the boat race but backwards and for women)....
I'm pretty busy right now still, no evenings free and too much to do but I love it.
Also, I'm not 17 pounds lighter than this time last year...exciting
Claire
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| Weekend |
[Feb. 9th, 2009|05:00 pm] |
Did anyone else in Oxford see the beautiful pink sunset on Friday night?
I'm pretty bored of the snow - the terrible adult in me doesn't like cycling on icy cyclepaths to labs, and is worried that rowing will be cancelled because of the water levels. |
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| technology in sync |
[Jan. 28th, 2009|03:50 pm] |
So I've managed to achieve a much better quality of technological life through the syncing of all my products and introduction of some more.
1. my new phone, nokia e71, with 8gb, iplayer hack, wireless and 'fast wap' virtually push email, and gps...use the wireless to sync to...
2. my mac, with e71 itunes plugin (fake ipod hack), ical sync to phone and running sailing clicker
thus my phone syncs over the wireless with my laptop and syncs my calendars and contacts. I sync my phone with my google cal (automatically). I can control itunes (and indeed my mac) with my phone (since my laptop wakes up and plays music when my phone gets in range of the wireless). if my phone rings my itunes pauses and the name of the caller comes up on the screen. I update my phone playlist daily with new songs from itunes. I automatically download podcasts to my phone and new emails arrive within 30 seconds of them being sent and, if sent in the right format, are (albeit not always well) added to the cal
IN ADDITION
the gps on my phone includes sports tracker which maps my exercise, records the speed and also the altitude and automatically links it to the web when it comes in range of wireless enabling me to know which way it's faster to commute (by averaging over 5 days). Happily, this also syncs with...
3. my Heart rate monitor which records heartrate, calories, exercise time and other things and syncs back with...
1. my Mac and the web
Ah Wonder |
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| top 100 books - one's I've read in bold |
[Jan. 28th, 2009|11:00 am] |
1. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series – JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11. Little Women – Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
16. The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller's Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch – George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House – Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia – C.S. Lewis
34. Emma – Jane Austen
35. Persuasion – Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – C.S. Lewis
37. The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne
41. Animal Farm – George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
45. The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid's Tale – Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies – William Golding
50. Atonement – Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi – Yann Martel
52. Dune – Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62. Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History – Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road – Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones' Diary – Helen Fielding
69. Midnight's Children – Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick – Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
72. Dracula – Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses – James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal – Emile
79. Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession – AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple – Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte's Web – E.B. White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince) – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94. Watership Down – Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet – William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables – Victor Hugo.
44% - cool!
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| More news of my life |
[Jan. 9th, 2009|06:22 pm] |
Mike has gone home for a week...I don't really remember what I used to do in the evening. Sometimes they'll be filled with rowing but the rest I think I'll read the pile of books I have.
I had a good christmas at home albeit slightly boring with nothing to do other than read. However, I managed to meet up with Carly, Anneka and Keira for an evening. I also aquired some very cool things, a slanket (a blanket with sleeves for working on your laptop in the cold, as I'm doing now), a heartrate monitor (for rowing with), a lovely teaset (from Mike with a bamboo tray) and some books. I am also working through alot of chocolate.
First week back at the department has been, interesting, with us doing experimental techniques. Between stuff not working or me not being patient enough I don't think I'll be doing a wet lab DPhil.
Mike and I had dinner with Rach and Andrzej at the weekend, I had a 'posh cheese toasty' calzone (yum yum yum) a pecany pecan pie and cocktails...yummy and good company though it had been 'way too long'. Similarly had dinner with Neil and Jenny on Wednesday night and discussed a wide variety of things.
Rowing has started again in earnest. I'm doing 1st VIII for Wolfson, lots of training, and we have a better crew as a starting point than I think I have before (though we've just lost someone sniff). I'm looking forward to it but expect the same old same old soreness and tiredness complaints and no late nights for me midweek.
I'm also continuing to play keys at the late service, learning more about the keyboard thanks to a day in the studio and managed to get 4 of the crew to come to the carol service and change their expectations slightly.
Sorry I've not very many interesting things to say
Claire |
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| roadworks... |
[Nov. 27th, 2008|09:10 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | lab | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  awake | ] |
...are ruining my mornings. Instead of an automated system a man (who can't see into my road end) is controlling the traffic lights at the junction. He's an idiot and seems to let the cars go in random orders (?) trouble is there's a primary school in my close and about 60 cars turn up at 8.45 every morning which is when I attempt to leave. So in order of days the time I've spent waiting at the lights this week: 7 mins, 11 mins and this morning 14 minutes! lots of cars just set off which I decided against (lots of buses and lorries against a bike no thankyou) he looked accross at us and sort of went 'ooo crap' with his face and then pressed a button.
In other news this week, Matlab is ok, latex is getting there, I can't transcribe into B (for some odd reason, all the other keys are fine) and this weekend I'm rowing a long way feeling slightly unprepared
all good |
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| everything |
[Nov. 13th, 2008|10:07 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | bed | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | peaceful | ] |
| [ | music |
| | evening chill | ] |
Gosh 6 weeks without posting! well I'm fairly busy, even went a week without speaking to my Dad (who I have always spoken to everyday). It's actually quite hard fitting into a new routing and my dept. tend to not set lunch hours (perhaps to trick you into working through them?). Anyway...
my DPhil...well it started out with me having been rowing in the morning and not sleeping the night before and playing piano for 'Hungry' prayer night in the evening afterwards in which I broke down in tears thinking everything was going to be horrible...then it turned out ok. There are about 30 of us, variety of backgrounds (3 engineers, 10 physicists, a few biochemists and mathmos and compscis) with a large number from Oxford and others from elsewhere (Durham, Warwick, further away). Together we will learn the basics of biology, maths, programming and medical physics before delving into DPhil projects proper. We started with an introduction to Biology for 2 weeks (actually we started with a fairly lame induction week with lots of going to libraries I'd already seen) which the Biologists hated and which us physical scientists didn't really enjoy after realising how little maths and how many pictures were involved. The last 3 weeks we have split into 2 sections: Biologists doing maths and us doing molecular biology...which has finished today (the next 3 weeks are Matlab ...rock on!).
The format is essentially: have lectures, get into groups, research one of the aspects of the lecture, write presentation, do presentation then every three weeks write an essay for an assesment. Whilst presentations grow tiresome after a while at least we're getting good practise at knocking them out and rushing our way around the internet (shock 'wikipedea not so accurate') looking for sources.
Noteable things sofar have been: Trip to the natural history museum (though we missed all the interesting stuff in leui of looking at really boring shells and rocks), being sent to the park to find examples of specimins and appearing back to count insects and plants ripped from uni parks, making a (working) model of the lungs, extracting the dna of a kiwifruit, failing to do even the most basic experiments in the lab, trying to subtly push my bike through Magdalen college having been locked in with the bike the wrong side of a gate and river, lots of packed lunches and, this week, learning about bacteria flagellar motors.
I have my own desk, computer and drawers though (and noticeboard but no pins) which is cool. We have free tea and (now) a coffee machine...and I spend my day looking at the engineers going in and out of lectures.
Other than the department I've done lots of piano at church and really feel like I'm improving in leaps and bounds at the minute in being able to ignore the music somewhat and play more what I'm feeling. This has led to some pretty awesome encounters for me which is the missing link for me between the balance of playing and receiving. I also managed to play with Luke again and led 24/7 which was brilliant...I'm hoping to find some spare time to play more with him this year whether busking or the new combibos open mike night.
I spent a very small amount of time at a houseparty with old housemates and friends due to illness and tiredness because of...
ROWING...I've got quite seriously back into it and been going back and forth to Radly at the weekends. My erg scores are utterly hopeless and i've lost all core and upper arm strength due to too much cycling...but I have a new love for it and the fact that there are only 2 or 3 really available seats in the first VIII and I'll be competing with about 6 people for them means I've got the love of the competition back too.
I have, however, been hit by a series of injuries and illnesses...possibly by trying to get back to the 2.05 for 30 minute level and 6 sessions a week without any real gentle build up. Noteably a fairly serious nettle rash incident, a shoulder injury due to a combination of inequal strenghts in arms and benchpress, and currently a cough which has become pretty full on flu in the last day or two.
Luckily I handed in my essay on Bacteria today, and did my presentation so I can spend the whole day tomorrow in bed drinking vitamin c (and possibly hot whisky) and looking forward to Mike and I's anniversary on Saturday for which I will definitely be well enough.
He has actually been marvelous despite hime having lots of work to do. He's managed to find sympathy me rowing lots and complaining about tiredness/injuries, tucking me into bed and reading me bedtime stories, buying me flowers (currently a beautiful sunshine bouquet) and generally being awesome. Hopefully I'm not being too rubbish.
Anyway, I've probably missed out loads that I've done and seen and stuff but choking fits => bed for me. |
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| bleugh |
[Oct. 1st, 2008|06:03 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | bed | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | tired | ] |
| [ | music |
| | none | ] |
so I start my Phd today....am nervous and didn't sleep very well which is too bad 'cos i'm about to go rowing and am busy all day then playing piano 'til 10. I can hear that it's not a very nice day outside too.... On the plus side my new house is good, my new college is better than i thought it would be and mike is better than ever
Claire |
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| home |
[Aug. 8th, 2008|08:59 pm] |
well, i've been at home for 2 weeks and haven't really achieved much other than 200 miles of cycling and the unpacking of one box*.mostly i have read-newspapers,old diaries and a book mark gave me.but 2 weeks holiday and i'm very excited about being in oxford on sunday then soul survivor for 3 weeks.
i am in clearing-still no college or accomodation but i'm now holding out to wait and see.i do have a mass of vacwork reading to do though.
*this doesn't include the weekend jimmy came up and we went to edinburgh for an adventure and spent part of a night on a beach with a fire |
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| post exams |
[Jul. 4th, 2008|10:32 am] |
Well, no idea why I haven't posted before now. Quite alot has happened since the weekend of seventh/eigth when I last wrote anything down.
I finished exams, the last exam went terribly and instead of the post finals elation I just wanted to cry despite the fact that many of my friends had come to see me and James (Muscat) finish. So we went for a picnic, blew bubbles at each other and drank gin then went to the pub to play fluxx.
I did, however, manage to scrape (like boundary scrape) a 2.i by getting 65% this year. I'm glad that they didn't need to involve all the stuff with Tsz from last year and although I would have had a higher average I'm glad I didn't defer because I have secured my place for the PHD. I've yet to find out which college though....
The next excitement was the ball where I got to go in a balloon courtesy of a fearful housemate. Was AWESOME. There are photos on facebook.
I went to alton towers with Mike, Scot and Lotti where I went on every ride (air, nemisis, oblivion, rita etc) despite being afraid of heights and speed and being flung around. Although apparently less so if I am pivoting about my head (air and nemesis) than about my feet (all others). I'm not sure if Mike appreciated the bravery or not but he'd been worried that I'd ruin his day so I tried not to. LONG queues though.
Since alton towers I have done some cleaning to fill in my days of walls and various things. Jenny and I went to Bicester to buy her some work stuff and me a pair of jeans and I've been pottering.
Today I will probably have a dull day of lonliness but I'm picking up my new bike tomorrow.
All of the purchasing above neglects the fact that I have less than no money and no job until my studentship payment comes in next term. So no holiday fun for me which is a shame because this is my last long summer ever....
Going home on the 24th July, Back in Ox for various piano things and going to Soul Survivor and Momentum. Term on the 2nd October. |
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