UN ANNO FA.....
A bit of a strange day today. What a year it has been. One year ago (un anno fa) I left NZ. Riding into work this morning (yeah yeah, ok it was actually lunchtime..the sun was shining and the hill was beakoning so I accidently went for a ride that took longer than i thought...), comunque, I was riding into work at lunchtime and thinking to myself "wow, one year" What have I done? heaps really. probably not as much on the PhD as I would have liked, but I have certainly learnt that when things require official documentation and procedures in Italy, they take time. Lots of it. I am finally doing my own pilot study tomorrow - looking forward to it. yay, some results to play with. But mostly when i think about my time here i think of it in terms of climbing. And meeting people. have been getting outside a bit more now that the weather is improving. I went to Ceriola boudlering for the weekend - pretty cool place - interesting rock formations. Rough. So the finger pads are still suffering. Weather looks crap for this weekend, so may get to a local crag for a few hours on Saturday morning before it packs up completely. Roll on daylight savings so i can get outside after work in the evenings!!!
Funny story. Don't tell David (my supervisor) - I dont think he knows about this site - well at least I hope not given all the talk of climbing and very little of PhD....still, I can't really write about that now can I? Boring Boring...oh, the funny story - well, David has this amazing big cactus. It's his baby. And he has gone to Canada for two months so gave Aukje and I the key and strict instructions to water his other plants, but NOT TO TOUCH THE CACTUS. So that we have done. However, last week Aukje says ' hey the cactus doesnt look so good Emma'. 'oh really? whats the problem?' 'well, i think you should come and see it for yourself..' Oh my gosh!!! it is in very bad state. the top is all brown and hard and the other two smaller ones in the same pot have gone all brown and soggy and flopped over the side of the pot. Very felic looking. Terrible. So, on Friday night we organised a rescue mission to relocate it to a brighter environment. Michele came round with his car and we very carefully carried it down the stairs - have you ever tried to carry a massive cactus without losing an eye? Aukje now has a glorious bruise on her shoulder from one of the nasty spines. Anyway, we get down to the car, and manage to get it in the space between the front seat and the dashboard. He has a mini, so you can imagine the squeeze. Drive off, many jokes as people stare at his new girlfriend in the front seat... all good, till the lights. Cactus slips, spines in arms, arrggh disaster! Worse bit is I spent most of Saturday's drive to bouldering trying to dislodge one broken off spine from the leather of the seat - oh dear!!!! So now it is at our house. With a new view, plenty of sunshine and a paper ruler attached to it;s side to measure the progress of the rot. Aukje said last night 'wow, you can tell you are a scientist...'. And a label or two. For my italian skills, we have put post-its on most things around the house with the italian name/word. So the cactus now has 'cactus' and 'un problema' (a problem) on the dead one, as well as another on the felic looking one, which is not really suitable for publishing on here. Poor David. What do we say? 'bla bla bla, mitochondria, fatigue, exercise ra ra ra, oh by the way your cactus is knackered... ' Ha, never trust a PhD student - can't even keep a plant that needs no watering alive!
Allora, basta. time to get back to work. Oh yeah, thats why i wrote on here today. one year. and i must say i think it is the first time i have actually felt a little home-sick. but it's ok, cos am winning the messy desk competition. The others don't know it yet, but I plan to take over the office with half empty plastic drink bottles. And maybe I will leave the lid of the vegemite jar tonite just so we can all celebrate 1 year with the smell of NZ tomorrow! And better still, I have half a peanut slab at home...haha James - you're not here, so IT'S ALL MINE!!!!! MWAHAHAHAHAHA