I hoped I would do an update a bit earlier than this, but obviously I’ve been very busy! So, what follows is a brief summary of the last couple of months.
Work related news:
We had another COPE get together at PaulB’s house in late October. Was really nice to see lots of the group there for a nice afternoon of great food, including some of the newer group members.
In early November there was the annual School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences (SCMB) research students symposium at uni. This year I applied to give a presentation of my work and was lucky enough to be given a 15 minute slot. The presentation went across very well and I was awarded the first prize for best oral presentation, as well as the first prize for best chemistry presentation! Very proud 
If you go HERE you can see a photo of me being presented with my prize by Prof Ian Frazer, the man who invented the cervical cancer vaccine.
I also wrote a new research paper and had it published in the journal Macromolecules. More information about that can be seen on my chemistry page. I was a named author on a paper by one of the other group members too, published in Advanced Materials.
Some sad news from the lab is that Ken finished his contract and has left us, with his wife & daughter, to move to Botswana. The lab wont be the same without him! Wish him and his family the best of luck in Africa.
Fun stuff news:
CP has gone away for a few months, back to Kenya over Christmas/New Year and is also climbing Mt Kilimanjaro. She had a goodbye dinner which was fantastic as always. Looking forward to her return in Feb.
Andy has moved in with Ellen, since her brother went overseas. We welcomed him in to his new place with a housewarming barbecue and swim / sauna. I’ve also come towards the end of my lease in my current place. Karyn was looking to move out of her house, so we’ve decided to look for somewhere together. We’ve put in a couple of applications, but no luck so far. Waiting to hear back from 2 places, one of which is above Ben & Tilly’s apartment, so hopefully we will have somewhere to move in to soon! Karyn’s already been buying some furniture and we went to pick up a couple of sofas she found on ebay. Should be good fun as soon as we find somewhere
A few of us did quite well at some quiz nights in the local pub (the RE), managing to come joint 2nd (losing out on a prize in the tie-breaker), then 2nd (winning a voucher for some beers). I think having Ben on the team definitely helped….
Ben, Tilly, Andy, Stewart and I also got tickets to the first Ashes test in Brisbane. We went along on the Saturday and had a thoroughly enjoyable time. The earlier part of the day started to get a bit depressing as Hussey & Haddin smashed their way to the highest recorded partnership the Gabba had ever seen, but it was good to see some wickets fall and some English batting later in the afternoon. There’s some good photos of that on the pictures page.
Dentist news:
I had been struggling with some discomfort in my jaw for a few months. I finally got around to going for a check up at the dentist (long overdue anyway, as I probably hadn’t had one for around 3 years). In general my teeth were in pretty good condition, unfortunately both of my lower wisdoms were causing me trouble. They were very impacted, pushing up against the roots of my back molars, and were completely horizontal – under the gum. To make matters worse the roots of both had curled around and fused together, forming a complete ring of tooth that had jaw bone in the centre. Unfortunately, due to the price of dentistry and my lack of income (I had already paid $700 for the checkup, X-rays, cleaning, and preventative treatment) I had to have them both out under a simple local anesthetic. The dentist said the X-rays looked like it was one of the more difficult extractions he had done and so the price was $500 per tooth! He admitted afterwards that the extraction was even more difficult than he had expected. I spent the previous week thinking / worrying about nothing else, and I have to admit that in the end I think the worry was warranted – it was probably the most unpleasant 1.5 hours in my recent memory. Each tooth had to be crushed and extracted in about 10-15 pieces due to the angle and the curved roots. It was pretty horrid, and I ended up with a lot of swelling and some bruising on the outside of my face (see here and here), however I cannot really complain about the healing as I managed to be fit to eat properly by Christmas day, and had no complications after the operation itself. Very VERY glad it’s over!
Christmas news:
I was kindly invited for Christmas to Ben & Tilly’s, the same as 2 years ago. Ben’s sister Hannah is staying at theirs at the moment, and we were joined by Ellen too. I went over on Christmas eve and stayed until the day after Boxing day. We had a great time, with a stocking from Santa, and we went over to Sarah & Stewart’s for Christmas dinner in the afternoon/evening on Christmas day and for secret santa presents. Dinner was absolutely epic, with WAAAAAY more food than I had ever imagined (click here for a video and here for some pictures). We also enjoyed a lot of brilliant homebrew, which we had brewed specially for the day. Boxing day was spent having a BBQ, drinking, and games at Mike & Lisa’s apartment around the corner. Settlers of Catan was played and enjoyed by all I had a great Christmas this year. Thank you everyone!
New Year News:
New year 2010/2011 was spent in Sydney, meeting with Amy and her friends who were on their way to New Zealand for a wedding and stopped off in Australia on the way. I met up with the 5 of them on the 29th down in Sydney and we immediately went off to Bondi beach for the afternoon. The weather was brilliant and the water was amazing, unfortunately I was an idiot with my sun cream, forgetting my forearms & feet and managing some lovely burn! That night we had a great lebanese meal that Craig’s cousin took us to, which filled us all to the brim. The next day we walked around the botanic gardens, opera house, etc, then took the ferry to Manly. We spent most of the afternoon on the beach before heading to a fish & chip shop, having some drinks in the Four Pines brewery pub, then some more drinks in a bar next to the ferry stop. Lovely day. On new years eve itself, we all got up and headed down to Mrs Macquarie’s Point. Upon arrival we were greeted by a GIANT queue to get in to the restricted access area. We stood patiently in line for almost 3 hours, getting in about 13:30, before we found a great spot with a view of the opera house & the south end of the harbour bridge and sat there for 11 hours! It sounds tedious, but we entertained ourselves and had a great time before the spectacular fireworks show. It was a fantastic night and I have to thank the guys I was with for making it an unforgettable new year! The next day, due to not going overboard on the alcohol, we were up and in the pool of our luxury 64th floor apartment in central Sydney (click here for a panoramic photo of the view from our living room) for a countdown to the English new year. Finally, I cooked us a breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausages, bacon, toast, baked beans, and sparkling white wine before we parted ways at the airport. Pics from the time down in Sydney can be found here. This photo shows how central we were for the fireworks at midnight!
I think that sums up most of the important recent events! Tilly is away for 3 months from tomorrow – heading to Singapore on a work placement – so I am sure I’ll be spending some time playing too many computer games with Ben Wish her luck out there!
I hope everybody had a great Christmas & New Year and I wish everyone back home a good 2011. 2011 should be the year I finish my PhD and have to start working out what I’m going to do with my life. Let’s hope it’s even better than 2010 was!