Well, I am finally back!! Very excited to be back on old blighty for a few weeks, even if the first day apparently had the average MONTHLY rainfall for July all in one 24 hour stint…. wouldn’t have it any other way!
The flights were bearable, but predictably uncomfortable and boring. Stopover in Singapore airport wasn’t as fun as I might have first thought but there were enough shops to walk around to stretch the legs and kill a bit of time. The trip home will probably be a bit worse though as I’ve now seen all of Singapore airport and wont have Julie to talk to either.
We powered on through our first day here on Wednesday (having landed at 5am and come straight here to ISIS and the Rutherford Appleton Lab). Made sure everything had arrived safely with us and none of the vital equipment was broken, etc. Luckily it wasn’t! Bed nice and early (read 20:30) and up early raring to start our experiment. Initial results were really promising, and we were up and running in a very short time. Unfortunately the “promise” in the first set of results is about as good as we’ve had so far and now we’re over half-way through our allocated time here the pressure is on for us to try and work out what is going on and how to get some really good results to take back with us.
Also, I’ve managed to blag myself the late shift for our work here. The way this place runs is 24/7 – so we have to have somebody here running these tests 24/7 and from about 11pm or so until 4 am I am here on my own fighting sleepiness and neutrons through the night! It’s not too bad, but it does mean that if I want breakfast I have to get up after 3 hours of sleep, then go back to bed after I’ve eaten….. oh well. I just hope we get some more conclusive results before our time is up!
The facility itself here at ISIS is really quite impressive though. I have taken a whole bunch of photos and short videos of the block house, the beam line and our little control hut to try and convey the immensity of the place but I’m not sure it does the trick. I am suitably in awe though 
Looking forward to going home on Sunday and having 2 weeks of stress free holiday!
That’s about it for now – I will update once the photos are uploaded. Look out for the panoramic ones of the experimental hall – they’re the most impressive. It’s 01:45, I have some more measurements to take, a sandwich to eat and then more measurements….. wish me luck!