(no subject)
Dec. 9th, 2010 02:21 amAs often happens when I've been out of town and had no internet access I didn't manage to accomplish much in the way of uni work on Sunday or Monday, but instead played catch-up on correspondence. Therefore I was quite pleased to have a huge burst of motivation on Tuesday and make some good progress on work (the major task at hand has been getting data from the literature into a spreadsheet so as to be able to make graphs comparing other people's rocks with my experiments).
Today I continued with that project, but didn't work as many hours due to a trip into town. The water reservoir of my Camelbak pack developed a leak in it on the weekend and it was necessary to replace it. Therefore I caught the metro into town and went to walk across the castle grounds to a sporting goods store. However, there was some sort of holiday market going on at the castle grounds, so I decided to have a look--some of the markets I've seen here have a booth of dried fruit, and I'm out. Alas, I never found dried fruit--there was plenty of sausage etc. (no thanks!), baked goods, candy, etc., but no dried fruit in the part of the market I saw. I did stop at a boot that was deep-frying yeast-dough. They were pulling them out of the oil and rolling them in sugar. Not having a sweet tooth, but having enough Italian to manage, I asked for mine "senza zucchero". It still had a hint of sweetness as it had been set down on the paper next to where they were doing the sugar rolling, but that hint was pleasant, not overwhelming like it would have been if I'd gotten the standard sort. I rather enjoyed it--not as nice as fresh baked bread, of course, but it was nice and hot and pleasant to eat while walking in a light rain. However, I think I'm good for my fried food quota for months now.
The market was very challenging to walk through. A fairly high percentage of the crowd were carrying umbrellas, general held with the pointy bits right at eye level, and generally packed right up against several other umbrellas, making it hard to work one's way through the crowd. I prefer to walk about 10 times faster than the common speed for Italians in a market, so I was soon frustrated and made my escape to the empty parkland beyond. Enjoyed a nice stroll there before braving the market once again on my way to the store. (no luck on the fruit quest on the second try, either, though I confess to having given up sooner and making a break for the open road way after only a short stroll through the crowd the second time).
When I reached the sporting goods store I nearly turned right around and fled--it was also packed (though, fortunately, no one was carrying umbrellas inside!) and the heat was on full blast. It was necessary to remove my coat the second I entered the building, and my leg warmers had to come off soon thereafter. I wandered around a bit and the closest thing I could find to a water reservoir were some hard metal water bottles next to some backpacks. Therefore I decided to enlist some help, found an employee and asked (in Italian) if he speaks English. He said he did a little, so I attempted to explain what I wanted (it would have helped if I hadn't thrown away the leaky one--then I could have just shown him). He then brought me to another employee, who had much better English. Of course the other employee is new to the store, so while he understood what I wanted, he didn't know if/where they had it, and it was necessary to find a third employee to actually be taken to the correct well-hidden corner where they were located.
They ones they had were cheap and made of very thin plastic and lack many of the features I liked in the last one I had, but they are so much better than not having one at all, and it should last me till I can get somewhere that carries sturdier versions.
After my shopping adventure I returned to work and managed to accomplish a fair bit more. I've got tomorrow to finish up this task, and Friday I'll be on the microprobe all day. Then I've got just till the end of the month to process the new data, combine it with the old, and get a paper written...
Today I continued with that project, but didn't work as many hours due to a trip into town. The water reservoir of my Camelbak pack developed a leak in it on the weekend and it was necessary to replace it. Therefore I caught the metro into town and went to walk across the castle grounds to a sporting goods store. However, there was some sort of holiday market going on at the castle grounds, so I decided to have a look--some of the markets I've seen here have a booth of dried fruit, and I'm out. Alas, I never found dried fruit--there was plenty of sausage etc. (no thanks!), baked goods, candy, etc., but no dried fruit in the part of the market I saw. I did stop at a boot that was deep-frying yeast-dough. They were pulling them out of the oil and rolling them in sugar. Not having a sweet tooth, but having enough Italian to manage, I asked for mine "senza zucchero". It still had a hint of sweetness as it had been set down on the paper next to where they were doing the sugar rolling, but that hint was pleasant, not overwhelming like it would have been if I'd gotten the standard sort. I rather enjoyed it--not as nice as fresh baked bread, of course, but it was nice and hot and pleasant to eat while walking in a light rain. However, I think I'm good for my fried food quota for months now.
The market was very challenging to walk through. A fairly high percentage of the crowd were carrying umbrellas, general held with the pointy bits right at eye level, and generally packed right up against several other umbrellas, making it hard to work one's way through the crowd. I prefer to walk about 10 times faster than the common speed for Italians in a market, so I was soon frustrated and made my escape to the empty parkland beyond. Enjoyed a nice stroll there before braving the market once again on my way to the store. (no luck on the fruit quest on the second try, either, though I confess to having given up sooner and making a break for the open road way after only a short stroll through the crowd the second time).
When I reached the sporting goods store I nearly turned right around and fled--it was also packed (though, fortunately, no one was carrying umbrellas inside!) and the heat was on full blast. It was necessary to remove my coat the second I entered the building, and my leg warmers had to come off soon thereafter. I wandered around a bit and the closest thing I could find to a water reservoir were some hard metal water bottles next to some backpacks. Therefore I decided to enlist some help, found an employee and asked (in Italian) if he speaks English. He said he did a little, so I attempted to explain what I wanted (it would have helped if I hadn't thrown away the leaky one--then I could have just shown him). He then brought me to another employee, who had much better English. Of course the other employee is new to the store, so while he understood what I wanted, he didn't know if/where they had it, and it was necessary to find a third employee to actually be taken to the correct well-hidden corner where they were located.
They ones they had were cheap and made of very thin plastic and lack many of the features I liked in the last one I had, but they are so much better than not having one at all, and it should last me till I can get somewhere that carries sturdier versions.
After my shopping adventure I returned to work and managed to accomplish a fair bit more. I've got tomorrow to finish up this task, and Friday I'll be on the microprobe all day. Then I've got just till the end of the month to process the new data, combine it with the old, and get a paper written...