kareina

I am now back in Milan after six fun, but busy, days in Zürich. clovis_t and I arrived on Sunday afternoon, and wandered around town a bit after checking into the hotel and scouted out the classroom for the writing workshop I was attending to ensure arriving on time in the morning.

Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday the course ran from 9:00 to 17:45, with breaks for lunch and coffee at regular intervals. Wednesday was a writing day--where we took the information we'd gotten on the first two days and did new, improved, abstracts and a couple of other assignments before getting feedback on them on Thursday. It was a fun class, and I learned a fair bit. There were 10 of us in the class. We are all part of the c2c research group. The others are all PhD students, I'm the only c2c post-doc who took advantage of this opportunity this time. This was my first chance to meet most of these people, since we come from all over. One is at the Uni in Zürich (and so he got lots of extra duties with set up and printing things for us), one came down from Trondheim, Norway, a couple were over from France. One guy is from Ireland, but I'm not certain if that is where he's studying. I don't recall where the others are from.

We will all be attending the meeting in Norway in June, so it will be nice to already know this many people before that trip. We spent a good part of the time reading and revising abstracts on our current research, so I know have a good idea of what each of us is studying, so this class was not only useful in terms of providing a number of useful tools for writing papers, it also was fablous in getting to know my classmates and what they study.

The focus of the course was in using the techniques of the scientific method for planning an entire project, from the initial project idea, through submitting a proposal for funding through to publishing paper(s) on the results. For me the single most useful "trick" she shared for organizing the paper itself was what she calls the "zoom" exercise. Just as a camera can zoom in to various levels of detail, so we may look at our projects with different levels of detail. The assignment has us first writing *one* sentance each for the following sections/questions:

Introduction (why did I start?)
Materials and Methods (what did I do?)
Results (what did I find?)
Discussion (what does it mean?)

The form included a box for each section wherein we can put things which we wanted to include, but simply don't fit in a single sentence.

After doing that we repeat it, but this time first choose a target audience, write down who it is, then write *three* sentences for each section (with room for notes about what won't fit). If you'd like additional practice, choose a different target audience, and write three sentences for each section for the new audience, and see how different they are. Finally repeat it one last time (this time setting the target audience = the readers of the journal to which you'd like to submit the paper), but this time, instead of sentences, you get five bullet points you can include under each section. There is your outline.

Another *really* useful tool is the domino trick I wrote about in my other blog a couple of days ago.) (Our teacher is *very* fond of metaphors--one of our assignments was to come up with a metaphor to explain our research (or one aspect therof) to non-scientists.)

After the class ended on Thursday clovis_t and caught a tram to one of the outlying parts of the city, where we met a delightful lady we'd met through couchsurfing. We had a very nice evening visiting with her and meeting some of her friends. This morning she had to leave for work bright and early, so we took the tram back into the city center (which I quite like, by the way--it is clean and pretty, the old buildings are in good repair and quite elegant, the people seem friendly, and I was very happy to wander around town during breaks and time off all week). We had thought to go to the museum, which is directly across the street from the train station, but we were out of cash and they wouldn't take my bank card (the tram costs 4 Swiss Francs each way!).

So we left our luggage at the museum and wandered off in search of an ATM. Before we found one we found a clothing shop with some reasonably cute clothes in natural fibres, and after trying on a number of items I wound up with a pair of black linen trousers and a blue shirt. By then we had little more than an hour before our train was due at the station, so we went back to the museum, picked up our luggage and returned to the mall under the train tracks (we'd thought to hang out in the lovely park along the river by the museum, but it had started raining). The logic had been that it wouldn't be worth spending 18 Swiss Francs for only an hour in the museum. It would have been *much* cheaper if we had. In addition the first stop we also found me a couple of t-shirts in a flattering cut--one in a beautiful shade of navy blue (of course!), and the other in a nice shade of purple (because they didn't have black in my size in that style and my wardrobe is kind of lacking in anything other than dark blue and black now that the couple of maroon items I own are wearing out). At yet another store we bought me a couple of pairs of cotton leggings. All of these clothing purchases was in addition to a nice very light-weight black cotton-silk top I bought earlier in the week because "summer is coming, and it is going to be hot".

Yes, I know, me, shopping? Yes, miracles do happen, sometimes. I shouldn't have to do that again for years...

All in all I really like Zürich. Yes, it is expensive, but it is also pretty. The university has a great feel to it, and the geology department has a truly amazing museum which just anyone can wander in to. If any of you ever get to Zürich, you need to check it out--not only do they have really, really nice display on gems, minerals, and rocks, they have some lovely models of various mountains in the Alps, including their geology, they've got a huge globe with a projector inside of it which plays a video of plate tectonics in action--it is cool to watch the continents break apart and re-form in different configurations in three dimensions. They've also got an earthquake simulation room (by appointment only) which is quite fun.

After a week spent in a town where cars don't use their horns and buildings are clean and shiny it was a bit of a shock to return to the sounds and sights of Milan. I love my job, and find many things to enjoy about being here, but I keep traveling places I'd like even better...

Today I finally purchased my train tickets for next week's trip to Zürich for the writing workshop. While there I determined that yes, it would make more sense to purchase plane tickets for the confrence in Vienna in May than to take the train--the train is a 12 hour trip for about twice the cost of a flight. Now I just need to find the energy to wrestle with airline web pages.

While I was at the train station I decided to head to the fabric store that is just across the street. This was the first time I'd been in there, and I was quite impressed with the quantity of natural fibres they have available--silk, linen, and wool. I managed to talk myself out of getting anything on the rolls of fabric, even though the prices were on par with what I've seen in Berkely, San Franscisco, and Sydney in the past year, but the bins of remanants were a bit too tempting. They have them sorted by fibre type (yay!) and I found several nice, Medieval looking wools, in the bin labeled "1.55 €". When I went to pay, it turns out that the remnants are priced by mass, not length (which makes it easy on them, just dump it on the scale. So the roughly 7 or 8 meters of 150 cm wide wool (three different colours/patterns) came to only 36 € total. I'm looking forward to measuring it later and working out exactly what I did pay per meter...

Today's big scare was opening up the collection of salt/graphite/MgO in which my little gold capsules were nested for the experiment and not finding the capsules. I broke it into very small pieces and ruffled through the pile several times, to no avail. I looked at the pile and decided there was less MgO than I thought there should be (that is the part which is in direct contact with the capsules), so I went and checked the little padded chamber under the piston-driven machine with which we push the nest out of the large metal "bomb" in which it gets subjected to pressure during the experimental run. Nope, nothing got left there. Checked the trash can nearest that machine, on the off chance that something had been left there and someone else tossed it. Nope, nothing. Checked the pile of graphite/salt/MgO debris on the piece of paper again. Still no little gold capsules (recall that by "little" I mean a pre-deformed size of 2 mm diameter, and not more than 6 mm long). Checked the padded catching box under the piston machine again. Nope. Checked the trash can again. Nothing. Checked the pile of debris on the paper again. Nope. Checked the floor in that area. Nothing. Gave up, carefully folded the debris into the paper and put it into a box in my drawer of experiments and went looking for a co-worker. Couldn't find him either. E-mailed said co-worker a worried note asking him to please check with me when next he is in--that I'd like nothing better than for someone to say "Are you blind? They are right here".

Shortly thereafter clovis_t came in to uni, and I told him of my plight, and persuaded him to come be a second set of eyes. Showed him the machine (still nothing), and got out the paper, carefully unfolded it, and demonstrated how most of the bits are chunks of compressed salt, and too small to hide the capsules, even if they'd been in contact with them, whcih they weren't. Then, as I pushed aside a really small bit of MgO, pointing out that it was too small to hide the capsules, I suddenly spotted a small hard white thing (the MgO is whiter than is the salt), poked at it, and realized that it was one of my elusive gold capsules. Poked around a bit more and found the second. Yay, clovis_t to the rescue--the darn things weren't there before, I swear it, but they came back when he came to look for them...

Other good news for the day includes receiving the check from the Tasmanian shipping company to pay for the repair of my trike tire. This makes me very happy. Other than the one damaged item I was pretty pleased with their service, and wouldn't have liked it if they'd tried to get out of making that good.

Other work progress includes creating another slide for my talk for the April confrence in France. Yes, one. When one wishes to add a scale bar to the photos, and wants the photos to all be in the same scale these things take longer than when one only wants the slide to be pretty.

It is only 18:30, and I think I'm going to be different and head home and enjoy some non-uni time with the rest of the day. I'm currently averaging 36.7 hours/week of uni work (not counting any breaks to check mail or heat up food or any run to the toilet), so I think I can afford the break.

I had thought about heading off to the Alps this weekend, since I had no time-commitments on the calendar. However, I wound up staying up too late on Friday night playing D&D, and didn't wake up till nearly noon on Saturday. Which means I couldn't have made it out there via public transit till sometime between 1 and 2pm. I don't know how early the sun sets in the mountains here this time of year, but that didn't sound like enough time to really enjoy the day, so I came up with a plan B instead. I first got out my rollerblades and went to stretch my legs (I'd also gone skating on Wednesday, determining that it takes just over an hour to get to Dance Practice on the rollerblades, but I do *not* recommend the path I took--it cut too close to the city center, with lots of cobbled streets, or streets with the pavement in very bad repair. I think it would be faster to do a larger curve to get there (there are *no* direct streets anywhere in this city)).

While I was out I saw a sewing machine shop with an electric mixer in the window for only 13 Euros. Since I'd been looking at mixers in other shops, and had noticed that they range from 30 to 80 Euros this one caught my eye. I am amused to note that the mixers in the other store were all not quite what I wanted, their "look" didn't quite do it for me. The one I now own, on the other hand, looks exactly like what a mixer should look like, to my eye. I would have been willing to pay the higher price for this one, even though I hesitated at the others. Sure, one *can* stiffly whip cream or egg whites without an electric mixer, but the amount of additional time required had meant that I've refused to make anything requiring it for the six months I've lived here. Now I own another power tool (I can call it that--the manufacturer is Black and Decker), and can add such recipes back into my repertoire.

After that purchase I got to thinking that I really would like a microwave in the house. Sure, I have access to the one at uni, which is great for re-heating leftovers for lunch. But one of my staple snacks hitherto have been variants on instant puddings, wherein one puts cornstartch and milk into a mug (+/- other ingredients to add flavour) and microwaves it for a minute, stirs, and microwaves it again for another minute or two, till it is nice and thick. Eat hot, or leave it to cool in the fridge. Yum. A favourite treat, but not convenient to do at uni (the microwave is in a room without a sink or fridge!). But if I were to get a microwave, where would I put it? It isn't like there is much space in my Closet. The perfect spot for one would be on top of the fridge, where the toaster oven is. I've never been very happy with that location for the oven, because the overlying cupboard tends to get rather warm when the oven is on.

Then it occurred to me that I do have a place I could move the oven. One corner of my Closet is the loft where my bed is, one is the entrance to the apartment, one contains the kitchen sink and small amount of counter space, and the fourth is where the wall mounted heater is located (with the futon couch between the heater and the loft. If I built a shelf above the heater, tall enough to have the oven at close to eye level it would be high enough not to trap heat from the heater under the shelf, and there would still be a couple of feet of space between the top of the oven and the hanging pot rack. So I dropped my skates off at home, switched to shoes, and headed out to the local hardware store, where I purchased everything I needed for only 15 Euros. From there I went to Uni, to drill holes in to the wood with the drill press there, before heading home with my loot.

I was very surprised to see that it was already after 6pm by that point, and if I was going to build the shelf and move the oven, perhaps I should first head out shopping and pick up a microwave before the stores closed (while stores tend to be shut for one to three hours over lunch, they are often open till 19:30). I set out on the half an hour walk to Media World, where I'd seen microwaves on previous visits (and I was pretty certain it was the sort of place that would be open on a Saturday). They were open, and they had a variety of microwaves on display. One of them, the only one small enough to fit where I want to put it, had a price tag of 49 Euros. The others ranged from 70 to 200. When I asked for that one I was told that it is "finished".

"Finished?"

"Yes, no more, next month, perhaps."

"But I want it today."

"No, sorry, it is finished."

Sigh. She wouldn't even let me have the display model. However, there is a HUGE supermarket just next door. Perhaps they carry microwaves. Nope. I checked every isle (not easily done--the place was jam-packed with customers). They have sandwich presses, imersion blenders, toaster ovens, meat-slicers, and other appliances galore (all scattered here and there about the store, mixed in with other types of products), but I didn't see a single microwave. Oh well, at least I got plenty of exercise between the walk there and back and checking every isle in the store.

Home I went, and started to work on my new shelf. Didn't finish till well after midnight (not surprising, since I didn't get home till after 9pm). My wood working projects tend to be very simple (the polite might say "rustic") things that serve a purpose, but aren't particularly high quality nor pretty. But I generally manage to finish them the same day I start, and one can't say that about high-quality wood working. I think that someday, if I'm ever living some where I can have a shop I might like to learn to do good quality wood working, and made furniture that will last a lifetime, but in the mean time, I'm glad I've got the skill to make functional things reasonably quickly, when I decide I need them.

I may not yet have the microwave installed above the fridge, but I am very happy with the new location for the oven. One can curl up on the couch with a book and watch one's bread baking. Previously that corner didn't really feel like part of the house. Now that I've expanded the kitchen that direction it feels like it is. Given how often we bake bread, the toaster oven really is our "hearth", and where it is really does feel like the heart of the house. Previously I would put cushions on the floor to lay down to read while waiting for food to bake. Now I'm happy on the couch. Now that the couch is between my bed and my hearth, the couch is much, much more inviting!

Today has also slipped by quickly, but that because I've been reading and relaxing. But I've a few hours left, so had better see if I can make some progress on that paper that needs writing...

Yesterday, about 5pm, as my co-workers were heading home for the day, I suddenly felt like I needed a break from working, and had a strange impulse to go be totally frivolous and spend money I really can't afford to be spending. I also felt like eating more food, never mind that I'd already has as much to eat over the course of the day as I normally do. So I suggested to clovis_t that he put down his computer and we walk into town and see if there was a caffè or something open, so I could indulge the odd impulses to spend and eat more than usual in one fell swoop (restaurants don't open that early in Italy, and that would have been more food and more money than I wanted, despite feeling impulsive). He agreed, and we set off, walking first north to one of the main shopping roads, and then east into the city center. As we reached the shopping area north of my neighbourhood we saw a store devoted to clothing made from natural fibres. Since I'm a total fibre snob, and was in one of those rare "shopping" moods, in we went. He was appalled at the prices. I didn't bother looking at them--I knew that they'd be dear, but just tried a few things on. Nothing I tried on got better than a slight sneer out of him, and while the fabrics were nice, the styles were not quite what I'd have them be were I actually going to purchase (other than one item where I like the cut but the colour was unacceptable), so on we went. Or next stop was a toy/game store, where we considered but did not purchase an Italian-language version of the Munchkin game, and I was amused to note that in the kid's book Prosciutto o Uovo Verdi (Green Eggs and Ham)the main character's name was changed from "Sam I am" to "detto Ferdi" to maintain a rhyme with one of the food words. And more amused to note that I'd never before *noticed* that "Sam I am" rhymes with "ham". Ok, so it has been many decades since I've read the English version of that story--back in those days rhyme was something that may have made the story easier to read aloud, but I didn't pay any attention to it.

From the toy store we wandered on towards town and soon saw a store called "house of cashmere". Having enjoyed looking at the cotton, wool, and hemp fibres at the hippy-clothing store, I decided to go have a look at some nice wool. When we entered I remembered to say "Buona sera" (I've been told that failing to offer a greeting when entering a shop in Italy is considered rude (and something that only Americans would do)), to which the reply was (in English) "May I help you?". I said that I was only looking, and proceeded to look at the many shelves of neatly folded stacks of wool, reaching out to touch a bit of fabric, and commented to clovis_t how nice it felt. At this point the saleslady suggested that they had quite a variety of styles available--t-shirts, long sleeved shirts, v-neck, round neck, with and without buttons. On a whim I suggested that I'd like to look at something in dark blue or black, long sleeved, with buttons, and she quickly went to the correct shelves and brought out several for me to try on. The first one was too loose, the second a good fit, but too short in the waist, but the third was decadently soft, long enough and a perfect fit. At which point she suggested that this particular style comes as a set, one t-shirt, one button up long sleeved version together for 190, or 120 for only one of them. Then she punched some buttons on a calculator and suggested that she could go as low as 175 for the pair of them. Remember the part about feeling like spending money recklessly? I also remembered a nice wool sweater I'd purchased years ago in Ireland which I adored, but which failed to follow me home from the airport once. Even though it had been getting old and worn out, I was still very sad to have lost it, and have been thinking of replacing it with something as nice for a while now. clovis_t, he who merely sneered at the clothes in the other place, commented about this sweater that it "looks quite nice". So, on a lark, I decided to purchase it. I got out my wallet and asked the lady "how much was that? 170?", to which she paused a moment, and said, ok, that is fine". When she saw my bank card she explained that at the end of the month the bank would give me an additional 10% back, because the business has a special arrangement with the bank. I'm not certain I understand, but if that happens it will be nice.
Wearing my new soft, lovely, beautifully blue, warm layers we continued on our stroll into the city. As we neared the Duomo (cathedral) area we started to see caffès with menus out front. The first few we looked at were uninspiring, but after we passed the Duomo we came upon another which had a few more items to both of our tastes. As we looked at the menu a waiter came up to us and asked us (in English) if we'd like a table. Looking at the risottos on the menu I told him about my "allergy" to wine and vinegar, and asked if their risotto recipie contained either of those ingredients (as so many do). He went in to ask and soon returned with the news that their recipie was safe for me to eat. So we got a table. He started to show us to one of the outside tables, but that is the smoking area, so I asked if he had something in a smoke-free area, and he led us up a cute spiral stair-case (I love spiral stair cases!) to a little inside dining room, with lovely crystal chandlers and real table cloths (unlike the outside area, which was crowded with smokers and had plastic table clothes). I choose the risotto con asparagi and he had the lasagne with a hot-chocolate. The waiter asked if he wanted cream on the chocolate, and he started to say "no", but I suggested that he did want it (since I'd happily help eat the cream--I may not like chocolate, but I adore cream). The cream was added on in amazingly generous proportions--the stack was twice as high as the chocolate itself. It was, alas, sweetened, but only lightly so, so I was still able to enjoy it (no, I didn't eat all of that cream myself, he helped me with it, and seemed to enjoy it as much as I did. Looking at his beverage, it appears that Italians like their hot chocolate the same way they like their coffee--seriously concentrated and in small volumes at a time. He seemed to really like it that way. Being a light meal for two at a caffè it was cheaper than a restaurant would have been, but at 33 Euros was also more than three times what I normally spend a day for food for one of us. But since my goal was to go be frivolous with my money, I couldn't complain, and I very much enjoyed the evening. We left the house a bit after 17:00, and returned home a bit after 21:00, having had a nice walk, some minor adventures, and goals achieved. Then we did yoga early and went to sleep before 22:30. I didn't wake up till after 09:00, so, for the first time in weeks, I'm actually caught up on my sleep! Today I've re-arranged some of the values I'd set aside to various "savings goals" to cover yesterday's spending spree, and then spent most of the day reading fiction published in the live journals of my friends. But there are a few hours left before it is time to head to the "un birthday party" a friend is hosting, so perhaps I'll manage to either finish my Italian homework or do some uni work (or both!) before heading out this evening.

Looking back on it, other than the one friends-locked post, I have been quiet here for nearly a week. My that slipped by quickly. During that time I have:

* Attended the local A&S night and determined that if I'm showing up the other folks don't (ok, it is just a coincidence, helped along by the fact that I've only made it twice thus far, and this was the first time it has happened since being switched to Tuesdays)

* Attended dance practice. Fun!

* Got my second experiment running. Yay!

* Learned where to take the gold capsules from the first experiment to get them mounted in epoxy in preparation for analysing them next week.

* Made three cylinders out of salt for future experiments and typed up my notes as to what is done to accomplish this, and why (we won't mention the part about how my boss, observing me do the first of them, nearly two weeks after he demonstrated the technique, suggested that rather than consult my notes I should simply think about what I'm doing and why and work it out for myself, causing me to feel, briefly, as though he was implying that I don't think--I got over it, and do see the sense in what he actually meant to say there).

* Attended two more Italian classes (which are mostly fun, but I found the one exercise very frustrating. She had us close our books and simply listen to the CD and then attempt to discuss in Italian what we heard. What *I* heard was the large amount of traffic noise recorded into the background of the conversation totally masking the words, but probably intended to add "colour" to the setting. Having grown up with the hearing problem, I can be a bit over-sensitive to times I don't hear things properly, and when the teacher suggested to me that I don't get frustrated, that we all go through difficult moments where we don't understand what we are hearing the first few times we listen to the recording in another language I actually crossed over the line into tears knowing that my problem in this case had more to do with my ability (or lack thereof) to hear/understand sounds that I don't *see* (I never listen to a radio that is talking, or books on tape--there is no point, words without being able to see the speaker aren't clear enough to understand without turning the volume up too loud for everyone else, even with my hearing aids in). It was a rather embarrassing moment. Fortunately for me, that was only one tiny portion of the day's lesson, and, once she gave me a transcript of the conversation to look at as I listened, I was able to make out every word over the noise of the traffic.

* Indulged in a rare spate of retail-therapy, stopping on my way home from the above mentioned lesson to purchase an immersion blender (I've been wanting something in the way of a food processor or blender, and this one turned out to be much more affordable than either of the above). To celebrate the new acquisition I made a blended bowl of soup out of some left over roasted pumpkin, potatoes, and garlic, to which I added red lentils, zucchini, and green onion. It was quite yummy! clovis_t wouldn't try it. Not only is it full of vegetables, whcih he won't eat if he can avoid it, he doesn't care much for soups, and on the rare occasion he does eat soup he picks out the solid bits that he likes and leaves the broth. He didn't understand why I'd want to use the blender on a soup, rendering it even further from his definition of "food" than it had been.

* probably a bunch of other stuff, but it is way late and I've still got my yoga to do before I sleep, so I think I'll quit typing here...

I spent much of Friday downstairs in the lab, getting the next two gold capsules filled, welded shut. This required some help from my boss, but we think we know what went wrong with the welding of the one I messed up. By the time I was finally done for the day it was after 7pm, so I went home, expecting to find Crian and our houseguest, skyemaroc, hanging out and chatting. But he hadn't heard from her. This seemed a bit odd, since she had planned on taking the train from Geneva that arrives in Milan at 16:30. So after a bit I came back across the street, to see if there had been word from her, and to double check that my memory of her anticipated arrival was correct. Yes, my memory of plan A was correct, but this time there was a FaceBook message from a lady I've not met in person, but have heard of, letting me know that my houseguest was on the train which would arrive at 22:30 instead, and that her phone was out of credit. Therefore, since there is a locked gate outside of this building at night, I went home to wait. (She'd said that she'd take a cab from the station to my place). I got involved in a project while waiting, and didn't notice time elapsing, and didn't realize how late it was when she got in at nearly midnight. It wasn't till I looked at my watch before doing our evening yoga that I realized how late it was (well after 1:00 at that point).

Accordingly, I slept in today till after 10:00 and we enjoyed a leisurely morning on line, then had lunch before setting out on a trip to IKEA. Boy, am I glad that skyemaroc was along for that trip! clovis_t really didn't want to go--he doesn't care for furniture shopping in the best of times, and when the store is that huge... But she and I made an adventure of it, wandering around, looking to see what shelving options will fit the space available for them, and are an appropriate size, shape, and price. She was kind enough to take notes on the things we looked at, and enjoyed the process of narrowing down the selection. Eventually we found an English-speaking employee who was able to confirm that the things we'd chosen would cost what we were expecting them to, and he told us that if we go to the self serve counter downstairs we can get it ordered and delivered tomorrow. Then he said that delivery would be 69 Euros! Ouch! Not liking that idea, one bit. But the list was too large/bulky to manage on the bus/train back home with just the two of us. Then skyemaroc asked if I know anyone with a car. Why yes, yes I do. The shire seneschal has a van. So home we went, with a print-out of what I want. After a yummy meal (home-made egg noodles with a choice of spinach, chickpeas, ground beef cooked in garlic and spices, pesto, grated cheese, flax seeds, toasted almonds for topping--no two of us chose the same mix) we came back to the office, where I could check in via Skype to see if the shire seneschal would be willing to help pick the shelves up. "of course" was the reply. Yay!

It looks like I should have shelves before my things arrive--the boxes have cleared customs in the UK, and should be put on a truck bound for Italy in the next few days. The next experiment is just about ready to start, so now I need to learn how to analyze the results of the first one (including learning how to use Mathmaticia and the routines my research team have devised for making the graphs), get the third one ready to go while the second one runs, work on those papers for publication of my PhD research, and attend my Italian Language course 6 hours a week, all while trying to have a social life and get the local SCA shire back into active status.

I just spent five days living in an Iron-Age hut whilst attending the Textile Forum, and loved every minute of it! I didn't even mind being without internet for that time. Met many delightful people, including one SCA couple who flew over from the US just for this conference.

I need to do a proper post comparing and contrasting the geology and textile conferences, later. Photos also need to follow, later. As do blog posts on the other geology field trips I've not yet written about.

short version:

* the textile forum combined the very best parts of science conferences with some of the nicest parts of SCA weekend events.
* I learned the "Finnish Stitch" in nalbinding, from a lady from Finland.
* I now own a hand-made iron needle which is even smaller than the tiny quilting needles I normally sew with. It is wonderful!
* bought some lovely dark wool yarn which was died with indigo and iron and I forget what else to make it so blue it is nearly black
* There are people doing some amazing textile research these days!
* It is nice staying in a working history park and being able to make use of the straw mattresses & sheepskins for bedding, and the nice pottery bowls for meal times, particularily when one is flying a budget airlines (read only one checked bag < 15 kg) and one's camping gear is on a ship, somewhere.

If you've posted anything on LiveJournal or Facebook in the past week that I ought to know about, you might want to call my attention to it, as I don't know when I'll have time to go back and read things from between when I left Scotland and now.

I walked to the Milan Central Station yesterday to meet clovis_t on his arrival. I'd not yet been there, before, so as I like to do on a walk to a new location, I consulted my map frequently while walking. It seemed important at the time to track my progress, since I didn't want to accidentally walk past the station without noticing it. As I neared my destination I looked at the map one final time, closed it, and thought to myself, "ok, that was the last cross street before the maze of streets that are at the station, from here I just need to look and see what I spot". The next second I stepped out from behind a building and beheld the single most impressive train station (and totally impossible to miss)that I have ever seen in my life. I particularly like the pegasi on the roof. (Note: as with so many things in this world, the photos in the links simply do not do the building justice.) It was a pleasure to wander around the grounds and inside the immense halls within whilst I waited for his train to arrive!

His train came in on time, and I led a very sunburned boy with very blistered feet back to my apartment, fed him some dinner (fresh baked bread, which he loved, and some left over lentil/curry stew, which he managed to eat more of than I expected, since he normally politely refuses my vegetarian cuisine--he meant it when he said he was hungry from not eating much while spending the day on trains and in train stations) and sat up talking till the wee hours of the morn. Since he hadn't slept much the night before in anticipation of his early morning departure, I was not surprised when he slept in this morning, and left my guest happily asleep in his bed when I went in to uni to do some work. Well after 1pm I returned home to find that he'd broken his fast and was contemplating a shower before following the directions I'd written for him to join me in my office (my only source of internet, which is why I spend so much time here!).

However, I'd made my way home in search of more food (having long since eaten what I'd brought with me in the morning), and had brought my computer home to enable me to do some work from home, for a change. After I'd eaten and done a bit of work we decided to head to the closest supermarket to get some supplies to make food a bit more to his taste than what I've got in the house. Alas, that plan was thwarted--the supermarket is simply not open on Sunday afternoons. So instead I cooked him some home-made egg noodles and tossed them with butter, cashews, some grated carrot, and some curry powder; a simple meal, but filling and while he would have prefered a bit of cheese in the mix, the cheese I bought at the market last week was so good that I finished it all before he arrived. (Money being tight until I get paid I don't have the well-stocked spice cabinet to which I'm accustomed, but I couldn't live without *something*, so I picked up a curry blend from the local Asian market. It isn't bad, but I do look forward to having enough money to expand the spice collection a bit).

The night is still young, but we are both feeling a bit tired, so I think that as soon as I post this I'll shut the computer off, head home, and get some rest so that we can wake up early for the morning market and stock up on yummy food stuff for the week before I have to come back and do more work.

Speaking of work--after a couple of e-mail exchanges with my advisor I've decided which sub-topic of my research I will try to publish in the Journal of Metamorphic Petrology. We've picked the "hook", and I've started the document. I wrote an introductory paragraph, and have started editing the bits from the thesis which are relevant. I've also done a quick search for papers that I'll need for background reading and to cite on the topic of the effects of metamorphic fluids (and/or the lack thereof) on (mineral) inclusion density in garnet. Alas, I didn't find anything very useful, so I gave up and asked on the Geo-Metamorphic e-mail list if anyone there can recommend one. (I did find 1000s of papers on fluid inclusions, which is different, and handfuls on the manner in which fluids modify pre-existing garnet, which is also not helpful).

For weeks my life had revolved around my computer and writing up my thesis. Heck, most of the past few years have centered around my computer and working on my thesis. I found it very easy to keep track of how I was spending my time and what I was eating, as I spent many hours each day at the computer, so it was a simple matter of switching between windows up update the logs. 5pm last Tuesday that all changed. I printed the final page of the thesis, and left it on my advisor's desk to be delivered the next day to the binders (only a half an hour too late to take it to the print shop myself!). Since then I've been in travel mode. Travel mode doesn't include much computer time. Travel mode requires one to either keep one's log on paper, or give up keeping a log. Thus far, I've been stubborn enough to keep maintaining the logs, and have done the data entry to get them into the computer when time permits. I hope that this continues, because I enjoy watching the graphs change with time.

Travel mode has meant a fun day in Sydney, shopping with bamebrampton. It has meant 13.5 hours on a plane across the ocean, landing in LA half an hour before departing. Noting that Quantas planes, unlike the plane I took to Australia four years ago, has not five seats in the middle row for the economy class, but only four. Gone are the days when it is possible to push up the arm rests and stretch out across all of the seats at once (on the rare occasion that there are sufficent vacant seats). Instead the arm rests are extra wide, to hide tray tables and small personal TV screens inside. It will not surprise anyone who knows me to hear that I did not pull out the TV screen I was given. Instead I got some sleep (Yay, sleep!), worked on a new tunic from some lovely wool purchased in Sydney, and read a bit in a book written by my friend Nikki.

Travel mode meant changing planes in LA, with enough time in-between to buy an adaptor so that I'd be able to use my computer in this country, then flying to SFO, the doing a loop around the Bay Area (the massage in Menlo Park made the detour so worth it), followed by seeing a play with hrj and a friend of hers (much fun, and good company!), then driving out to June Crown with duke_flieg.

Crown was much fun! Many thanks to ktmcg, who gave me a corner of her tent to call home, to mamapduck, who provided me with pillow and doona, to western_duchess, who lent me her spare air matress, and to katerit, who had sent me a tent for the weekend, though she couldn't make it to the event herself, and to alessandro_bard and colletteshorses who tried to deliver said tent, but encountered car trouble along the way. I'm so glad they were able to make it anyway, despite the complications with their transport situation.

Spending time at the event felt so normal and natural that it was difficult to believe that it has been six years since I left the West to move to Lochac. Most of the people I care about seemed unchanged, and it felt more like a few weeks than a few years since I've seen them. However, seeing the poised grace of a friend's daughter, who was an awkward pre-teen when last we met, and is now spending the school year away from home at College really brought home the point that, yes, time has elapsed. I didn't make the time to participate in any official activity, other than attending Saturday morning court. I never heard the heraldic announcements (I rarely do, due to my hearing problems, which are tied to attention problems--I tend to assume that any sound that is too faint to hear properly isn't important, though I know, intellectually, that this simply isn't true), so have no idea what all I missed which might have been of interest. I do know that I didn't get to see everyone I wanted to see. While I didn't expect to see the ones who didn't attend the event, I know that there were a few whom I saw only at a distance, that I would have liked to spend time visiting with, and others I saw only briefly, with whom I'd have enjoyed more interaction.

One complication to my making time to see people was the fact that I spent the last half of the event fighting off a cold. The last time I caught a cold badly enough to experiance symptoms was after Estrella war in 2004, so I guess I can't really complain if, after weeks of pushing myself really hard to finish the thesis and shorting things like sleep in the process, I came down with a bit of sniffles. However, battling off that virus did take up some of my energy, and encouraged josiestraka and I to get on the road early on Sunday, to be certain that we'd have time to make our train that night. The down side of leaving early is that I missed vittoriosa's Laurel ceremony (pity I never heard when the Laurel's meeting was--if I'd have attended the meeting, I'd have known that was coming, and so would have planned to stay for it, even feeling under the weather). But the up side of leaving early is that we were able to stop by the fabric store on our way to return the rental car, so I now have a nice blue linen modern skirt (some assembly required). We left site around mid-day, and got to the Amtrack train station with an hour or so to spare before our 23:00 departure. As a result of taking BART from the airport to the train station I managed to complete the remaining quarter of the loop around the Bay Area, so I've now passed through every BART and CalTrain station in the area in one short weekend. I can't say that I recommend it, but there are worse ways to travel.

I slept for the first part of the train ride, but it was dark then anyway, so wouldn't have been able to see anything out the window if I hadn't. I woke up in souhern Oregon, and looked out the window to see Mount Thielsen, a lovely volcano of the Cascade Range, with a very pointy peak. I smiled to see it, remembering the time years ago I climbed that peak with some friends, and then hurried down the mountain, reaching the easy part of the trail just as full dark came on. Fortunately, the easy part of the trail is so good that one can feel if one steps off of it, so we were able to wend our way back to our car that day without mishap, despite the moonless night.

We finally arrived in Portland a bit before 4pm, and were met by the lovely corva, who took us home and made us welcome. josiestraka was picked up shortly thereafter by her husband, who took her to Longbeach, where they are renting a vacation place for the week. I'm to join them there soon, so if anyone in the Portland area fancies a drive to the beach with me, please let me know ASAP! It was a delight to see the Bear again, and fun to see that while he may be 14 already (where has the time gone?), I'm still the taller. He points out that in a few more months this may not be the case, but I counter that while his parents have reasonable height, there is a small chance that he takes his genes from a shorter ancestor. Time will tell, and, no doubt, much faster than I expect it to be moving, if the past few years are any indication.

My plan for tomorrow is to burn that CD of electronic appendices (I think I've gathered together all of the files, and changed the field numbers to catalogue numbers) and post it to my advisor. Then spend time with whatever other friends I can manage to meet up with before heading to the beach for another day or so and then off to Seattle for the weekend, where my sisters and I shall all be under one roof for the first time since we lost my step-dad, five years ago.

We are making progress on settling into the new house--our biggest challenge at the moment is still the internet access. Yesterday clovis_t managed to get the router working, sort of. It is now sometimes possible to connect our computers to the network, and even more rarely through the network to the internet, and even more rarely yet the connection is good enough that I can log into the Uni computer. I did manage to log into the uni computer this morning around 06:30 and as a result was able to access ArcMap (the program is only sort of on my computer--unless I'm connected to the uni computer where its licence is stored, I can't use the program, and it is essential for some of the tasks I still need to do for the thesis) and so I managed an hour and a half of uni work. Yay! Then it was time to head out the door to run errands, and I've not managed to get back on line that completely since, though I did manage a bit more uni work this evening despite not being able to access ArcMap. However, I forgot to make a note of how many new words I've written, and I'm not near my computer at the moment (since mine wouldn't log in, I just gave up and walked down the hall to the house computer to check in here), so the rest of the progress report will have to wait.

Today's accomplishments include getting my passport application turned in, picking up a loaner hearing aid (yesterday's errands included dropping one of mine off for repair, and since it won't be ready till after Christmas they called this morning to let me know they had another one available for me to use in the meanwhile), buying more ingredients for my mix-it-myself muesli, finding a decent second-hand suit coat for clovis_t to use for job interviews now that he's finished his degree, and finding a potential storage option for our boxes of stuff. We also attended the geology department BBQ, which was quite nice (other than the fact that the salad, which was lovely and green, had been poisoned--I will *never* understand how the rest of you can ingest vinegar!) I also determined that the shortest possible loop "around the block" in this neighbourhood takes 20 minutes to pedal around. Given that one of my tires was flat when I went out for the ride, I thought it a good idea to do only a short loop after re-filling it, on the off chance that it has an actual problem.

Today's failure was 1 hour, 20 minutes on the phone getting transferred from one department to another with Telstra/Bigpond (phone/internet company)trying to find out if it is true that the line to this house (which clovis_t's dad says was replaced recently) is really not suitable for ADSL, and if so, what it would take to replace it with something which will work. Every department was very willing to deal with me, until they finally transferred me to someone who could, I'm told, actually help. Then she refused to deal with me because I'm not the person in who's name the phone bill is listed--never mind that if the line does require replacement to work for ADSL I'll be the one paying for the upgrade! So we get to try again tomorrow sometime when the correct person is home to speak to them. Sigh.