nur noch zwei Tage...

until I go home. I am so looking forward to this time away from university, not so much to the time away from Neil though. But I am sure it will be nice to see my family and some friends and the time will fly by like it always does. I do hope that we manage to go away for a week or so. My mom was saying before that we could go to Denmark and drop in on a friend of mine from Santa Barbara, which would be really cool. I haven't seen her since i was in California, and I left there in 2000. Gosh 6 years I can't believe it's been such a long time... I do need to try and go back sometime soon.

Anyway, still lots to do before I can leave Saturday, I need to clean my room and bathroom and need to do the washing and then of course pack. Tomorrow night we are going out for a friend's birthday and then Saturday I leave on the 15:05 train to Reading and then the flight leaves Heathrow at 19:25, and I should be at home with my family just around 22:00 :). Might not write that much while I am away, but if I get the chance I will try and take come pictures and put them up.

the only person in the office... again

once again I am the only person who is in the office. most people would find this is a good environment to work, but just always end up sitting here thinking why am I the only loser who decided to come into the office and then I don't get anything done. Well, I am a bit in holiday mode anyway already. Just 4 more days and I am off to Germany for a three week holiday. I am really looking foward to seeing my family... lets hope the weather stays this nice so my mom and I can go away for a bit as well. We were thinking about Denmark or just the coast in Germany, but we shall see.

Not much else has been going on. Spent the weekend with Neil being lazy, but we finally managed to watch Memento. A great film, and only slightly confusing since the whole plot is backwards, so you see the end first and then slowly bit by bit learn how things happened. We also went to a little farm shop just outside Exeter which had just opened up an ice-cream parlour and had some very nice ice-cream.

another hot day

another day with a level three heatwave warning, I can't believe it. They said on the news this morning that today will be the hottest day of the year so far, but when I think about it they said that before sometime in early June when it was quite warm as well. Anyway, my brain refuses to function much in this weather, so I am here sitting in front of the fan trying to stay cool and thinking of some answers to Brians questions (i sent him a rough draft of a questionnaire yesterday and he just replied wanting to know what questions it would address...)

might try out the outdoor pool at uni later, might be nice and refreshing

Glastonbury and heat

it has been very very hot this weekend, but thankfully it hasn't been humid at all. I think I would have died if it had been humid again... well ok not really but I would have not liked the heat and the humidity together.

The weekend was nice though. Friday we all left work early and came down to the Imperial to have lunch together for Daisy's birthday, and after that I met Neil at the Continental Market which was visiting town. He decided to wait for that to have lunch, then pottered around town for a while and then went to a friend's house for dinner. It was really nice, after dinner we sat outside on a little - well actually quite large - balcony and later we watched "I heart Huckabees". A very funny film about existential Detectives played by Lily Tomlin and Dustin Hoffman. Worth a watch if you are into quirky funny films.

On Saturday I went to Glastonbury with a friend. Again another hot day, but we had a good time walking around the Abby grounds and the town.

Here are a few pictutres of what used to be the Abby:

Waterlili

I took this picture today and thought it turned out quite nice.

it was probably a stupid idea to even come to the office today. No one is here (and who can blame them on such a beautiful day!) At least I won't be here too long today. A bunch of us are going to the Imperial for a few drinks and lunch for a friend's birthday. That should be fun.

The continental market is in town again this weekend, and going by on the bus yesterday I saw that the German Bratwurst stand is back again :)

ok just about another hour that I have to pretend to do work now ;)

summer and being in the office

it is always so quiet here in the office. it should be good really and motivate me to get lots of work done without distraction, but I just can't get myself to be motivated when no one else seems to be doing any work. Oh well, just a couple more weeks and I get to take some real time off. On the 29th I am off to Germany for three whole weeks and I won't have to do anything. Well at least that's what Brian said a while ago when i asked him if it was ok to go away for that long. Considering that he will be away as well it should be ok and I shouldn't expect any emails half way thorugh asking me for a first draft of my literature review. speaking of which, I really need to start working on that. I want to hvae that done and out of the way by the end of the summer, but at the moment it doesn't even look like I will be able to get that done. Well if I just sit myself down and work all though september I should at least have a draft done by the end of that month. And then I have another few months to work on the upgrade report which has to be done by February next year.

Brain Gain

I went to a workshop with that title yesterday and I am not sure if that title is really appropriate. We didn't really learn how to improve our brain power and or even get more brain, but rather she taught us a few techniques to use then we have to remember things. It was helpful with that, and I think I will have a list of 10 words now permanently carved into my memory.

not the most eventful weekend...

but we did go see a bunch of films. thursday we saw Pirates of the Caribbean 2 - was good and entertaining, but I think the first one was much better. this one is now set up for another one, and I was a bit annoyed for that. Friday we saw Enron-the smartest guys in the room. About the breakdown of the Enron corporation, and it was quite interesting. Granted I never knew too much about what happened there anyway, but it was still quite interesting. Very similarly filmed to the Corporation. After that we went down to the Quay for the opening of the Exeter Summer Festival, which ended in a fireworks display that was very disappointing in my opinion. Oh well... Saturday we went to see Thank you for smoking, which was also quite good. after that we went to get some food at Old Timers and then went to another pub for a few drinks for a friend's pre-birthday. And then to round up the weekend of films we went to see "Ferris Bueller's Day off". I thought it was quite fun and Neil had never seen it, and I think (hope!) he enjoyed it.

Google Earth

I have just discovered Google Earth and it is just fantastic. I must have sat here for about an hour just typing in places all over the place where I have been and looking them up. Too bad that Europe is not as detailed as the US, but it is close enough.

back from Edinburgh

We got back from Edinburgh and I have to say it was a great trip. The conference stuff all went really well, and even my presentation went well. I was a little bit nervous right before it, but once I got started talking about my research it was fine. People seemed interested and they laughed in the right places. The other talks at the presentation were mostly interesting as well, even though some people's research went straight over my head. All the businessy things I didn't really understand. But overall I can say this was a successful visit and I now feel much better about my PhD than I did before. I guess it was just a matter of seeing so many other people who are doing research in a similar field to mine, and I could see that it isn't completely useless.

The only slightly bad thing about the trip was that I couldn't spend that much time with Neil. Both conference days I pretty much was away all day from 9 am to 5pm, but I guess I shouldn't complain too much. I still had a chance to see the city on Thursday and half of Sunday, and it is a beautiful city... Immer eine Reise wert!

Here are a few pictures:

this is the top bit of the Scott Monument. I took a few more pictures to get the whole thing in sections (or well I thought I did) but the camera must have not saved them because the battery was coming to an end.

This one is the view from Carlton Hill over the city with the Castle at the other end.

This is the view again from Carlton Hill but to the other side. You can even see the sea in the back

This one was taken on the Royal Mile:

and of course we cannot forget the Cows from the Cowparade. here is a small selection of the cows we could find. There is also one designed by KT Tunstall somewhere in Edinburgh...