Emma’s Blog

Every day now i’ve been getting comment spam (although it doesn’t get through as I have set everything to need approval). Always on the quail post…I wonder if quail is a popular term among spam bots, or whether they’re just set up to go for an older post.

Tomorrow is the MHC Christmas Show, which should be good. It was a pretty big show last year, I got to poke my first tiny baby dwarfs and they put on a nice buffet. We’re also buying an extra hen to try and settle the quail fighting, although I put all the birds in the playpen together last night and they didn’t seem too bothered about each other.

Today in the office, Marc asked if anyone had a website…so I said yes. He asked about what could be put on it, so I said pretty much anything. That lead me to realise that i’ve had “proper” hosting for about 7 years now and the only fancy-pants thing i’ve done with it is install wordpress. I decided that i’d have a go at installing media wiki (despite the fact I don’t really have anything to write a wiki about). I’m taking bets on how long it takes me to get fed up with the idea…it’ll either be when I have to tinkle with the database, or if I survive that it’ll be when I realise I have to write content…

A fortnight ago, I bought 3 quail “chicks” (they were 3.5 weeks old), Waylon, Rose and Daisy. The idea was that they were two females and a male. They would live indoors in a large rabbit cage over the winter, and move outside when spring sprung. I set about buying all sorts of quaily bits and bobs, a nest box, some hay for nesting in, a water dispenser, grit, leg rings, chick crumb and pellets. On the second day I discovered mistake number one. Quail drink a LOT, and one budgie drinker (approx 250ml) needs refilling twice a day, so I invested in a 1.3L mushroom drinker. One thing I had been warned about was that they would kick bedding into their food, but I thought bowls would be OK. However it did get to be a bit of a pain, so I bought a food hopper at the same time as the drinker.

It became obvious after a week that Daisy was actually Dan when further speckly breast feathers came through (there were a few when we bought “her”). From the little information I managed to scrape from the internet, I knew that i’d need an excess of females as the males are over-amorous. Although the lady I bought the quail from had offered to swap Daisy if she did turn out to be a he, I felt reluctant to part with him. I’d joined a Quail Forum and luckily there was a member near enough for me to buy females from. When we got these two home, I let them run round with the others, and all seemed well. 5 quail in a cage 1m x 50cm take up a lot more room than 3 quail though, and so the mushroom drinker became major mistake number 2. After it falling over twice due to much quail stampeding I realised I was going to have to invest in a rabbit bottle for the birds. The two new quail were used to it, and seem to have done a good job of showing the other quail how to use it.

On Thursday I went up to Manchester for a joint conference with their Systems Biology people. The MIB that they’re based in is a lovely building, far nicer than our one. We never did decide who has the best deal, they get more money, a nicer building but we have offices, a shower and tea, coffee, squash and biscuits on tap.

In the evening, we went to San Carlo for a meal. It was very nice, fairly posh (I had monkfish!) and Mike had a Tartufo for pudding that was set on fire with a shot of sambuca (the waste!).

After that we went to the awesome Baa Bar (although it was a bit late, and we only stayed for two drinks (my shots were the storm, and a springbok). We stayed at the Thistle hotel on Picadilly Gardens, which was reasonably comfortable, although hideously overpriced. I was not impressed with their lack of veggie breakfast (yes, I can eat eggs and hash browns, but i’d like a veggie sausage and the knowledge stuff has been fried in seperate pans than you very much!).

Anyway, Friday evening we went to Sinclairs, and one of the Wetherspoons. People are so much politer than in the midlands, a man bumped into me and actually apologised, and a woman held a door open for me on the way to the loo rather than letting it smash into my face! After that, we went to Cafe Rouge…unfortunately we picked a new one, “just off” Deansgate. Its part of a new development, and is the only place open, and is as far off the main road as you can get. We were starting to have doubts when we walked through all the hoardings, but there it was right at the end with happy little balloons outside. We were the only customers, and paid half the bill in Tesco vouchers my Mum had given Mike the day before, but hey…i’m sure the 15 staff that were on enjoyed serving us…

I always start these things with much enthusiasm that peters out in about 5 minutes. On the off chance anyone is interested, lets have an update on what has changed.

1. We are homeowners. We bought our first house (a 3 bedroom terrace in a less desierable part of town) back in January.
2. I went back to Uni (October 2006) to do an MSc in Systems Biology. This should lead to a PhD starting October ‘07.
3. Hamsters have changed round a bit. We still have Archie and Reggie (Theo passed away in May). Robos we have Psyche, baby Redrum, and “the girls”, Alysia, Zosima, Little ‘un and Pearl. We acquired a breeding pair of winter whites (who despite a lot of effort on the male’s part have yet to produce babies), Hank and Peggy.

They say nothing ever changes but the shoes, which clearly is not true. I have 2 new pairs of shoes since the last post.

Life has been busy recently, and there are a few things I should probably add, back date etc.

In May, we went to Thorpe Park for Sam’s 21st, which was really good. I’ll steal some pics off Mike and add those.

The start of June I handed in my project, waited to see if I had a viva, then finally got my result. I got a 2.1. We also went to Drayton Manor, which was fun. At the end of the month I returned to Market Research, its just for the summer…its just for the summer.

July, graduation. I am now officially Emma Picot BSc (Hons) Biochemistry. Before that, we had a night in Blackpool, great fun, and saw some red squirrels at Formby.

That’ll do for now.

Apparently, .com is for American sites only. If you have a .com domain, that implies you’re from the US. That means you!

All us little British Chaps and Chapesses should settle for the lowly .co.uk, and keep our grubby mitts off the shiny, golden .com. If we use it, we’ll only confuse people, despite America having .us (try www.grouphug.us if you’d like an example). Although from what I was aware of, .co.uk was originally a business suffix (.org.uk being an organisation, ac.uk a British Educational institute, .gov.uk UK government et cetera). There is a .uk but that seems to be rarer than the .us.

Clearly, .com is an abbreviation for .communist, so for all you Americans who pledge allegiance, I urge you, avoid .commies!

I realised today I only have a fortnight left on my lab project. At first, the actual subject seemed pretty boring, but now i’ve really got into it. Having struggled so far with one half of my mutants (three times they’ve died, I only have one surviving to produce protein). Now there are the opportunities of extra substrates, possible inhibitors and…crystallisation!

 I love crystallisation, my first experience (beyond copper sulphate and a bit of string) was back in January in our “Structural Molecular Biology” lab. We took a tray with 24 wells, and using a range of pH and bits and bobs, found out which was the best to crystallise. Of course, we only looked at what actually crystallised, not the structure etc. I don’t understand the whole turning scattered electron images back into a real 3D structure, but it’s amazing.

I’m starting to realise maybe I am getting too into this whole science thing.

In other news, I was chatting to Adrian (one of the doctors in the lab) at lunch time, and saw Sarah from the other side of the hall. Rather than “hello” she shrieked “What is wrong with your eye?”…turns out its gross and bloodshot (and has been all day) but no one thought to point it out. Sometimes people are too polite. Trouble is, I didn’t spot it until it was brought to my attention, now my eye stings and feels a little strange.

Mike and I have both hurt our backs. Stop your sniggering, its nothing of the sort. He noticed his was sore last Thursday (but it recovered for the Beer Bus). It started again on Tuesday, I walked straight from the lab to Tesco, and noticed when I got there my back was a bit sore (I assumed from a heavy bag). He was limping, this carried on through Wednesday, and mine stayed as a dull ache. Woke up on Thursday in agony, as did Mike. People in work told him to go home as he was limping so much. He took today off, but I had to go in, thankfully I finished early. Restful weekend it is.

I think we need a new mattress, but bloody hell they’re expensive.

I found out today that someone I know has a “pet” squirrel. It was bought to him as a baby and he refused to have it put down (they’re illegal to keep, or return to the wild - greys only). As one who adores squirrels, I was, of course, extra excited, although I must admit a little disappointed that they don’t turn in to tame little lovable pets, but seem to still have plenty of wild instincts. Still, its cool. In return, I shared that I own several hamsters.

While walking down the hill back to the bus stop, I saw several baby rabbits again. No baby ducks yet, I hear there are some at Gibbet but i’ve yet to see any in the fluff.