Dear Jonny:

Why we shouldn't give peas a chance

what I've been doing...

Fancy Pants Engineering dinner in early July - The Polymers Crew: Martin, me, FerasStaying out clubbing in London until the sun comes up with my BFF Stella

Doing the same in Swansea for my birthday - tequila shots of course :)



The Cavern Club in Liverpool where the Beatles first played


The National Piping Centre in Glasgow
The Glenfinnian Viaduct - from the Harry Potter films
Sambuca shots with Conan and some 90's aerobics instructor the night before my birthday in Aberdeen
Hung over face painting at the highland games in Montrose on my birthday
Some swords at Edinburgh Castle
Whisky tasting in Edinburgh
Gross bathroom photo whilst out in town Edinburgh
Back in Swansea OTP in No Sign Wine Bar

just when i started to question it...

As some of you may know, my latest challenge has been the 12 month research Masters I'm doing in BioPolymers. Even fewer of you may know, that doing this has made me see clearer than ever that research is not for me, and I cannot wait to get out into industry and manufacturing/production (not to say I don't enjoy what I'm doing, I do). Seeing as I am nearing the end of my time at University and it's all getting intense and academically - thesis-y - insane, a small voice has developed in the back of my mind wondering if I might be a touch delusional with a "grass is greener" mentality. When I get into this so called idyllic industry setting, will I be satisfied with a business/science mix, or will I be business business business?

All has been settled.

I spent a few hours on the beach today reading a paper on oxo-degradable plastics. I am already one to choose biopolymers over plastics made from oils any day, but I still thought that oil-derived materials (eg: polyethylene) with additives that make them "biodegradable" were a heap better than those without the additives. WRONG. I won't go into it too much, but basically the overall impact on the environment is pretty much equal between them, and if it isn't equal, the ones with the pro-degradant additives are worse! It's mainly because the most damaging part is the producing and processing plastics from oil, and when you make them degrade faster they can't be reused or recycled, and usually end up not degrading fully because of environmental conditions.

The discovery of this little fact and my response to it has renewed my faith in a careers in polymers, instead of veering off into other manufacturing areas. So I'm really happy - the chemistry stuff still inspires me.

PS: if anyone knows any Summer places/jobs I could go for near Rotoma, let me know, I'm getting desperate! (Edgecumbe, Kawerau, Te Puke, Whakatane, Rotorua)

if i was born 25 years earlier...

I was born in the 80's. I love saying that, as I'm pretty sure the 80's (closely followed by the 90's and 70's) is my ultimate decade for music - a lot of one hit wonders ("Come on Eileen" by Dexys Midnight Runners; "Tainted Love" by SoftCell), and bands typically associated with the 80's such as The Police, but also great years for current bands like Metallica and Depeche Mode. Trying to make it in the male-dominated world of engineering, I often wonder what I would have done if I was born a few decades earlier. I usually go right back to the practically medieval choice of washer women, because I (with my modern feminist tendencies) would like to think if I was born anytime after about 1920 I would somehow get a career in Engineering/Science despite it being unusual for a woman. However, I forget that I probably wouldn't have been brought up with the "you can be absolutely whatever you want to be" attitude, and I definitely wouldn't have grown up in a society providing me with opportunities to do this, so it might have been a bit trickier than I imagine.

For the past 5 years I have periodically questioned dropping my career choice in favour of one more associated with music (production, editing, event organising, etc). Every time I have come to the conclusion that I can enjoy music as a hobby whilst being an engineer, but I would find it difficult to satisfy my science-cravings if I was working in the music world (mainly because I would need my own lab with zillions of dollars of equipment in it). So I think, if I was born in the early 60's, making the beginning of my career throughout the 80's, I would have been a singer (or tried to be, but this is not the point). I think I would have liked to have started out along the lines of Tiffany, Pat Benatar, and Toni Basil, but hopefully would have changed direction to more of an early 90's band thing, like Letters to Cleo, and possibly Hole. And seeing as I have total control over this little fantasy, I think I had better say I would be born in the USA, seeing as none of those artists come from little island NZ.

On that note, here's Laura Branigan with my fave song of the week, Gloria (1982):

i wish i could have dated this guy when i was younger

i miss my mum and dad :-(

It's funny the things that remind me of my parents. Like when I wake up in the morning and feel my eyes glued shut with sleep, and wish my dad would pop his head in the door and say "should I get you a warm face cloth to help you wake up sweetie?"; when I'm trying to eat an orange and basically just mashing it with juice dribbling everywhere and wish my mum was there to cut it into bite-sized pieces for me; when I'm trying to fry sausages and they're all sticking to the bottom of the pan, and I wish my dad would just do it; when I'm out and about and have a snivelly nose and wish my mum had forced me to take a hankercheif that morning... Even the little things I wish I could just share with them, like how well I peeled all the scraggy white bits from my mandarin or about an awesome car I just saw.
I have no conclusion to this post, this is all.

the scots are calling...

oh, how they are calling! I am starting to plan the trip my BFF Stella and I are taking up North in a couple of months - can't wait! It is seriously going to be off the hook - 3 days in london, a couple in Swansea, Liverpool, Manchester, lakes district, glasgow, inverness, edinburgh, and whatever we feel like on the way! We're armed with a crazy checklist of things to do, a couple of cameras, and bus tickets... Good times ahead I do believe.

making myself at home..

really starting to miss NZ home now - Uni is getting very difficult and money is tight, so travel is virtually non-existant and pub trips are minimal. Tonight I am relaxing with a facial mask from Rotorua's famous geothermal mud pools, it's gooood but I think if I left my room my flatmates would be somewhat alarmed!

by the way...

unpleasant

Seriously, my office smells like pee. I don't know why, I don't know how. And I certainly don't know who. If it was you, can you please please please come and fix it. You don't even have to confess. Just FIX IT!

Done. Done Done done. I have officially uploaded 5 freaken video's for rotary, all made yesterday. Faaaaar out. Check them out www.rotaryscholarclaire.blogspot.com
booyah!

Hate Spree

Hating on Windows Live Movie Maker, YouTube, and Facebook Photo Uploader. And on the laziness that has made me waaaaaaaaaay behind on Rotary videos, so have had to make 4 films today. Feeeeeel my PAIN!

oh what a busy bee i am

i've been up and around the country this last month. Chepstow, Tintern, Bristol, Cardiff, London... All very exciting. Too tired to blog, with photos and videos this blog has become largely redundant. Damn you technology! xoxo

....

I'm going to London tomorrow for 3 days!

I am a happy chappy

Yo homies, what up?

I am just relaxing in my house, eating frozen raspberries, doing a bit of research work, and, until recently, was enjoying a nice cup of slim cappuccino mix. That was when I found great big lumps of crap strewn throughout said coffee. I am unimpressed Nestle, totally, utterly, UN-IM-PRESSED.

Pretty busy as of late, I know I always say that but this time it is true - This week I've got 2 Rotary presentations, a trip to a steel works, a short course on gas safety, sign up session for a Welsh language course, hiking club meeting, and on Sunday hopefully a hike from Chepstow to Tintern Abbey, a historical abbey on the border of Wales and England. I'm hoping to fit a game of squash or two in there somewhere as well! I have no more words, here is a photo of me falling into a pile of snow (always amusing) :

Come fly with me, let's fly, let's fly away...

Thought I would make a list of everywhere I want to go in the next few years, so if anyone wants to go there too, let me know and maybe we can travel together :D ... Or if you know anywhere you think I should especially go, let me know!

Hopefully Between Now and October 2010

ENGLAND:

• London - Specifically the bridges, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, the Eye, Westminster Abbey, Greenwich, Museums, the Tower
• Manchester
• The Forest of Dean
• The White Cliffs of Dover (from a boat on the way back from France??!!)
  
• Cornwall
• Cambridge
• Bognor Regis
• Bristol - Specifically the Industrial Museum, SS Great Britain, and possibly the Zoo
  

SCOTLAND:

• Edinburgh - Specifically the haunted sewers
• Inverness (Lochness Monster)
• Aberdeen
  
• Some rugged rural area of Scotland
• Maybe Glasgow

North and South IRELAND:

• Belfast
• Dublin
• Giants Causeway
• Cliffs of Moher
• Pretty much the whole land!

WALES:

• Bangor
• Hiking in Snowdonia
• Camping in the Brecon Beacons
• Big Pit (a big mine)
• Haverfordwest and Pembrokeshire
• Aberystwyth

October 2010

ASIA:

• Some cheap country where I can stop off at for about 5 days, so I can experience some Asian culture as well as relaxing and chilling out, without it costing too much! Perhaps Vietnam or Laos? Keen for ideas though!

October 2010 - February 2011

AUSTRALASIA:

• South Island of NZ
• Gisborne
• Wellington
• Whangarei
• Sydney / Brisbane ...?

February 2011 onwards

EUROPE:

• France - Northern and Southern and everywhere! Alsace, Limoges...
• Greece
• Egypt (just to see the pyramids)
• Spain
• Italy
• Germany
• Switzerland
• Ukraine
• Turkey - Gallipoli for ANZAC day
• Dubai
  

Welcome to 2010!

Hello hello hello!

I hope you all had a fantastic Xmas and New Year! I totally did, although it was a lot different from the ones I have in NZ. I missed my friends and family, and I think I can safely say I have experienced my first bout of genuine home sickness :-( Nevertheless, I had a great holiday and ate too much and all that jazz - check out my latest videos on my Rotary blog to see what I was up to and where I went. I would like to say that I visited Stonehenge, and it was amazing. It is such a magical place, and just the feeling I got when I was there was something I will always remember. I would definitely recommend it - it's fairly cheap, at only 6 quid or something like that, and you can walk round at your own pace. Someone had previously told me it was a pile of rocks. It is. But WHY is it there? It's like these massive shaped rocks, all meticulously placed, and it's very old, but no one knows why it was made! Love love love it.
I missed all of you in NZ, I had christmas with 2 other girls which was cosy, but very different from the normal 10-20 odd that are generally hanging round on xmas day for me. I missed New Years in NZ - spending 4-5 days at the beach somewhere, chilling out all day every day on deck chairs, playing soccer or frisbee on the grass or sand, getting sunburnt, swimming, having a bonfire, sleeping in tents, even that gritty feeling you get when you haven't washed your face for a few days because you left your facewash at home! Although I did have a raging night club, and my ears were ringing right through until January 4th so I guess I did have 4-5 days of partying... I guess.
Anyway, I'm right back in it, going to work etc etc boring boring, but am planning a day trip to Cardiff next week and a long weekend to Haverfordwest ASAP - they currently have hazardous driving conditions due to the heavy snow ... HAH!