Results tagged “friends” from Test blog

I walked straight into a plate glass window on Friday.

It wasn't the highlight of my week, but seems fitting a party to the strange syndrome of behaviours offered up to me by my body these four days gone by. Mild disorientation, sensorily unique headaches, neck pain, considerable body heat and a couple of aggressive mood swings in the testosterone-driven raging-silverback-gorilla sort of direction.

Transparent walls aside -- apparently this marriage of biology and silicous oxides runs in the female line of my family -- these are the mild symptoms of mild brain inflammation caused by a vaccine, and the thought that there's two more shots of this intravenous liniment to go isn't the most exciting thing in my Universe.

Still, if the antibodies are already on the go, then tomorrow's shot will either result in few further symptoms, or complete anaphylaxis. While occasional drama spices up the daily run, I hold out for the more probable scenario.

I've decided that things will be back to normal today, though the likelihood of my body agreeing with my stubborn mind makes the temptation of staying in bed, in the buff, all day long, the most attractive recourse possible. Alas, stuff beckons.

Oh, but it was strange.

Out in the sunshine, walking father Thames in the fresh air and awash with summery vibes, there were moments when I wanted to curl up and cry on the pavement for no good reason, punctuated by my own amusement at the fact that this sudden volatility of mind so isn't me.

Then anger and frustration, and wanting to smash my knuckles into the piles of broken rock and glass on the beaches at Battersea to put my mind elsewhere, toward a crimson decoy, something tangible. Preservation algorithms threw slag at the low tide instead, a limitless volume for transiently limitless feeling.

Then on the street, miles down the road, I chanced upon a proverbial angel, and my inconstant choler, as capricious and fickle as she was potent, fled with her burgundy skirts hitched above her ankles in the face of his genial smile and allusive embrace.

Once in a while, friends will pitch up at just the right time and place to crush a demon, unaffected in manner, straightforward and sincere, unaware of how you feel and utterly resplendent for it.

And whether or not you let them know it, they become heroes.

Though it was, by all accounts, cold, overcast and sometimes windy, a couple of hours were taken out of my working week yesterday when friends drove some two hundred and fifty [thousand] miles over to Cambridge to have a barbecue with me. In some respects, I feel guilty for taking time away from the work I have to do for my thesis, but then overdoing it is a very real possibility, and everyone is entitled to relax every here and there. Especially when four or five people are taking time out their day to do it with you. Hot coals, delectable munchies and a troop of hungry loved ones does plenty to dispel all sorts of grey.

On the camera front, I was asked yesterday (via email) how a student could afford the hefty price tag of Canon's EOS 10D (originally £1275 ex. VAT). There's only one answer: eBay!

In July 2004, I learned that the model was to be superseded by the most luscious EOS 20D come August; I figured that some professionals would be selling off their "outdated equipment" (it's so sinful), so I sold an ancient SLR body to raise capital, ate cornflakes and endured scurvy for two months, taught some extra developmental biology classes to undergraduates, and then sat at my computer waiting for something to happen.
Within two weeks of the 20D coming out, there were dozens of 10D bodies on eBay at shocking prices; I got mine for less than the more recent, non-professional EOS 300D (itself superseded by the new entry level 350D - mrrow!) still sells for on eBay when second-hand, despite its being a more rugged camera (magnesium alloy versus aluminium-plastic body), if functionally similar. Savings: greater than £725, and the seller threw in extra parts when he discovered I was a student - I finally came to understand the true value of market research and cutting-edge professionals with a heart.

After looking at sex toys and a hot-positions catalogue in Anne Summers yesterday, Huéy took me on a hunt to find some new loafers since I am slightly impaired in the shoe department -- I live almost exclusively in Cat Boots or trainers, though I've walked all over Cambridge barefoot on more than one occasion now and found it very freeing -- we narrowed it down to one pair of shoes in each of four different shops, and whittled those down to an eventual success in Ravel; I am pleased. It was a welcome escape from the lab, much needed too since I ended up sticking it out there past 21:45 last night, and was a chance to spend a little extra time with the lovely lady before she left for the US this morning.

Passing a moody person in a wheel chair, brought home a hypothetical question. If someone in a wheel chair approaches you and gets a bit pugnacious, do you treat them like anyone else, or offer just a little more temperance given their situation? And if they start trying to hit you, is it fair game to release their handbrake, whip them around and shove them down a steep hill?

There has been a long period of abstinence for me, but the drought is set to continue for the same reason that it has been in place for the last few weeks... work, of course, but for a change it isn't proving a repetitive cycle of stellar effort and no reward, because for once I'm getting something real to look at; oodles of data with plenty of scope for interpretation, a number of potential follow-on analyses, and best yet, what I'm observing may be significant enough to merit a paper too. The thought of getting that produced before I'm even finished here is just a little bit encouraging, whether or not it actually happens.

Still, there's a lot of number crunching to be done -- the sort of stuff that would really turn on a biostatistician [alas, no, I'm disappointingly normal] -- and while it hurts, every analysis of variance, product-moment correlation coefficient and error margin I've turned out seems to confirm that I'm finally seeing something significant that I can work with, and that's, well, really bloody cheering.

Of course, all work and no play makes Jack a tired old hermit who clearly doesn't get out enough, so I've been making an effort to keep myself busy outside of the lab, rather than just flopping onto my bed and staring at the ceiling for my evening's entertainment. And what with the amazing weather of late, that has been especially easy; no fewer than three barbecues in the last three days, a couple of trips up and down the river by canoe, punt and even sans véhicule, not to mention weekday lunches spent out in the sunshine.

Spring is springing

All this comes in the week following Frank's visit to the UK with his travelling partner; the weather was fairly mediocre for much of that time, but hosting these lovely chaps for a night in Cambridge, before heading down to London for a big walkabout, was a real pleasure and diversion. We were even joined by this one for a spell, and I think that a pretty good time was had by all, though I'm really speaking for myself here; the previous few weeks were fairly rough, so the chance to escape, and in good company, was all the more special for me.

Crud, my intent to elaborate further has been scuppered by the lateness of the hour and my own tiredness. Alas, to bed. Someone take over please?