Brennan's Adventures in the World of Science

2011-04-04T15:27:00.000-07:00

2010-12-01T13:12:00.000-08:00

2010-11-30T22:49:00.000-08:00

Montreal Day Ten - Tower Montreal & Jardin Botanique

2008-10-14T15:59:00.000-07:00

This morning I headed back out to near the Biodomé, but this time to go up the Montréal Tower and to see the Jardin Botanique/Insectarium. I first headed up the tower – it looked like I’d be taking the trip up all by myself... but just as the cable car arrived so did the chinese tour group(!!) so it ended up being quite a packed ride. The view from up there was spectacular – you could see all of downtown Montréal, Mont Royale, Parc Jean Drapeau, as well as the Jardin Botanique.

The Biodomé & the TowerDowntown Montréal

Me on the observation deck.

After that I headed over to the Jardin Botanique and made a beeline for the Insectarium (hehe). There were lots of interesting bugs, scorpions and spiders though the majority of the samples were already dead and affixed to the wall.

Me out front of the Insectarium

Bug

More bugs!

After the insectariums I headed into the gardens. The gardens are actually MASSIVE and way more that I could cover in an entire day, let alone the few hours I had. I decided to go see the Japanese, First Nations, Alpine, Aquatic and Chinese gardens. I went to the Japanese garden first – they had a stack of Bonsai, a lovely exhibition garden with waterfalls and some GIANT Koi.

River in the Jap Garden

Giant Koi

Jap Garden

Next I headed into the First Nations Garden, which was a bit like walking through trail in a forest. It was lovely and cool and nice and quiet. After that I had a look at the Alpine Garden, which had samples from all around the world including the Alps, the Himalayas and the Rockies. I also walked through the aquatic garden which was funnily enough filled with water lilies and reeds.

Me in the forest
A waterfall in the alpine garden

Water lilies

I lastly headed to the Chinese Gardens. There was actually a lantern festival on at the time so the whole area was filled with paper lanterns throughout the entire garden. I originally wanted to come back during the evening to see the lanterns all lit up, however I didn’t really get the chance to.

Views of the Chinese Gardens

After walking through the gardens for a while I headed back into down town to do a little shopping – I managed to get souvenirs for pretty much everyone... and a few things for myself of course. I spent most of my last evening packing and getting ready for tomorrow. I took one final walk around and got dinner in a restaurant on Rue St Catherine and then I headed to bed.

Montréal Day Nine – Attack of the squirrels!!

2008-10-14T14:31:00.001-07:00

I was running a little late this morning as I woke up at around 10 and was meant to be meeting everyone at Sherbrooke metro station at 11!! However, I managed to have a shower, get dress and ready to be out of the door but 10:45, meaning that I arrive just a lil after 11 (but not too late!). We headed up from Sherbrooke station to a park nearby called Parc Fountannie, stopping at a bakery on the way to pick up some fresh baguettes and some goat cheese. At the park we headed to a bench by the lake and on the way noticed a white/albino squirrel!! It looked very out of place! As we started eating we started getting a lot of interest from the local bird (pigeon & seagull) populations, as well as one rebel squirrel which kept come and running around us. At one point he actually jumped on to Garry’s leg!! He seemed to disappear for a bit, however before we knew it he was on the bench next to us, crawling along, ready to pounce!! It was most funny yet scary. We fed the squirrel some broccoli, which it wasn’t very interested in... and then some bread, which he squirreled away up a nearby tree.

Albino Squirrel

Ready to Pounce

Hayley, Jenna and Garry

After our picnic brunch/lunch we said our final goodbyes to Garry who was off to catch a plane to France as part of his climbing world tour. Hayley, Jenna and I headed down Rue Berri in search of the UQAM-Berri Bus station. At the bus station Jenna and Hayley grabbed their bus tickets for the airport – at this point we then said goodbye to Hayley who was off to Cleveland.

As Jenna had a few more hours to kill we decided to head up Parc Mont Royale. After lots of map consolations we managed to find a park entrance and started headed up the ‘mountain’. It was actually quite a hard trek up the paths, and then we were had to tackle the long flights of stairs to the ‘top’... well actually it wasn’t even the top, it was just a lookout and afforded us a fantastic view of the city. We stayed out at the top there for quite awhile, just letting the views sink in and watching numerous joggers and walkers running on the paths and up and down the stairs. I felt pretty tired just from watching them. We then headed down back into the city and stopped into a juice bar, reminiscent of Boost Juice.

View from the top lookout

On the metro I said goodbye to Jenna who was leaving that afternoon back home to London town. I instead headed back to downtown to see the Basilique Marie-Reine-Du-Monde Cathédral, which is apparently based on St Peter’s Cathedral in Rome but at a one-quarter scale. The outside is the fantastic gothic looking building with I think about 13 statues out the front and the inside is again very decorative and amazing.

The Outside Facade

View from the inside

Artwork on the ceiling

After that I walked around downtown for a bit before heading to an Indian Restaurant for dinner, which wasn’t too bad! And then... bed!

Montreal Day Eight - Biodome

2008-10-14T14:16:00.000-07:00

Despite falling asleep somewhere around the 4am mark, I managed to drag myself out of bed to make that mornings 8 am lecture. It was actually quite interesting and managed to keep me awake, even if it was on a totally different area to my own. After the lecture we then said goodbye to the Canadian boys as they headed back to Sherbrooke.

Jenna and I then headed to the osteoblast session where we met up with John again. The session was scientifically interesting, but I think we were all a lil brain fried by that point, so we amused ourselves with the man that obviously loved the sound of his own voice.... he also, somehow, managed to acknowledge him in his own talk?!

And that was it. The end of the conference. Farwell ASBMR... well... for this year anyways!

Afterwards we met up with Hayley and decided we’d go to see the Biodomé with Garry (who was still actually in bed at that point). We went for a bit of food first, stopping at a pizza shop where “we” met a very nice boy from Ottawa... I think Jenna was hoping he might stalk us and meet us at Biodomé but alas it was not to be.

We caught the Metro at Pie IX and waited for Garry... eventually we worked out Garry was at Viau (one stop up)... and of course as we were in the subway (aka underground) we didn’t get his messages. But either way, it worked out. We met up and headed into the BIODOMÉ!!

So I guess the Biodomé is really just a zoo – but it has simulated environments where you can walk around and have the animals flying and playing all around you. The first eco system we headed into was the tropical rainforest – it was pretty cool. There were birds flying everywhere and monkeys in the trees!! Even though the monkeys were a lil shy they did come down from the tops of the trees eventually so we could have a good look at them. There were also Caimans & Turtles and of course LOTS and LOTS of birds!! (There is also meant to be a sloth but we couldn’t see hide nor hair of it L)

Golden tamarin

Capybara

Some birds

After the rainforest section we headed into the St Lawerence Forrest section. Now one of the main reasons Jenna & Hayley wanted to visit the Biodomé was to see the Otters.... but unfortunately for us they were asleep L However there were also Beavers, Porcupines (up trees?) and the Lynxes (like tabby cats... but BIGGER). You could actually have a look at the beavers from underwater and we had great fun watching this one beaver that seemed to be swimming on the one spot all the time!!

Sleeping Otter

Eating Beaver

Porcupine up tree

Then was the St Lawerence River section – which had all these massive fishes, an 8kg Lobster (it was HUGE), bird and these cool ‘smiley’ stingrays. Beyond that was the arctic section which has penguins & puffins galore. We spent a bit of time there checking them out – so cute!!

Puffin & Penguin

Emperor Penguin

Penguin’s Mother’s Club! J

After spending some time in the arctic enclosure we decided to see if we were able to back-track to the otters to see if they were awake... unfortunately for us they weren’t. As we came out thought there was another exhibit – straight from Madagascar.... LEMURS! They were very cute! After that we headed out of the Biodomé back to the Metro station. Garry left us at this point and went to meet a friend of his, just leaving myself, Jenna and Hayley.

Lemur

We decided to walk into town instead of catching the metro – on the way we stopped in for some MacDonalds! (Can’t go to North America with going to Maccas at least once!!) Eventually we headed down Rue Sherbrooke on the search for a HSBC branch for Jenna – we spent an hour or so walking but could not seem to find it at all. Eventually, Jenna tried another ATM cash point which magically decided to work. There was a café nearby, so we decided to stop there for a coffee. The coffee there was actually FANTASTIC and is the best coffee I’ve had in Canada so far! While we were there Jenna wrote up a whole bunch of postcards for her friends back home, and Hayley and I decided to see to pick a nice restaurant for dinner.

Hayley picked this Italian restaurant that I think was called Le Emma... or maybe De Emma... It was down in Old Montréal, so we headed down that way to find the place. It took a lil bit of searching and once we got there the kitchen was actually too busy to seat us – so we had the option to wait or go. The bar was looking nice and tantalising so we decided to wait it out, which ended up being a very good decision. After about half an hour we got give a table and a menu full of dishes in Italian... after some translational help – we all got a bottle of wine and some mixed salads, I got the Penne Al Salmone, Jenna got the Veal and Hayley the Baby Pig (the main reason she wanted to go here actually!!). The food was DELICIOUS!! We each had a try of everyone else’s dishes and each one was fantastic. Hayley’s ‘baby’ pig was actually so massive that she thought she had been given something else by mistake. There was actually so much that we decided that the all of us would have a picnic the next day with the leftovers. After dinner, full and satisfied we all decided to head back home for some much needed rest.

Montréal Days Five, Six & Seven – Conference Shenanigans

2008-10-14T14:04:00.000-07:00

I headed to the second day of the conference nice and early for the first session of that morning. Garry, one of the ANZBMS crew, managed to find me in the crowd and we had a quick chat as just before the first talk started. Spent the entire day at different sessions – there is some FANTASTIC science happening in the bone field at the moment and there were some very interesting talks.... and some were not. Though normally in that case it was not the science that wasn’t interesting – it was more the style of the presenter. I was very surprised at the amount of presenters who were READING their presentations... I can’t imagine getting away with that at Usyd!!

As a result of not going to the first day I apparently missed the ASBMRs Young Investigators event which has occurred the previous evening. However, Garry was going for dinner/drinks with a few other that evening so he invited me along. So after a long hard day of conference (ha!) I met up with Garry and a few of his new YI friends – Jenna and Hayley the Brits, Steve and Max the French Canadians, as well as Katie and Annie from the US. Garry, Katie and Annie actually all had evening workshops to attend so I headed off for dinner with J, H, S & M in Old Montréal. We ended up having dinner in this pub which had a fantastic view of the Old Port from the window. I also tried my first Canadian beer – instead of larger, ales etc. they are divided by colours red, blue and blonde. I think we had a Red which was pretty good. Once dinner was over we headed over to the Old Port and sat on a bench by the water having a chat and a few sips of Arizona ‘Ice Tea’.... aka Jameson’s mixed with Ice Tea.... a lil on the strong side but not too bad. We then headed back to the conference centre to pick up our workshoppees before heading out into the town. We ended up at this random bar in a pedestrian plaza that had $8 doubles and $3 shots... after a few double rums & coke, tequila shots and liquid cocaine’s (Jagger & the vodka with the gold flakes) I had a good buzz. K, G and I got into a large political/religious discussion which was full of drunken philosophical banter. We then decided to move somewhere... which then meant we wondered around Montreal for like an hour and ended up at some random bar that wanted to charge us $6, despite the fact they were only open for another hour!! We then decided to call it a night!

Katie, Garry and Me

Jessie and Katie at in the coat check area of some random bar

I had set my alarm early for the next morning in the hopes of catching the 10AM sessions which had a few good CaSR related talks... however I confused the snooze and disabled button... turning off my alarm and not really waking up to 11AM... meaning I missed everything!! I was VERY annoyed with myself! The rest of the day was... well.... conferencey...

Made plans with the YIs to meet up for dinner – we were heading for some Mexican. Met a few more US girls from Katie and Annie’s lab – Leecola and Clara. From memory the place was call Cassa Peppe’s (but that could be totally wrong) and it had a giant sign proclaiming the be the best Mexican place in Montréal... which lead to a discussion on the number of Mexican places there would actually be in Montréal... However best or not the restaurant was PACKED and we ended making reservations for the next hour. We then headed to a nearby Irish pub and met up with Dave, who is originally from Montréal, to wait out our time – Jenna and Katie managed to down a whole bottle of wine between the two of them within the hour... it was a pretty impressive sight!

We then headed back to Mexican where we grabbed a few Daiquiri’s & Margarita’s to go with our meals (they were massive & delicious!!). The food was very very good (of Flying Fajita standards at least) so maybe they weren’t lying... J After dinner we headed to a bar near McGill where Dave used to work where we had a few drinks & met up with Kara (another Yank). Steve showed off his origami skills and taught Jenna how to make a water balloon.... which they was used as a volleyball... and eventually everyone ended up throwing the free mints (“we” (aka Jenna) stole from the Mexican place) at each other!

A few people were in a dancing mood so we then headed to a club called Café Campus (it was actually just across the plaza from the first bar we were at the night before). We originally thought Dave said they played ‘fresh’ music... but he actually meant ‘FRENCH’... The music was not so great and I was sorta wrecked I headed back early with Jenna and Hayley, so we could catch the Metro back.

Clara takes on 2 Daiquiri’s

Max, Steve and Dave

Steve, Dave and Kara throwing things at Max

The next day I had to present my poster which was actually kinda boring. I probably had 4 – 5 people talk to me... which isn’t too bad – however, as I had to stand there for like 2 hours it wasn’t the most thrilling time I’ve ever had, that’s for sure!! I also managed to get a glimpse of Ed Brown (academic hero) however he was a lil busy when I saw him, so I didn’t introduce myself! (D’oh!)

AC had made mention of going out for dinner this night – however neither Ryan or I ever saw him to actually organise it so I instead went for dinner with a few of the YIs instead. We ended up having another pub meal at MVPs – where we discovered that you can get FREE POPCORN in US/Canadian bars... Jenna, Hayley, Garry and myself were amazed and despite the fact that we were all stuffed from dinner “we” (aka Jenna) made Max and Nick (another Quebeccer) get some for us. After that we headed to the ASBMR social event and ran into John, another ANZBMSer. It was held in a theatre type place – with a stage, massive dancefloor and lots of little tables/booths. They had a band going all night long; playing lots of familiar/old rock and roll hits; as well as a trapeze artist.

The Band

Trapeze skills

Ribboning

We spent most of the evening upstairs on the balcony (prime observing position) but after a few drinks the upstairs became our only private dance floor as we cut some sick moves on the dance floor... I even did a bit more gypsy dancing!! Though really the number one entertainment of the night was watching all these incredible intelligent people ‘shake their booty’ on the dance floor!! We did become slightly obsessed with this one guy who we nick names “Blue Shirt” mainly because... well... he was wearing a blue shirt. But he was awesome and danced all night long!!

Observing from the balcony

Leecola, Garry, John and Hayley

The Yankies – Leecola, Clara, Katie and Annie

After a few more drinks we headed down stairs to join the throng! Jenna and I headed over a danced in Blue Shirt guy’s circle for a lil bit, Garry need a bit of knee-sliding, while Steve pulled out some lovely air guitar solos.

Max, Katie and Steve

Steve, Me, Garry, Hayley and John

At one stage ‘Hey Jude’ came on – our group of YIers linked arms and I got John to take a photo of me in front of a line of people... before we knew it John and I were in the middle of a massive circle. John continuing to take photos to make it look like he was there for a reason, me running around and conducting (CONDUCTING) the crowd... it’s probably a good thing I’m heading for clinical medicine as I doubt anyone will be giving me a postdoc in the bone field after that!!

Me in front of the ‘crowd’

Part of the circle

John and I in the middle (looking very sober!)

Unfortunately it all ended way too soon as the social even wrapped up at about 11:30! We took a massive group photo for all the YIers, and then Jenna and I went and introduced ourselves to Blue Shirt guy and got a photo (yes we are dags). After that we headed off with a massive group of ASBMRs in search for a bar to continue the festivities.

ASBMR YIers: B: Carl, Garry, Jenna, Steve, Leecola, Clara, Katie, Max & John

F: Annie, Nick, Hayley and Me

We ended up at some ‘hip’ bar called the radio lounge which had poles which made Jenna very excited as she showed off her pole dancing skills!! The place was pretty skanky but the drinks were relatively cheap we managed to drag Blue Shirt Guy (who’s actually called Andre and is from Switzerland) and a few of his friends, Billy (originally from Glasgow) and Fabio (originally from Brazil), who are all currently in Calgary. We had some good fun dancing and talking with them and didn’t end up leaving till about 3ish in the morning. We also had to say Goodbye to all the yankies as they headed back very early the next morning. Hayley managed to grab some ‘free’ drinks to go and she headed out. I then headed out with Billy and Fabio on the search for some late night grease. I grabbed a kebab as Billy introduced me to the Quebec speciality, Poutine, which is chips, cheese curds and gravy... it is DELICIOUS! After that I grabbed a cab back to my hotel for sleep!!

Me, Billy, Andreas (Blue Shirt Guy) and Jenna

Jenna shows off her pole dancing skills

Max and Steve

Montreal Day Four - An Artsy Amble

2008-10-14T13:52:00.000-07:00

I woke up relatively early this morning in preparation for the first day of the conference. Went down and had the breakfast buffet (again) – no muffin this time as I opted for the apple Danish instead. Had no problems getting to the Palais des Congres as I had already sussed it out... in fact it was actually easier to get to then originally thought as there was actually an entrance from the Metro directly to the Palais (how I missed it the first time I don’t know!).

I followed the crowd to the registration desk, where I registered for the conference and got my bag, program, name tags and abstract book. After this I went and sat down outside and tried to make head and tails from my program and abstract book – it seemed to be organised in a very confused manner. While I was sitting there who would come along but my Supervisor, AC. Had a chat to AC for a few minutes and he pretty much told me that today was not very relevant for us do we could probably take the day off. After he had registered we decided to both grab a coffee.

We headed to Eggspecation (Yes they have a lot of egg dishes) where we each grabbed a cafe latte (which came in like small steins?!) as well as an apple crepe to share between us. Interesting, instead of stewed apple the crepe was filled with small slices of fresh apple!! Though overall it wasn’t too bad. Over the course of the conversation we both decided to go see some of Montréal’s art galleries.

We first headed to the Musée D’Art Contemporain which is at the Place D’Artes. We both hoped onto the Metro to make our way there – was a little confusing getting from the Metro station to the actually gallery but once we were there we discovered they were actually between exhibitions!! However they still had some things showing but it did mean the price for entry was 50% off ($4 instead of $8).

Musée D’Art Contemporain

In all honesty I think the best exhibit was probably in the entrance gallery right next to the stairs. I’m can’t remember who it was by, but it was two tv screen, side-by-side, probably about a metre apart. The videos were mirror images of each other, showing the top half of women, not saying anything – just sort of blinking and fidgeting and sighing etc. However no matter where you were it always seemed like at least one of them was looking at you... all the time. Slightly disconcerting actually.

After that we decided to head to the ‘fine arts’ gallery called the Musée des Beaux Arts de Montréal. There are actually two buildings that house this gallery – one an older building (seen in the picture below) and there was actually another modern pavilion and they both connected to each other underground. There were a few temporary exhibitions however we decided just to see the permanent collections and they were actually FREE, which I thought was fantastic. There’s quite a large permanent collection – we were there for probably around about two hours and got nowhere near to seeing everything. They were definitely some familiar names popping up such as Monet, Picasso, Rodin, Cezanne and Dali, there was also a few unfamiliar ones. There was an entire gallery focused on one Canadian artist, Marc Fontaine, who painting I thought were amazing, even though I had never heard of him until then!!

Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavillion of the Musée des Beaux Arts de Montréal

Once we had tired from all this gallery walking we decided to have lunch and at the restaurant in the museum. While neither of us were really hungry we still managed to have a three course meal!! However we didn’t actually have any mains! I had the Soup of the Day, which was watercress, leak and PINEAPPLE which was actually VERY good and you could definitely taste the sweetness and tang of the pineapple. I then had the Beef Carpacio with a Rocket salad and some parmesan cheese which was quite good... though I do wish I had appreciated earlier that the beef was raw. I then finished off the meal with passionfruit crème broluee which was OMG fantastic!! AC paid, which was very nice of him, and we then decided to head our separate ways.... unfortunately we didn’t realise it was POURING outside!! We did hang around outside (under cover) for at least 10 – 15 minutes, however it didn’t seem to be getting any better, so in the end we had make a run for it. I headed to the nearest Metro station, however on the way I got waylaid by a panhandler named Natalie. Actually she was quite nice, if a lil strange, telling me to go get married and have lots of babies... or even don’t worry about marriage just have babies... however she did tell me the direction to the nearest Metro which I sprinted to (going from cover to cover).

Headed back to the hostel and had a bit of a nap. Decided to actually have dinner in the bistro at the hostel, where I got the Le Burger Maison or the House Burger, which as actually pretty good. After that I headed to bed to be up nice and early for tomorrow’s morning sessions.

Montreal Day Three - Parc Jean-Drapeau

2008-09-12T19:39:00.000-07:00

Woke up a lil later this morning than yesterday and only managed to make it out of the hostel at about 9:30ish. Obviously had hit a bit closer to peak hour as the metro was much more crowded this morning... (evidence of the ‘overcrowding’ that the Montrealians apparently complain about!).

Parc Jean-Drapeau was largely built and hosted the 1967 World Expo and actually consists of two islands on the St. Lawerence River - île Sainte-Hélène and île Notre-Dame. It’s named after an ex-mayor of Montréal, Jean Drapeau, who was the main initiator of the Expo 67 exposition themed “Man and his World”.

Upon leaving the Jean-Drapeau metro station deposited me on île Sainte-Hélène and I was greeted with the sight of bright blue skies and a lovely water fountain. By following the ‘crowd’ (the five people in front of me) I ended up heading out towards the Biosphère which is located in the geodesic dome that was originally built for Expo 67 as the US pavilion. The Biosphère is now an environmental museum. It cost about $12 (I think) for entry and had an interactive section all about water, another are about the water ecosystems of the Great Lakes-Saint Lawerance River regions, a section about Richard Buckminster Fuller and a fully solar powered house. The solar powered house was kinda cool – it use glass panels for walls, had underfloor heating and also had plants on the outside which were apparently good for air quality and insulation!!

The Biosphère and Me working the water pumps

After the Biosphère I decided to head to île Notre Dame and the Casino de Montréal for lunch. I had actually had to catch a bus to get there as it was too far to walk – and totally made a fool of myself by asking the bus driver for a ticket!! Apparently your meant to use your metro ticket/transfer slip – how was I meant to know?? However the bus driver let me on for free so it worked out in the end. When I got to the casion I could not believe just how many poker machines there were! There were hundreds!! No Thousands!! I had a few spare coins in my pockets so I decided I try to see if I could find a lil slot machine action. I cashed about $5 into 25c coins (I even got the coin bucket to put them in!!) and went hunting for the cheapest machines I could find – the 5c machines. Unfortunately the 5c machines were exactly the same as the machines we have at home... which is totally boring! Eventually I did find a couple of the One Armed Bandits (Old school slot machines) and pretty much lost the entire $5 in about 2 minutes!! After that I headed to the top level for lunch. I had the choice between Nuance (fine cuisine) and... well... the buffet! Considering the weight of my wallet I decided the buffet would be the best course of action!! There was quite a large choice and I was a bit adventurous (I even got escargot!!) and by the end of it I was very VERY full!! The best thing was the whole thing cost me less than $20!! Bargain!!

View down from the top level of Casino de Montréal and Food, Glorious Food!

In all honesty, all the slot machines were kinda depressing so I hopped the bus back to île Sainte-Hélène and decided to see if I could find La Ronde Amusement Park. Of course I got completely lost – crossed the St. Lawerence River and ended up BACK on île Notre-Dame not too far from the casino!! As I was crossing back I overheard the people saying the La Ronde was now closed during the weekdays as it was no longer summer... and of course once I finally got close enough to see it I determined they were correct. It was quite obviously closed!

The St. Lawerence Rive, Blending in with the trees & a very silent (and closed) La Ronde.

Only I had determined that La Ronde was definitely closed I followed the trail down to a nice little pond and bridge. I crossed over the bridge and there were a few dragonflies hanging around so I had a bit of an experiment with my camera. Over the bridge there were a few squirrels that looked like they were collecting nuts for the winter ahead. There were also a few groundhogs around that were so very cute! As I followed the trail along I also managed to come across a chipmunk!! I tried to take a photo but it was WAY too quick for me, however I decided to leave me camera out just in case I saw another one... and sure enough about 10 m up the trail there was another chipmunk... and this time I managed to get at least one shot before it disappeared!!

Dragonfly, Groundhog, Chipmunk

After walking the trail I decided to head into Downtown, mainly to find a bank as I’ve had a lil trouble getting money out... well the main trouble being that I couldn’t GET ANY!! Anyways I head to Centre Eaton and found the nearest Bank ATM that would take a Visa card and thankfully... THANKFULLY... it dispensed me some crisp $20 notes! Canadian money is actually very very pretty with lots of nice colours. Though I will admit I am still having slight problems with the coins... they all look so similar... and some of them are so small!

After that I actually headed back to the hostel as I wasn’t really feeling too crash hot. Spent most of the afternoon having a bit of a lay down and catching up on email/work. I originally decided that after such a massive lunch and since I was not feeling my best that I would skip lunch, but by about 10 pm I was feeling better and I could hear my stomach rumbling! I decided that I would head up Rue Mackay and grab some Maccas... mainly because I wanted to see what it was like here in North America! However as I headed up the street I realised there was some massive outdoor concert going on. So I headed up into the crowd and watched the band (that were singing in French) for a bit before going to Mr. Sub (the Canadian version of subway?) to grab something to eat and completely confused the poor girl by asking for some capsicum... which are (of course!!) called green peppers here. After that I was completely bushed and head back to the hostel for bed!

Montreal Day Two - Vieux Montreal (Old Montreal)

2008-09-11T21:20:00.000-07:00

So I woke up nice and early this morning at round about 7 am. Went down and had breakfast at the bistro – got the buffet breakfast which included the choices of coffee/tea, juice, some fruit (bananas... YUCK!), yoghurt, cereal, some pastries and the biggest muffins I’ve ever seen! Once breakfast was finished (for the record – got nowhere near finishing the muffin!) I went to tackle Montréal’s Metro system.

I started off my going completely the wrong direction! The closest Metro station to my hostel (Lucien L-Allier) is pretty much down the road... So I decided to go completely around the block... obviously it was not what I originally intended. To be honest, while I knew the Metro was an underground railway, I was surprised by how far down it actually was!! I had to go down three massive escalators to get to the station. Once there I managed to purchase some tickets... 12 tickets to be exact! You can buy 6 Metro tickets for $12, you can also get 1/2/3 fares. I must admit I originally though the 2 fares meant I could use each of my 6 tickets twice... but I got given 12 tickets instead!! While I managed to get the tickets easily enough... I then had a slight problem working out how to get through the barriers... which makes me seem kinda stupid but I assure you it looks a lot harder than it is. After getting some quick instructions from the guy in the ticket booth I was on my way and waiting for the Metro train.

I caught the Metro Place d’Armes station and after a quick squiz at my Lonely Planet Guide decided to see if I could find the Palais des Congres as this is where the conference is being held later on this week. The station is meant pretty much on the same block as the Palais des Congres though it did take a lil while as the entrance seems to be on completely the other side from the station.

Across the road was a lil park area – it actually caught my attention as there was this mist wafting out from it. It took me a minute to realise it was actually SPRINKLERS watering the grass!! As I thought I was meant to be heading that way I crossed the road and saw my first squirrel (the first of many!). I quickly snapped a couple of shots because as soon as he realised I was looking at him, the squirrel quickly disappeared up a near by tree.

Squirrel!!

After my squirrel interlude I finally headed to Place d’Armes and (after many references to my Lonely Planet maps!) I managed to arrive there without getting too lost. Now I’m pretty sure the literal translation of Place d’Armes is something like Place of Arms/Weapons and is apparently names after a bloody battle between early Montréal settlers and Iroquois natives. Obviously quite a popular spot as there was already a busload of American tourists there taking photos even though it was only about 9am in the morning. In the centre of the square stands a fountain known as the Monument Maisonneuver which is dedicated to Montréal’s city founder Paul de Chomedey, who actually came out to evangelise the natives!! There are four bronze panels around the fountain, which apparently depicts important moments in Montréal’s history, and a quote from Paul de Chomedey himself saying “I am determined to go even if every tree on the island into an Iroquois.” Amazing what you can learn while standing near a tour guide!!

Views of the Monument Maisonneuver

The square is also surrounded by some lovely old buildings including the Bank of Montréal (Canada’s first permanent bank), the New York Life Insurance Building (Montréal’s first skyscraper) and the Alfred Building (which apparently emulated the Empire State building... I’ll have to compare it when I get there!)

L to R: The Bank of Montréal, NY Life Insurance Building and the Alfred Building

However, the most impressive buildings (well if you ask me) lie towards the South of the square. First there is the Vieux Séminaire de St-Sulpice which is a seminary originally constructed for the Sulpicians (a Catholic Order), and next to that is the amazing Basilique Notre-Dame.

Outside views of the Vieux Séminaire de St-Sulpice and the Basilique Notre-Dame.

While the exterior itself is impressive enough, the real reason this cathedral is one of Montréal’s most famous tourist attractions would have to be its interior. From memory I believe it cost about $5 dollars to enter but it was definitely worth it. Unfortunately none of my photos really do it any true justice – so you’ll just have to take my word for it... (c’mon surely I’m trust worthy enough!!) I arrived about 5 minutes before the guided tour so I had a quick squiz around before the tour started. The tour (which came at no extra cost) went for about 20-25 minutes and was worth it just to learn more about the history of the cathedral (and Montréal itself).

Views of the main cathedral, one of the stain glass windows, and the private chapel

After leaving Notre-Dame I headed down Rue St-Jacques, a street that was considered to be the Wall St of Canada... in the 1930s!! However there are still some fantastic relics of those great heydays to be seen as you walk along – many of these old building have some great roman columns, statutes of lions/mermaids, and mischievous gargoyles adorning their exteriors.

Lion heads on Guardian Insurance Building, A loot holding gargoyle on the Lewis Building, and the former home of European Gold Reserves and the British Crown Jewel (in WWII) the Sun Life Annex & Old Sun Life Building.

From there I headed down to the Place Royale – this square marks the spot where the first fort, Ville Marie, was erected back in the 17th century. It currently houses the Old Customs House which was built in 1838 and was originally called Vieille Douane. It is now currently a Museum giftshop and connect underground to the Musée d’Archéologie Pointe-á-Calliére, which is a History & Archeology museum. It has a look-out which was the first place I headed to. From here I had a good look at parts of the Old Port area and could see all the way to the Biosphere in Parc Jean-Drapeau, as well as the fascinating, yet kinda ugly, Habitat 67 – a futuristic apartment complex built for the World Expo in 1967.

The Old Customs House & Habitat 67

From there I headed down and saw a multimedia presentation on the history of Montreal from the 1600s to now, which was very interesting however I did hear an American tourist ask the guide about the presentation ‘missing’ a few things, from which I gathered were about the separatist movement... however I’m not 100% sure as I wasn’t really listening. From then I headed down in to the crypt – I actually though this museum was kinda cool as the main exhibition was pretty much an archaeological site showing some of the original remains of the city. They also had a temporary exhibit on New France – or French history in North America – which was also quite interesting as well.

View of a cemetery from the 1600s, and a sewer from the 1800s

After lunch I headed down to the port area where I had lunch in a food court there. This was probably only the second time I’ve really had a language problem as the owners didn’t really seem to know any English, however I managed to use what little French I know to order lunch and pay for it effectively. Beside from this my biggest problem has been that people assume when you answer their ‘Bonjour’ with a ‘Bonjour’ of your own, they naturally assume you’re a French speaker and launch a stream of French at you. Normally the blank look I give them clues them in that I have NO IDEA what they are say... is normally followed up by “Oh – you speak English?” It actually quite interesting listening to them switch back and forth as they speak English with a Canadian accent (obviously!), which you know is a quite close to American and I guess... kinda has a hard quality to it... before switching back to French which seems very light and dainty... it’s almost like two different people are speaking!!

After lunch I headed to the Centre des Sciences de Montréal which has a few interesting exhibits. Highlight was probably the Mindball game where you put on this headband which reads your alpha and theta brain waves... the more you relax, the lower they go, and the more you can move the ball to the other end. I took on one of the guides... who I think let me win!! They also have this MASSIVE interactive video game... however I managed to miss the last English session which meant I didn’t get a chance to have a go L Maybe some other day!

My face imprint and the entrance to Centres des Science de Montréal

After lunch I headed toward the Place Jean-Cartier mainly because I heard there was a statute of Nelson at the top end! Of course this statue is slightly controversial among French Quebecers and there has been numerous attempts to remove the statue (the latest being in 1998) however it currently still stands. Further north there is now another statue, this time of Jean Vauquelin (an obscure French general) to help even the balance!!

Nelson a top his column, Sitting by the fountain in front of the Hotel de Ville (Montréal’s City Hall), and Jean Vauquelin

From here I went and saw the three courthouses and then had a wonder around Château Ramezay which was built for the governor of Montréal in the 18^th century. He apparently ended up broke just trying to maintain it!! While it is currently a museum, I didn’t venture inside – just had a wonder around the ground which apparently is a recreation of an 18^th century horticultural garden. From there I wander down the cobblestone roads of Old Montréal before ending up at the Chapelle Notre-Dame-De Bonsecours, otherwise known as the Sailor’s Church.

The gardens at Château Ramezay, Streets of Ole Montréal, The Old Marketplace, The Sailor’s Church

The interior of the Sailor’s Church, while not as amazing of Basilique Notre-Dame, was still very intricate and impressive. The church also had a museum attached about St Mareguerite Bourgeoys, Montréal’s first teacher and the founder of the Congregation of Notre-Dame nuns. It also had a nice lookout over the Old Port and a crypt showing the foundations of the original church. From here I decided to rest my tired feet in Parc du Bassin-Bonsecours near the lake before heading back to Place Jean-Cartier to have dinner in one of the many restaurants that border the plaza. Being a lil adventurous I decided to have the Monk fish in Madagascar Pepper sauce which was delicious... I even remembered to tip!!

Altar of the Sailor’s Church, Looking out onto Rue de la Commune Est from the look out, the view from Parc du Bassin-Bonsecours.

After dinner I headed back via the Metro to Papineau station as I knew it was near a supermarket and I needed to pick up a few various things. While I was here I decided to wonder down Rue St Catherine as I knew I was currently in The Village. The Village is the home to one of the most exuberant gay communities in the world, however I must admit I was kinda disappointed. Maybe it was cause it was a Wednesday night, or maybe it was because I didn’t really enter into the various bars and clubs I didn’t really find it that exciting. I do think that I saw more gay flags one two building than I think I’ve seen anywhere in Sydney & there were also lots of billboards of half naked men offering massages!! There was also a full length one with a hand barely covering everything offering me a 3 for 2... of what I’m not exactly sure... as well... I don’t read French. As I had nowhere else to be I decided to walk all the way down Rue St Catherine to my hostel on Rue Mackay, which is actually a pretty decent walk. It took me through various parts of the city, including UQAM, McGill and the Place-des-Arts.

Flags, Flags, Flags!! and a view of the Place-des-Arts

I must of one stage walked through the more seedier part of town, as for a few blocks there seemed to be an increased amount of clubs offering XXX videos and ‘danse contact’ or (in English) lap dances. There also seemed to be quite a few panhandlers around, while I couldn’t understand what they were saying, I think some things don’t require a language to be understood.

However before long I reached the central downtown shopping area and before long came back to my hostel. I arrived back around bout 10:30... happy but exhausted and ready to do it all again tomorrow!

Montreal Day One - A Very Long September the 9th

2008-09-10T20:02:00.000-07:00

So it was an early start for me to get up and get ready in time for my 6am pickup by the airport transfer company. While I thought I would have plenty of time to get up, shower, breakfasted and dressed... it ended with me attempting to do my hair, put on my shoes and get out the door at the same time!!

Trip to the airport was relatively uneventful and we ended up at the airport with plenty of time to spare. In fact I think I was about 4^th cab off the rank when the check in booths finally opened at 7:15ish. Bags checked in I spent the next 3 hours having a coffee, reading a book and doing a bit of window shopping.

Boarded the plane around about 9.20 – originally started out being in one of the side aisle seats next to a couple from new Zealand – however the flight was nowhere near booked out I got moved across to the middle to give everyone a lil bit more room for the 15 hour flight that lay ahead. There was actually another guy on the other side of the bank of seats, however he disappeared after to take off – never to return – and I therefore had the whole three seats to myself! Spent most of the flight watching TV/Movies – I saw Bones, CSI, House, Iron Man, Chronicles of Narina: Prince Caspian, and about 7/8^th of Son of Rambow. I also attempted to sleep by lifting up all the arm rests - but I swear everything I tried we hit turbulence like 5 – 10 minutes later and that was the end of that... or they started to turn the lights on!! However, all in all it wasn’t as bad of a trip as I originally though!

Arrived to Vancouver at approx 7am on the 9^th of September Vancouver time (~ 12am 10^th of Sept in Sydney). For some reason I thought we had actually arrived at 8am... which had me very panicked as this was the boarding time for my next flight. After almost sprinting to the baggage carousel I realised what time it actually was a felt pretty stupid... I also felt like I desperately needed a shower! And in fact my first Canadian purchase was some moisturiser and deodorant!! Managed to get through customs and immigration with no problem before heading off to catch my domestic connection to Montreal.

Walked onto the plane to discover that someone else was sitting in my seat!! Turns out the man from 19A has sat in 20A, so the lady in 20A had sat in 20C... my seat – once worked out a quick exchange was made and there was nothing else to worry about.

The flight was pretty uneventful... spent most of it with my eyes closed... not sleeping (unfortunately) but just resting. Though we did have some great scenery – at one stage there was the carpet of clouds that seemed to stop at the snow capped mountain ranged. While another time we passed overhead miles and miles of flat/farmed land. I kinda wish know I took some photos but I was too tired to be bothered at the time.

We actually arrived into Montreal a lil earlier than expected – around about 4pm on the 9^th local time (~6am on the 10^th in Sydney). At Montreal airport I decided to save money by taking the L’Aéorbus shuttle, which unfortunately ended up dropping me off quite a distance from the hostel I am staying back... so I still ended up having to take a taxi to my hostel!! Though in saying that, it still cost me less than it would of it if I had just taken a taxi from the airport.

Had a few problems in the taxi as he seemed only to speak minimal English... or maybe it was just that I couldn’t hear him over the deafening African music he had blasting out of his stero... but it ended up okay as I got to where I was headed.

Exterior of the Hostel

Booked in around about 6pm absolutely bushed!! The hostel offers a bar tour on Tuesday nights however I decided to skip that for sleep instead. Went down to the bistro in the hostel and had some Quesadillas for dinner – they were pretty good actually (esp. for the price) and came with bean and normal salad. After that retired to my room and tried to stay awake for a few more hours... got till about 9pm (11am on 10^th Sydney time) and then caved in and went to sleep!!

Views of my room

A crisis of faith

2008-08-07T16:59:00.000-07:00

So I was in a pretty stroppy mood wednesday evening.

I have always wanted to be a medical doctor. Anyone who has known me for any length of time knows of my drive and determination to become a medical doctor one of these days.

At the end of honours year in 2006 I ended up being in a very privledged position - I had two choices for my immediate future. Firstly, my lifelong dream, acceptance into a postgraduate medical progam, albeit in another state, and secondly, a guaranteed PhD scholarship in the lab I was currently working.

While it was difficult decision, ultimately is was very easy - I had throughly enjoyed my year in research and was something I think would of come back. I loved my current working environment. The opportunity to stay in my home state with all my family and my friend, to do something I enjoy (and getting paid for it) was too good an opportunity to miss.

Writing my rejection letter to my medicine offer was hard, but it was not like I was giving up on my dream - just postponing it. I was still young, it was only another 3-4 years, and if I was a good candidate then, well, I was only going to be a better candidate in 3 years time. A lil older, a bit more mature.

However, on Wednesday evening, as I sat at my desk desperately trying to write my review, lamenting the fact that my Western was still not at the quality I required, freaking out about my posters for my upcomming conferences - all I could think was WHY?? Why was I here?

I could of been in my second year of med school. Half way. Instead I was here, at the desk, with all these worries, and no real solution in sight.

Of course I was being totally irrational!

Everything is actually going relatively well, esp. considering my general laziness. I've even managed to get some work done on my review... okay... not alot but a bit and it's helping me get into the swing of things! Plus I get to make pretty pictures and call it 'work'.

And I have GRAND PLANS for the next few years... (though I guess I should state that I always have some sort of grand plan... that doesn't always work out!).

My current plan to sit the GAMSAT next year, apply for Sydney schools, hopefully get in and then defer for a year. The next year I shall be finishing off my dreaded thesis and then off to Europe for a last HURRAH holiday before coming back and settling back into study mode.

AND I'm off to Melbourne, Canada and New York in the next month!!

There's no way I would of done any of that if I'd been in med school now.

Plus I'd be living in Adelaide...

Ew.

(Ps. If, by chance, there is an Adelaidian reading this... I don't really think Adelaide is Ew... it's quite nice actually... just kinda quiet... really quiet actuall.)

Does anyone else smell burning?

2008-08-04T21:46:00.000-07:00

Hmmm it's been a little while since I last posted hasn't it!! Mainly because the microscope was fixed just before I went off to MIF and therefore it was hell for leather for the next few weeks as I attempted to do all the work I haven't been able to previously. On top of this I was still trying to do all my westerns and write that darn review (hated HATED review!).

But as we know... this microscope - it is cursed, as the lightbox blew again last Thursday! Luckily it's nothing serious and should be back in action sometime this week we hope (and pray).

Last two days have been relatively long and unproductive especially in the review stakes. I have written the first draft and now have to correct and add in a few additional sections but UGH, I just don't have the ENERGY. I think I've hit that mid-year wall and I know I'm not the only one. Luckily for me I have some conferences (aka holidays) so hopefully I can come back nice and refreshed and ready for the rest of the year... unfortunately for me my review is due before that. The big boss, AC, is actually away for this week to review grants, so I need to have that second draft ready for the beginning of next week... so far I've written two additional paragraphs... So I need to pull my socks up and start writing and editing... which is totally why I'm writing this entry instead :)

Yesterday I almost burnt the lab down.... okay... this is a slight exaggeration but I did burn foam and melt plastic (and just to clarify so I don't come across as some crazy pyro, it was by accident!). I needed to quickly boil some enzyme to deactivate it* so I set up the tripod and beaker and turned on the bunsen burner. The bunsen burner that I used is CRAZY!! (Actually I originally thought it was the gas tap that was crazy - but after a lil experimentation this afternoon we have determined it is the bunsen burner!) Why is it crazy? It's got an amazingly strong flame with is seriously like a metre in height!! Like no joke - it's freaking dangerous!

Look at it there - all high and mighty... it's bloody taller than the selves.. and this is on the low nice flame instead of the 'instant 3rd degree burns' bright blue setting!! However it was the bright blue setting that I put under my beaker, with my lovely lil floatie** holding my eppendorf tube which was closed by a lovely bright pink plastic tube holder. I normally boil my enzymes for about 10 minutes, mainly cause it seems like long enough for all the damage to be done to my protein. However around bout 3 minutes in, a curious smell is starting to reach my nostrils... I wasn't certain what it was but it did smell a lil like burning... something somewhere is burning...

Uh Oh.

I approach my beaker and notice the lovely green floatie is very quickly going a lovely shade of black and my beautiful pink tube holder is melting... MELTING!! At this point I turned the gas down...

And here it is... my burnt and melted monstrosity. (Please note... it did not look this originally!)

The worse thing is - when the lid closer decided to go all gooey on me it manage to leaver the lid open meaning a whole bunch (well a few microlitres*** actually) which means it's useless and I have to throw it away... farewell $115.00 dollars... I shall miss you.

On top of this I totally almost killed someone the other day coming out of the cold room. First off I would like to state that this WAS NOT completely my fault.

The cold room has a big heavy door on it - obviously to keep the place close - and you really need to give it some heave-ho to get it moving... even if you are as muscley as myself... *cough*. However, the micro labs have put two freezer right outside the door. I went in and close the door firmly behind me as I put some stuff away. As I went to leave I opened the door with a bit of force RIGHT INTO the honours student standing there grabbing stuff from the freezer... she was not permanently injured and I was appropriately apologetic... however now when she sees me she has a tendency to make a door joke... awkward...

* BCHM101 - Enzymes (well all proteins actually) need to be 'folded' in the correct shape for them to be activate and carry out their function. High temperatures cause proteins to denature (which is just a fancy way to say unfold), which is why boiling an enzyme deactivates it.

** Floatie - a highly technical term for pieces of foam with holes in them which allow you to float your precious eppendorf tubes in water without the lids getting wet.

*** One millionth of a litre, or one thousandth of a millilitre.

Black on Blue

2008-07-08T21:53:00.000-07:00

Just had to ring my dear old Dad on the look out for some western blotting film which I (in)conveniently left in my scanner at home...

Dad: "What would you like me to do with it?"
Me: "Keep it! It's a good result."
Dad: "Just looks like blue film with black smudges to me."
Me: "Yeah well it means more than it seems."

:)

“If I'd known how much packing I'd have to do, I'd have run again.”

2008-07-08T17:56:00.000-07:00

I hate packing.

Even when I'm just packing for a weekend away I always end up feeling uneasy... just a lil queasiness in the tummy.... and it's always telling me that I've forgotten something. Even when I've been through my mental check list a hundred times

Undies ................. check
PJs ....................... check
Clothes ................ check
Toothbrush ......... check

I still think there is something, something important, that I'm missing! I don't know why. However once I'm at my destination the feeling passes and I go on living my life in happy blissfulness.

I had to repack for MIF last night. I had all my stuff in a relatively large (& heavy) sports bag however had then discovered we may be staying in shared dormitories(!!) where I would need to lock up my bag and also that I apparently wasn't going to be able to park on site... which means I'd need to lug my bags from the car to the school. So I pulled out Mum's suitcase... it's lockable and has wheels!! It's also the smallest suitcase in the house... though it was actually a lot bigger than I remember. I look like I've packed for a few weeks instead of a few days! I still feel like I've forgotten something (not sure what!) but I also feel like I've overpacked as well... there is no winning with my brain.

Last night I also received acceptance for my ANZBMS abstract. However... this paragraph:

"Your work has been highly valued by this stringent peer review system. Since your work is expected to receive a lot of attention at the scientific meeting, the ANZBMS Council asks that you take considerable care with its presentation."

SCARES ME!

I'm hoping that it comes standard with every abstract acceptance! (I'm waiting for Mahvash to get hers!)

"The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds the most discoveries, is not "Eureka!" but 'Hmmm...That's funny...'"

2008-07-07T17:42:00.000-07:00

Slight excitement in the lab a few weeks ago - I've finally managed to get my Western Blots to a standard AC is happy with! *yay!* Even more importantly I have a result which supports our hypothesis... As you can see in the image below the two test bands (circled in green) are between the negative control (red bands) and positive control (blue bands). The 'negative' control shows my mature receptor with full glycosylation, while the 'positive' control shows the deglycosylated receptor... as my test bands are in the middle it seems to indicate there may be partial deglycosylation of the receptor which is affecting it function!

However, like everything is science, it now has to be repeated ad nauseum to prove that this was not just a fluke result!! But fingers crossed!

In other, not so exciting, news the microscope is still out of action. Turns out, what we though was just a dud bulb is actually a faulty power supply - so we now have to wait for a new one to arrive from the US and have it installed.... *sighs* I'm hoping we'll have it up and running before the end of this month.

On top of that - I've now seriously started making some headway with the review AC and I are writing. The plan is complete - so now here comes the fun part... actually writing it! AC thinks I should be able to write ~1 pg a day/ 5-6 pgs a week.... I think he's delusional... but as it does have to be done by the end of the month.... I should probably attempt to keep on schedule...
(wish me luck!)

On top of this I'm taking a mini-holiday this week as I'm off to the Marist International Festival (or MIF) which I'm extremely looking forward to. As it's unlikely I'll be attending WYD, this is as close to the festivities as I'll be getting.. but oh well - it should still be awesome!! :D

Busy... yet not

2008-06-02T18:12:00.000-07:00

So it's been kinda of a weird time in the lab recently - while my microscope is STILL out of commission I have been busy with lots of molecular biology/western blotting stuff. So it hasn't been a total holiday but it has been quieter than normal.

We've been trying very hard to get the Gateway Cloning system up and running but we have run into a few problems - mainly getting our AttB PCR amplifications to work. We've redesigned so of the primers so hopefully that'll work. When I did actually get them to work, VA (our new postdoc) accidentally told me the wrong antibiotic to grow our transformed colonies... so as you can imagine that wasn't very successful! But hopefully once the new primers arrive it'll be onwards and upwards.

Thursday and Friday of last week were pretty hectic as I discovered I had to write an abstract for the ANZBMS conference by Sunday. I spent most of Thursday hurriedly crunching numbers so I could write it up on Friday - however all was in vain as they extended the deadline till next Monday! But at least it's now out of the way. It's currently with AC and I'm sure I'll be receiving my first round of revisions very soon!

The other exciting thing I've been doing is organising my ASBMR conference trip in September. The conference is in Montreal, Canada which is very exciting. I already have my accommodation organised and I'm planning on booking my flights by the end of this week. I discovered that it's going to be cheaper to fly home via New York... which I will definitely be taking advantage of! I've put a reservation on a hotel room in NYC for 3 nights, which is very exciting, hopefully I can
get to visit a lot of famous landmarks while I'm over there. I'm also hoping that I can see a show on Broadway... I really really really want to see Avenue Q - so I may book a ticket in a month or so to go see it while I'm over there.

What's that smell!

2008-05-21T01:03:00.000-07:00

B-mercaptoethanol smells like crap...

Now the lab smells like it... opps...

Phew!

2008-05-19T20:03:00.000-07:00

Came in a little late yesterday morning to find an email from the boss...

"Dear SB,
I have a couple of things I would like to talk about.
Are you available for a meeting at say 12 noon today (Monday) ?
Best Regards,
AC"

My instant thought was... "Oh Crap!! I'm in trouble!"

I then started to think of reasons for my poor work output over the past few weeks... (mainly centered around the broken microscope!)

All in vain though - he just wants me to write a review with him... *sigh* more work!

Hey Mum! Look what I made!!

2008-05-15T22:08:00.000-07:00

Playing around with GIMP today! GIMP is a FREE image manipulation program... and you can get it at http://www.gimp.org/
I decided to learn about selective colourisation through their tutorial section (www.gimp.org/tutorials/... turned out pretty well!

Backposting...

2008-05-15T19:00:00.000-07:00

Please excuse me as I merge journals...

I think I have gone crazy....

2008-05-14T21:32:00.001-07:00

as I have already started my thesis... what the?!

Bloody FRETing Red Tape

2008-05-09T17:35:00.000-07:00

So more microscope related lab woes... As a lab we are hoping to get into some FRET work. What is FRET? Well, FRET stands for Fluorescent Resonance Energy Transfer and refers to an energy transfer mechanism between two chromophores (or molecules that are responsible for colour. In FRET you have a donor chromophore and an acceptor, when they are in close approximation the donor in its excited state is able to transfer energy to the acceptor (as seen in the figure to the left).

The newly emitted light from the acceptor is different from the donor - leading to a change in the fluorescent spectra which we can measure.

We are hoping to use FRET to see conformational changes in our receptor of interest. By inserting CFP and YFP into different sections of the receptor, we are hoping to measure how FRET differs when receptor is bound to it's various ligands. Do certain sections of the protein move closer or further away from each other to allow ligands to bind? Do they move differently for different ligands? Well... hopefully FRET will allow us to work that out... however for us to do FRET in our lab is requires us to buy new filters for our (probably cursed) miscroscope.

Somehow I managed to be put in charge of buying these filters. Mainly because I require them to try a new FRET based method of measuring intracellular calcium for my STC-1 cells (which don't seem to like Fura-2AM all that much).

So I email "The Company" asking whether our microscope was capable of doing this, what new equipment would we need and (most importantly) how much was it all going to cost. The next day one of "The Company's" reps just happened to be in the building, so they came around, we had a chat and he said that I'd get a quote in the next week.

A week went by....

Two weeks went by... at this stage I'm thinking that our rep has forgotten us so I send off an email. Turns out they had been trying to contact us, but by phone as the rep wanted us to talk to the product manager to make sure we were getting the right filters etc. I ring the product manager while he's in the middle of a conference... but eventually we get in touch, talk about what we need and we finally receive our quote... (with a special 'sorry its taken so long' discount)

The quote offers High Efficiency and Standard Filter Sets... AC (the boss) isn't sure which one we need... it also doesn't list excitation filter holders which we require... so after a few phone calls later we have a revised quote and have (finally) decided what we are getting. Yay! I send an email to 'The Company' and we wait....

After hearing nothing after a week I email our rep who tells me they haven't received an order yet. Puzzled I start to ponder... and then realise that maybe I was meant to put the order through downstairs via our store/purchasing department. (Opps! My Bad!)

The entire order equals up to ~$4,900 containing our filter set (~$4,600) and filter holders (~$300). The next day my one of our postdocs RM comes back to me with the order form. Apparently it had gone over the purchasing department threshold and they couldn't put it through!

So I went down and talked to the store guy who explained that it was over the $5,000 threshold.

I'm Sorry... did I hear that wrong... My order was for less than $5,000... Oh what? Once I add 10% GST ... Ah... yes I see...

So Mr Storeman tells me that I eitehr need to go around and find and cheaper quote (impossible as "The Company" is the only supplier) or get them to write a letter on the company letterhead stating that they are the only supplier for Australia... and hopefully the purchasing department will process it all in about a month or so... (ANOTHER MONTH! ARGGHHH!!)

I decided to have a quick chat to the Boss about it... I was secretly hoping that, as he also doubles as Head of School ,he may have the sway to get this order through without having to try and get this letter... He firsts suggest we split up the order into two, which allows the filter holders to be bought however the filter set is still over once GST is added (by $60!). He also chats to Mr Storeman and brings up the fact that we don't actually have to pay GST on equipment... however it doesn't matter. Letter is still required.

Manage to get into contact with our Rep and explain the situation. After much complaining on the stupidity of the purchasing department by both of us, the rep tells me just to further discount the product so that is = $4,999.00 once GST is added!

Change the price and head down to the store... Explain what I'd done to Mr Storeman, who gives me a very uncertain eye and says "I'll see what I can do."

I haven't heard back yet.... *fingers crossed*

An Article of Substance

2008-05-05T21:04:00.000-07:00

With the obligatory "welcome" message out of the way I thought I should probably write a proper journal entry...

At the moment I'm just sort of waiting around the office for our weekly lab meeting to start (in about 2 hours). It's been pretty bludgy for me over the past few week - which is both a good and bad thing. Obviously I would like to be doing more work, however, due to circumstances out of my control (i.e. Our fluorescent microscope being out of order) I've only really been able to do a few other things. I'm seriously hoping for the scope to back and running in the next week or two... so once that happens hopefully it'll be GO GO GO on the experimental front. BUT in all honesty... I'm beginning to think that this microscope is cursed!

First off, our 'waterproof' microscope got liquid all the way through it causing the reflector turret to stop moving automatically. We discovered that it wasn't the turret that was causing the problem... but probably the motherboard. Then the lens off the 63x objective managed to come unglued and could only be replaced by a 40x objective. Then the bulb died on the DG-4 wavelength switcher. When the new bulb was installed, the length of the main connector was changed meaning the light reaching the microscope was more than halved... but we didn't discover that until 3 months of crappy results. Now... it seems as if the bulb of the DG-4 has gone again and since we have no spares we've had to order some in from the US. While this allowed "the company" to take the scope away to fix the turret/motherboard problem... and apparently they manage to break something while transporting it back into the lab. *sighs*

Fingers crossed that this is the last problem we have for a long, long, LONG time.

Hmmm I've just looked out the windows and realised it is looking very dark and gloomy at the moment... not good. Tonight, I am (hopefully) going out for dinner with 'The Girls' (and yes I capitalised that on purpose!), however apparently our booking at the Flying Fajita Sisters is for the outside courtyard and I fear dinner may be cancelled if the weather worsens... which I sincerely hope does not happen as I haven't seen a few of them for a few weeks and I'm really looking forward to a good catch up!

First Post of a New Blog

2008-05-05T11:41:00.000-07:00

So throughout my electronic life I've always been a bit of a haphazard blogger/diary writer. I have a tendency to get really enthusiastic and blog 50 million times a day for about 2 weeks... and then it sort of peters out to 6 months of nothing. But... I'm nothing if not a glutton for punishment... so I've decided to start afresh. Move to a new blogging site - try something new. This blog will be a mish mash of personal stuff, uni stuff and anything else that I find interesting.

So if for some reason you've managed to internet wonder you way over here - enjoy :)

Brennan

Lift Agony

2008-04-14T18:54:00.000-07:00

Lift's are out and stuck on level 2 again.. We seem to be having lots of problems with our lifts lately - in fact we've already had two academics and a few students stuck in lifts just today... I have a feeling it may be a plot to get us to all burn some kilos... It's days like today when I'm glad our lab moved down from level 7 to level 5 :)

Oh Happy Day

2008-02-01T17:01:00.000-08:00

Ahhh I am so happy I could sing, jump, and dance a happy dance!! For the last 3 months of so I've been getting crap crappity crap microscope data.... considering this microscope technique is the main functional analysis I do having crappy data is really depressing because I can't prove ANYTHING without functional analysis.

Functional Analysis = IMPORTANT!!!!

But today... yes today we managed to fix it! AC came into the microscope room with me today and thought the light source seemed rather lack luster and started talking about the light box and whether maybe, just maybe, the globe had gone and no one had noticed.

This jogged my memory as I realised.... well... no that couldn't be the case as we had changed the globe recently... if fact we changed it three months ago. Around the time everything went up shit creek! This made us think at first that the wrong globe had been put in and that the globe just wasn't powerful enough. Quick email to our resident microscope Mr. Fix-it who comes down and has a look at it.

Turns out - when he changed the globe to first time he didn't realise that the main connector from light box to microscope must be a certain length for the maximum amount of light to reach the stage! Ugh!

3 months of useless data... all because some connector was not the right length... am I annoyed? Slightly... but in all honesty I'm more relieved than anything! Finally I'll be able to get some proper results!! YAY!

Also... tested my site direct mutagensis colonies... Actually the first colony I sent away for sequencing ended up only showing parental DNA... :( Luckily RC encouraged me to send off the rest of the colonies for sequencing just in case - and all 5 of them ended up having the mutation I wanted and 4 of them showed extremely strong sequence alignment to the reference sequence! So on to mutation number 2!

New Year, New Post

2008-01-08T17:56:00.000-08:00

It's only the 8th of January BUT I'm already back in the lab (Day 2!) - tidying up my lab book entries from last year (I'm up to the 20/12... so very close!) and setting up some experiments for later on this week. Tomorrow I have our Summer scholarship student coming in to start her 'project'. It's a bit strange actually teaching someone else how to do things in the lab. I'm not entirely certain that I'm a great or even good teacher and half the time I still feel like I have NO idea what I'm doing in the lab... yet now I'm in a position of seniority! It's a scary thought!

Not that I haven't learnt a lot in the past year... I've had some definite highlights including winning an ASBMB Poster Prize @ Combio, having a paper published with my name on it (yay!) and swanning around Queenstown on the pretense of 'conferencing' @ ANZBMS. I've also learnt some hard lessons - backing up computer files is VERY VERY VERY VERY important... & nothing is EVER as simple as it seems!!

Today I've had a pretty frustrating day actually... I seem to be missing some of my data from last year - I'm assuming i must of lost it when my laptop hard drive crash late last year (and me without my backups!), but I'd assume that I'd have some record of it somewhere... BUT apparently NOT! It's extremely disappointing as it was the best quality data I had for my Alanine Threshold data set - so now I'll have to calculate my AUCs with out it.

Though there is some good news - my site directed mutagensis seems to have colonies... I'm testing 6 colonies tomorrow! Fingers crossed that I've got what I need.

It's that time of year again...

2007-09-03T22:19:00.000-07:00

You can tell that the Honours year is almost over... look what just got installed in our lab...

I wish I had one when I was desperately trying to finish my thesis on time!

Peanut Butter DISPROVES Evolution

2007-03-29T19:02:00.000-07:00

Sent round via the Maze Social listing:

Given by a man who is clearly more intelligent than you because he's an
engineer AND an author.

http://www.glumbert.com/media/peanutbutter

*bangs head on table*

The Label is there for a REASON PEOPLE!

2007-03-29T14:43:00.000-07:00

Over recent summer holidays my lab received an inducible expression system kit which I ordered before I went off to enjoy the sunshine. Unfortunately, who ever recieved it stored it in the normal freezer ... which would of been fine if there wasn't a GLYCEROL stock of the host strain required for transformations! So of course, by the time I went to thaw it out they were DEAD, and now I have to order new ones, which have to come in from o/s... so now I have to waste my time waiting for them to come in. Argh! Not Happy Jan!

Mysterious taps...

2007-03-26T16:03:00.000-07:00

So... still finding interesting things around The Maze. Was down in the level 2 toilets this afternoon when I noticed 2 mysterious taps. One in the toilets and one on the other side of the wall...

Why mysterious you ask? Well.. it's cause I'm not really sure what they turn on or off!

This is the first tap I noticed - it's actually in the toilet. It seems to be a cold water tap (has a blue cap) and looks a little like a shower tap... BUT as you can see there is NOTHING above it!! On the other side we have what looks like a hot water tap (has red cap!). Now as you can see from the photo it's up bloody high and again there's NOTHING ABOVE IT!

What are the function of these mysterious taps? We may never know... however this does remind me suspiciously of the DO NOT PRESS button on the centrifuge! Has the maze been turned into one big psychology experiment?!

I shall fight the urge to turn the taps... just in case is floods the entire building or something like that!

Brennan, Serial Cell Killer

2007-03-25T21:31:00.001-07:00

So... its my third practical week into my PhD, and I've hit my first snag (already!). Unfortunately for me, my HEK-CaR cells have decided mysteriously to up and die on me. I'm not sure why... normally when there is a contamination you can work out which one it is by just having a look under the microscope.

Fungal contamination is normally the easiest to see, as in advanced cases it can be seen with the naked eye. They normally look kinda whitish/yellowish and fluffy.

Bacterial contamination is a little harder, but can be seen under a high powered microscope as little black dots that move around the cells. Not a good sign. They also cause a sudden change to the pH of cell growth medium (and therefore the colour!) from redish/pink to yellow

Yeast contamination is also visible under high powered microscopy. Must admit I've never seen yeast contamination myself, however they look like small ovals that bud of from each other.

The hardest contamination to detect is mycoplasma, mainly because it cannot be detected by light microscopy. In fact, we dont even test for this in the lab! Thought it normally has to come from an infected cell source (which we dont have, so I doubt this will affect us!)

Argh! I am trying deperately to save my cells, I'm hoping tomorrow they'll be looking better... But i doubt it. And if they die I'll have to thaw out a new crop!

Darn I hate cell culture!

Water CRISIS!!

2007-03-25T21:31:00.000-07:00

Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got till it's gone...

Water is sometimes called the elixir of life, however for scientists water is the most important reagent in the lab. Most of your reagents are made up in water and alot of your experiments are even carried out in water. Water is our liquid gold.

However, water isn't just water. No! No! No! That stuff that comes out of your tap... well shock horror, it's not pure water and therefore not good enough for our experimental use. In the lab, there are three grades of water.

1. Normal tap water - good to wash your hands in... and maybe wash up some equipment... that's about it
2. RO/de-ionized water - good for growing bacteria and running gels
3. Milli-Q - Pure "2 hydrogens to every oxygen" water

Milli-Q water is very important to me, a lot of my experiments require me to perfuse liquids across the surfaces of cells. These solutions are generally differing concentrations of certain activators in 'physiological saline' which I make up out of Milli-Q water... no Milli-Q water... No EXPERIMENTS!! *baum baum*

Now, the system in the maze turns Sydney Tap Water into Ro water which is then feed into the Milli-Q filtering systems to become Milli-Q water. The cartridges that filter water to Milli-Q standard require the water coming in to be relatively pure or they clog up quite easily... and unfortunately for us, seems that the system filter tap water to RO water wasn't doing its job, therefore our Milli-Q water has been crap as the filters are too clogged up... fun fun fun...

Luckily for us... it has been fixed at least temporarily. The system is so old it need to be replaced entirely... and who know when that'll happen!

Though it does mean I have no more excuses for not doing my work... DARN!

To Press or Not To Press

2007-03-25T21:08:00.000-07:00

Noticed this piece of madness while using the centrifuge the other day..

Now I want to PUSH THE BUTTON! However i also fear the consequences of:
a) breaking a $10,000 piece of equipment OR
b) blowing up the building (you never know it could happen!!)

Maybe it's some kinda of warped psychology experiment... turning the maze occupants into LABRATS... wouldnt put it past em!

Who Knew?

2007-03-25T19:10:00.000-07:00

I just saw this poster up in the maze (aka BCHM building)! It's just your average DO NOT SIGN AN AWA poster....

Or is it.... I noticed down in the IT MAY CAUSE section, someone put an additional terrible consequence of signing an AWA... and you thought that decreased safety standards were bad... !

BUT NO! Signing an AWA may cause CANCER IN PREGNANT RATS!!

SO DONT SIGN AN AWA.. or the RSPCA MAY GET YOU!!