Tuesday 31 August 2010

31 Aug 2010

Day 243:
Trying to be a little arty, I tried desperately to capture the steam rising from my morning cup of tea in the kitchen. The steam was a little harder to capture than I thought it would be...

Monday 30 August 2010

30 Aug 2010

Day 242:
In an effort to try and learn to use the external flash on my camera and in keeping with a chilled out weekend, I practised using the flash while laying on the couch, taking photos of things in my living room. Funny as it may seem, you can learn a great deal about photography this way, just as long as you can remember what settings you had the camera and flash set to for a particular output!

Sunday 29 August 2010

29 Aug 2010

Day 241:
For an unexpected turn of events, I hosted a BBQ at my place. Nicolas, Cristina and Ines came over and hung out for the evening. While outside sitting on the terrace, there was an AMAZING ray of rainbow that appeared through the clouds over Plymouth. None of us had ever seen anything like that before!

Saturday 28 August 2010

28 Aug 2010

Day 240:
Today was the day that I came off of my medication (beta blockers) in preparation for my heart surgery. Not wanting to tempt fate and set my heart off into palpitations, I decided to stay home despite the gorgeous weather. So, taking it easy, I headed out to the terrace and worked on my tan. While out there, I spent a lot of time thinking about my legs and what it would be like to be in my mother's shoes, so to speak, as she had her left leg amputated on the 25th. It was hard not to cry...

Friday 27 August 2010

27 Aug 2010

Day 239:
As a sort of final 'hurrah' for the summer & while most people were still in town (or had just returned), a large group of us went out for some drinks after work over at Air (across the road from uni) upon Sam's insistence. She had every intention of only staying for ONE drink, but 3.5 drinks later she was finally making her way home to pack as she was off to Oxford, Canada and Scotland the following morning at 9am. She was worried about forgetting the essentials so Kate helped her remember by writing a list of items that couldn't forget to pack once home in her drunken state... :-)

Thursday 26 August 2010

26 Aug 2010

Day 238:
Yet again, another funny thing that I saw along the walk in to uni. WHO ON EARTH WOULD EVER WANT TO BUY SUCH AN ATROCIOUS PIECE OF CLOTHING?!?!?  The only reason why I would want to know where she got that jumpsuit is so that I could torch the place to save us all from further fashion faux pas.

Wednesday 25 August 2010

25 Aug 2010

Day 237:
Although taken the day before, this was what the weather was like on this day too. In fact, it could be any number of summer day's in Plymouth. And yes, sometimes I feel like I am imprisoned due to the weather...

Tuesday 24 August 2010

24 Aug 2010

Day 236:
Such a beautiful Plymouth summer's day (view from the Davy Bldg)...

Monday 23 August 2010

23 Aug 2010

Day 235:
In my quest to get as many samples processed as possible before my heart surgery, I had to make up a new batch of super saturated sodium carbonate (Na2CO3). These were the residual crystals left in the beaker.

Saturday 21 August 2010

21 Aug 2010

Day 233:
Well, as I was sitting here working on updating this blog, I was listening to KEXP on my internet radio and practically fell out of my chair when I heard New Model Army on the RADIO, during prime time Saturday no less!!!  The song played was "Understand U". Not their best one, but I'll take it! I was so shocked that I immediately emailed the dj and told him that I had just seen them the night before and that they were on stage right at that moment at Beautiful Days Festival, which he relayed on air! If you fancy a listen in the next 2 weeks, go to KEXP's website (http://www.kexp.org/streamarchive/streamarchive.asp), choose Stevie Zoom as the host, select 21 Aug as the date and you'll find the song at about 1:53pm.  :-)  His comments come later (after the 2nd set of of music following NMA), but he was totally excited that I had emailed him that info!

Might have to start pledging my financial support to KEXP again (seeing that they are my favourite radio station) now that they have FINALLY played some NMA, which I asked them to do years ago to help generate interest in the band while they were touring in the US.

Friday 20 August 2010

20 Aug 2010

Day 232:
I wasn't really in the mood to take photos at the NMA gig in Poole, so didn't take many and the ones that I did all turned out bad for the most part. However, Sean left his camera on the table in the pub and everyone decided to take bizarre, out-of-focus, close-up photos of body parts. This is him looking at the results of their foray into the 'abstract'.

Thursday 19 August 2010

19 Aug 2010

Day 231:
Since I didn't get a worker's ticket for Beautiful Days Festival, I wouldn't be going again, which made me sad to miss out on some pretty good music including the Sunday Morning Sermon with The Fabulous Good Time Party Boys (again!). This year, however, The Fabbies along with a few others (Dan Donnelly, The Fish Brothers, The Big V and Rev Hammer) all did a gig the night before Beautiful Days at the Exeter Phoenix Arts Centre. The Fabbies 'theme' for this year seemed to be ZOMBIES! It was a BRILLIANT night out seeing friends, dancing, laughing, drinking and seeing someone that I hadn't seen in 21 years!

Monday 16 August 2010

16 Aug 2010

Day 228:
I love it when I discover amazingly intricate designs in nature...

Sunday 15 August 2010

15 Aug 2010

Day 227:
The view from Willapark headland, looking south along the north Cornish coastline (just south of Boscastle).

Saturday 14 August 2010

14 Aug 2010


Day 226:
Technically the sunset from New Polzeath on 15 Aug, but too good to pass up on posting.

Thursday 12 August 2010

12 Aug 2010

Day 224:
Despite being absolutely knackered from being out in the field all day again (3rd day in row), I had planned to go out to Dartmoor with Jennie, Kate and Claudia to watch the peak of the Perseid meteor shower. Initially it was forecast to be cloudy, the forecast changed and we were due clear skies. Heading out of town shortly after 10pm, we went up near Wistman's Wood to get away from the small crowds that had gathered at places closer to Plymouth. Lying down on the tarp, drinking hot chocolate while snuggled under a blanket watching the skies was magical. Lots of meteors went streaking across the sky during the 2 hours we were out there... it was so nice to FINALLY see them properly again! Oh... and as for the photo, they just star trails taken over a very, very long exposure (maybe 45 minutes or so...).

Wednesday 11 August 2010

11 Aug 2010

Day 223:
Night two of the British Fireworks Championships. Although I was absolutely exhausted from being out in the field all day followed by a long session in the lab, I headed down to the MBA (Marine Biological Association) on the Hoe to take photos of the fireworks from there. It was the first time since living in Plymouth that I decided to brave the crowds. Fortunately the general public is kept out of the MBA and so it was nice to still have that distance from the masses. Needless to say, the results were pretty impressive!

Tuesday 10 August 2010

10 Aug 2010

Day 222:
The first night of the British Fireworks Championships as watched from my roof terrace. It was very civilised sitting in a chair drinking my hot chocolate with Bailey's and marshmallows!

Saturday 7 August 2010

7 Aug 2010

Day 219:
On the headland just to the south of Dawlish, looking back north. I walked along the sea wall (when possible) between Starcross and Teignmouth as part of my quest to complete the entire SW Coast Path (all 630 miles of it) by next September or so...

Friday 6 August 2010

6 Aug 2010

Day 218:
Technically taken the following day, this is what it was like walking along the South Devon sea wall... trains whizzing right past with only you between them and the sea... It's one of the most stunning train journeys you can take!

Thursday 5 August 2010

5 Aug 2010

Day 217:
Copper statue of George III at the end of The Long Walk, which leads directly to Windsor Castle (about 3 miles away). You can just see Windsor Castle in the distance (lower left).

Wednesday 4 August 2010

4 Aug 2010

Day 216:
After the Talent Show/Revue at the conference, some of us headed into the bar at Cumberland Lodge for an impromptu singing and guitar-playing session.

Tuesday 3 August 2010

3 Aug 2010

Day 215:
Bees busy at work in Savill Gardens in The Great Park, Windsor. This was about a 20 minute walk from Cumberland Lodge.

Monday 2 August 2010

2 Aug 2010

Day 214:
After Sonisphere I headed to Cumberland Lodge for a 4 day conference titled, "The Value of PhD Research". It was great getting to meet 59 other PhD students from across the UK from a WIDE variety of disciplines! BTW, Cumberland Lodge is owned by the Queen and is given to the foundation 'rent-free' for as long as the Queen is alive. It was built around 1640, about the time of the English Civil War and is located on the grounds of The Great Park (part of the Windsor Castle estate).

Sunday 1 August 2010

1 Aug 2010

Day 213:
Rie, Jemma and I sitting right outside the tattoo bus at Sonisphere. Who on earth goes to a festival where no one is clean to get tattooed??? People are strange...