Go Dockers!

It's safe to say that football fever has well and truly hit WA. I mentioned earlier in the blog that the Fremantle Dockers were creeping up further in the league than they ever have before, surprising the country. Tomorrow, they play Hawthorn in the AFL Grand Final in Melbourne and everyone is going crazy for it! I heard today that there will be more Freo fans in the Melbourne stadium (3500 miles away from Fremantle) than Hawks fans. This purple haze has certainly spread to the Experimental and Regenerative Neurosciences office; I was met with this as I walked through the door this morning:

Pure docker dedication from Andy

Hawthorn have made it to the final countless times and even won the entire thing once before, but hopes are high that the Dockers will deliver on the day and, either way, it's an excuse to spend the day in the pub! It's a little bittersweet for me as I'm spending the weekend down in Dunsborough with the McKiernans so won't be able to watch in Freo, but I've been looking forward to this for ages and am sure the atmosphere will still be good. I look forward to receiving drunken messages from friends at work as the day progresses, although as some of them plan on getting to the pub at 10am they may be incapable of dexterity. My favourite part of the build-up has been seeing Eliza get violated by Dockers fans over the past few weeks. I cycle past her twice a day and the memorabilia has become more and more optimistic as the final draws closer...

...Also, I've had purple rain in my head all week. Happy weekend!

(They lost)

Replacing my Broc

With John and Vic visiting their kids in New Zealand until the weekend, Catriona and I have been left to fend for ourselves and so far we've done nothing but work, watch TV and sleep; this was the main reason behind our thinking that we should get out of the apartment this evening. I enjoyed a sunny cycle and made it home in a record time of fifteen minutes (not bad for 5k!), leaving me time to indulge my guilty pleasure of watching The Biggest Loser before my date for the evening arrived home from work in the city.

We left the apartment and took a little stroll along the esplanade to the main street in South Perth, looking out on the city across the river. The sun was just starting to go down and it was, as my Grandma would say, a bleddy 'ansum evening. There are so many nice restaurants in South Perth, but we really fancied Indian, so decided to leave the Thai, Malaysian and Italian for other occasions. With my birthday coming up, I've bookmarked this gorgeous outdoor place called Coco's and hope to invite a few from work, Jess, Sian and of course my hosts; not the big 2-1 I'd be having back in Bath, but it'll be nice to do something.

The restaurant was very little and garishly decorated, but it got very busy soon after we sat down and the food was gorgeous! I had lamb Rogan Josh, Catriona had a Malaysian fish curry and we shared Keema Naan and poppadoms. While our mouths weren't full of food, we chatted about our respective homes and families, as well as what I plan on doing with my future (no bloody idea...). She's had such an awesome life; I'm so jealous of all the exotic places she's lived! With full tummies, we headed home with hopes of a cup of tea and a Joe Strummer documentary scheduled we'd seen advertised. Doing you proud and broadening my punk rock knowledge Dad! I've got a doggy bag of leftover curry for lunch tomorrow and we've got the planning of a Melbourne Cup staff party to plan. Living the dream.

I'm kidding by the way; Chlo, you have definitely not been replaced as my 24-hours a day companion and never will be. I only thought this an appropriate title for the post because I instantly recognised the expression on the waitress' face as we sat down: it screamed "are they girlfriend and girlfriend or just two sad saps without boyfriends to go out with?" For anyone who doesn't know, this is a look we are frequently met with on our "spinsters" excursions and I struggled to stifle my giggles at the memory, but thought it better not to elaborate about its roots to Catriona.

We are not amused

Just a short post to express my distaste at having to go into work on a Sunday. Unfortunately, cells that need treating don't take into account the working week. One the bright side, I didn't have to cycle over because Vic wanted to hit the fish market, which is right by campus. Salmon for dinner and a free lift, whey! It was also a slight case of counting myself lucky, as I got in at 2pm for a half hour treatment and Alexia had already been there for five hours; I made a mental note never to do a masters. It must be said though, doing this over and over for thirty minutes is not ideal:

Exposed ankles in the lab... tut tut, but the rules are void on the weekend right?

We were going to walk around nearby Kings Park (the largest inner city park on the planet) and have a look at the spring wildflowers, but it started pouring with rain so we just drove through and went home; there's a recurring theme here, if it could stop raining soon so I could spend time outside that'd be great.

Friday night lights

The weekend is finally here and we started it as we mean to go on!

After a painfully dull Friday of installing stats software and studying some images that weren't producing any results, I headed home happy to have a few days off. Jess picked me up and we headed to her place (my place too as of December!) where I met Sian, Jess' lovely best friend and the girl whose room I'll be moving into when she finishes uni to go travelling. As I fully expected with Jess, their house is adorable and filled with so many gorgeous bits and bobs; I love it with Vickie and John but I'm really looking forward to moving in.

We got the train from Cottesloe to Freo and made the trek out of the centre of town to our first destination: Fremantle Arts Centre. Jess studies fine art at Curtin University and the arts centre holds an annual art exhibition of local artists' prints, the winner getting a whopping $15,000. I've not been to an awful lot of stuff like this in my time, but lots of the work was really pretty and clever and it attracted a huge range of people, with families as well as artsy types attending. I suspect that the reason for the huge cohort of people had something to do with the fact that the event was sponsored by Little Creatures Brewery, the place we ate at a couple of weeks back. Wandering around the gallery accompanied by a couple of free beers was heaven after a long week! The centre has really lovely grounds and it was a warm night, so we took a pew under a tree and soaked up the atmosphere of a live band, fairy lights and the smell of wood fired pizza. There were also loads of cool gifts in the little shop, so I'm going to have to make a return trip before I leave!

Jess McK exploring the exhibition

"One's for my friend?"

Semi-sober, we walked back into town for some grub. Clancy's is a chain of fish pubs (there's also one in Jess' hometown of Dunsborough) and their food is blooming delicious. The three of us shared calamari, chips and scrummy paella with mussels and king prawns, all washed down with a pint of Monteith's sweet cider; probably the nicest cider I've ever had. A far cry from Strongbow and black in the SU! It's a funky little place decorated with fish tanks and a live band started their set just after we finished eating; it was a great atmosphere for knocking back a few more bevs!

Nearby, the Norfolk Hotel was next on the list. It has an outdoor terrace and we snuggled up by a heater in deck chairs with our next tipple. Since coming here, I've not had much chance for girly chats and it was actually nice to hear about boy problems and bitchy girls; it felt just like I was doing a shift at the café or back at Bath! The place was really lively and Friday night celebrations were in full swing when we left to get the train back. Despite being up for a few drinks to bring in the weekend, we were all still knackered from a week at uni and work and needed our beds! The girls set me up a little bed in the living room and I slept like a baby.

This morning, with slightly woolly heads, we had breakfast and a cuppa before heading off to Cottesloe for a walk along the coastline. Granted it was a beautiful day, but the sheer number of people out walking at that time of the morning in comparison to the UK still amazes me. It was like walking down a packed street; more precisely, a street packed with girls wearing their best fancy gym gear as if the path was a catwalk. I bet we looked fab in comparison with our hangovers and baggy t shirts! We probably only covered a couple of miles, but it blew the cobwebs away and served as a wreckie for future runs (yeah, right). In addition to that, we managed to oggle a huge number of hot surfers in the process. Double win!

Sian headed home, leaving me and Jess to grab a coffee at Il Lido, this gorgeous Italian restaurant on the seafront. I only had a grapefruit juice, but their breakfast menu was very tempting; it's on the list of places to try when I move in! A short walk over the hill and we were back at the train station, where Jess left her car last night. She dropped me home on her way to uni to finish up some work and my hungover mood was significantly improved when I walked through the door to find Vickie and Catrina huddled up on the sofa in their dressing gowns feeling the aftermath of their dinner party with friends from Cairo last night. John flew to New Zealand this morning a few days ahead of Vickie joining him on Monday, so Catrina and I will be left to fend for ourselves when they celebrate their daughter's 21st over there. I'm very jealous, especially considering that her party is Harry Potter themed! My agenda for the day mainly consists of watching films in the home cinema and eating junk food before catching up with both my parents and the Burnards (my second family) on Skype this evening. Happy days!

Lab rat

Never in a million years did I envisage myself enjoying 9-5 in the lab. So far, I'm loving every second of it!

Take today as an example. I got in at 9 and spent the morning taking pictures of retinal cells (my baby as of yesterday) on an inverted microscope, something I've never used before. Turns out it's not operated upside down, but it has lots of pretty coloured lights and twirly buttons, so I was happy. It took a good two hours to do all the imaging and it was lovely to immerse myself in a new skill. It has to be operated in a dark room though and, after not sleeping very well last night, I may have nodded off a couple of times! I followed that through with some analysis on the computer (see attached pretty pictures), which I'll do in my spare time when I'm not occupied with cell culture, before being called into surgery to help Lindy and Carole, who were "harvesting" last week's work. That was another pretty gory job; keyhole surgery on the rat's heads to hoik out their optic nerves. My part in this procedure mainly involved donning a very fetching (and highly scientific) pair of koala oven gloves and dashing to and from the freezer with samples. I nabbed a quick lunch of leftover shepherd's pie, then it was back to it, this time to the cell culture hood. Sterile technique is something I've always been terrible at upholding, with my uni group's work always getting contaminated by this and that, ruining our results in the process. Lindy watched me do it this time, so fingers crossed I've got through unscathed. It involved making tiny cuts in slices of spinal cord with a scalpel; I felt like a right surgeon, despite the tissues being chopped up and suspended in medium rather than actually in the rat's backbone. The only shitty job of the day was sitting by the light source, which has decided to switch itself off every ninety seconds. When you need a thirty minute exposure, that's an awful lot of button pushing undertaken far too late in the day for patience.

Just the 96 wells to align, focus and photograph. Twice.

Mixed retinal cells before and after analysis... pretty!

 Although I'm in my element learning the ropes and running errands for everyone, I'm not sure I'm cut out for an eventual career in research. I'm in awe of Lindy, who always seems to have a million things on the go at once. She must be running three or four investigations simultaneously which, when you think that each of those relies on each member of staff fitting what she needs of them into their schedule, is no mean feat. I'm constantly worrying that I'll forget to do something and completely botch her next paper. No major disasters so far, but there's plenty of time for that as I have a lot more responsibility over the rest of the week. I even have to come in on Sunday to do a couple of treatments. I did not sign up for this!

The difference between things here and your average university practical, which I have absolutely detested from day one, is so far unclear. Maybe it's the fact that I have to opportunity to explore one area in detail instead of reading up on something I've never heard of the night before, doing it for a few hours, then having to write a whole report on it. That's a very good point: No lab reports this year. In fact, no formal assessments full stop, which is just fantastic as far as I'm concerned. One little report and a poster on my findings to be handed in when I get back to Bath next September and I'm done. That'll be left until the end of the summer holidays then... My environment may have changed, but my work ethic certainly hasn't!

Il pleut

I can't believe that I'm sitting here writing memoirs of this time yesterday and our sunny afternoon by the sea, when today's weather is a whole different kettle of fish. The rain started pouring down just after lunch which, after a promising morning of warm welcomes and homemade cakes at morning tea, really rained on my parade. Excuse the expression. With home time looming, I busied myself with a couple of experiments (I now have lots to do after a very successful briefing with Lindy - yay!) and tried to delay starting the journey home. I decided to take the plunge (sorry again) after aimlessly staring at the showers for half an hour and figuring it wasn't going to stop any time soon, but instantly regretted it the second I set off.

It's difficult to put into words just how crap cycling home was. Imagine endless puddles on the cycle path, each one of which is spraying both in your face and up your back as you try to find a speed between getting home as quickly as possible and getting soaked with spray. The only times I wasn't cycling through a puddle, I was cycling over the bumps in the track where tree roots have broken the tarmac, so that was a sore arse added to my already dampened spirits. Add to this the deluge of dirty water that every vehicle bigger than a Fiat 500 launched my way from the road and I felt like I'd had a shower within 5 minutes of leaving the office, with the hurricane that hit me as soon as I scaled the hill up onto the freeway bridge still to negotiate. I reckon it's pretty rare for water to be pouring down, splashing up and whipping you in the face at the same time, but it happened. By the time I reached the electric gates of 1 Queen Street (which felt like the pearly gates of heaven after the trauma I'd just endured), my top was wet through my "waterproof" coat and I was shivering from head to toe. I unlocked the door, staggered through the hallway into the kitchen and Vic took one look at my face before dashing off to the bathroom to run me a hot bath. Where would I be without my new Mum?! She probably only did this to conceal her laughter at my pathetic appearance, but I didn't mind.

After a soak in the bath and some hearty shepherd's pie, I'm just about feeling human again as we sit down to watch last night's X Factor with a cup of tea and some hazelnut dark chocolate. My main worry is that every piece of clothing I wore today, plus my bag and shoes, is hanging up under the air-con unit (there is not one radiator in this house - WHAT) with little hope of drying by morning. To add insult to injury, the forecast is pretty much the same for the rest of the week and I have tomorrow morning's cycle getting irritatingly close already.

So much for the great outdoors, I should have bought a car.

Wet clothes update: I foolishly stuck the neck of my hairdryer into my still sodden Converse the next morning to dry them out, a move I won't be repeating any time soon. Fail number 1: The hairdryer overheated and switched itself off. Fail number 2: I felt around inside said Converse to check their water content without thinking that the metal shoelace holes might have conducted some of the heat from the hairdryer, branding myself with a perfectly circular burn on my knuckle.

Hillarys

I'd only been back from the zoo for half an hour when the others asked if I'd like to go to Hillarys Harbour with them for the afternoon. At about 35km away, it's the furthest I've travelled from home so far, and it was great to see some of the landscape a little further afield. Rather than taking the freeway, John drove up the coast road so that Catrina (also used to seeing the sea, being from Scotland) and I could get our beach fix. It turned out to be a sunny but very blustery day, so the waves were massive; a load of surfers were getting absolutely pummelled in the white water, which reminded me of winter walks on Trebarwith (boohoo). We passed City Beach, a really wealthy area full of crazy huge houses. A girl can dream I guess! Twenty minutes north surrounded by plenty of interesting sights to look at and we arrived at the harbour.

What a gorgeous place! The harbour is flanked by a modern promenade encasing a whole shopping centre; there's even a little beach right in the middle of the harbour, which was a little bizarre, but Vic was saying it's always really busy because it's the only place people can bring their kids without the risk of shark attacks. I say let 'em get eaten, but each to their own I guess. We took a stroll along all the rows of boats that people keep moored up there, and it's safe to say there must be some pretty rich people in WA! A couple were for sale for $2m or more, so I ordered one in every colour. Not. John bolted as soon as we came within snooping distance of the shops, so the three of us were left to wander around to our hearts content when he cycled home. It was a mix of surf, jewellery and gift shops; all very tempting, but so far I've resisted splashing the cash as the more I buy, the more of my old stuff I can't bring home. However, there is so much nice stuff here that I'm probably going to have to check-in an extra case just for souvenirs for everyone!

All that browsing was tiring us out, so we stopped by the gelato for a compulsory sweet treat. I had a Baileys ice cream, which was pretty incredible and much more boozy than I expected, which was a bonus. My trip so far seems to revolve entirely around food! We drove home and I spent the afternoon in Sunday bliss, sprawled on the sofa in an ice cream coma immersed in my current read, Tess Of The D'Urbervilles.

You're never too far from a reminder that home is pretty far away...

Perth Zoo

Yay, I finally managed to squeeze in a trip to the zoo! I've been meaning to go since I arrived in Australia and today provided a surprisingly sunny day to see everything without getting rained on. The zoo is really close to the apartment, so I enjoyed a nice lie-in and slap up breakfast with the surrogate family before making my way over. I'm going to stick with my excuse that a whopping fry up was necessary for all the exploring and meeting new furry friends I had planned. Feeling the sun on my skin as I left home was amazing after a whole week of gloomy skies, rain and gale-force winds! The zoo is situated right in the middle of a really built-up part of South Perth; it felt bizarre walking through an entrance flanked by skyscrapers and shopping malls.

I paid at the gate, grabbed a map and set about wandering around the enclosures. I probably looked like a lonely old spinster walking around by myself, and the others offered to come with me another day, but I loved the fact that I could take my time seeing everything I wanted to at my own pace. Moreover, considering I've been going through the whole introductory thing with everyone at work at trying to appear interesting at home, I was excited to not have to be sociable for a few hours!

It must be said: children are rubbish aren't they. I would quite like the zoo to put on a special day when they're not allowed in. I only say this because, as an avid animal fan, you couldn't get a good look at one enclosure without some screaming brat scaring away every living thing in the vicinity. There is also considerable evidence to suggest that doing things together on the weekend causes parents and their kids to despise each other, so they should probably just leave them at home and let the rest of us get on with things in peace. Hosking, you will appreciate this: I could have done with a supply of toddler traps to keep them at bay!

Animals are such a source of amusement for me. I'm going to be predictable and say that my favourite was probably the koala. He was so cute chilling out in his tree, which didn't look nearly strong enough to hold up his chubby body. Others I enjoyed were the wombat who I caught wiggling up against a rock to scratch his bum, the massive orangutan playing with a watering can and a white-cheeked gibbon on speed who was going absolutely nuts in his cage (see video). Those gibbons with the sore-looking red butts are always a crowd pleaser too.

I had a very pleasing vegetable frittata and salad for lunch, before having one last look at the wombats, a mong around the gift shop (filled with the usual array of naff ornaments and monkey puppets) and eventually heading home for a spontaneous afternoon meander round the marine. Woohoo for the zoo!

I live in a horror film

You know the saying: "The early bird... gets killed by the axe-wielding maniac."

Today has been terrifying. After two weeks at work, I'm learning that Friday is the day where people who have no work to do don't bother coming in, and people that do come in late. So there I was, on campus at 7:15 after a nice, refreshing cycle in the cool morning air. I scanned my card to get in the front door (as normal) and walked up the stairs to our floor... to find the whole place completely deserted and in total darkness.

It may well be that no one else shares my insane opinions, but being in school after hours always used to freak me out and this dread has continued into my university years and followed me to Australia. I don't know what it is, maybe I've seen too many gory films that start this way, but there is something deeply unnerving about a long, silent corridor. Add to this the fact that all the rooms leading off of said corridor are filled with (a) plenty of good hiding places and (b) numerous instruments that could potentially be used as murder weapons, and I was not a happy bunny this morning.

It shames me to admit that I moved from my desk to the one at the end of the row so I could sit with my back to the wall with full view of the whole room until someone else arrived. This someone happened to be Carole, a sweet Derbyshire lady who reminds me of my great aunt Helen. To add to my shame, I realised that I was so happy to see her because, should a killer be lurking in the lab somewhere, I was pretty confident that I could outrun her.

Someone help me!

A relatively normal day ensued. Well, I say normal; it was sort of exceptional in that I was let loose in the lab without someone watching me like a hawk for the first time. I only did a bit of antibody staining because Carole had to leave early and Lindy is away on a conference, which isn't taxing by any means, but it was so nice to just get on with it in peace and quiet. There was also the exciting news at lunch that Monday will be our first morning tea. From what I've heard from the guys, morning tea is basically a chance to eat loads of biscuits and slack off in the name of a special occasion, the occasion in this case being our arrival. Eating is pretty much my favourite activity, so that should be fun!

Just when I thought I was safe, I arrived home after a leisurely bike and walked out of the lift to find the apartment door ajar. Uh ohhhh. John mentioned ages ago that it sometimes pops off the latch if you don't slam it, and it must have happened when Vickie went to work this morning. With no one home, I went tiptoeing around the apartment checking for intruders, but the complex is so secure that the only people that could have got in are the other owners. Still, it shook me up and I'm now huddled up on the sofa watching The Biggest Loser and wishing one of the others would come home soon.

Until next time (if I don't get murdered/kidnapped this afternoon) x

A cure for Homesickness

It's safe to say that I'm feeling every one of the 8,998 miles between myself and home today. Whether it was getting drenched cycling both to and from work today in the only two showers of the day or my revulsion at watching animals being murdered all morning, something definitely feels off balance at the moment. Pondering the root of my melancholy, my thoughts soon came to the obvious conclusion. It's a well-known fact that myself, Chloe and Rachel (my two closest girlie friends and uni for anyone who doesn't know) often get a bit soppy while discussing spending all this time apart, and Chlo mentioning it the other day must have got me fretting about just how far apart we are at this moment in time:

The reality of our separation: Chloe in Iowa, Rachy slogging it out at Bath and me down under!

Times together: At Rach's 21st in Exeter this summer, watching the Bath Christmas Lights being turned on and Bath Summer Ball at the end of second year

Determined not to get myself down at the thought of missing my Ultibabes, I focussed on the place I'm lucky enough to live in right now and what an incredible opportunity this is. I'm not one to be sad for too long and soon thought of numerous reasons why this year is special. Number one: Australia is freakin' huge! Take a look at this:

I then thought that, despite being overlooked when people consider Australia and automatically think of its bigger, east coast siblings, Perth ain't so bad either. I did a little bit of research and found out the following:

Perth

Holding the title of sunniest state capital in Australia, it gets an average of 8 hours sun per day. Today was obviously an exception, judging by the mud tracks up my coat/bag/face.

Its population was largely increased when a huge number of British convicts were transported here by boat. The Australian Police Force was founded in 1789 and was comprised of the 12 "best-behaved" convicts. That explains a lot...

Deemed the "City of Light" by astronauts orbiting the Earth in the sixties, it's one of the brightest spots on the planet while viewed from space. Pretty.

The booming mining industry means that Perth has the highest number of self-made millionaires per capita on the planet. That's huge when you consider that it beats Dubai, Monaco, NYC, the lot. It has to be said, however, that I have not been swept off my feet by one of these yet. Poor show.

Former prime minister Bob Hawke held the Guinness World Record for beer chugging. I know that's more of an Australia-wide fact, but I just couldn't overlook it.

...

It might just have been a coping mechanism to distract myself from feeling a bit lonely, but my reflections made me realise that ten months isn't very long at all in the grand scheme of things and, before I know it, I'll be back with friends and family in rainy old England. Worry over!

Leederville

A chilled Sunday romp around the city was the agenda of the day today. I took the little ferry across the river this morning, hopping on just as it was leaving; the driver instructed me to shimmy along the bumper to the door and "try not to fall in". After a little nose around the beautiful Supreme Court Gardens, I used the rest of the time I had to kill before meeting Jess discovering a huge Surf Store I've bookmarked for future shopping trips. Because Roxy is made here, it's heaps cheaper than the UK; get ready for some presents when I return Mum!

Spring has sprung!

Jess rocked up at 11 and we headed through the station to Northbridge, the main clubbing suburb, but it was of course a whole different scene what with it being daytime and a Sunday. We popped into a little coffee shop and drank lattés on the curb amongst loads of trendy little shops and galleries. From there we walked down through the shopping district, passing a load of great buskers on the way to the riverbank. One rather cute guy was playing a mix of Jack Johnson and Passenger: my perfect man?! The Bell Tower, which is near the ferry port, is surrounded by slabs that each school in Western Australia had all the kids write their name on when it was built back in 2001. We managed to find the concrete that Jess and Candice signed twelve years ago; adorable!

The Australians really have got things sussed. I bought a SmartRider, a card that lets you ride all forms of public transport: Bus, Train, even the Ferry. When it runs out, you top it up, giving you access to everything. Why is it impossible for something like this to exist in England?! Far too simple a system for us I guess...

We took the train (a little like the tube but with working air-con and fewer tramps) north-west up to Leederville, another suburb of Perth. It's pretty small, with just one main street running through the middle. I'd skipped breakfast on the promise of a great Fro-yo place, and miss McKiernan did not disappoint. We went to Tutti Frutti, this awesome self-service place with countless yoghurt flavours and toppings. I had mango and peanut butter yog topped with an eclectic mix of mango, mixed berries, shaved nuts and M&Ms. Phwoarrrrr!

After ingesting my daily allowance of calories, we took a stroll out of town to Lake Monger for a bit of exercise. Surrounded by a track (good for running?) and occupied by all sorts of wildlife, it was the perfect place to sit and soak up the sun. Pretty sure I have my first Australian sunburn, which had to happen sooner or later.

Before I forget, I'M GOING TO SEE MICHAEL BUBLÉ! He's playing in Perth in April (: I also bought a swim with dolphins experience on a bit of a Ticketmaster splurge, but I did say I want to do as much as possible while I'm here. With week two of work looming, roll on the next weekend of exploring!

Fremantle

What better way to spend Saturday than on a road-trip along the coast with the lovely McKiernan sisters? We figured out that it's at least three years since I saw Candle, so I was super excited to catch up with her; for those who don't know, I'm moving in with Jess in December until the end of my placement in June. The girls picked me up this afternoon in Jess' awesome red retro Saab to begin our tour.

Today's route from my place to Freo

Our first stop was Jess' apartment in Peppermint Grove to have a little look at where I'll be living next. It's so cute and in the perfect location, close to the highway, which I'll cycle to work on, and the train and bus stations. There are trains to both the city centre and Fremantle, which gives us lots to do on the weekends. Peppermint Grove is very posh and we passed loads of really plush houses!

From there we headed to Cottesloe Beach, which I heard a lot of good things about. It's only a ten-minute walk from Jess' and has lots of cool bars and cafés; despite all the shark stories, I'm looking forward to cooling down there on the hot summer afternoons.

It was then onto our main destination for the evening, Fremantle. It's the town whose port serves Perth, so there's a huge dock with tonnes of boats coming and going, but the rest of it is really Bohemian and cool. After a little wander around the famous markets, where we had free ice cream and lemonade samples and came across some really cute stalls, we headed to Creatures for dinner. It's this amazing brewery in a huge industrial unit on the waterfront; the girls introduced me to some local ale and we shared a feast of woodfired lamb pizza, chips, grilled halloumi and marinated squid. We then walked off our dinner before stopping off at a shop for Gelato (just in case we hadn't eaten enough); I had scoops of caramel and cappucino, yum!

Didgeridoos for sale on a market stall

"Freo eye" in the park

My gorgeous girls!

As if this evening could get any better, I've been invited down to Dunsborough for christmas; the McKiernans are used to hosting all sorts of Cornwall folk at christmas time, so hopefully it'll be a big reunion with some other Trebarwith people making an appearance. The thought of cosmopolitans in the pool on christmas morning has me wishing away the next three months!

♥

An Aussie tipple

There I was, minding my own business in front of Captain America with a cup of tea, when I heard Vickie coming home from the airport with her friend. John's away on his "business"/ski trip, so she'd promised me a nice evening of female company. I definitely did not know what I was letting myself in for!

Catriona is great and speaks with a mix of Scottish/NZ twang; she and Vickie met in Egypt, where they were both working for an international school. After living in Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Auckland in the subsequent years, she's now making the move to Perth and staying here until she finds somewhere more permanent.

We went out onto the balcony and Vickie opened a bottle of red to have with cold cuts, crisps and olives. As Catriona lit up a cigarette, the two of them discussed how difficult it is when you're older to meet the right people to get weed from in Australia. Didn't see that one coming! It should also be noted that John hasn't had a drink since his stag, where he was so ill the day after that they had to cancel the wedding. At first this shocked me (picturing how my Mum would have reacted!), but then I remembered that we were talking about the couple that spent two years sailing 25,000 miles around the world with their kids, so it probably wasn't too big a deal to them. They think it's disgusting that kids have to school on their birthdays!

Over dinner it was so crazy to hear some of the stories they had from their years of travelling. They've seen so much of the world; during their years at sea, they had all kinds of people on board as paying guests that helped out with the sailing, which is how they made their money with no jobs. John married a Dutch couple in a ceremony on their boat using his powers as captain, they've set up a few schools along the way and met loads of interesting people, including this Brazilian guy Carlos who Vickie was telling me about; he ended up staying for free and helping to charm guests on board. She told this outrageous story about a couple who were guests on the boat and, when the husband was asleep, the wife knocked on Carlos' door and they were "bonking up on the deck" with the bloke in bed below! Nuts.

It didn't take long for the wine to go to my head but, despite her jet lag and the alcohol, Catriona was in full flow laughing and catching up with Vickie. Put it this way: It's 10:30 and I just retired to bed, leaving them in the living room dancing around to Ricky Martin.

Oh, and here's the view I had during all that. Goodnight!

Photos of the new pad

Big news: I successfully navigated my first cycle to and from work and it's the weekend! Yay! Here are the pictures of my new home, which I have to myself until Vickie gets home with her friend from the airport this evening. I plan to begin my assault on the extensive film collection with my feet up.

The money shot (ignoring the stonking great crane)

 I've enjoyed settling into work, but I'm looking forward to having a couple of days free to explore and spend some time outside. I hope to have a nice girlie day with the lovely McKiernans tomorrow before Candice jets off to Bali. Enjoy the weekend!

My saviours the Billinghams

Today marks the end of our time in the apartment on Clark Street and, for me, the beginning of life closer to the city and further from campus. Ivana will be moving into Halls right on campus, which I was initially a little jealous of, but not anymore now I know what I’m moving on to.

Last night I went over to Vickie and John’s for dinner. I found them a month ago via Perth Homestay, a website that connects international students looking for temporary accommodation and families with a spare room/empty nest. We exchanged a few emails between them agreeing to have me and me leaving England; from these, I learnt that they moved to Australia from the UK in 2010 (Essex, but luckily they left before the vajazzle became a thing). They have two grown-up daughters, one in England and the other in New Zealand, and a 19-year-old son who’s over in NZ at the moment with his new business. John’s company is part of a medical supplies distribution firm (his boss is a biochemist!) and Vickie leaves her job in commercial recycling later this month. They seemed like a really nice couple and I couldn’t wait to meet them.

Vickie emailed me earlier in the week saying that she’d pick me up from the sailing club on campus. As I waited, I mulled over her description of what to look out for; “mushroom-coloured car” and “light red hair” made it difficult to paint a picture of what she might be like! When she pulled up, she greeted me with a hug and a smile and we chatted about this and that on the short drive over to their apartment. It’s in a very modern, very clean block in a very nice part of town, right on the south riverbank overlooking the skyline. Electric gates, underground car park, key fobs, the lot. Very promising. We took the lift up to the nth floor (I was too busy admiring the plush décor of the lobby to notice how high we were going) and went inside.

WOW. By anyone’s standards, the apartment is absolutely incredible. During the guided tour, I was very impressed by what I was seeing and hearing; my room is lovely and has a desk, bed and whole wall of built-in wardrobes, the bathroom (“you’ll be sharing with Jamie, but he’s never here so it’s basically an en suite") is huge, the open living space filled with musical instruments/momentos from their three years sailing the world has doors onto the patio complete with barbecue ("we eat outside most nights in the summer and barbie at least once a week"), breakfast bar and hammock, but the most noticeable thing was being faced with the skyscrapers across the way, their rainbow of lights reflecting in the water. It's so beautiful from up there! The complex also has a private swimming pool and tennis court. John emerged from the kitchen (from which a delicious smell was wafting) and introduced himself; he strikes me as a kind, funny, chilled-out bloke.

We ate spicy chicken and rice, followed by raspberry jelly and cream, which was yummy and a 3710394-fold improvement on the toast, or at best scrambled eggs that I’ve been living on thus far. They have this cute ritual of clapping the chef, a habit that has stuck since doing it at sea, where “managing to cook on choppy waters without killing someone really does deserve a round of applause”. Other conversation included Cornwall (of course), Vickie’s current participation in amateur theatre, their daughter getting a contract to have her kid’s TV show produced in NZ and John’s business trip starting tomorrow and consisting of a 5-day skiing holiday (tough life!). Vickie said I could borrow her bike to ride to work until I buy one and they even gave me an Australian phone!

Mum, listen up, this is the best bit: I can buy a phone card, which has a code that you type into their landline and lets you call international numbers. They said it’s much clearer than Skype and costs about $2 an hour! How awesome is that?!?!

After we finished dinner, Vickie showed me photos of their 8-month-old granddaughter, who is pretty adorable and might come to stay, before driving me home via all the important parts of South Perth. We did a little loop via the ferry port (a taxi to the city), main street dotted with french coffee shops, fancy restaurants and dress shops, theatre and zoo, which I hope to visit this weekend.

This first week (nearly) has flown by and, despite the hectic schedule so far, I can’t wait to pack up and start a whole new adventure in the penthouse this afternoon. Photos coming soon*

*It should be mentioned that I did a bit more science at work today, but this has been overshadowed slightly by my new home.

Work: Day 2

To begin today's post, here's the ABC News headline I was faced with when I turned on the TV at breakfast:

"DWARF SET ON FIRE AS MAD MONDAY CELEBRATIONS ESCALATE"

Brilliant, right?

I should have known that, given its hilarious first moments (increased by the fact that I had to explain to Ivana (a) why I was peeing myself laughing and (b) what a dwarf is), today was going to be a good day.

I arrived in the lab at 8am and was called into Lindy's office at 9. Despite the woe I felt as she loaded my USB with around 300 papers to look over when it comes to writing my literature review next month (help!), my mood was significantly lifted as she gave me my first assignment. An honours student, Marcus, has assigned himself way too much to do for his project, so there are some loose ends that need tying up. This week I'll be doing some image analysis on retinal cells that have been treated with infrared light, which Lindy suspects increases the activity of certain chemicals that cells use to repair themselves after damage. It mostly consists of measuring some aspects of the images (of which there are 300+) and analysing this information statistically on Excel. It might not be the most exciting work, but I'm just happy not to be twiddling my thumbs and looking awkward! There's also a chance that my work could be put into a paper and published, so that's pretty cool.

In between cracking on with this, we were inducted into the histology, cell culture and surgery labs. This was all a bit same-same and very health and safety orientated, but I guess it has to be done. However, I was lucky enough to sit in on the experiments that my work is leading up to with Lindy and Carole in the surgery lab. Animal rights activists, look away now! Basically, they're finding that the retinal cells don't respond very well, whereas spinal cord slices behave similarly when isolated to how the situation is in the body. To study this, Carole gave 8 rat pups (one-day-old - I hate rats but they were pretty cute!) a lethal dose of anaesthetic, then chopped their heads off and removed the top part of their spines under a microscope. I know, grim, especially when one's little body was still twitching when she decapitated it, but I thought it was pretty interesting. Lindy then put the bits of spine on a tiny guillotine called a tissue chopper, which cut them into tiny, gooey strings. It was as she was separating these tiny parts in a petri dish full of nutrients that she told I'd better pay attention, as I'd be doing this soon. After she was done, she let me have a go at cutting some spares up and separating them using forceps under the microscope. It makes your hands look "like Gigantor" as she put it and it was so hard to keep a steady hand, but amongst the debris I managed to salvage a few for culture, which she said wasn't so bad for a first try.

Lindy left and Carole showed me some adult rats, which were still under anaesthetic after an operation to dissect their optic nerves. This was news to me, as I'd seen them lying on the side and thought there were dead! We put them in a cage and they started to come to and sniff around, at which point I remembered that I hated rats. I didn't realise that people in my field were qualified to do any work on animals that keeps them alive, so that was cool.

At lunch I met a load more people who work in the lab, some of whom are my sort of age which was fun. I'm used to scientists being a bit weird and not having personalities, so I was pleasantly surprised by the banter going around the room. Tamasin told me that she loves my voice and that I sound like Kate Middleton, which I know is inaccurate, but it proves what I'd heard about Aussies liking the English accent!

The one downside to today is that it's been raining really heavily, which I wasn't counting on. I'll remember to bring my coat tomorrow, as I got absolutely drenched running up to admin to get a visitor's card. One requirement of said card is having a photo taken, in which, thanks to the monsoon, I resemble a drowned rat...

Work: Day 1

It's safe to say that, after only four hours in the lab, I am completely overwhelmed with information. Today I realised that this really isn't a holiday/jolly/whatever you want to call it; I'm actually going to have to work hard. Oh, and I haven't given a thought to anything remotely Biochemistry-related since the invigilator called "stop writing now please" at the end of exam period in May. Uh-oh.

Lindy met me outside the apartment at 9am and we walked across campus to the School of Animal Biology, where I'll be spending the next ten months in the Neuroscience lab. For anyone Bioscience-related at Bath, it's not that different to 4S (i.e. hideous architecture but well kitted-out), just a lot bigger. She pointed out all the good coffee shops en route, so it's nice to see where her priorities are!

Everything I'll be involved in is on the first floor; a long corridor with access to loads of different facilities. She first showed me my desk in an office of about 12 stations; as the honours students (those doing a year between undergraduate and PhD) are all finishing up and leaving between now and November, it was already pretty quiet, with only a few people still working on their projects. After that, it looks like there'll be a few months where the usually "upbeat social circle" (Lindy's words) will be taken down a notch, before new students arrive in February/March. I met Alexia, Tamasin and Alex, who all seemed pretty chilled and wanted to know all about what I'd be doing. Not that I can answer that question at the moment! Next to our office is a large communal kitchen and dining area, then on the other side of that is the "big kids'" office, where all the team leaders have desks, or, like Lindy, a small office sectioned off. Here, I met Carole and Michael, two big dogs in the department, and filled out a form that will get me a visitor's card to get into the building after hours. Not sure I'll be doing much work of an evening, but hey, always useful.

I then had a short tour of the laboratory facilities. It was all a little manic, what with all the interspersed introductions, but, from what I gather, the workspace is divided into three: DNA, histology and surgery. As of tomorrow, I'll be working in the DNA lab for a few weeks, mainly doing cell culture (not the most exciting task, but a Biochemist's bread and butter really) and a bit of analysis with Lindy to check I'm spotting the right things. This requires me to have a safety induction in the form of a 55-page risk assessment that I have to read by morning. I've read the first few pages and genetically modified organisms are mentioned quite a bit, so it could prove to be quite interesting! Histology is basically where the cells we're experimenting on will be stained or otherwise assessed for results. It's in the surgery lab that samples from organisms (mainly rats) are prepared; we're using a lot of spinal cord slices I'm told. Unfortunately I won't be doing any cutting, but apparently we're welcome to go and watch when something gory's going on!

It was as we left the labs and entered Lindy's office that the deluge of paperwork and admin began. I've been given papers on just about every aspect of neurodegeneration, some along the lines of Lindy's research and some a little further afield. Along with the DNA lab induction, I'll need to read a standard operating procedure (SOP) and methods form for each piece of scientific equipment I use as I go along, before signing a sheet declaring I know how to use it safely. This is a bit of a change from uni, where they pretty much let a load of under-qualified, hungover baboons loose on all manner of expensive machinery without much instruction (and they wonder why we manage to screw up in one way or another every time). As I write this, I've just received an email from Jenny informing us that, in addition to the inductions and the SOPs and the methods, we have to do two online modules (in gene technology awareness and biosafety), for which we need to arrange temporary UWA log-ins.

Around midday, I left the building with enough paperwork to sink a ship and a head full of new faces. The intention is to return home to immerse myself in reading and focus on the day ahead, but I make no promises that my brain won't go into meltdown, resulting in me being asleep by 6 o-clock.

xxx

P.S. Biochemist friends, you will absolutely love this. As a newly registered user of the DNA lab, I have to add myself to a rota that involves filling tip boxes with autoclaved tips because so many get used day-to-day. I thought that's what technicians were for?! I'm sure come final year I'll be asking you all to spare a thought for the consequences of launching them across the room just to hear the cool noise the Epindorph makes...

Being a tourist

Today I took the opportunity to take my first walk into the city. It’s about 5.5km (one hour on foot) along a cycle path on the north bank of the Swan River. It was a cloudy day, but still warm enough for shorts and a T-shirt! I passed some lovely features as I walked along the water, but had to take a detour on the outskirts of the city centre due to building works.

I want to live here!

The main shopping area is a few streets back from the river, also on the north side. The riverbank itself is occupied by the CBD, with loads of gigantic skyscrapers overlooking the city. Although some shops are closed on Sundays, there was still plenty to see and do, including a few “malls” and loads of cute boutiques. I grabbed some lunch at Woolworth’s of all places, which is a huge supermarket chain here. There are so many fast food restaurants here! Not just McDonald’s and Burger King, but the fried version of pretty much every nation’s food. I’ll do my best to stay healthy in this greasy city, but no promises!

My main aim of trekking in the heat for an hour was to set up a phone contract so I could contact some friends and my boss, but I did a fantastic job of forgetting my passport (turns out to be pretty essential in such processes when you’re not an Aussie citizen), so that’ll have to wait ‘til next time.

On the walk back, I exited the city via the Bell Tower, a huge structure made of glass and copper. It even chimed the hour as I was passing! Back on the path home, I was lucky enough to see a couple of dolphins; Lindy mentioned that they’d seen some a few days back and it felt just like home seeing them bobbing around just off the shore. The video really doesn’t do it justice!

Eliza: A statue Lindy told me about. Apparently people are always rowing up to her and dressing her in weird clothes 

Back at home, Ivana and I took a walk to the nearby supermarket to get supplies for the week. It was here that I realised I only needed enough for 5 days, as I’m moving on from our little apartment on Friday. I’m just getting settled in! We paid around $20 (about £12) each for basic groceries (fruit, salad, eggs, cereal, milks, pasta and sauce, washing-up liquid etc); not too bad considering I’d been told to expect everything to be hugely expensive. Back at the apartment, we rustled up some spaghetti and a big salad, followed by some yummy coconut cake that Ivana’s Grandma had made for her. Not sure how she managed to sneak that across the border, but it was delicious so I’m not complaining!

It’s an earlier start tomorrow; Lindy is meeting me here at 9am for a short orientation in the lab and hopefully I can familiarise myself with the campus a little better (when everything is open!). I’m going to spend the evening reading over the research papers she sent me when I got accepted and of course watching The Australian X Factor!