8/2/12

So today...

I decided on one of the options in our "special topics" module that i'm not going to do (5 options and we only need 2). My original plan was to go to them all because I'm here to learn right?

Unfortunately nucleic acids has not turned out to be what I was hoping. Firstly it's *all* biology, which in principle would be ok, but he assuming a certain amount of previous knowledge, which despite my a-level biology I am most definitely missing! Even if I could put up with that he has, in both the lectures so far, finished late (or just not finished!), and messed up the hand outs. Not to mention the fact we had a room change today (from the top floor of one building to the top floor of another!), but opted to not tell us... Not that I'm bitter or anything. Anyway, an extra free hour for me from next week onwards I think!

Once lectures were finished for the day (thankfully the organic lecture which followed the aforementioned disaster was remarkably enjoyable and calming!) it was a couple of hours hanging about (library time again!) before seeing the new doctor.

I turned up rather early, I got bored of biosynthesis work in the library and it was too cold to walk slowly! Was rather empty in the waiting room...I really wanted to have a little nap across the empty seats...

He was really nice, and seemed to know what he was doing which is always good! After much questioning, poking and prodding it has been decided that I should go back next week to be injectified. Wasn't sure if it was the right way to go, but seems like the best course of action so I'm going for it! Handily my appointment is in the middle of labs so I expect I'm going to have a fun afternoon...

He did however, say I am now allowed to ride my bike. But there's a catch, only allowed for 5 minutes at a time and not very regularly either. Still. Sure I can get through a lot of miles with that ;-)

Thanks to some great on-timeness at the doctors I made it back to the chemistry building in time for the final talk of the Nyholm Symposium, by our very own Prof. Martyn Poliakoff! Was a really great talk, although would expect nothing less from the legend! Being an avid follower of periodic videos (http://www.periodicvideos.com/) and a student at the home of the site I had heard much of it before, but was still really enjoyable. Although felt very odd sitting there as a student, given that the majority of the audience were academics!