Phil's eye view

The King's New Throne

2008-11-10T23:00:00.003-06:00

I recently got a bonus and so I rewarded myself with the lobster in the previous post. I also got a new throne.

Smug mode!

Lobster!

2008-11-09T14:28:00.002-06:00

I started a new job recently. I celebrated wit a lobster.

2008-11-09T14:26:00.004-06:00

Apparently, Spencer does not like the My-T burger in Memphis Texas. We were there for homecoming, an American tradition where people come home.

Roundabouts

2008-07-31T00:00:00.002-05:00

We used to have two roundabouts near our house. They have built three more on the same road. This is quite a problem because most people here have absolutely no idea how to use them. A number of times each week we witness near accidents. Today I was turning left from the minor road during quite heavy traffic and I knew that the people coming along the main road would not yield to me like they are supposed to. I didn't realise it would be so much fun though. My victim was a young guy in a BMW with dark windows and alloy wheels. I could see he was not going to stop so I slowed and let him get onto the roundabout and waited until he was a few inches in front of me and beeped my horn for ages. He about came out of his seat he jumped so much!

I chuckled to myself all the way home, much to my wife's amusement.

:-(

2008-07-29T00:05:00.002-05:00

A few months ago my boss sent me an email.

It ended with ;-)

Today I got an email from another boss-like person.

It ended with :o)

This is very disturbing to me. When did fully grown men start doing this?

OMG more than LOL

SWAT standoff update

2008-06-05T16:10:00.003-05:00

Eventually we got evacuated since we were 'in the line of fire'. As we were leaving the negotiations had moved on to "Walter, lets not make this difficult like last time, we don't want to be here for 10 hours again"

So, Walter broke his record, since it took 11 hours this time!

These photos (1, 2) are from the San Diego NBC site and show what a spectacle this whole thing became. We just spent the day surfing and reading at Brian's.

Apart from the fact that we were without our car for all this, and kept out of our house for nearly 12hours, we were pretty shocked by the actions of the Police. When we returned to the house, there were half drank drinks on top of our car along with leftover candy and ration packs. Also strewn around were bits of food (which of course Macy ate a few days later and then threw up on our bed). But worse than all this was the state that they left the poor womans home in after extracting Walter. The windows were all smashed in and the door hanging off its hinges, and they just left it like that with no security or anything. The family were there the next morning trying to patch things up and take care of the cats and birds, which I suspect were a little freaked out after seeing their owner beaten with a hammer one day and then tear gassed and flash bombed the next!

Not so much America's finest in my eyes.

Standoff at Phil's

2008-05-31T12:38:00.004-05:00

This is the scene outside the back of our flat this morning. We have a lady who lives over the road with lots of cats. Apparently someone called Homer* also resides there. It seems that the San Diego Police Department (America's Finest) would like Homer to come out slowly with his hands up!

The sophisticated negotiation tactics have now moved from "we're not going anywhere, and nor can you, so you might as well come out" to "Come on Homer, lets not make it a long one like last time"

The excitement never ends here...

*The names have been changed to protect the innocent

50ft closer to the Ocean

2008-02-17T23:26:00.002-06:00

Yesterday, I moved.

Next door!

Rebecca is coming in a couple of weeks so I moved into a bigger place that allows dogs (Macy, not Rebecca!). An apartment was available in the next building so, as usual, I took the path of least resistance (Evan would be impressed).

The good thing about moving next door is that it is more relaxed than moving further. This is also the bad thing because it is taking ages to finish off. I didn't pack like I normally would because 'it's only next door'. I keep thinking there will be just a couple more trips to get everything over. I finally gave up this afternoon and went surfing instead. I know, it's a hard life.

Tiger

2008-01-30T00:00:00.000-06:00

Last weekend I went to the zoo. The tigers were not on display. But this weekend another Tiger was in town. You could tell when he was on the course because there was a huge crowd of people following him around. Needless to say, he won. These pictures are taken from my work which borders the Torrey Pines golf course. I often have lunch alongside the tenth tee.

A sign?

2007-12-13T22:05:00.000-06:00

Good old google and wikipedia

2007-12-09T19:22:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I was walking on the beach during a very low tide and noticed the the rocks at PB point were exposed. I decided to go and investigate them, firstly to triangulate them so they can be avoided whilst surfing but also to have a look at the rock pools (tidal pools I think is the term used here). When I approached one pool I saw something that looked a bit like this. And when I disturbed it, more red stuff came out.

From seaslugforum.net

In the same pool was something that looked like this, and which curled up when I picked it up.

From kentsimmons.uwinnipeg.ca/

So, when I got home I googled "california tidal pools red ink" and "california tidal pools "segmented shell"" and found out that the first thing is a Sea Hare that excretes ink as a defense mechanism, and the second is a Chiton. Of course, I could then plug this information into Wikipedia and learn almost all I could possibly desire about said creatures. It turns out that Sea Hares were used for a lot of the pioneering work on prion proteins.

Sea Hare from Nature.com

See, the internet is not just for looking at pictures of people without their clothes on!

Proof!

2007-11-08T00:18:00.000-06:00

Thanks to my Step Father and his rather fancy camera, I now have proof that I can surf. Needless to say, the wave seemed a lot bigger when I was on it!

So you can get an idea of how good I have become in 8 months, here is a picture of Brian. He has been surfing for a few years now, and look, he's still rubbish!

And here is Andrea, who is obviously much better than Brian.

Calf Fries

2007-07-15T15:10:00.000-05:00

Hmmm, deep fried calf testicles anyone?

I treated myself to this delicacy whilst in Texas for the fourth of July. Yummy! I knew what they were but had never tried them, thinking that they were a joke for the tourists. I now know this is not the case. They are a treat cooked by cowboys in the fire for heating the branding irons when working the cattle.

Hooray!

2007-06-26T00:24:00.000-05:00

Hooray! Today I got a sofa! At last, I have something to slouch on at the end of the day. Despite what it may look like from the photo, I am actually happy about it! And, it has a bed hidden inside so I have somewhere for guests to sleep now too. How exciting.

Feeling my age

2007-06-20T00:00:00.000-05:00

I have a habit of remembering songs from commercials/adverts and every now and again will sing one out loud. The other day whilst eating lunch with Miller, our lab technician, the word tasty was used. This prompted me to remember and 'sing' "tasty, tasty, very very tasty, their very tasty!". Miller had no idea what I was talking about. I said "It's from a commercial, for something like breakfast cereal I think, maybe you didn't have it in America". So, I 'googled' the phrase and found that it was indeed for a breakfast cereal, Kellogg's Bran Flakes from back in 1982. "Ah" said Miller, "I wouldn't know that one then". Of course, he wasn't even alive in 1982. In fact, he wasn't even a twinkle in his Daddy's eye!!

It's my 29 1/2 birthday next week.

Enjoying my kitchen

2007-06-16T13:26:00.000-05:00

Since I've been unable to upload photos for a little while I though I'd wet your taste buds with these juicy treats...

Beer-butt chicken. Hidden from view is a can of Tecate. Possibly the tastiest, most tenderist chicken you'll eat.

Putting the pizza dough setting of the bread machine to use

The classic happy site for a Saturday morning

2007-06-06T22:19:00.000-05:00

Whilst it is nice to get something in your mailbox, I am fed up with receiving all of those packages of money off coupons and adverts for cable TV that I don't need, supermarkets that I don't shop at, tires for the car I don't own, cosmetic surgery (for MY perfect body!?), etc etc. Already, by Wednesday of this week, I have received one from penny savers, shopwise, and savvyshoppers. So, this evening I have contacted all of them to be asked to be removed from their mailing lists. We'll see how long that takes. They told me it may take up to five or six weeks. I suspect they will hope that I will have forgotten by then.

Washing up = Lab book

2007-06-02T14:53:00.000-05:00

I have come to the conclusion that washing up is much like my lab book.

I have been behind on my washing up for about two weeks now. My lab book is also about two weeks behind. I have tried to catch up with both but there is a constant flow of dirty dishes and experiments to write up so unless you completely catch up you're always behind. Today, that's going to change, starting with the washing up. That would be why I'm sitting at the computer procrastinating...

Living it up

2007-05-31T00:18:00.000-05:00

Well, its been over a month since I've blogged. Basically, I've been working hard at growing old, fat and unfit. I've had fun doing it though. Rebecca left last week so now I am all alone once again in my little apartment. Only this time, it is full of all sorts of interesting things designed to cook me waist-expanding delights! I just finished the last of the home made ice cream, washed down with beer from a frosty beer mug, and am now tucking into my first pizza made with dough from the bread machine. Earlier in the month I went a bit crazy baking banana nut breads. And of course the piece de resistance... I smoked a brisket in my grill (well, this is a slight exaggeration, since my grill is only 14 inches in diameter 'part of' a brisket would be a better description). This was for the dinner we made for friends last weekend. A classic southern menu of brisket, beer-butt chicken, potato salad and the trimmings followed by pecan pie and homemade ice cream. Sometimes I really miss Texas! So, now its back on to the belly reduction regime. Five hours of surfing with dolphins, seals and pelicans (their beaks can hold more than their belly-can!) this weekend started that off nicely.

By the way, for those of you who think you are jealous of the weather here: For the first month here I kept hearing "it's never normally like this". I think if you live here for a certain amount of time your brain gets a bit mushy because they have the phrases 'May Grey' and 'June Gloom' so it must be like this normally!!! For me though, it is pretty lovely. It is quite often sunny, but it rarely gets very hot down here near the sea. That's great for me but poor Rebecca, who grew up on the nasty Texas heat, spent a lot of her time here shivering. She is a bit of a special case though when it comes to feeling the cold. She can't even shop for too long at the refrigerated section of the supermarket.

Carne Asada Fries-day

2007-04-27T18:25:00.000-05:00

Hmmm, this is the best thing I've found to eat so far in San Diego. It's a speciality of the area. It consists of French fries covered in cheese, carne asada meat, pico, sour cream, and guacamole. We took this picture today at lunch. The best thing about carne asada fries it is that if you have them for lunch, you are not hungry until very late in the evening. Unfortunately, you are also in danger of falling asleep all afternoon!

Three years it took

2007-04-08T14:52:00.000-05:00

After three years since entering the US I am finally writing the date the wrong way around. I guess that would be the right way around if you are American. It still makes no sense to me though to put the month before the day. I can't think of any reason why it would be done that way. Americans will say "July 4th" instead of "4th of July". Did that come before 7/4 was used I wonder? Anyway, it turns we all have it wrong as the international standard date format according to ISO 8601 is YYYY-MM-DD. At least that is in an reasonable order, largest to smallest.

I have a feeling I have written about this before... Oh well, I am thirty this year.

Happy Easter by the way

I just couldn't do it

2007-04-07T21:34:00.000-05:00

It was dinner time. I had a 10 inch frying pan that I bought from the charity shop today, a Swiss army knife, and of course my oven.

I thought I'd go over to the store (supermarket) and look at the frozen food aisle. Surely, I thought, I could find something to eat there that I could cook in a frying pan or the oven. I walked up and down the aisle, I even almost put a bag of frozen chicken and vegetable fried rice in my trolley. But when it came to it I just could not bring myself to buy a ready prepared meal.

In the end I baked a couple of potatoes in the oven and fried up some ground beef (mince) with onions, garlic, squash, zucchini (courgette) (all cut with the Swiss army knife) and a can of chopped tomatoes (opened with the knife). A little seasoning, a splash of red wine, and washed down the hatch with a glass of said wine. Yum. I probably got three portions of veg and a lot less salt than a ready meal (partly because I don't have any salt yet though!).

I had a good couple of hours surfing this afternoon as well which is great exercise. So, now I feel good about myself, I guess it's time to go and fill myself up with alcohol!

The frozen meal picture can bought as a poster from AllPosters.com

My New Abode

2007-04-06T00:25:00.000-05:00

Finally, I got to move in to my new place. Here is my expansive kitchen.

And my overcrowded living area.

Ah yes, and my new baby...

Sun Sea and BJ's

2007-04-01T14:50:00.000-05:00

Life is still going on in San Diego but the lack of internet at home is severely hampering my blogging. Last weekend I had a great surf with Brian north of Scripps pier. I actually properly rode a wave, it was like totally awesome dude.

Last week we went out with a couple of Brian's friends. I had my first blow job! Apparently there are some different ideas of what exactly a blow job consists of but basically it is a shot of creamy liquor (a mixture of Baileys and Kahlua was probably what ours was) topped with whipped cream. You are supposed to drink it without your hands. I found that I can't swallow with my mouth open. Perhaps I need to work on my technique.

Tomorrow, I hope to move into my new house...

My New House

2007-03-18T14:41:00.000-06:00

This is where I will be living. Note the proximity to the surf beach!
The picture is from Google maps.

I'm Back

2007-03-11T16:17:00.000-06:00

It's been a while but I am safely in San Diego at last. We don't have Internet at home and last week my blog got blocked because they thought I was a spam robot so I haven't been able to get around to updating it.

San Diego is a great place and I am really enjoying life so far. I had promised some people that I would not mention the weather but I'm sorry - it's lovely! It's nice and warm in the sun and pleasantly cool in the evenings.

I still don't have a place to live yet but I do have the important things sorted out - I have a surf board!! I'll put some pictures up when I get a chance. I've used it three times so far. The first time was at sunset with the dolphins up the coast a little way. The other two times have been here in Pacific beach where I am looking to live. I've managed to stand up a few times each session and am improving slowly. Apparently it takes a very long time to become good so I have my work cut out for me. The board is a 9ft4 Gordon and Smith 'Team Ryder' and it is bright yellow. I love it.

The week I spent out in Texas before I came over here was good too. I saw death row and a giant statue of Sam Houston on the way to watch Rebecca's brother compete in the reining World championships. It was good to catch up with the family, friends in Austin, and of course Rebecca and Macy!

The sunset picture was taken here in Pacific Beach. The first of many watched from the beach...

Look out for the next tash

2007-03-11T16:14:00.000-06:00

Check out this guys magical facial hair. These are the pics on the back of my new hair trimmers. Look out for my next porn star tash!!

Fish Supper!

2007-02-17T18:32:00.000-06:00

Mum and Jimmy are having their kitchen done so there is no cooker in the house. This is how they cooked our dinner tonight of Lemon Sole. Three different camp stoves were used on the dining room table to prepare this delicious feast!

My Grandma is a Hero!

2007-02-17T18:13:00.000-06:00

I went to see my Grandma the other day and she showed me a letter. It was from her local member of parliament, inviting her down to a tea party at the House of Commons. He has nominated her for the MP heroes awards. These awards celebrate the achievements of older volunteers and due to my Grandma's work with the local Alzheimers Society and Relatives Support Groups (amongst numerous other things) he thought she was the obvious choice. Grandma seemed quite chuffed, as am I. I hope I am able to get involved with as many things as she is when I am her age.

Howzat!?

2007-02-17T17:48:00.000-06:00

On Thursday night I spent the night in the bed of an Ashes winning England cricketer. Don't worry, she plays for the women's team. Oh yeah, and she wasn't actually in the bed! or the country for that matter. She's in India playing cricket for England. The reason I was in said bed was because I went to stay with my step brother at Loughborough University. It was a lovely evening but at some point I made a strange decision to agree to go for a run with him at 0730hrs the next day. What I should point out is that Tom is a very good triathlete who is hoping to become professional soon. To him it was to be an 'easy hour'. To me it turned out to be an hour, but not easy.
I was hurting at around 25 minutes but by the time we were coming downhill at about 50 minutes I was feeling quite good and impressed with myself for keeping up. It was obvious to me that we just had to jog down to the bottom of the hill and we'd be home. Tom had different ideas since he had calculated that if we had done this we would have been home in less than an hour. Apparently he doesn't like to finish early. So, he turned left into a street that went up another hill. I think Tom says it best when he said that my '...running style dramatically changed. It looked like someone had just broken your legs'. I was in a lot of pain by the end of the run but I did enjoy it (and I ran all the way) and to my great surprise I can still walk the next day. So, I'll be out for my last run on English soil for some time tomorrow morning (the 'some time' refers to the period that I will be out of the UK not how long I will run for).

I should point out that when I left Tom to go and get fed another delicious meal by my Grandma, he was going for a two hour bike ride followed by a session in the pool.

Custard Slice!

2007-02-17T17:34:00.000-06:00

A Custard Slice is probably my favourite delicacy from an English bakery. I couldn't leave the country without having one but it has been quite a challenge to find a bakery that sells them. Today in Salisbury, we found some. I bought four so that we could all have one, except for me who could have two! They were fantastic except for the jam. I'm not sure jam should be allowed but beggars can't be choosers when they are as scarce as they seem to be these days. Despite the fact that they are amazing they do have one major design flaw which is demonstrated here by my Step Father. The pastry is stronger than the custard so when you bite in the custard just squirts out the sides. Perhaps that has been their downfall.

Not quite Barry

2007-02-16T16:31:00.000-06:00

Last week we got 6 inches of snow while I was staying with my Grandma in Buckingham. While I was making these snowmen the man over the street asked if I was making them for myself or for the kids! I told him they were for me and nobody had ever told me I had to grow up. He replied 'you're right not to!' So, while the rest of the country ground to a pathetic halt over a little snow I was having a great time!

Look what I found!

2007-02-15T06:01:00.000-06:00

Whilst packing to move back to the states I found this. It was taken approximately 12,000 ft above Lake Taupo in New Zealand back in 2000. You can also see a very excited Alice in the background (And Steph should be back there somewhere too). Also on that day I tried a hole in one competition on the lake where you hit golf balls towards a floating green. We also bumped into some girls that I had gone to Fraser island with. Later on in the evening there was an earthquake (although at the time Alice thought it had just been the large man we were playing pool with jumping up and down on the floor!). A very exciting day indeed.

One size fits...?

2007-02-06T08:05:00.000-06:00

I thought this was amusing. It is the label inside a cap I was wearing to play golf earlier this week. I wonder when people started using 'one size fits most' instead of 'one size fits all'. I've never seen this before but I guess it is more accurate.

It's a hard life

2007-02-06T08:01:00.000-06:00

being a cat! Just look at the strenuous lifestyle ours are leading today.

Ellie

Ben

Teddy (snoring)

The next chapter is almost here

2007-02-01T18:10:00.000-06:00

It all begins on 19th Feb 2007. The next chapter in Dr Uncle Phil's life, 'San Diego or bust'. As a prelude I'll have 8 days of Rebecca, beef and guns and then on Tuesday 27th I move to my knew home town and start paying tax to Arnold Schwarzenegger!

Yee-haw Y'all

Day 4

2007-01-31T17:11:00.000-06:00

Today was the fourth day of operation belly reduction. So, A nice run around Old Sarum it was. Well, it was nice in that I was outside seeing some classical countryside in a historical setting (It’s thought to have had a settlement there since 3000 BC and the original Salisbury cathedral was built there in the 11^th century). And, to be honest, it has felt better each time I have gone for a run, but it is still frustrating that it is so slow and not exactly fluid movement shall we say. I am 11 years older, approximately 3 stone / 42lb / 19kg heavier, and a lot less fit than I was when I was running competitively so I guess I can’t really complain. Ah, those were the days!

At last

2007-01-21T07:28:00.000-06:00

Today I went for a 'run'. I bought some new running shoes when I first got back to this country about four months ago. Today I actually used them. It was a some what pleasant experience in that it was a nice day out and it felt good to get some fresh air and see a bit of the local area. But, I felt that I looked like one of those 'older people' that you see running where the movement is a little slow and awkward and makes a louder noise than the younger light footed models. I was plodding. And now my legs hurt. I guess I'm not getting any younger...

Morris Dancers

2007-01-21T06:14:00.000-06:00

This is what we saw on New Year's day at Stoke Bruerne. It is called Morris Dancing and is a traditional type 'dancing' here to folk music. It is generally done by middle aged men who are looking for an excuse to get together and drink real ale. The dancers usually wear white with colourful accessories and often have bells attached to various parts of the costume (you can hear the bells in the video when they start jumping around) and hold wooden sticks or handkerchiefs in their hands.

Sausages!

2007-01-14T09:06:00.000-06:00

This was the last meal I had in Spain last weekend. Notice the lack of veg! I went to visit Howard in Madrid. The fantastic weekend started with a classic Spanish night out - until 7am!! after watching Howards funk band 'Watch Out'. You can see a video of them playing here. Howard plays the trumpet. Saturday night we had 'just a quiet night' finishing dinner at 1am and going to bed at 3.30! Good times though and you can't fault a holiday that ends with a huge slab of meet in a small countryside restaurant in the mountains.

Whilst there, I remember having a conversation about sausages. Now, despite the fact that many consider sausages to be the worst kind of meat, they really can be the most tasty treat, and not just 'lips and arseholes' as I have heard cheap hot dogs described as! I have a favourite from many countries that I have visited. You should try them if you get the chance.

England: Lincolnshire sausage - a sausage flavoured with sage and other herbs that apparently might become the champagne of England!

Scotland: Lorne sausage - That square sausage only found in Scotland, a classic for breakfast.

Texas: Elgin Hot Sausage - smoky, spicy, from the self proclaimed "Sausage capital of Texas (or maybe the World?)" definitely worth throwing on the barbie. My favourite one is from the Southside Market and Barbeque.
France: Merguez - a spicy sausage originating from Africa. Great dipped into some good French mustard, Dijon or coarse ground, for a picnic on the way home from a family holiday.
Portugal: Buttifarra - not good with a pile of salt but if you can avoid that (thanks Jimmy!) a wonderful treat served as a course in the middle of many of the multi-course meals we ate in Portugal.
New Zealand: Venison Sausages - Venison sausages are a favourite of mine in any country but one of the last meals I cooked in New Zealand was with Venison sausages, which I was amazed to find were the same price as plain old pork ones. Apparently, venison is one of the cheapest meats in New Zealand and at one time people were paid to get rid of the deer since there was so many of them. It's funny how one country's delicacy can be another's poor man's food.
Spain: Chorizo - Another spicy, smoky member of the sausage family found in many Spanish speaking countries.

Hmmm, perhaps it should be bangers and mash for tea? Or maybe toad in the hole? Or a few snags for our Aussie readers?

Some things don't change

2007-01-10T16:06:00.000-06:00

It appears that 'blogging' is much like other forms of communication for me. I mean this in that I always think about writing something but never seem to get around to it. This is much like thank you letters. I think I did write some once or twice when I was a kid. I hope people do know that I did think about writing to them and that I was also grateful for their gift. It appears that my absence started around the time that this photo was taken.

This was at the lab Christmas party. We ate at the Last Wine Bar in Norwich. The food was great and the whole meal was very enjoyable. The post meal activities were a lot of fun too and I probably don't need to say that they involved a rather large amount of alcohol!

This was a very good start to the festive period which involved two large family gatherings, one toddler, one baby, one wedding, one birthday (my last one in the twenties!), staying in four different abodes including one canal boat, one immigration package (arriving on birthday), some Morris dancers, snooker, loosing the ashes, the third longest tunnel in Britain, and of course copious amounts of food and drink! oh, and an extra 5lb!

Dog Chocolate

2006-12-19T16:11:00.000-06:00

I recently brought some sweets (candy) and chocolate back from the US for the lab. Amongst the selection were some Hershey's kisses. These didn't go down too well. One description was that they taste like dog chocolate. I'm not sure why my boss has eaten dog chocolates, especially given that she does not have a dog, but I would agree that they are not the nicest chocolate in the World! They remind me of some of the chocolate that you get with Easter eggs, a somewhat stale flowery chocolate.

They did all get eaten though! The gannets will eat anything if it is free.

Kids

2006-12-12T07:11:00.000-06:00

Isn't it funny that children are just like little people?

Two weeks

2006-12-08T02:36:00.000-06:00

After a flurry of posts last month, I have gone all quiet. I guess I have settled back here enough to use all my spare time! I have actually been quite busy being ill, going to Texas, and working. The former being the least interesting one. It seems like I have not been 100% for ages now. I thought that maybe my body was not used to the cold anymore or that maybe my immune system is weakened from being away and can't cope with all the germs floating around in our overcrowded ecosystem over here. But, it appears that others have been feeling the same. There must be some sort of nasty little bug going around that doesn't quite make you totally ill but also hangs on for a long time.

Anyway, I'm still alive and have managed to do some fun stuff. As I mentioned I spent a few days in Texas for Thanksgiving and to celebrate the marriage of Rebecca's Mom and now Step Father. We had fried turkey again! This time uncle Lee deep fried a 23lb bird in the back yard while we played horseshoes - a classic Texas afternoon!

People always ask me what it is that I miss about home and vice versa whilst I am here. It is really difficult to answer these questions because it is all the really small things that add together to make places missable, if that is a word! However, when I was back in Texas the other week I did realise that I miss vultures! They amazed me when I first got to Texas but I guess I just got used to seeing them circling around up there everyday and it wasn't until I'd been away for a little while that I noticed them again. On a silly note, when I was in Texas I missed packing my own shopping bags. It's one of those things that I like being done in my way, like my ironing. I just don't want anyone else doing it for me. But, as with the vultures, after a while you get used to it and now I let most of my shopping go through the checkout before I remember that I am supposed to be packing it into bags at the other end. So, the I have to rush around trying to catch up with the checkout person and get done in time for the next person to be checked out. Obviously there are more serious things I miss, like beer! I mean, family and friends of course. But the things I think you miss most are the ones that you don't really notice, as I said above. These are the everyday smells, shapes, sounds and textures that you don't notice individually but together give you that feeling of being in a certain place, in this case 'home'. The biggest thing I notice in these terms is in the fields and countryside. It's the greenness of the grass and foliage, the hedgrows and shapes of the trees, the little funny shaped fields, how soft the ground feels under you, that cold, slightly damp feeling of autumn/winter. I don't care what anyone says about our weather, this is really a great time of year to be in the UK and just the other day whilst walking to the car in a cold driving drizzle, I had a huge grin on my face!

And I've been working but we don't need to go into that!

One for the Texans and/or Ruggers

2006-11-14T16:27:00.000-06:00

This is the Texas Embassy, Canada House, Trafalgar Square, London. A silly theme restaurant you might be thinking. You may be right, but if you look closely on the wall outside, there is an interesting plaque.

And if you walk a short distance away from here, along Pall Mall to St James St, you find the building shown below. This is where the real Texas Embassy was, as shown by the plaque on the wall. It is now a wine merchant's in a particularly posh part of town, not far from the Ritz.

Here's the plaque erected by the Anglo-Texan Society which you can read about here.

My beautiful talented girlfriend

2006-11-14T15:20:00.000-06:00

Last weekend Rebecca and I went to Jack and Tash's wedding in London. It was a fantastic do in a wonderful setting overlooking the London Eye. Everyone had a great time. All these wonderful weddings are really putting the pressure on the rest of us though! Rebecca made her dress and my cravat and waist coat. As you can see they turned out great - it helps to have good models though of course!

Spell Check

2006-11-12T07:40:00.000-06:00

Interestingly, the word 'blog' is not in the spell check dictionary for this site!

The alternatives it gives you are these:

bloc
bloch
blows
bloke
blocs
block
bolos
bloc's
blouse
blocky

I had never heard of bolos before. Apparently, it can either be American slang for soldiers who fail to meet the minimum standard for markmanship, or a single edged machete from the Philippines. You learn something new everyday.

'Weblog' is also not in the spellchecker. Instead it offers up Wobbles or Efflux!

Brother!

2006-11-12T07:30:00.000-06:00

Not content with being younger and taller than me, he also gets better cuts than me! You can see the story of how it happened here. Amazingly enough it didn't involve alcohol (at least that what he says anyway). He assures me that he has visited my blog now from Australia and I see he has left some comments but I still don't have a red dot on the map. I also need some hits from Africa if any of you fancy going there and logging on!

Scary

2006-10-31T15:36:00.000-06:00

I was just taking some photos of my bedroom to show people where I am living at the moment and this weird stuff started happening. I think my bedroom might be haunted...

Magical healing powers

2006-10-29T16:32:00.000-06:00

Last weekend I had a bleeding wound on my cheek. This weekend it's all gone. Amazing that isn't it. That will never cease to amaze me.

Before

After

My First You Tube

2006-10-29T08:39:00.000-06:00

Today I joined one of the most popular websites on the planet. Popular enough that Google paid a reported $1.65 billion for it. My first You Tube is of me and Tom doing a synchronised backflip off the top of a party boat on Lake Travis during our lab party celebrating my leaving and a couple of PhDs. You can see it here.

Dinner Ladies

2006-10-22T14:06:00.000-05:00

The lovely ladies in the media kitchen in are some of the people I have missed the most whilst in the lab in Texas. The pictures here show what it is they do. They make all of our buffers, solutions, media (solid and liquid) and clean and sterilise all the equipment that we need throughout the day. It really makes life so much easier in the lab. The other thing that I missed was the fact that people in the lab actually share things so there is only one of everything. This was particularly great for me last week because it meant that I could get into experiments straight away. I only really put this here to make the guys back in Texas jealous!

Tips

Buffers, media etc

Glassware etc

An interesting day

2006-10-22T04:52:00.000-05:00

Firstly, I walked into town to do a little shopping and to look around. Norwich mostly looks the same except the market has been refurbished and looks very good. There is also a brand new shopping centre which is really nice. Here, the first exciting thing happened - I saw a really short girl with short legs wearing, yep you guest it, low cut jeans and calf high boots! It was the perfect pixie/dwarf outfit. I think her boyfriend noticed that I was looking at her so I had to stop.

Next, I went and played rugby for the second team of my old club. They made me play second row and then this happened.

My face decided to get in an argument with a rugby boot and lost. A nice welcome back to English rugby!

Then, of course I went out with the rugby boys, got drunk (hmmm Abbot ale) and bought a kebab on the way home. I'm not really a fan of donner kebabs these days but I had to have one for old times sake. I bought the small one but it wasn't actually that small.

But I did enjoy eating it.

And, of course, I finished it all (after dropping most of it on the floor!)

All in all, a pretty classic day out!

A dedicated follower of fashion

2006-10-21T04:03:00.000-05:00

Apparently knee length boots are in fashion here. And they are worn over your jeans. Some of them look like throw backs to the eighties to be honest. Of course, some of them look great as well. These sorts of trends always amuse me. Some poeple should realise that even if x garment is the height of fashion and everyone who is anyone is wearing it, that doesn’t mean it will look any good on you! I think the equivalent for me in Texas recently would be the really low riding jeans that girls wear. Now, obviously you need a certain body shape to wear these things but some girls just don’t get it. If you have highcrackitis you shouldn’t wear them. It really is not pleasant to see your bum crack poking out of your jeans. We call that builders bum but I forget what the Americans call it – plumbers crack??? They don’t go too well with love handles either since they make the handles look more like saddle bags. Also, if you are somewhat vertically challenged or have particularly short legs, your legs are just going to look shorter and the result will be some sort of little dwarf like creature. Obviously the worse offenders combine all of the above traits. You could finish off the dwarf image by going transcontinental and adding a pair of knee length boots!!

Perhaps I’ll wear my cowboy boots out tonight. Over my Jeans!

Breaking the seal

2006-10-17T16:33:00.000-05:00

I did some of my favourite things today.

I went to rugby training with my old club, Norwich Crusaders . It was great to be able to wear my full length studs (cleats) and feel them actually going into the ground. Oh! That soft soft ground, I have missed it so. It was great to see all the boys again and I'm looking forward to a game on Saturday.

Connected to the above activity, I ran myself into the ground. I think I was running around as if I was as fit as I was last time I was playing with Crusaders. I am not that fit. My brain was trying to escape from my head at the end. Of course, I kept on running because that's just me. Not looking forward to the stiffness tomorrow.

And now, as they say, for the "piece de resistance"...

I broke the seal on a jar of marmite!

That is such a wonderful feeling. I spread it on a toasted crumpet (after some butter of course). This is also a treat I have not enjoyed for a while.

I also did my second day at work back in my old lab. Its good to be back, although a lot of the faces have changed. It's also nice to get my teeth into some work again after a few weeks off. Hopefully it will all come to something good.

I hope y'all had a good day, whatever you were doing and wherever you were doing it.

Texas to Mexico via London

2006-10-11T17:15:00.000-05:00

So reads the back of the T-shirts at the Texas Embassy, London.

After I got back from visiting my Grandma this afternoon, via a rather posh outlet mall near Bicester, I popped into town on the tube. After shopping I felt a little parched so I decided to try and find the Texas Embassy that Evan had told me about. He said it was somewhere around Trafalgar Square. I headed off in what I thought was the right direction and ended up in Green Park. Here I found a map which put me back in the right direction and as it happens the perfect approach to Trafalger Square to bring me out at the Texas Embassy. Apparently, back in the day there was a real Embassy nearby (When Texas actually was a separate country rather than just considering itself one).

Although I have only been away for less than two weeks, it was nice to wash down some Mexican food with a Margarita whilst listening to George Strait!

Next time I'll take my camera with me. Evan assures me there is a plaque somewhere nearby marking where the laws of rugby were first written. A plaque probably won't stand out as well in Trafalger square as a Texan flag though! Any directions Evan?

Painting with light

2006-10-05T07:10:00.000-05:00

Last night I went to see Bert . He's doing a photography course and he showed me this trick he learned recently. You set a long exposure on the camera e.g. 30sec and then (in the dark) use a torch to illuminate anything you want in the photo. These are not the most artistic examples but you get the idea. For the one above I lit myself first and then passed the torch around me facing the camera.

For this one I just shone the torch on myself and left it in certain postions for longer than others.

This one was done by lighting myself in one postion then moving in the dark and repeating.

Brrrrr

2006-10-04T06:24:00.000-05:00

I'm cold!

It's been a while so it's not something I'm used to. I'm sitting here in the house with a jumper, fleece coat and scarf on!

But still, it beats swamp butt any day of the week!

A little shaky at first

2006-10-03T16:28:00.000-05:00

After spending the day in my pajamas yesterday, today I ventured out into the big wide World. First off I pumped up the tyres on my brother's bike. The front tyre immediately decided to explode! So, I borrowed Jimmy's bike and off to town I rode on the right side of the road. By right I mean wrong! I only realised when I got onto the bigger road at the bottom of the hill. All the way into town I was trying to make eye contact with the passengers instead of the drivers when approaching junctions to check they had seen me. I guess its better that I did that on my bike than in my brother's car!

In the afternoon Bert came around to see. We took a walk over the hill to Old Sarum and he took some photos of me climbing on the remains of the old cathedral that dates back to the 11th or 12th century.

On the way back home we stopped off for a cheeky pint. My first for over a year. I was a little upset to find that they didn't have any hand pumped beer. The barman obviously knew exactly what we were after when Bert asked him 'do you have any real beer?' since he replied 'no, we don't, sorry mate'. The pints of Old Speckled Hen that we bought were certainly good enough though for someone who's been out of the loop for a couple of years. As you can see it left me feeling quite happy and mellowed.

"Changeable"

2006-10-02T08:18:00.000-05:00

Today I am being treated to a classic phenomenon of the British weather.

Whilst I sit in the new conservatory at the back of Mum's house this is what I see:

A lovely day you might think. Perhaps shorts are in order, maybe a stroll in the fields before luncheon.

Ha-ha! But no, alas you have been tricked. For the view out of the front windows is this:

A classic overcast and cloudy day in England. The joys of being home!

Dinner for Shylock

2006-10-02T05:31:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm back in the UK now, recovering from jet lag. I have been losing weight recently but I think I have made up for it in the last few days...

On my last day in Texas we went for lunch at the Golden Coral. Buffet-style danger! For $7 I ate chicken fried steak, New Orleans chicken, pork chop, steak fries, carrots, green beans, sprouts, rice, corn bread, boston cream pie, banana pudding, carrot cake. I may have missed a couple of things out, but you get the picture.

In the evening we went to this great little steak place in Bryan called J Cody's (http://www.jcodys.com/). I highly recommend checking it out if you are ever in the area. Here, I got a 16oz Ribeye steak plus fries, potato salad, beans and corn bread. It was delicious and despite the fact that it was as big as the plate, I didn't realise how big it actualy was until I got home and remembered how many ounces are in a pound!!

Then I flew home and ate some nasty chicken in brown gravy on US airways. They never fail to unimpress me. Perhaps I should say they always fail to impress me. Anyway, that gave me a good excuse to eat on the way home from the airport. At the service station I was thinking about getting a sandwich when I realised where I was. Silly Me!!! How could you consider a sandwich when there are cornish pasties, meat slices, and scotch eggs on sale! A Cornish pasty it was, the others will have to wait. After a classic lunch at Mum's house invovlving bread plus whatever you can get your hands on in the fridge, I was treated to cockles and mussels followed by trout, and crumble for dessert all washed down with vintage champagne and red wine.

A particularly delicious few days, if you ignore the plane (plain?) food.

And luckily one of Mum's neighbours has wireless broadband internet so I don't have to deal with Mum's dail up connection!

RIP

2006-08-22T10:17:00.000-05:00

The car saga continues. I thought I'd use it the other day just to see if it would hold out for the short trip to work. I made it about 3-4 miles before the coolant was gone and then went a little further before I chickened out and parked it on the street. There it still rests. I just called a shop to sell it and they said (without even looking at it) that they would only give the value for scrap which is $150. That hurts. Apparently I have become quite attached to my car. It was fun to drive it those last few miles and reminded me of happier times. What's worse is that, with it, I am losing the best stereo I own right now (excluding the one my Dad is 'borrowing').

I guess there ends my first car experience. Hopefully it gets better from here.

Couple of moans for the day

2006-08-16T17:44:00.000-05:00

1. Why does it take so long to get a prescription? You always have to wait at least 20 minutess. I understand if there is a queue (line), but seriously, how long does it take to put some pills in a bottle?

2. It's damn hot here (over 100F/38C) and I was home early because of my doctors appointment, so I thought it would be nice to go for a swim in one of the local pools. I usually do this regularly in the summer, but haven't managed to yet this year. They're only bloody closed for the season already!

On another note, I only have 15 days at work left before I... um, errr, do something else.?! We did fall in love with San Diego at the weekend so I might look for a job there but I'm looking forward to a stint at home first to rejuvenate all that Englishness. I wonder if I'll lose weight.

A worrying view...

2006-07-31T22:15:00.000-05:00

This is looking a little worrying. What's worse is that I could see the thin patch from the front after my recent haircut. All of a sudden I can feel those years of mocking my Dad coming back to haunt me!

Happy Birthday to us!

2006-07-29T15:54:00.000-05:00

Don't worry, he's not mine (or Rebecca's). This is my pseudo nephew Clay who is one year old. My blog is also one year old now. Last weekend we went to Missouri to visit Clay for his birthday. It's quite a pretty state with lots of hills and trees and twisty roads. Their speed limits are a bit low though. Apparently they have the most Meth addicts in the country and the local tattoo parlour is famous for tattooing the most penises! An interesting place indeed, and I tried moonshine for the first time. Possibly it will be the last time too.

Battery Farming the Brits

2006-07-20T13:45:00.000-05:00

I heard today that England is the 4th most crowded country in the World (see here). That surprised me.

We all know that Texas is big but get your noggin around these numbers.

UK = 632 people per square mile

England = 974 people per square mile

Texas = 80 people per square mile

I just made myself laugh

2006-07-19T12:59:00.000-05:00

On significant days I like to write silly phrases in my lab notebook. And then, when I read back through the notebook it keeps me amused to see what I wrote. For example, a couple of years ago on February 14th, I drew a little heart with an arrow through it with the phrase 'but none for me though, boo hoo' You get the idea. Today I looked at the entry for the 6th June 2006 (6/6/6) and I had written 'On plates for library - 5 colonies had grown, spawned by the devil no doubt'.

Simple things, simple minds.

Have a nice day wherever you are.

Superstitions

2006-07-14T11:57:00.000-05:00

No, I'm not talking about the Stevie Wonder song.

I was listening to the cricket in the lab with my wireless headphones when Rebecca called me. As I answered the phone the England bowler Harmison got a wicket. I joked that she should call me more often. Someone else called her so she hung up with me and called me back a few moments later. By this time the next batsman was in and as I answered the phone for the second time we got another wicket giving Harmison a two-wicket maiden over! (a phrase my American friends may not understand!)

Maybe we should contact the England team and get her on the payroll!

A Little Taste of Home

2006-07-10T21:08:00.000-05:00

Here's a tasty treat I made today. Scotch eggs, served up with a little mustard. Can't beat it.

Hanging out in Clarendon

2006-07-09T22:08:00.000-05:00

Here is a picture of my new tee shirt. I bought it from a stall at the fourth of July celebration and parade in Clarendon, Texas. I just had to buy it. Strangely enough its not the sort of thing one would find for sale at an English village fete! Click on it for a larger image.

Evil cinnamon

2006-07-06T08:49:00.000-05:00

I understand that Starbucks is somewhat evil, but why did they have to ruin a perfectly nice piece of banana nut cake by putting cinnamon in it? What rubs salt into the wound is the fact that I left a lovely home cooked banana nut bread in my fridge at home this morning. grrrrrrr bah humbug.

My search for the perfect job?

2006-06-29T11:40:00.000-05:00

Dear Philip Lee.

Thank you for submitting your resume for my review for our entry level scientist position.

As you can imagine, we have received a very large number of applications.

Although your resume looks very interesting and your qualifications are excellent, we have decided to pursue other candidates.

I want to thank you for your interest in xxxxxxx, and for taking the time to apply. I have taken the liberty of keeping your resume on file in case we in the future will have openings that match your background better.

I would also like to extend my very best wishes for you search for the perfect job; I trust you will be successful very soon.

Sincerely

xxxx xxxxxxxxx
Director R&D
xxxxxxx
Austin, TX

Also today I cleaned egg off of my car. I have no idea how long it had been there since I have not used my car for a few weeks. It has eaten into the paint and so has left a stain. I also tried to figure out where the leak in the cooling system is but couldn't.

I also did 100 PCR's and was a little happy when I saw the band marked with an arrow. Unfortunately I am a dumass since I later realised that it is my positive control! Oh well.

cmaaaaawn, get in there?

2006-06-15T21:19:00.000-05:00

I have to say that I am pleased to be away from England whilst the World cup is on. In fact, I was lucky enough to have been in Texas for the last one too (one two?). Association football is one of the things I miss the least about home.

Having said that, this is what I wore to work today.

And I did get a little excited at the end of the game, but that was probably more down to the fact that I had England down to win in the competition we have going at work.

Acclimatisation Example

2006-06-06T23:56:00.000-05:00

This morning, in the neighbourhood near the university, I passed a Turkey Vulture. As I got close it flew off with a dead squirrel in its claws.

A few years ago I would have been amazed by that.

Superb!

2006-06-05T17:01:00.000-05:00

This is the latest wonderful handmade gift that my prize winning girlfriend has made for me. It goes well with the present my friends gave me for finishing my PhD.

Great but confusing deal

2006-06-01T00:29:00.000-05:00

I few weeks ago I hired a car for the weekend for $10 a day. A great deal from Enterprise. Last weekend I hired another car of the same class for a couple of days and they charged me $25 a day. I thought that this was because last weekend was a holiday weekend and so the prices were probably higher. It turns out that I was wrong. If you hire a compact/economy car from Friday to Monday they charge you for four days at $10. That makes $40 for the rental. It turns out that if you hire the same car for two days they charge you $25 a day and thus $50 for the rental!!

It don't make no sense to me bubba.

Honestly, I'm not fixated by poo but I just found my birthday card from Rebecca and thought I'd show it to you because it is very funny. Click for a larger image.

Small Differences

2006-05-29T21:24:00.000-05:00

On our last trip to the panhandle I noticed this paper lying on table. It's one of those glossy papers they slip in with the newspaper which advertises the deals on at the local supermarket. Nothing unusual there you might think. But what caught my eye was the strange looking thing on the left so I opened up the paper and this is what I saw...

Yes, that's right, in the prime advertising space of the centre, normally reserved for that bargain gallon of milk, deliciously cheap strawberries, juicyly affordable steak, naughtily inexpensive ice cream or cake, there was instead... A giant tongue!!!

It's small things like this which remind me every now and then that life is a little different here, and even more so in the Texas Panhandle.

What is the World coming to?

2006-05-16T22:34:00.000-05:00

I don't want this blog to become a bogblog but I have to tell you about my latest airport toilet experience. Whilst on the way back from South Carolina, where we played in the USA rugby division II national finals, we had a lay over in Chicago O'Hare airport. Whilst there I found a rather amusing, and in my opinion badly designed, useless contraption attached to the toilet seat of the bathroom I used. It was called a Sani-Seat and is a continuous plastic sleeve that surrounds the seat itself. When you waved your hand in front of a sensor the entire sleeve was pulled from one end until the seat was covered in fresh unused plastic. It was quite amazing. As I have previously mentioned I find toilet seat covers a bit silly but I think this one really takes the biscuit (I expect that is an English phrase). To contain all that plastic, a rather large box is placed on the back of the toilet seat which meant, at least in my case, that there was not enough room to sit down and still get your bits to point in a convenient direction for using them as they are meant. Actually, to use my tackle it had to touch the inside of the bowl. This made for a rather uncomfortable and unhygenic experience (the opposite intention of the invention I suspect). I suppose women wouldn't have that problem. I really think it is just silly silly silly.

I don't think that you can get a real idea of what I mean from what I have said here so I recommend going to this website. You should also try the short demonstration of the sani seat in action here and if you have time the other videos are quite amusing, especially the news clips.

hmmmm...

2006-05-10T14:07:00.000-05:00

Inactivity makes me lethargic

Lethargy makes me inactive

There are many things which can get you out of this cycle, for example food, drink, music, exercise, sexual climax, work, sleep.

There are also many things which can get you into this cycle, for example food, drink, music, exercise, sexual climax, work, sleep.

hmmm, tricksy.

Return of the funny pooer

2006-05-05T19:28:00.000-05:00

After my previous comments on the subject, I thought I’d give you a little update. Recently, I have found the toilet seat covered with a little blanket of paper on a number of occasions. Not only that but whoever is doing this is now double layering with paper! I don’t know if this means that a different person is doing it or my poo schedule has just become more closely aligned with whoever has been doing it all along.

I found an interesting/funny letter on the subject of disease transmission via toilet seats. Bare in mind that the person who is doing this is working in a molecular biology building and is a man. To me that should mean that they should know better, or at least not give a damn! I would think that there are many more ‘nasty bugs’ on our keyboards, mouses, lab tools etc. Maybe I could search for the culprit by looking for who wears rubber gloves to type emails.

It wouldn’t bother me so much but the flushing system is pretty inefficient so it means that I have to flush more than once. Also it is rather hypocritical of the person who has used it to leave it behind. They presumably use this anal methodology because they don’t want their clean little bottie touching the toilet seat, but by leaving the evidence behind they are making the next person touch their bum cooties when removing the paper! What if the next patron was as compulsive about this? They’d probably have a fit. Perhaps I am going over the top now. It’s Friday, I should go for a beer.

Thirty wasn’t so bad after all

2006-05-05T18:53:00.000-05:00

I haven't 'blogged' for a while, but I bet you weren't expecting me to be 33 when I came back!

The last few weeks have been pretty interesting. We had golf ball size hail stones. I saw my first rattle snake (actually my first land snake of any kind) - Rebecca's Dad shot it in the head, six times. I started applying for jobs which is stressing me out. The rugby club won Texas division II and went on to become runners up in the Western Union and we now go on to the 'sweet sixteen's' in Columbia, South Carolina next weekend.
Rugby brings me back to the premature aging that I have been experiencing... whilst at the Saltgrass last Friday, after beating the St Louis Ramblers, our captain decided to tell the waitress it was my birthday (My real one is actually in December) and I got a free cheesecake with a candle in it. That evening whilst out for dinner with the rest of the rugby club they all sang happy birthday to me and got the wait staff to come in and sing a song to me whilst clapping furiously (it's an American thing).

Happy Birthday was again sang to me at breakfast the next day and then again at C Hunts bar on Tuesday night after training and again in the dark at Nasty's during another enormous storm this Thursday night. Hence I am now approximately 33 years old. All very silly but it does kind of make up for sitting alone on my real birthday with a beer and a movie and then going to bed early!

Caption Competition

2006-04-04T22:08:00.000-05:00

Andy took this photo when we took him and my brother to the Austin rodeo a couple of weeks ago. Click on the image for a bigger picture.

A Funny Feeling

2006-03-25T14:00:00.000-06:00

Last week my brother came to see me. We had a lot of fun touring about Texas seeing the sites. I drove about 1500 miles so this weekend I will mostly be staying in Austin and riding my bicycle!

On the way back from Dallas to Austin we stopped in Waco for some Texas barbeque at Rudy’s. After pulling off the highway towards the restaurant a funny feeling came over me. I didn’t quite know what was going on, I was confused and I couldn’t work out why. Was it the tiredness of driving and playing rugby after a slightly late night at the chicken? dehydration? the couple of beers after the game?

And then I realised…

I was on a roundabout! You see, they don’t do roundabouts around these parts (but maybe they should). In fact, that is the third one I have driven on and only the fourth or fifth I have seen in America. It’s a good job they don’t have many of them because this was designed all wrong. The approach to the roundabout turned to merge into traffic. This meant that to see if any cars were coming from my left I had to look through my rear passengers’ window but to see if there were any vehicles on the roundabout I needed to look through the windscreen. I miss proper roundabouts. I think they would be the biggest problem for an american driver in the UK. Next time I’m home I’d like to go on the magic roundabout in Swindon. That thing is just genius.

Mainly I just like accelerating away from dual carriageway roundabouts in second and going through the gears up to 70 or 80 mph (remember that second to thrid shift in the VW Bert?). If you are lucky there will then be another roundabout to slow down for to repeat the process. This annoys Rebecca a lot when she is trying to sleep because she gets thrown around. But she annoys me by driving over speed bumps and making the bump be on my side of the car so I guess we are even!

Classic from the BBC

2006-03-09T10:45:00.000-06:00

The president is better acquainted with baseball techniques than cricket.

This picture and caption are my favourite from a selection of very amusing pictures on the BBC website taken when George Bush tried his hand at cricket in Pakistan. The rest of the photos can be seen here. And the BBC is running a caption competition for one of them here.

Skunk Suicide Month

2006-03-06T22:12:00.000-06:00

Today, on my drive along the presidential corridor, I saw an amazing amount of skunks. There was one every few miles. The had all expired already though and it made for a particularly unpleasant smelling trip.

After this I was not surprised to discover that the skunk is a very short lived animal and only around 10% survive past three years. This is partly due to the fact that they cannot see very well past 3 metres and because people like to run them over, shoot or poison them. Apparently it is breeding season at the moment so maybe the ones I saw were all the post-coital lethargic males. If that is the case, at least they died happy.

It's fun being a boy

2006-02-28T23:31:00.000-06:00

The good thing about having a Y chromosome is that you never have to grow up. This is displayed in a fascination with poo and actions involving poo.

I have always been intrigued by the disposable toilet seat covers that you see in public toilets. We don’t have them at work but apparently we should since a couple of times I have gone into a cubicle and found a neat little patchwork quilt of toilet paper covering the seat. Anyway, back to the covers. Last Thursday I decided to try one out at the airport, whilst waiting for my flight to LA. This particular toilet had one of those sensors that automatically flush the toilet when it thinks you are done. Whilst bending to take out one of the covers the toilet flushed. Whilst trying to work out which way around the thing was supposed to go on the toilet it flushed again, almost flushing the cover down the pan. It wasn’t very comfortable and I think I put it down the wrong way around (since the gap for my john thomas was at the back!). I always thought they were a bit silly and now I know that they are not. They are completely ridiculous.

Why would you want paper stuck to your behind whilst on a call of nature? It moved with me and I had to peel myself away from it when I stood up. Of course, the toilet flushed when I did this and then again when I bent over to pick up my bag. You should always try things at least once but I wouldn’t recommend wasting time with a toilet seat cover.

Over the weekend I did come to realise that I love the way the English language has so many words or phrases for the same thing. I wonder how many ways you can say that you are going for a poo. I like the one I first heard from Bert – ‘dropping the kids off at the pool’. Post your favourite to the comments.

Personal Radio Station

2006-02-17T21:11:00.000-06:00

I found this website t'other day that a few people in my lab have been using. You tell it a song that you like and it searches the music genome project for music that is similar. You can tell it whether or not you like a particular song that it picks out for you and using all this information it tailors the songs to your tastes. I love it. Apparently it will have commercials soon but right now it is pretty much commercial free and if you pay then it will always be commercial free.

www.pandora.com

Valentine's Quote

2006-02-14T23:54:00.000-06:00

My friend JD said something funny to me today on the way to the bar after rugby training.

"You know, I'd quite like to have a girlfriend. But f**k Valentine's day"

It made me chuckle as we made our way to the bar to meet a bunch of married or otherwise attached blokes for a couple of beers. I don't have too much against the idea of Valentine's day but the commercialisation has got out of control here and, as far as I remember, the UK is not far behind either.

Is it a bird, is it a plane...

2006-01-29T17:23:00.000-06:00

This is a confusing time of year for root vegetables. Last week it was Burns night which brings with it the debate of whether the vegetable that you eat with the Haggis is a turnip (neep), as it is known in Scotland, or a swede as it is called in England. Whilst shopping last week here in Texas I found that the confusion doesn't end there. The poor vegetable can also be know as a Rutabaga!

An experience I don't wish to repeat

2006-01-18T22:56:00.000-06:00

Last Saturday, I didn't drink a single beer after playing rugby in Houston. It wasn't really deliberate, just an unfortunate turn of events. I don't plan on it happening again. I had a terrible night's sleep tossing and turning with my aches and pains. And what's worse, I still felt hungover on Sunday anyway!

Austin Texas Baby!

2006-01-10T23:43:00.000-06:00

In the words of the Texas quarterback the national college football trophy is coming 'all the way to ow-stin Texas Baby!'. Last week the University of Texas won the college football national title. It was an amazing game that went right to the final whistle and would have had you on the edge of your seat no matter what sport you like. Because of that game I've now learned about the NFL draft whereby all the best players from the team will now get snapped up by the professional teams in some kind of weird lottery where the worst team gets first pick. In fact, some professional teams were trying not to win anymore games so that they would get the best pick of the amateur players for next season. All seems a bit weird to me, but then so does millions of people watching a university sports team. The picture above is of the tower on the university campus. I joined hundreds of other people on Sunday night to get a shot of the tower lit up like this. The whole town has gone crazy. 2000 commemorative t-shirts were sold within a few hours of the game finishing and the students are not even in town right now!

Xylophone Man

2006-01-04T17:50:00.000-06:00

I was saddened to hear today that Xylophone Man passed away back in 2004. Some nice tributes and an amusing interview with the man himself can be seen here though.

Austin is so weird...

2005-12-30T23:16:00.000-06:00

...that even the transvestites can get pregnant. Well, I suppose that's a ways off biologically speaking but the one that I met on the bus the other day must have had a prosthetic bump or a very convincing pot belly. Either way, it was far more convincing than his/her boobs which were about a foot apart, saggy and with seemingly permanent erect nipples. He/she asked me to sign his/her petition as he/she was trying to get into the election for some sort of state government. The bus driver told him/her off for 'soliciting' me on public transport. He/she then had a discussion with the bus driver about the meaning of solicitation and then got off the bus.

It was all rather amusing, just like many a bus journey in Austin since the majority of people who use public transport are either 'weird' or 'poor' or both. But a town needs characters like the guy/gal I met. I remember the crazy man in Salisbury who used to ride his bike around the market square no handed. Of course Salisbury is far too upper class and white to approve of such fun so he was moved on. Then there was the guy in Nottingham who used to play random 'tunes' on a kids xylophone. I think he did eventually learn 'happy birthday' and 'we wish you a merry Christmas'. Perhaps he was working on the proving theory that eventually a group of chimps would write the bible if given keyboards. And in Austin we have Leslie who even ran for mayor. He/she has a frightening resemblance to Billy Connolly and I include a photo for you.

Texas Christmas

2005-12-28T23:04:00.000-06:00

Christmas was a little different this year. I spent it away from home for the first time in my life. There was no alcohol. There was James Bond though. My family were great and managed to get gifts and cards to me in plenty of time and I was very touched buy them all. Rebecca's family made me feel very welcome as always and we had a great time enjoying the country life. I came back with 2 rabbits, 12 quail, and a 3lb Bass.

I just slow cooked one of the rabbits in the crock pot for 8 hours with some potatoes, onions, carrots, rosemary, bay leaves, red wine and water after having rubbed salt, pepper and garlic into the meat the night before. I gotta tell you that was some tasty bunny!

One of the hardest things this year was not being able to meet up with all my mates in Nottigham for my birthday which has been a tradition for many years now. Most of them did manage to meet up without me though and I chatted with them on the phone which was nice and made it seem more like a normal birthday.

I guess the conclusion is that I have wonderful friends and family. And sometimes the World gets to feeling a little smaller.

Thanks y'all, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Cross-fit

2005-12-13T00:31:00.000-06:00

A friend of mine has introduced me to a fitness website called crossfit. There is a work out posted each day in the style of a blog. The work outs are short and use minimal equipment and can be tailored to any level of fitness by changing the exercises slightly or using less weight etc. Most work outs last 15-20 minutes and many would be ideal whilst watching TV. I recommend you try it out.

Today I did last Saturday's work out with push ups instead of pull ups. It entailed doing 1 in the 1st minute 2 in the 2nd etc until you could not complete the number within the corresponding minute. I managed 15 minutes plus 9 in the 16th making a total of 129. I thought that sounded ok until I saw that people had been doing over 200 pull ups!!! I'm not sure I could manage 2!

Takes a little getting used to

2005-12-08T09:48:00.000-06:00

I don't remember it being like this last year but the weather has been crazy this year. In September we were expecting a hurricane but ended up with a scorching hot dust-bowl of a weekend. I've been swimming outside and catching some sun in December. But this week really took the biscuit. On Saturday night I was outside partying until after 4am in shorts and a short sleeved shirt yet yesterday afternoon whilst I was driving home at 4pm the moisture in the air was freezing on my windscreen! This morning it's still well below freezing and the University is closed. Most of the schools seem to be closed too along with many businesses. Quite amazing.

Lost

2005-12-02T00:25:00.000-06:00

I got lost in the music of Keane on the way home from Nasty's. This promted a 'deep and meaningful'. Unfortunately this was with myself. Is this is a product of age or geography? I was going to pontificate with you but by the time the computer booted up the moment was...

Gobble Gobble Gobble

2005-11-30T23:44:00.000-06:00

It's a fun time of year to be in the states. Last week it was Thanksgiving when, unusually, Americans actually take off from work and don't do much except eat, drink, and watch football. It's like a warm up for Christmas. The day after Thanksgiving is the biggest shopping day of the year. Also, as soon as the day is over, out come the Christmas lights. The houses are now festooned with crazy amounts of lights in all shapes and sizes. It must be awesome to own an electricity company at this time of year!
This year I spent Thanksgiving in Dallas with Rebecca's Mom's family which was really good fun. The Aggies gave the Longhorns quite a scare, but most interesting of all was the treat Uncle Lee had in store for us. He deep fried a 20lb turkey! That was the most amazing turkey I have ever eaten in my life. It was so tender and succulent. Even the leftovers the next day were still not in the least bit dry.
I guess this is the next step in my red-neck evolution.
The next Turkey I see will hopefully be through cross hairs. Roll on Christmas in the Panhandle...

2-3 pint baby?

2005-11-25T09:37:00.000-06:00

Finally, the licensing laws have changed back home so you may be able to have a pint of bitter after 11 o'clock down your local (legally). I think a change in the laws is long overdue. However, I would question the decision to move to '24 hour' drinking just at the beginning of the biggest binge drinking season of the year. It got me wondering, how many births in August/September 2006 will be because of that extra few pints Mum or Dad had at the office Christmas party?

More sensible views can be seen here

Return of the Phil

2005-11-16T22:09:00.000-06:00

I've been a little busy of late. Both sets of my parents came over to see me in quick succession and then I've been writing a paper. I thought that I missed writing my thesis until now!

Because of the writing I've been away from the lab for three weeks. I returned the other day to start setting up some experiments. The first thing I did was to use the microwave to melt some media. The microwave plate was covered in agarose that someone had boiled over and left to set. So I disposed of it in the bin, only to find that the bin was so full that the lid was balancing up in the air. Funnily enough, the bin right next to it was empty! In the process of doing this I needed gloves and my box had run out so I went to the storeroom only to find (shock horror!) empty shelves where the gloves should be. Even more shocking was that when I told my little tale of misfortune to Karl (whose job it is to deal with the full bins) I found out that nobody had even bothered to tell him that we had filled nearly all the bins.

I sent out an e mail to the lab explaining to them all that I had missed them so much over the past few weeks.

Most of the cheeky boggers thought I'd been on holiday! And the next time I went to use the microwave it was full of agarose again! Is it any wonder I am frustrated with this lab?