Ben and Nic

Merry Christmas

2008-12-25T22:06:00.005Z

It was just me and Ben this year, the first time it's been just the two of us since we've been here.

(First christmas over here we were at Mel's, the second at home in Aus, and last year we had Forgi and Ben)

It was nice, but very different. We both agreed we had a fantastic day, but that it didn't feel like christmas, partly because we weren't sharing it with everyone!

So to help share it with everyone, we have made a web album on Picasa, it's available here.

Merry christmas everyone, and have a fantastic year, we plan to!

Nic and Ben

Ben's latest cooking delicacy

2007-08-12T21:03:00.000Z

Today Ben took Nic's request for a crispier pizza a bit too far! oops! :-D

Slackers

2007-07-24T17:15:00.000Z

Yes, yes, we know. We are slackers. Since we last posted we have been to various places which we were going to post about and then fell behind so didn't post anything... (a bit like my lab book actually... hmm...)

And so, here's the plan: We will briefly mention what we have done since then. If we get a request to post about it, we will. In the mean time, we will assume we are now up to date and hopefully try to be some what more active on our blog! Yay!

So... Since March 2006 we have done the following things and spent some amazing times with some fantastic people!

Mike and Jan Robbins visited us May - June '06, leaving us for a spell and then coming back again! Ali Droop kindly offered them bed in his terrace house where ben and I were renting at the time, so we got to have them under the same roof as us which was great! thanks Ali!

While they were here, we:

- visited Whitby
- went Puffin watching (they are very cute, and hard to spot!)
- went walking in Malham and Bolton Abbey (in the Yorkshire Dales)
- went to Ambleside (in the Lake District) where we did walking and some rowing (!)

Uschi and Rich Norris and Kathy Ryan visited us in June '06 (while M&J were elsewhere) and we had a fantastic week looking around the York area and Castle Howard.

In December we went back to Australia for almost 6 weeks, where we had a fantastic time socialising with family and friends in Canberra, Jervis Bay and Sydney

In Feb '07 we moved just down the road from where we were living with Ali Droop to our own rented terrace house! :)

Maz Crompton visited in April '07 and I went with her to Haworth in the Yorkshire Moors where the Bronte family spent most of their lives -picturesque, and GPS in cars is very funny, they try to take you the most direct route, which when travelling through a major city like Leeds, is not necessarily the fastest route!

Mike Robbins visited and stayed with us May-June '07, again leaving us for a spell and then coming back again! While he was here, we visited:

- Edinburgh where we had a fantastic hot chocolates 'palate' (we each tried 5 hot chocolates! yummy!)
- Yorkshire moors and Riveaux Abbey

And we had Griff Ware turn up two days after he confirmed he was coming in June '07 where he stayed with us while ostensibly doing uni work in Leeds - but we know it was really his evil twin plotting to take over the world and meanwhile keep his mind in shape by beating us at board games!

And, today, we just got back from a beautiful week in Barcelona where we met up with Uschi, Rich and Allie Norris and had a ball. And I fell in love with the architecture of Gaudi. I want to post some photos of that, but Dad took most of the photos and I have to wait til he sends them to me!

- nic

London some time ago

2006-09-03T13:43:00.000Z

Around March this year Ben and I went to London to see the musical FAME! as a wonderful Birthday present from my parents! So at last I am going to post some photos from that fun weekend.

This is the hotel room we stayed. Very nice! :)

Saturday

On the first day we went for a walk around the Whitehall area.

One of the busy London Squares.

A caged garden in the middle of town!

Architectural differences!

We mustn't let him out! ;-)

The eye of London. York has one now too, copy cat! But they wouldn't let it be put in town so it's out near the Railway museum. hehe!

Big Ben! :-)

Me next to a guard. Dad took a photo similar to this in Canada next to a Canadian guard which he loves, so I couldn't reisist adding to his collection!

After a fun but very cold day in London we hate some great Japanese food (there aren't any Jap restaurants in York and Ben and I have missed them lots!) and went to see the musical. We had fantastic seats, about three rows from the front!

Just before the show started!

The musical itself was great. Neither Ben nor I thought much of the first half, but the second half more than made up for it, with much better songs, excellent dancing and some nice plot movement (which to be fair, was set up in the first half). Well worth it! :-)

Sunday

The next day we went to Camden markets, which was very touristy and we didn't actually buy anything. And then we were going to go to the London Museum but decided that we were too tired and cold so went to see V for Vengence at the humongous Odeon in town. A great experience and an interesting movie!

While we were waiting for the movie to start we grabbed a hot choc and people watched, and also found this:

I really like this movie! Its about love after marriage, and Billy Crystal is a brilliant comedian and actor.

After a second Japanese dinner (this time at restaurant chain called Wamagama - very nice!) we caught a late train home having had heaps of fun!

Thanks heaps mum and dad!

- nic

Late night, double feature picture show, I want to go!

2006-05-27T10:03:00.000Z

We went and saw a live performance of Rocky Horror show last night. Hell yea! :-D

It was great.

Excellent audience participation from the beginning (picture all audience members doing the time warp together and Ben sitting in his seat looking rather bemused! - he joined in during the encore!)... and some excellent one liners from the narrator, who was very good. Rocky himself, was just a feast of the eyes... Muscles... hmmmm muscles :D. 'I'm a muscle fan!' And the Frank N Furter wasn't Tim Curry (that would be a bit wrong at Tim's age anyway!) ... but he was bloody good, and he had a great time hamming it up too!

It was soo much fun. :)

And of course, cos its Rocky, you have to get dressed up... :) Thanks to Mel for the corset!

Competition for best caption! ;-) (no we don't have a prize, you just get to feel good that you are clever!)

cheers,

-nic

Well we've now moved

2006-05-16T12:06:00.000Z

Just a quick one to say we have moved. It all went well and only took sat.

We have no Net at home at the moment so unlikely to be any new post for about 1-2 weeks.

We are Moving!

2006-05-13T07:44:00.000Z

Hi all,

Today we are moving houses! We are leaving our studio flat, with its much loved view and much hated tiny kitchen and only one main room... to a Terrace House built circa 1900! :-)

It's beautiful, quaint, very English, and has more than one room! yea! Downstairs is a hallway, with a sitting room on the left, at the end of the hallway to the left is the stairs to up-stairs, and straight in front of that is the living room, and then a small kitchen which still manages to have more benchspace than our current flat... and then in front of that a bathroom.

Upstairs are two bedrooms. We are staying in one. The owner of the house is staying in the other.... Yes we are moving back into a shared house arrangement!

The owner is a fellow first year PhD student, Alastair (we call him Ali). He is studying complex systems, which equals computers + biology, which in turn means that both Ben and I have a lot in common with him! We met him at the beginning of January. Since then, we have become excellent friends with him, seeing him recently about 5 times a week, sharing dinners, and just generally having a good time. So moving in with him will just be making it easier to spend time with someone we already spend a lot of time with. :-D

He only bought the house about a month and a half ago, and we have been helping him decide how to furnish it (go Ikea porn!) and then helping him put together lots of flatpack furniture (suprisingly satisfying, and very tiring).

And now, having found someone to replace us here, we are moving! It didn't take us very long to find someone, we thought we would have to advertise but the University of York Accommodation Office had a waiting list for the flat, and found someone on it for us! yea!

Okay, I guess I need to actually go and start packing... (we've given ourself this weekend to move and clean the flat, though we are hoping to do it all today, we think that's realistic since we only moved from Aus 6 months ago with only two suitcases of stuff, and haven't yet managed to increase that by too much).

So take care everyone, and there'll be photos soon. (but not too soon cos there's no net access at Ali's yet... though that will be coming in the next couple of weeks)

Ciao,

nic.

I hate Ebuyer.com

2006-04-26T10:04:00.000Z

Well as some of you know I build myself a new computer just a while ago, and it's nice :) but my motherboard has a faulty ram slot and after much cajoling by nic and think maybe some of the crashes I have aren’t all do with XP 64x, I should return it.
So I look on the Ebuyer web site, and they say if I return it to Asus I’ll save up to 6 weeks :) so I’m thinking :) sweet. So I look at the Asus web site find nothing about returning it except that it says I should do it through the people I bought it from, so I ring them just to check, and yes that’s the case. so I ring Ebuyer (1) and they say I need a Ref number from Asus, So I ring Asus again and they say no you don't, talk to Ebuyer (at this point I’m a bit annoyed) so I ring Ebuyer (2)and they say ok, so I get a RMA number (return number) from them and it tells me to post it by registered post unless it's over £5, so I go to the post office and find out it would cost £18.5 so I do as I’m told and ring Ebuyer again (3) and they say ok we'll get someone to come and pick it up. So I fill in there web form and arrange to have some one pick it up from nic at work. This was yesterday they went to the wrong place and didn't have her number :( grrrr. so I ring Ebuyer (4+5) after nic has rung them to say I can talk to them about it (it's all in her name due to credit cards) and they after saying it's all my fault (it's not) reset the pick up bit so I can have it picked up. So I’d just like to say I HATE EBUYER AND NEVER WANT TO TALK TO THEM AGAIN EVER. I would recommend that if any one is thinking of getting stuff from them DON'T.

Now A word from our Sponsor

2006-04-25T12:43:00.000Z

Well I though I should post something on here about the fact that I’ve had a job for the last two months but have been to slack to do a post.
I'm working at the University of Leeds in the Bio department. Doing the same kind of thing I was at ANU is not the most exciting work but it gets me money. The most annoying thing about it is the 1 1/2h trip each way :(

Apart from that my motherboard had issues so I’ve had to send it back (after much ringing on my part trying to get them to take it grrr.)

Well as I’m at work I should really do some so I will post more later.

My arm is better

2006-04-04T18:57:00.000Z

For those of you who don't know, my arm is now officially recovered. :-)

Monday a week ago I had my last physio appointment, and the next day I saw Mr. De Boer's current registrar who said he thought he would let me go. I told him I had played Hockey on the weekend with no ill effects, he laughed and said he would definitely let me go!

:-)

I can straighten my left arm a couple of degrees less than I can straighten my right arm, but both the physio and the registrar said my right arm can hyperextend, and in fact I have what they would call 'normal' extension back in my left arm.

I would like to thank everyone who has shown their concern and sent their well wishes my way, it is greatly appreciated!

My Christmas Break

2006-04-01T18:15:00.000Z

Long time, no post… and I have quite a few photos from the Christmas Holidays, so I thought I would share, at last! (yes I do realize this is three months late).

My Break

First off, as Ben explained in the previous post, I broke my elbow the Monday before Christmas. Technically, I fractured my left coronoid process (that’s the ‘cup’ at the tip of my ulna that stops my upper arm bone from dislocating). I also had a ‘subluxed elbow,’ which means that I had a ‘minor’ dislocation, such that the two dislocated bones were still touching.

My surgeon, Mr. De Boer, originally told me they would have to put an internal pin in, which would have stayed in permanently holding my elbow together. However, when they moved my arm around while I was under a general anesthetic, Mr. De Boer decided that I didn’t need one. However, my elbow wasn’t stable enough for a cast, which still allows some internal movement. Therefore, I woke up feeling very groggy and was completely taken a back to find an aluminium brace on my arm and four pins going into the bones from outside!

This is what it looked like the day I got out of hospital (Thursday).

And this is what it looked like around Christmas day. I was informed by Mr. De Boer that the contraption on my arm was worth £3000!

Our Christmas

We spent Christmas with a wonderful, generous ex-Melbournite, Mel Thomson. She has lived here for 10 years or so and is married to a policeman, Simon. They live in a place about an hour’s drive from York, called Goole. It is, by her own admission, out in the sticks! But they have a beautiful old house with multiple rooms. Mel says she couldn’t give up her Australian dream of having a decent-sized house! And because she has the room, she likes having extras over for Christmas. This year she had us, Simon’s parents, and Lindsay, a post-doc from her lab who is originally from Perth.

This is Mel’s living room, real pine Christmas tree and all! The window looks out onto the reinforced banks of the River Ouse.

Mel in her kitchen with her turkey.

Me on Christmas morning. I am wearing Mel’s kimono which we discovered was one of the few things that fit around my arm brace! The little purple magnetic man was one of my Chirstmas presents to Ben. The other one was a magnetic board game called Polarity, which is really cool. Lindsay and Ben played it pacing around the table like it was a pool table that was about to explode so they didn’t disturb the magnets! Highly amusing!

Christmas lunch! Yummy food!

And then on Boxing day, it snowed! Yay, our first real snow!

I was so excited I went and danced in the snow. Ben went and laughed at me and took photos. Note that I am actually dancing on gravel, substantially less slippery than the nearby pavement! I was excited, but I wasn’t so excited as to want to slip on ice again!

On the Wednesday after Christmas we went home, having had a fantastic, relaxing time with everyone.

Snow

Soon after, it snowed again, and I got a bit trigger happy with my camera:

Its snowing outside our window!

The view from our flat after snow.

A frozen spiderweb.

Snow clouds!

Place holder

2006-04-01T17:40:00.000Z

your post here.

some people will understand. :)

Pre christmas excitement

2005-12-21T22:56:00.000Z

Well as some of you know Nic broke her left arm on Monday at about 9am.

She was walking to work and slipped on some ice on the path, fell over backwards and put out her arms to break her fall (which they did kind off)

We then went to (after she called me and I came to get her) the uni health center and they said we had to go to casualty, so they called us a taxi.

We got a casualty about 10am and checked in, the sign said that there was a 2h wait, but luckily we only had to wait about 1h, then got to see a nurse. He had a look at it and then put nic in a bed to wait to an x-ray, while waiting they put a catheter (I think that what it’s called) in her arm and gave her some morphine. So we sat around and waited, so they x-rayed her arm and found out what she’d done.

The elbow joint is like a u cup and a ball nic had broken off one side of the u and it was now detached.

At about this point I needed food as I had had nothing to eat all day, so went to get a chocolate bar, when I came back the othepeditian had turned up and was telling us what had happened.

At this point I went home and nic was taken up to the ward.

While getting stuff ready for nic and having something to eat (umm food) Mel turned up which was a nice surprise and gave me a lift back in to the hospital.

Spoke to nic and found out she was going to have surgery so looked like she'd be in for 2-3 days.

Tuesday

Spent the morning cleaning and called about 12pm as asked to find out what was happening with Nic, she was out of surgery at that point but groggy so decided to go in about 3pm. talk to her and saw the new cast kind of thing.

She has 4 pins going through the skin and in to the bone and a set of rods and clamps to hold it all in place so it doesn’t move.

Go to sleep some time after 1am due to flats next door having a party, went and told them to be quite.

Wednesday

Woke up about 10am by cleaning lady (I’d completely forgotten that she was coming) and then at about 10:30 got a call from nic saying could I come in for 1pm to learn how to change her dressing, now given she was getting discharged today I though I’d walk in so needed to leave about 12, leaving me almost no time for lunch, so made a quick pizza and left. It took me 45 min of fast walking to get there and I arrived at 12:45, just in time to be asked (not very nicely) to wait in the day room till lunch was over (they where running late) so at about 1:30 (I was glad I had my book) me having only eaten ¾ of a thin pizza with fresh tomato and mushroom (so as to be there on time, grr) I was aloud in to see nic again, at about 2 we asked where the nurse was and when I’d get shown how to do the dressing, the nurse said the other nurse was having her lunch and would be back around 2:30, so I went to buy a top nic could ware (I’d forgotten to bring one).

At 2:40 we asked again where the nurse was and this time she came, so we went in to the little room they use for that kind of thing and after her and me washing our hands and putting on plastic aprons she started to cut away nics bandages, it was during this process that I started to feel light headed and then fainted.

So I came to on the floor with about 4-5 nurses around me and they put me in a wheelchair and then in to a free bed.

I feel I should say at this point that I think the fainting could have something to do with lack of food and no protein over the past two days.

So after that I sat in the bed for a while and then got up and went to see nic, one of the pins in her arms was weeping and so they decided to keep her in over night again to see how often the bandage would need changing, as I was deemed unfit for the job.

I don’t know you faint once and it’s all over, though the nurse who had been kind of rude before that was nicer after.

So I stayed around till about 5:30 and then came home, on the way doing some shopping and had a nice stake and sweet cord for dinner :)

And that up to now

I or nic will post more later

Ben

Around the Univeristy of York

2005-12-18T18:45:00.000Z

I am finally going to post photos from around the campus and my lab!

Around Campus

A few Sundays ago, Ben and I went for an invigorating walk around the artificial lake that is the central part of campus. This walk was an excellent opportunity to take photos of what the campus looks like – even if Ben did get a bit grumpy at times waiting for me to get a good shot while he stood there getting cold!

But first, here is a map of campus. Circled in red are places that I will talk about below:

29 – Wentworth College;
25 – James College;
37 – new Biology building;
27 – Vanbrugh College;
24 – Goodricke College;
2 – Central Hall;
B – Bridge that I took a photo of Ben standing on
Q – The Quiet Place
1 – Heslington Hall.

And in blue (because I didn’t take photos of it):

12 – the Sports Centre, and next to it, the hockey pitch where I play my home games of hockey, and have training.

As you can see, Biology and the hockey pitch are ridiculously close to where I live, at Wentworth.

So for our walk we basically started at home and walked along the top edge of the lake, to Heslington Hall (1) and then around the bottom edge, crossing the lake at the bridge near (25).

Wentworth College. Our flat is on the other side of the building, near the middle, third floor up. (The English call the bottom floor of a building the Ground level, where as at home it would be called the First level - so we are actually on the Second level.)

Looking across the lake at Goodricke College (24). This is a good example of how a lot of the buildings on campus are rather ugly, concrete blocks. However, it also shows how good landscaping throughout campus, which mainly consists of a lot of trees to hide the buildings, makes it all look rather picturesque anyway!

Central Hall (2). I just don’t know what they were thinking when they built this building! Ben and I reckon they were inspired by UFOs from sixties sci-fi!

Me in front of the token old building on campus – Heslington Hall (1). Most of the University grounds were once this manor’s grounds. A lot of the university administration is in this building – trust them to work in the cool bit!

Heslington Hall, viewed from the Quiet Place (see below).

Ben, as we head away from Heslington Hall, towards some odd-shaped hedges called the Quiet Place – a place for contemplation in, well, quiet!

In the middle of the Quiet Place.

Ben near a cool carving just after the Quiet Place, as we head back towards Wentworth.

Ben on a picturesque bridge across the lake. We didn’t cross the lake here, I made him go and stand on it cos I wanted a photo!

Looking across the lake towards Vanbrugh College (27). The odd pointy shapes on the roof are skylights. We think their shape is to stop snow building up on them… Another outcome of the 60-style architecture! I took the first three bird photos (see below) from the landing , in front of the buildings, where you can just make out gulls.

Finally, looking back from the front of our Wentworth block, towards the communal Wentworth building. Among other things, this building contains the mail room, Graduate Student Office and also the Kasbah (bar and cheap food, which is reasonable quality for the price). The Bridge is what I stood on to take the photo of our Wentworth Block.

Looking towards the end of the lake, looking towards James College (25). The bridge from the previous photo is just out of shot, to the left.

Campus bird life

One of the many advantages of having a lake is that it acts a haven for native birds. While a lot of students complain about the copious amounts of goose poo around the place, I think the pleasure of watching the birds far outweighs the inconvenience of occasionally walking around with a bit of poo on your shoe!

A duck. The university is so well known for its ducks, there is a picture of them on our student cards!

Gulls in flight. (After some encouragement to leave the landing from some energetically running students).

Geese, quite at home on campus!

Not lawn mowing, lawn geese-ing! Geese just outside Wentworth reception trimming the grass. I see the geese doing this all the time. The grass around campus is short, but I have never seen a grounds-person using a lawnmower!

Bird mob! I was taking a photo of the birds feeding, and they all started rushing towards us. Previous to this walk around the lake, Ben and I hadn’t observed the birds taking any notice of us… soon as we were out with a camera they couldn’t get enough of us! It is either the light from the camera, or they know tourists are more likely to feed them!

The Biology department and my lab

After our walk, I went and took some photos of my lab. The information here is mainly provided with my friends from The John Curtin School of Medical Research in mind, because I thought they would be interested, and because they are about to move from old closed-plan labs and offices to open-plan labs and offices, and the Biology department is open-plan.

This is the new Biology building (37). My lab and office space is on the first level, and my office desk is on this side of the building, facing the same stray that our flat faces, though the Biology carpark is in between us and the stray. The front doors are next to the blue sign, bottom right of the building.

The Biology Atrium. I am standing just inside the front doors. It’s a nice, awe inspiring space. The chairs and tables on the left are used for morning tea, but there is also a tea room in the old biology building. You reach the old part through the doors at the back of the atrium.

On the right (behind the white wall) is the Technology Facility. This is like a big version of the Biomolecular Rescource Facility at John Curtin. Some of the equipment they have includes: confocal, fluorescence and electron microscopes, flow cytometer, circular dichromator, fluorometer, surface plasmon resonance, isothermal titration calorimeter, MALDI and electrospray mass spectrometers, microarray analyzers, fermenters, three AKTAs and a bioinformatics computer suite. They do full services for all techniques, and can also train you up on most of them.

I don’t mean to go on about it, but the TF is one of the main reasons why my supervisor, Jen, was really excited about leaving Oxford and coming to York – and I can see why she got excited about it, it’s cool!

The stairs on the left of the photo lead up to the research labs. To reach my lab you go up one flight and turn left, towards the front of the picture, then turn right.

And coming through the doors, this is what you see. Welcome to L1 – deserted on a Sunday afternoon! To the left are the open-plan offices and to the right are the labs. I like the fact that the design encourages you to use this corridor as a thoroughfare, rather than behind people working at their desks. (see map, below).

A map of L1, our office and lab space. The previous photo was taken roughly from the place labeled ‘You are here’. I have shown in blue where my bench and office spaces are, as well as Jen’s office. I have also indicated in purple the communal lab rooms (centre) and communal bench running the length of the lab (right).

Looking into office area where my desk is. My chair is front, left. Nicky, the other member of my lab (she’s a post-doc), sits next to me. Out the window you can just make the greenery of the Stray.

My desk. Jen bought me a stand for the laptop I use, besides improving my posture a lot, it has a USB-hub with extra ports on it. The fluffy dog is all the way from Oz, courtesy of my close and truly awesome friend Alison (whose currently doing a PhD at Bambi, ANU).

Looking down in to the lab. The communal rooms are on the right, individual group’s benches on the left.

This is the communal ‘chemicals’ room. Every supervisor contributes a certain amount to a communal fund that pays for common chemicals, gloves, disposables, glass ware and plastic ware. I think this arrangement makes a lot of sense, both in terms of budget and space.

The other side of the lab. The communal bench is on the left. Under the bench is stored all communal glass and plastic ware, and on the bench are some communal and lab-specific equipment, such as UV-Vis spectrometers and bench-centrifuges.

My bench is on the right, and Nicky’s is on the left. The bench behind us (it's out of shot, on the right) is also ours, but we currently leave it free. It also has the lab’s supply of Milli-Q water. It’s convenient having that directly behind us!

Well, that brings me to the end of a tour of my lab.

As far as open-plan versus closed-plan office and lab space is concerned: I think it works quite well, particularly as far as the lab area is concerned. The noise in the office is a bit of a problem, supervisors tend to come out and have casual conversations with their students at their desk, making it harder to concentrate. I think making it clear that talking quietly is very important in the open office, and would help this problem. I do think the open space plan leads to more interaction between people from different lab groups. Being in such a small lab (Jen, Nicky and me), I have really appreciated this interaction.

I hope you have enjoyed this photographic tour… more after Christmas day, which Ben and I are spending with a fellow PhD student Mel at her farm house!

- Nic

A Day in the Life

2005-12-14T20:01:00.000Z

Well I’m final getting around to doing a post, mostly due to pestering from someone.

So I’m going to tell you all about my exciting average day

In the morning I’ll do some dishes read some stuff on the web and play some computer games.

In the afternoon I’ll do some dishes watch some TV, do some reading of computing stuff on the web.

And that pretty much one of my days

As you can see it’s really exciting, not.

But at some point I’ll do a longer post with some real content.

Our Studio Flat

2005-10-31T12:47:00.000Z

And now, as requested by quite a few people (mostly our parents!) this is where we live.

I am going to try and do two things. Firstly, I want to give you an idea of how all these pictures fit together, so I will try to orientate you in each one. Secondly, I am going to point out some rather odd design features of our flat because Ben and I find them amusing! :-)

First, from our front door looking in. This photo is to orientate you.

On the left: our bed and in the background, our study area. Out of sight, towards you, is some cupboard space and our bathroom.

On the right: in the foreground is our kitchen, in the midground is our dinner table, and behind that is a nook for a TV.

In the middle is a coffee table which is annoying more than useful, and an uncomfortable two-seater settee that I think we have sat on for a total of 10 minutes between the two of us! When we eventually get a TV the settee might be used to watch it, but I think it more likely that we will just watch on the bed!

This is taken from the dining table looking backtowards the front door. The wood-coloured door on the left is our front door, and the one in the middle is our bathroom. The other doors are our cupboards. The bed is a double which we still find too small, but at least its reasonably comfortable. There is also storage space under it, which is where we have our suitcases/bags.

I was a bit worried about storage space, but there is actually a lot of empty space in all our cupboards at this point, mainly because there is only so much you can bring over in a suitcase each! Ask me how the storage is going at the end of our year here....

This is our bathroom, which is tiny and space-rocket-like! The water goes under the curtain when we have a shower and makes the rest of the bathroom floor wet.

This is near the study space looking towards where our TV will go when we can afford one. You can also see our window, which looks like it's the perfect design for a balcony, with a window that opens like a door and everything... but yet, no balcony! Oh well, the view is still great!

This is our kitchen area. Of the two fridge-like things under the bench, one is a fridge and one is a freezer... This amount of freezer space is great because we like making up large meals and then freezing it in portions, which requires a good sized freezer.

Some odd things about our kitchen:

- All cupboards swing out sideways, despite having horizontal handles in the centre of the bottom of each door.

- The same goes for the Oven!!! Ben and I have never come across an oven door that swings sideways before!

- There are NO drawers (not even for cutlery or cooking utensils! GRRR)

- The only space for preparing food is in between the microwave and the 'hob' (i.e. stove-top) - its about the size of the stove top! Teeny!

- The hot water and cold water come out of the same tap (which is a nice change, for England, usually there are two different taps)... But:
- the cold water tap's handle is on the left hand side! (In the bathroom its around the right way, but there are two taps again!)
- and when you have both hot and cold water on, they don't mix properly so instead of warm water, one side of the water stream feels hot, and the other side feels cold!!

And finally, Ben at our study area. This is nice. It has a crazy amount of power points though, four pairs!

Having read all that, you would definitely be forgiven for thinking we don't like the place. But that's not actually true, we do like it, because it's new, spacier than we thought it would be, reasonably priced, close to town, and very, very close to where I study (less than 5 minutes walk away!). And if Ben gets the Uni IT job he's applying for at the moment (fingers crossed!) - it will be ridiculously close to where he lives too.

:-)

- nic.

The view from our flat

2005-10-20T12:51:00.000Z

When we arrived at Wentworth College, having not yet seen our flat, we were asked by a resident what flat we were in. We told her the room number and she said to us:

' I have the studio flat with one of the two best views in Wentworth. You have the other one.'

I happen to think its awesome. Judge for yourselves!

Some Sunsets

These were taken over the last couple of weeks. Fantastic!

During the day

Our first morning here we heard theses noises that sounded like a phone on vibrate. We couldn't for the life of us figure out what it was!

It was mooing!!!

The view from our window. The bars at the bottom of the picture are railings across the front of our window to stop us falling out... Ben took this picture to prove that we weren't lying... we really can see cows from our window!

See... close up shot!

What we are looking out on is called 'Walmgate Stray'. Its used for recreational activties and grazing livestock for free. Apparently fieldwork in the area revealed several lines of trenches, where soldiers practiced for fighting in the mud of the Western Front!

- nic

Picturesque York

2005-10-07T22:38:00.000Z

Here, at last, is the photographic evidence that York is Pretty.

I will also include some historical facts, all of which have been taken from our Lonely Planet Guide to Great Britain (courtesy of my wonderful grandmother – Thanks Inge, it's really useful!).

First, the Minster.

(It has to be first, because it's what everyone mentions when they say 'York is Pretty'... they follow that with 'especially the Minster!')

The Minster is UK's largest medieval cathedral. It is the seat of the archbishop of York, who is called ' the primate of England'. This position is second in importance only to Archbishop of Canterbury, who is known as 'the primate of all England' - the 'all' is there so it is clear that Canterbury is the true centre of the church in England!

The Lonely Planet calls it 'one of Europes most beautiful Gothic buildings' - which I would take their word for, because it is very Pretty. Well, I can testify the outside of it is anyway, we haven't gone inside yet.

Front of York Minster. It's hard to get a sense of how big it is. But to give you an idea, it's me that is wearing a pale blue top down the bottom, middle of the shot.

Side view of York Minster.

Diagonal view of York Minster, looking towards the front.

York Minster gargoyles

York Minster at twilight. The lighting is natural. Cool ha? :-)

Some other Pretty things around York

The Shambles. This small narrow street has overhanging Tudor buildings and is cool but very touristy. It's also very hard to take photos of because the slanty buildings make it look like you can't hold your camera straight!

The Shambles from the other end.

Part of the City Wall. York's city centre is surrounded by walls like this, which were built in the 13th Century. There are some walks you can do on regions of the wall, which Ben and I intend to do soon.

Botham Bar. This is one of many such Bars (i.e. Gates) in the City walls. I think they probably used to be the only entry points into the city. However, now there are lots of gaps in the wall, where main roads enter the city centre.

The River Ouse. In daylight this time! This is on the way from the B and B we stayed at, walking towards the City. This walk is called the Dame Judi Dench Walk. She is from York.

Ben waiting for me near the B and B. He is a Pretty thing in York! (yes, you are allowed to groan!).

Ben looking very happy with himself having found a store that sells Magic cards and other hobbies 'essential' to his existence! This was definitely Pretty to him!

Museum Gardens

We have also gone for a few walks and for some sit and reads in the Museum Gardens, which are in the northern end of the city centre, just inside the city walls. And Yep, you guessed it, they are near a museum! There are no photos of the Museum yet, but I have taken some of the other very Pretty buildings in the Gardens.

Panoramic shot of the ruins of St Mary's Abbey. The ruins date from 1270 to 1294. Ben is standing at the front near the right hand side of the shot, wearing dark clothes. (This size doesn't do it justice, especially given how long I spent trying to make the panorama look decent! - click on it and it should go to a higher res version).

Side view of St Mary's Abbey. (The is taken from the right hand side of the above photo, at right angles to it). The dark spots in the grass are outlines of where other walls used to be.

The Museum Gardens Lodge. It is apparently a 'neo-Gothic Revival' and dates from 1874.

Squarrels

During our wanderings in the Gardens, I got wowed by the squirrels (wildlife not native to Australia!) - and Ben and I had fun trying to take photos of them. We decided they were actually called 'Squarrels'. We got a lot of photos of their bottoms as they ran out of shot! Here are some we 'caught' (on film!).

Stalking Squarrel

Studious Squarrel

Flying Squarrel

Squarrel making a stand.

Demon Squarrel

And that is the end of my Marathon post.

I will at some point post pictures of the University campus and our flat. But for now, suffice to say the University is very green, and pretty once you get used to the square concrete 60s style buildings, which make up the majority of the buildings on campus. However, the Biology building where I am doing my PhD and our college, Wentworth, are both new buildings and very nice! So is our studio flat, and we definitely think that we will stay here for the full year of our tenancy agreement.

- Nic

What the??

2005-09-29T05:15:00.000Z

Here are some what the??? observations I've made since arriving in York:

1)
The only means of saving files when using the public library's computers is through a floppy!

Not only are there no readily accessible USB ports on any of the computers, but it specifically says you are not allowed put any such device into the back of the PCs. Furthermore, none of the computers have CD writers... (Hence, there will be no photos on our blog until we get internet access in our permanent flat... and since we don't move in to the flat until this Saturday, it may be a few days yet...)

2)
No one wears helmets when riding bicycles.

The complete absence of helmets has surprised Ben and me so much that we are currently having a points based competition for spotting people on bicycles with helmets. I am on 15 points, Ben is on 20 - the first to 200 gets a 'prize' from the other person!

(The scoring system, which started off being 10 points for each person riding a bike with a helmet quickly became more complicated.... suffice to say I have seen two people with helmets, after two days of looking, and Ben has seen three... when we have each seen at least 50 people riding.)

5)
Recycling seems to be pretty much non-existent, which surprised me because in the past I have found Europe to be more environmentally conscious than Australia.

4)
We can't get a debit card until we have a credit rating in the UK (which will take 6 months to a year) ... we can, however, use ATM's.

5)
I've never seen so many chocolate shops concentrated in such a small area (there are at least 5 in the City Centre, which is about the size of Civic!). The same goes for Jewellery shops.

6)
Women have to pay 20 pence to use the public toilets in town! Men do not!!!!

- nic

We have arrived in York safe and sound

2005-09-25T01:30:00.000Z

Our first night in York, behind us is a dim River Ouse.

Spent our first night in an 8 person dorm in a backpackers. This was all we could get when we arrived - apparently there is a Bookfair and also a Food and Drink Festival on this weekend, and these two events are enough to book out nearly all the accommodation in town!

Sleep was pretty average given one hell of a snorer, we both thought he was going to die!

We were up and about early this morning, keen to get a look at the place we are going to be calling home. It was very quiet, probably because it was 8 am on a Sunday morning...

And yes, everyone who told us it was 'a very pretty town' before we left are right - it is!

Some photographic evidence will be up to support this claim soon enough.

For now we are about to head over to the B&B we are staying in for the next week til our permanent flat is available next Saturday.

(The B&B is a compromise between wanting some privacy, a secure place to leave our stuff and some quiet to get some decent nights sleep, and not wanting to break the budget straight off).

Then, we have some exploring to do... may even have a look at the bookfair!

- nic

Blog Created!

2005-09-05T13:44:00.000Z

Lo For The Blog Was Made, And there was much rejoicing!