It’s Friday in some parts of the world.
Which means it’s my last day in the lab. Strangely, my biggest pang this morning is saying goodbye to Sid — he’s served me well and in a way I owe him for finding me a new job, a new career.
When I get back to the UK, I’ll be working at the Faculty of 1000. If you see me wandering the streets of London, looking a little lost, a little forlorn, perhaps you could take pity on me and let me come and look at your cells ? I might even offer to look after them while you’re on holiday.
Note to UK Customs and Excise: watch out for the sandy-haired bloke with the Aussie accent. He’s got a rat secreted about his person.
Good luck with the move Richard… I would help you out but if I were in London I’d also be wandering around looking lost, or perhaps resolutely marching in some direction or other, pretending not to be lost.
Good luck Richard!
You can split my cells any time.
Ooo er.
Also – I can offer to contaminate cells with bacteria if anyone’s interested. Once upon a time, I was good at that.
Good luck, Richard! The move away from the bench is a jarring one, but I am sure you will find your sea legs (or office legs) soon enough. The best part is being able to have coffee and do work at the same time! Amazing… at least for those of us with desks inside labs.
What will you be doing for Faculty of 1000? Have I mentioned how much I love that site? Loooove. It.
Do we have time for The Last Beer? You name the time and place.
Good luck!
“The best part is being able to have coffee and do work at the same time!”
Oh, Anna, I have the saddest story. This is exactly what I was looking forward to upon leaving the bench, but… I now work in an office where someone is very allergic to coffee, and we can’t have it on our desks! We have to finish it quickly at the coffee place on our breaks, or drink in the hallway. It’s like…being in a lab…
Good luck! Can’t wait to hear how the move goes.
You know where the Nature
orificeoffice is. You can always doss under my desk. I’ll kick you when it’s time to get up.Eva, but can you have tea at your desk? That’s actually more important, you know.
Stop it Eva. You’ve made Sid cry, and now you’ll start me off too.
Serves you right: you keep making me sad with all you “last” posts. (Not to be confused with “last posts”)
Good luck with the packing, Richard. Don’t forget the kids.
Anna, glad you love F1000. I’m supposed to be making it even better. As to exactly what that entails… well, there is talk of Web 2.0 goodness and blogs and things .
Kids?
I have kids?
aww…. that went quick. Guess it was the month when I was on vacation in snow land 😉 Anyhow, good luck with the move and the good byes and the hellos!!
Be safe and take care. Looking forward reading new stuff from “the cold and rainy place you are moving to” …..
Thanks—and remember, London is further north than Nova Scotia, so it’s amazing it’s as warm as it is. And I’m looking forward to having half the annual rainfall of Sydney…
there’s always electronic PCR on NCBI’s website….
Barry,
Barry Barry Barry.
PCR is not cell biology. If I have to explain that…
PCR is not cell biology. If I have to explain that…
Maybe I should be following you out of the lab too…
Does this count?
Hey, that’s micro, but…
BEER!
I found myself wondering who had crammed 10 million extra people into London when I wasn’t looking.
OK, I wasn’t looking for 17 years, but still ….
And where do those extra people live, when there are so many To Let signs?
I don’t know the figures, but the housing market was so good for so long that many people invested in investment flats since you were gone, some in lieu of more formal retirement plans. It’s great news for the rental market, but I worry that a lot of owners are in trouble now.
It’s great news for the rental market
That’s what I’m hoping.
Good luck with transit and settling in, Richard. It’ll take a bit out of everyone, but we on the intertubes will be happy to hear about the next phase.
I really wanted to put a photo of an inner tube, which might come in handy on the Thames, but figured I was really getting obscure.
Bon déménagement!
Thanks Heather. I shall be happily déménaged, I’m sure.
Haven’t you gone yet? Procrastination, that’s what I call it.
Well, I’ve finished work. Now I just have to sell the
childrencar and think about how I’m going to get back to the UK.Eva, that tearful rat is impossibly cute.
Richard, good luck with the move and do come along to the Natural History Museum once you’re settled in …that is if you can stand being in the Heart of Darwindom on Earth. As an inducement, I know a really good coffee place nearby (them’s hard to come by in London, as you’ll find) and it even has free wifi.
I have to look at that rat out of the corner of my eye, else I’ll start crying too.
I’m sure, Karen, I’ll be going frequently to the NHM—and dragging my girls with me. There’s a fantastic little Illy coffee shop just off Oxford Circus, where I think I might be stopping once or twice a
dayhourweek.But seriously—is there any mention of Alfred Russel Wallace anywhere? I am curious.
Richard: of course it rains more in Sidney than in London…. silly me to think that UK really is the rainiest place I know of 😉
And yes, the latitude (or is it longitude?) of London/England always gets me confused. It reminds me of realising exactly how far north Stockholm is – and than Vancouver was on the level of Munich (München) aka midEurope. That Memphis is “north Africa level” helps me when I try to remember why I can not be outdoors long at all in summer time.
In any event, safe trip and I will keep hope about that renters market going golden right now in London!
I met someone from the NHM at a party and he told me I should set my next novel in the NHM because it had a lot of potential Offered to show me around behind the scenes…think it’s worth it?
snort
Now there’s a chat up line. It’s the scientific equivalent of looking at my etchings, innit? Says he, who’s been offering to culture cells for people.
Oi – it ain’t cell biology either, but you could do some eFISH rather than e-PCR if you like. And you don’t even have to visit me. Good old interwebmathingamabobs.
Apparently there are secret passageways!
In the NHM or the eFISH?
I have, actually, been in the hidden, dusty parts of the NHM…
Find any murdered scientists? The NHS guy seemed quite keen on me penning a murder (though I’m not sure I have that in me).
I nearly murdered one of my colleagues: does that count?
Richard> “nearly” … of course not. Imagine all the “almost a murder mystery story” books that would be out there…. you think they’d get sold?
ha ha! It’d make a great spoof though, wouldn’t it?
It’s Friday in some parts of the world
It’s Tuesday, actually. Bloody scientists. Don’t even know what day of the week it is.
#CISB09 a success then? Thought it was damned quiet.
Not that I’m complaining, mind.
But seriously—is there any mention of Alfred Russel Wallace anywhere? I am curious.
Oh yes, we are doing our best to promote Wallace in the midst of all this Darwiniana. NHM has had two exhibitions on Wallace, launched the Wallace collection and one of our entomologists George Beccaloni is known as “Wallace’s Rottweiler” he has a website and has even started the Wallace Correspondence Project and we’ve been covering Wallace a lot on the Beagle Project Blog.
I met someone from the NHM at a party and he told me I should set my next novel in the NHM because it had a lot of potential Offered to show me around behind the scenes…think it’s worth it?
Yes, definitely, but you may have been scooped by China Mieville who came and toured around last year as research for a main character in an upcoming book.
Richard and Jenny, these two comments were in the wrong order:
Now there’s a chat up line.
and
Apparently there are secret passageways!
(there are, by the way)
I have, actually, been in the hidden, dusty parts of the NHM…
If this has anything to do with a certain H. Gee of Cromer I don’t want to hear about it.
Find any murdered scientists?
Dead, yes. Murdered, no. Not kidding.
Excellent. Thanks Karen
CISB09 a success then? Thought it was damned quiet
Very nice thanks. It was all over the intertubes like a cheap suit.
I have, actually, been in the hidden, dusty parts of the NHM… If this has anything to do with a certain H. Gee of Cromer I don’t want to hear about it
All right then, I’ll keep the secrets to myself. Mwah hah hah hah
relief
I say, haven’t you gone yet?
I’ve been gone for years, Henry.