PS. I've had intermittent problems with aches in my lower back for years. Recently, I changed the chair I've been slouched in for hours a day writing this thesis for a proper office chair with back support. I also started doing the "8 minute abs" exercise routine (almost) everyday, wondering if my core muscles were just generally too weak, and that made my back muscles constantly have pain.
My back has felt brilliant for a few weeks now. I've been doing the exercises for over a month, and recently I haven't had any back problems whatsoever. I don't know if it's actually strengthening my core muscles, or doing the exercises gets the muscles or joints moving every day, but it's helped so much. If you suffer from back pain or aches, I'd strongly recommend it. I don't have beautiful 6 pack abs, but that's down to a layer of fat covering them, and there's no such thing as spot reduction, so unless I lose weight, it'll never happen.
Anyway, if you have back problems and fancy trying it, I bought my new office chair from ebuyer.
The "8 minute abs" video is available on YouTube (just do a search for it). If you're interested, there's also an 8 minute arms, buns, and legs in the range, all with very cheesy 80s music and a way too enthusiastic instructor.
AcidCat
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Nothing really happens... nothing happens at all.
Hi everybody,
I don't really have anything much to say today, but as I haven't updated for a while, and have a spare moment, I thought I'd put something down.
I've got a first draft of a chapter done! Yay!
We're about to hit September, and the month of scariness. Entrance exams, UCAS, panic. Not so yay...
I'm off to visit the lab tomorrow, do some work, visit my northern Geordie friend who's coming down to visit for lunch on Saturday.
That's all I have to say really.
Love
AcidCat
I don't really have anything much to say today, but as I haven't updated for a while, and have a spare moment, I thought I'd put something down.
I've got a first draft of a chapter done! Yay!
We're about to hit September, and the month of scariness. Entrance exams, UCAS, panic. Not so yay...
I'm off to visit the lab tomorrow, do some work, visit my northern Geordie friend who's coming down to visit for lunch on Saturday.
That's all I have to say really.
Love
AcidCat
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Things to bring to Swiss friends who have lived in the UK
Things to bring to Swiss friends who have lived in the UK
Jaffa cakes
Crisps (especially McCoy Salt and Vinegar)
PJ Strawberry and Banana smoothie
English ale
Things proper UK expats seem to crave
English tea
Marmite
Cadbury's Dairy Milk/Green and Blacks chocolate
Crisps
English cheese (normally cheddar)
Sometimes Ribena
Beer
Jaffa cakes
Crisps (especially McCoy Salt and Vinegar)
PJ Strawberry and Banana smoothie
English ale
Things proper UK expats seem to crave
English tea
Marmite
Cadbury's Dairy Milk/Green and Blacks chocolate
Crisps
English cheese (normally cheddar)
Sometimes Ribena
Beer
One blessing, two blessings...
Hi guys,
Ok, about a week since my last post. I'm feeling a bit better than I was, as I'm only suffering from moments of depression. However, I'm still not doing brilliantly. I think it's mainly due to stress with this med application, work experience, exam I'm meant to be learning stuff for, and thesis to write. It's all taking over and none of it's easy. I feel like I'm drowning under all this stuff, and this loss of control is causing my panic and distress.
Last week I also met up with my school friends or "geek clique" as we were referred to. A civilised, quiet evening down the pub catalysed by the summer return of a friend who has moved down to the seaside, and was back to see his folks. It was fun, and good to see them again, but again, it saddened me that I realised that I was boring compared to the others, and I felt like I hadn't achieved much compared to many of them. Out of the four friends who came, two were in relationships (one of whom was about to buy a house together with his squeeze), one of them owned his house outright with virtually no mortgage, all of them had jobs at which they seemed to be having a good time, and they all seemed to have more or closer friends than me. Two of the four are best mates, and their closeness is something I'm deeply envious of. And we got a phone call from an absent friend saying he was about to propose to his girl. Not a cheery night in some ways.
However, it was lovely to see them, as I think all of them are really great people. One also really took it on himself to help me sort out some of my med problems, so he's reading through my med application, and trying to help me sort out some work experience to make my application much better: "Alexander", I love you, you're the best. He even sorted out a clubbing trip (my first in years) earlier this week, which was fun. It was good to shake out the old legs, and fun to do some dancing. The highlight of the clubbing evening for me was seeing a guy who was a good dancer (urban/hip hop styles), who I was admiring his moves give me respect for my dancing. I loved that moment.
Another blessing to count, was one half of a couple who I knew from uni, who helped me in my darkest time of need rang me last weekend for a chat. I sent the couple a little card to thank them, and despite her extremely busy schedule, rang me and spoke to me for an hour. It was lovely to catch up, and hopefully we'll meet up again soon.
Ok, off to bed, tomorrow we work harder.
Love
AcidCat
Ok, about a week since my last post. I'm feeling a bit better than I was, as I'm only suffering from moments of depression. However, I'm still not doing brilliantly. I think it's mainly due to stress with this med application, work experience, exam I'm meant to be learning stuff for, and thesis to write. It's all taking over and none of it's easy. I feel like I'm drowning under all this stuff, and this loss of control is causing my panic and distress.
Last week I also met up with my school friends or "geek clique" as we were referred to. A civilised, quiet evening down the pub catalysed by the summer return of a friend who has moved down to the seaside, and was back to see his folks. It was fun, and good to see them again, but again, it saddened me that I realised that I was boring compared to the others, and I felt like I hadn't achieved much compared to many of them. Out of the four friends who came, two were in relationships (one of whom was about to buy a house together with his squeeze), one of them owned his house outright with virtually no mortgage, all of them had jobs at which they seemed to be having a good time, and they all seemed to have more or closer friends than me. Two of the four are best mates, and their closeness is something I'm deeply envious of. And we got a phone call from an absent friend saying he was about to propose to his girl. Not a cheery night in some ways.
However, it was lovely to see them, as I think all of them are really great people. One also really took it on himself to help me sort out some of my med problems, so he's reading through my med application, and trying to help me sort out some work experience to make my application much better: "Alexander", I love you, you're the best. He even sorted out a clubbing trip (my first in years) earlier this week, which was fun. It was good to shake out the old legs, and fun to do some dancing. The highlight of the clubbing evening for me was seeing a guy who was a good dancer (urban/hip hop styles), who I was admiring his moves give me respect for my dancing. I loved that moment.
Another blessing to count, was one half of a couple who I knew from uni, who helped me in my darkest time of need rang me last weekend for a chat. I sent the couple a little card to thank them, and despite her extremely busy schedule, rang me and spoke to me for an hour. It was lovely to catch up, and hopefully we'll meet up again soon.
Ok, off to bed, tomorrow we work harder.
Love
AcidCat
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Come on Fluoxetine
Hi everyone.
I'm really depressed today. I don't think there's any real reason for it other than the usual, except I'm really stressed out at the moment, both with work and stress about my med school application. Also it's around a year since it all went pear shaped with The One Who Got Away and I've been dreaming about her every night recently. I started taking fluoxetine this morning as I've got some leftovers, and I'm hoping this feeling ends soon as I can't cope with it. I'm not able to take affirmative action to reduce this stress which is making me more stressed. Life sucks at the moment. It would be much easier if I wasn't alive.
AcidCat
I'm really depressed today. I don't think there's any real reason for it other than the usual, except I'm really stressed out at the moment, both with work and stress about my med school application. Also it's around a year since it all went pear shaped with The One Who Got Away and I've been dreaming about her every night recently. I started taking fluoxetine this morning as I've got some leftovers, and I'm hoping this feeling ends soon as I can't cope with it. I'm not able to take affirmative action to reduce this stress which is making me more stressed. Life sucks at the moment. It would be much easier if I wasn't alive.
AcidCat
Monday, August 06, 2007
Wonderful Weekend
Hi everybody!
I had a lovely and rather busy weekend. My brother came back to visit and he's busy for the next 4 weekends so it may be a while before I see him again.
I made risotto with fennel we grew and dried ceps I got from my last jaunt in Switzerland. I got carried away and added bacon, chicken, onions, garlic, chestnut mushrooms (and obviously arborio rice). It tasted really nice, but apparently could have done with sweetcorn (which I had thought of, but had decided to avoid as I had already added loads of other stuff, so didn't want to go overboard).
For dessert, I made Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Flour-free Chocolate Chestnut cake. It was ok, but far too gooey and unsurprisingly, not very cake like. It was more like a gooey brownie. It later transpired that it's a cake that isn't best eaten fresh out of the oven like we generally like it, it's much nicer after it's been allowed to cool down and set, where it becomes a sweet, rich treat. Well worth a go if you're a chocoholic!
We had arranged to have a little trip out to London on the Saturday. My sister had arranged for her and me to go to the Star Wars Exhibition, and as we were going out, my brother and mum came along to have lunch with us, and go to the Science Museum. Fortunately the weather was glorious and sunny, so the tube journey seemed promising.
We decided to try the S&M cafe; a reasonably famous London cafe specialising in sausages and mash. I was looking forwards to it, enjoying Oxford's "The Big Bang", a tasty budget restaurant with good quality local ingredients.
On arriving to the S&M cafe at around 1pm, it was reasonably empty. The server sat us down and started nagging us rapidly for our orders. Three of us had sausage and mash, and my sister had a sausage Caesar salad.
When the food finally arrived, they'd got the orders wrong. Only in a minor way, I had asked for the spring onion mash, and they brought a plain one. I couldn't be bothered to mention it, so dug in. The food was a real disappointment. They sold their sausages as "prime rare-breed saddleback sausages". Their "original sausages" tasted cheap and nasty, like a bottom of the range economy sausage, the type that would make Turkey twizzlers seem like a welcome improvement. The Steak sausages or hickory smoked were no better. You could tell they were different, but if you didn't know what they were meant to be, you had no chance of guessing what they were. The portion size was small, and the mash was watery and mediocre. The sausage Caesar salad was no better. The lettuce was fine, but the croutons were soggy and disgusting, and the cheese vegetarian sausage was gritty and tasted only of rusk. It wasn't very expensive, but I think £8.50 was expensive for the appalling quality of the food. It was rounded off, by the staff snatching the plates away, and delivering the bill without being asked for it. It wasn't even as if the place was full, there were empty tables galore. In case you want to avoid it, we went to the branch in Angel, which has many other places nearby which are significantly better, including Rico Rodrigo and many of the pubs. I understand the name, it was the culinary equivalent of being chained up, whipped, and then being asked to pay for it. And for that I'd rather go to Soho.
The Star Wars exhibition was a bit of a disappointment too. For £16.50, it was overpriced, small, and had far too much about the poor episodes I, II and III, and too little on the original classic movies. There wasn't even a model of an X-wing or Y-wing. The whole thing smacked of a money making exercise. The lighting seemed determined to prevent you from getting good photos while there, forcing you to pay £5 to have an official photo taken with R2-D2, or £8 to take home a souvenir DVD of a green screen battle with a "Jedi". I was pretty disappointed.
However, I had a great weekend. Not that I enjoy being disappointed, or enjoy moaning about being disappointed. It was so good to be out and having fun with family. It emphasised to me that it doesn't matter what you're doing, just who you're doing it with. Trite and cliched but true.
And on that note, good night all.
AcidCat
I had a lovely and rather busy weekend. My brother came back to visit and he's busy for the next 4 weekends so it may be a while before I see him again.
I made risotto with fennel we grew and dried ceps I got from my last jaunt in Switzerland. I got carried away and added bacon, chicken, onions, garlic, chestnut mushrooms (and obviously arborio rice). It tasted really nice, but apparently could have done with sweetcorn (which I had thought of, but had decided to avoid as I had already added loads of other stuff, so didn't want to go overboard).
For dessert, I made Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Flour-free Chocolate Chestnut cake. It was ok, but far too gooey and unsurprisingly, not very cake like. It was more like a gooey brownie. It later transpired that it's a cake that isn't best eaten fresh out of the oven like we generally like it, it's much nicer after it's been allowed to cool down and set, where it becomes a sweet, rich treat. Well worth a go if you're a chocoholic!
We had arranged to have a little trip out to London on the Saturday. My sister had arranged for her and me to go to the Star Wars Exhibition, and as we were going out, my brother and mum came along to have lunch with us, and go to the Science Museum. Fortunately the weather was glorious and sunny, so the tube journey seemed promising.
We decided to try the S&M cafe; a reasonably famous London cafe specialising in sausages and mash. I was looking forwards to it, enjoying Oxford's "The Big Bang", a tasty budget restaurant with good quality local ingredients.
On arriving to the S&M cafe at around 1pm, it was reasonably empty. The server sat us down and started nagging us rapidly for our orders. Three of us had sausage and mash, and my sister had a sausage Caesar salad.
When the food finally arrived, they'd got the orders wrong. Only in a minor way, I had asked for the spring onion mash, and they brought a plain one. I couldn't be bothered to mention it, so dug in. The food was a real disappointment. They sold their sausages as "prime rare-breed saddleback sausages". Their "original sausages" tasted cheap and nasty, like a bottom of the range economy sausage, the type that would make Turkey twizzlers seem like a welcome improvement. The Steak sausages or hickory smoked were no better. You could tell they were different, but if you didn't know what they were meant to be, you had no chance of guessing what they were. The portion size was small, and the mash was watery and mediocre. The sausage Caesar salad was no better. The lettuce was fine, but the croutons were soggy and disgusting, and the cheese vegetarian sausage was gritty and tasted only of rusk. It wasn't very expensive, but I think £8.50 was expensive for the appalling quality of the food. It was rounded off, by the staff snatching the plates away, and delivering the bill without being asked for it. It wasn't even as if the place was full, there were empty tables galore. In case you want to avoid it, we went to the branch in Angel, which has many other places nearby which are significantly better, including Rico Rodrigo and many of the pubs. I understand the name, it was the culinary equivalent of being chained up, whipped, and then being asked to pay for it. And for that I'd rather go to Soho.
The Star Wars exhibition was a bit of a disappointment too. For £16.50, it was overpriced, small, and had far too much about the poor episodes I, II and III, and too little on the original classic movies. There wasn't even a model of an X-wing or Y-wing. The whole thing smacked of a money making exercise. The lighting seemed determined to prevent you from getting good photos while there, forcing you to pay £5 to have an official photo taken with R2-D2, or £8 to take home a souvenir DVD of a green screen battle with a "Jedi". I was pretty disappointed.
However, I had a great weekend. Not that I enjoy being disappointed, or enjoy moaning about being disappointed. It was so good to be out and having fun with family. It emphasised to me that it doesn't matter what you're doing, just who you're doing it with. Trite and cliched but true.
And on that note, good night all.
AcidCat
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Baby, it's cold outside
Hi everybody!
I've spent the past few days in the beautiful city of Oxford, both seeing friends and also trying to do some work that I couldn't do from home.
It's a beautiful, amazing place, and it feels like home. I've got lots of very happy memories there. It was still very flooded. Port Meadow looked like a big lake.
The highlight of the weekend was the Sunday, where I met up with a friend from university. She is so incredibly wonderful; kind, fun, optimistic, smily! She really brightens up my life. I'm in love. Problem is: we're in completely different places, both geographically and in where we're going in life. Also as a minor problem, she's out of my league as she's so brilliant. It doesn't stop me from daydreaming though, and I love being in her company as a friend. I really want her to be happy, for someone so great, I think she's slightly troubled. I can't stop thinking about her.
It was nice to catch up with my other friends too. Interesting gossip in the "who fancies who" and "who's pissing off who" (I'm sure Ringleader would insist I mean "whom").
On a work front, semi-productive, but I hate writing, and get easily distracted. My wonderful boss gave me a pep talk, and bought the group ice-cream. It was very flattering when he said I came up with a good idea! Yay!
I tried to sleep in the lab for two of the three nights I was there. The first of the two wasn't too bad, as I was out partying with a friend who was leaving till 3 am, in the Purple Turtle (horrible tiny club that I used to love as an undergraduate, I now realise was due to very low standards). A little drinkie (a honey based spirit, I forget the name), ensured the first night in the lab was fine.
However, the final night I spent in the lab was terrible. It was a night I didn't plan on spending in the lab, but things overran (partly as I'm a bit gullible and believed my boss who said an experiment would last an hour: 11 hours later, and it was still a long way off completion- it required 20) so I ended up staying there, without a change of clothes. It was so incredibly freezing cold as the heating had packed in. The lights kept coming on and waking me, as they are all on motion sensors for environmental reasons (I normally approve). I had one of the worst nights sleep ever! I kept waking for cold and light. I slept in two T-shirts, a leather jacket, and a towel wrapped round me. I was even thinking of wearing a lab coat and academic gown for warmth, but then realised that was excessive, and didn't fancy the prospect of someone stumbling over me and asking the inevitable - "What the hell...?". In addition, sleeping sitting up or on a hard floor are not the two most luxurious manners of getting shuteye...
It was still a good weekend though. Just a few hours in her company...!
Good night and love to you all
AcidCat
I've spent the past few days in the beautiful city of Oxford, both seeing friends and also trying to do some work that I couldn't do from home.
It's a beautiful, amazing place, and it feels like home. I've got lots of very happy memories there. It was still very flooded. Port Meadow looked like a big lake.
The highlight of the weekend was the Sunday, where I met up with a friend from university. She is so incredibly wonderful; kind, fun, optimistic, smily! She really brightens up my life. I'm in love. Problem is: we're in completely different places, both geographically and in where we're going in life. Also as a minor problem, she's out of my league as she's so brilliant. It doesn't stop me from daydreaming though, and I love being in her company as a friend. I really want her to be happy, for someone so great, I think she's slightly troubled. I can't stop thinking about her.
It was nice to catch up with my other friends too. Interesting gossip in the "who fancies who" and "who's pissing off who" (I'm sure Ringleader would insist I mean "whom").
On a work front, semi-productive, but I hate writing, and get easily distracted. My wonderful boss gave me a pep talk, and bought the group ice-cream. It was very flattering when he said I came up with a good idea! Yay!
I tried to sleep in the lab for two of the three nights I was there. The first of the two wasn't too bad, as I was out partying with a friend who was leaving till 3 am, in the Purple Turtle (horrible tiny club that I used to love as an undergraduate, I now realise was due to very low standards). A little drinkie (a honey based spirit, I forget the name), ensured the first night in the lab was fine.
However, the final night I spent in the lab was terrible. It was a night I didn't plan on spending in the lab, but things overran (partly as I'm a bit gullible and believed my boss who said an experiment would last an hour: 11 hours later, and it was still a long way off completion- it required 20) so I ended up staying there, without a change of clothes. It was so incredibly freezing cold as the heating had packed in. The lights kept coming on and waking me, as they are all on motion sensors for environmental reasons (I normally approve). I had one of the worst nights sleep ever! I kept waking for cold and light. I slept in two T-shirts, a leather jacket, and a towel wrapped round me. I was even thinking of wearing a lab coat and academic gown for warmth, but then realised that was excessive, and didn't fancy the prospect of someone stumbling over me and asking the inevitable - "What the hell...?". In addition, sleeping sitting up or on a hard floor are not the two most luxurious manners of getting shuteye...
It was still a good weekend though. Just a few hours in her company...!
Good night and love to you all
AcidCat
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