This post has got the title "The break" because as you may have realized I made a break on my Blog writing up. Many of you might have thought that I gave it up, and somehow I did, but truth is that I just didnt feel like doing it, many things happened that couldn't have got my attention here but it just didnt feel like.. However, since last week I felt like sharing some other feelings and thoughts that came out to my mind, therefore I felt the will to write up here again and here I am :)
Basically last week I was away on holiday and spent a wonderful time with my boyfriend in Mallorca. The trip itself has several things to write about and I will soon detail it here, specially I have to post some criticism to the place and share some funny stuff but I dont want to rush it too much.
So I skip up the details of the break itself (if there's any) and go straight to the second part of my topic - the survey to vote for the song of the summer 2009.
This "survey", completely unofficial of course, comes from the fact that during the past week on my summer holiday I heard a lot of songs and might be good candidates for "the song of the summer 2009", so I am putting them here, I think this is a good way to start over again, a bit of an empty message, but if you´re bored just listen to them, relax and have fun ;)
1. Number One
2. Poker Face
3. Right Round
4. Takin' Back My Love
5. Boom Boom Pow
6. Any song from Michael Jackson, e.g.
Vote!
Monday 13 July 2009
Wednesday 29 April 2009
Where am I going this Friday?
Yes I am going to fly.
Yes I am going out.
Yes I am going to be happy.
Yes I am going to be home.
A to B and B to C followed by :D and yeahh and wiiii and ohhhh (Pedro!!) but wii again ;)
Yes I am going out.
Yes I am going to be happy.
Yes I am going to be home.
A to B and B to C followed by :D and yeahh and wiiii and ohhhh (Pedro!!) but wii again ;)
Saturday 25 April 2009
25 !
This post is a bit delayed because although its called 25 and today is actually the 25th this post belongs to the 23rd when I celebrated 25 years of existence (understood?!)..
Back on the 23rd, I felt very moody in the beginning but end up reasonably well. I woke up sick and tired feeling like staying in bed mourning the whole day. Physically sick, my stomach was terrible, my head dizzy and heavy, I was so depressed with being 25 that I was more in the mood of non celebration and avoid the confront with happy people saying happy birthday, like there was any reason to be happy about it...
Fortunately for the sake of me and everyone around me this mood was temporary (not as much as I would like too unfortunately though) but by the late afternoon (after two beers I may say) I stop being miserable and become happy :)
Pedro said something very true that I want to cite:
"the 25 is the best age because one is not to young so that is taking serious by everybody but also not too old to not have the excuse to misbehave a little bit ;)"
I do not only agree as I feel it and thats the real reason why I got so sad because I know, I can feel that I am currently living the best time of my life at least the most funniest one where I have got enough responsability to hold up an adult life but I still feel somehow protected by my parents as when I was younger or I feel I can still go out to every club and drink a lot and dance and party, nobody relies on me, life tastes too good, I feel that I am too passionate to my own life, therefore I just want to make sure that it is going to last forever (and I know it wont!!!) so thats my worries coming then... On the other hand all the wise elder people say that all the ages have their good points so I am hopeful that it is going to be all fun and one thing I am pretty sure is I will always try to get the most out of everything :)
Have fun, I do!
Back on the 23rd, I felt very moody in the beginning but end up reasonably well. I woke up sick and tired feeling like staying in bed mourning the whole day. Physically sick, my stomach was terrible, my head dizzy and heavy, I was so depressed with being 25 that I was more in the mood of non celebration and avoid the confront with happy people saying happy birthday, like there was any reason to be happy about it...
Fortunately for the sake of me and everyone around me this mood was temporary (not as much as I would like too unfortunately though) but by the late afternoon (after two beers I may say) I stop being miserable and become happy :)
Pedro said something very true that I want to cite:
"the 25 is the best age because one is not to young so that is taking serious by everybody but also not too old to not have the excuse to misbehave a little bit ;)"
I do not only agree as I feel it and thats the real reason why I got so sad because I know, I can feel that I am currently living the best time of my life at least the most funniest one where I have got enough responsability to hold up an adult life but I still feel somehow protected by my parents as when I was younger or I feel I can still go out to every club and drink a lot and dance and party, nobody relies on me, life tastes too good, I feel that I am too passionate to my own life, therefore I just want to make sure that it is going to last forever (and I know it wont!!!) so thats my worries coming then... On the other hand all the wise elder people say that all the ages have their good points so I am hopeful that it is going to be all fun and one thing I am pretty sure is I will always try to get the most out of everything :)
Have fun, I do!
Friday 24 April 2009
Snow trip part II
The first successful 2 meters standing up skiing:
See how unsure I was about the position of the legs and what to do with the sticks...Trying to have a little bit of style now that I could safely stand up..
It always looks easy from the bottom but when one gets to the top... it appears like a cliff... you can find Wally on this picture too
On top of the mountain, that means that the only way to go home is to come down the hill rather skiing or randomly rolling down...
Mission accomplished!!
Thank you Pedro, it was really good fun, I loved it, I am addicted now, and I have to wait almost a year now for another time like that :) Skiing rules!
Tuesday 31 March 2009
Mathematical Modelling of Transcription Factors in Living Cells
or
How the mathematicians and the engineers meet the biologists
How the mathematicians and the engineers meet the biologists
The subject of today involves a bit of my PhD's ideas and the one bit I am trying to work in at the moment (Although not too focused because I am doing the other bits too). I think generally speaking the title of this post sounds already a bit complicated but we are talking about PhD topics and subjects so there is no way to overcome complexity, the simple things are out there for everyone, the complex things are ignored by the most of you and deeply interesting to some of us. That’s not entirely my case though! I mean, I am slightly interested on them, but sometimes I just want to move over this and get a more simple life (I think I read it somewhere some time ago.. by that time I didnt quite understand it but every day that passes it sounds more and more familiar, so I already feel it too... it is unavoidable..) It appears that unless one is mental depressed and compromised he cannot enjoy this sort of life forever at least without questioning it (and I guess that may be part of the geniality of all this).
Ok, but regardless of my feelings I came out with this topic because I think it is interesting the way we can apply maths to explain how life works and on top of that there is not much being done in the area, just 2, maximum 3 groups in the world do something similar to this. Thought this is not my whole PhD, I couldnt just do that, but I will present a nice model (hopefully) and I think it will look pretty nice in my thesis..
Well I said hopefully because (maybe obviously) I still didnt solve the model but just some parcels, which is ok, nevertheless I need to solve the model.
Thats where I regret that my mathematics and physics knowledge is not very extensive so therefore I regret once again I didnt undertake the engineering degree :(
Some are medical frustrated, I am an engineer frustrated I am afraid... lol
On the plus side my boyfriend is an engineer and he is giving me a hand with the model, so thats where the biologist meet the engineers.. and this meeting is more than a meeting I hope, and it is genial ;)
So now I think with this precious help I am on the way to finish it and before I forgot I take the change to already acknowledge Pedro for his help ;) and once I finish this I will, I think, also publish something about it in a very practical and straightforward manner very different than what is in the literature I have been reading where one has to go through very complicated equations and protocols in order to maybe use a few of them applied to this sort of cases, it is not very clear how to do that and so on, basically I think the disciplines used to be too apart and they need to converge into a point, people need to work together!
Just to finish with my topic of today I leave a song that apparently represents me in a way, could be my song, it is one of many.. :)
Change everything you are
And everything you were
Your number has been called
Fights and battles have begun
Revenge will surely come
Your hard times are ahead
Best, you've got to be the best
You've got to change the world
And use this chance to be heard
Your time is now
Change everything you are
And everything you were
Your number has been called
Fights and battles have begun
Revenge will surely come
Your hard times are ahead
Best, you've got to be the best
You've got to change the world
And use this chance to be heard
Your time is now
Don’t let yourself down
And don’t let yourself go
Your last chance has arrived
Best, you've got to be the best
You've got to change the world
And use this chance to be heard
Your time is now
And everything you were
Your number has been called
Fights and battles have begun
Revenge will surely come
Your hard times are ahead
Best, you've got to be the best
You've got to change the world
And use this chance to be heard
Your time is now
Change everything you are
And everything you were
Your number has been called
Fights and battles have begun
Revenge will surely come
Your hard times are ahead
Best, you've got to be the best
You've got to change the world
And use this chance to be heard
Your time is now
Don’t let yourself down
And don’t let yourself go
Your last chance has arrived
Best, you've got to be the best
You've got to change the world
And use this chance to be heard
Your time is now
Wednesday 25 March 2009
Pips go auctions?!
I have to share my experience of today's morning when me and Pedro decided to go to an auction here in Nottingham, but in the most dodgy area of Nottingham, by the way.. I havent been to an auction before, until today the closest thing to an auction I saw was the bids on ebay.. lolol so obviously I was not familiar with that at all, and thats why I probably went there, more in response to my curiosity than just to buy something. In fact I didnt spent a cent in there... but I am quite sure I could have done good business today, the offers are great, I should go back there with more time, like the whole day off!
Basically, after 10 minutes at Cripps health centre in the university, to take the stitches out of my forehead (consequence of my last trip to the snow), me and Pedro took a taxi to this place called John Pye Auctions in Radford. I got to know that through a friend that bought there a tv set some time ago but that place is apparently very popular, busy and known such that as soon as we got there it was full of people.
Before the auction starts people can look around the stocks. The reason why I went was to buy a tv, an LCD tv to put in our very nice living room. Basically we feel a bit poor with all the money we spent recently so any bargain is welcome! Nevertheless our budget was too low...
From the stocks we got interested in 7 or 8 LCDs. As soon as the auction started,
(late! I was really surprised!) we realized that we were surrounded by very strange people (actually I realized that as soon as we arrived but both of us just commented on that while sitting waiting for the bids to start). Mostly everyone was there purely for business reasons rather than buying for personal use, therefore everyone was very professional when bidding and we were like tw0 UFOs there..
And that was it, "our" LCDs were sold for about £200 and we didnt want to pay more than £100.. pity we still dont have the tv but I think we will just buy a new one sooner or later.
We keep the experience of being in an auction, real one, with that guy speaking out loud the prices and everyone seems to be hidden while bidding, I could actually hardly see who was bidding.. the gestures were too smooth.. like they were a bit embarrassed for being there! Like they felt they were committing a crime.. and there were those people on the phone, bidding for someone even more hidden... and there were those people that bought a lot of stuff, clearly they have a big business buying there to sell somewhere else..
Oh well, I should go back there one day, perhaps I could do a fortune out of it, but I am too afraid of high investment.. so back on my PhD life everything is calm and fine, I feel lazy today, I didnt want to come but ... thats life...
I feel I should get more fun :)
Basically, after 10 minutes at Cripps health centre in the university, to take the stitches out of my forehead (consequence of my last trip to the snow), me and Pedro took a taxi to this place called John Pye Auctions in Radford. I got to know that through a friend that bought there a tv set some time ago but that place is apparently very popular, busy and known such that as soon as we got there it was full of people.
Before the auction starts people can look around the stocks. The reason why I went was to buy a tv, an LCD tv to put in our very nice living room. Basically we feel a bit poor with all the money we spent recently so any bargain is welcome! Nevertheless our budget was too low...
From the stocks we got interested in 7 or 8 LCDs. As soon as the auction started,
(late! I was really surprised!) we realized that we were surrounded by very strange people (actually I realized that as soon as we arrived but both of us just commented on that while sitting waiting for the bids to start). Mostly everyone was there purely for business reasons rather than buying for personal use, therefore everyone was very professional when bidding and we were like tw0 UFOs there..
And that was it, "our" LCDs were sold for about £200 and we didnt want to pay more than £100.. pity we still dont have the tv but I think we will just buy a new one sooner or later.
We keep the experience of being in an auction, real one, with that guy speaking out loud the prices and everyone seems to be hidden while bidding, I could actually hardly see who was bidding.. the gestures were too smooth.. like they were a bit embarrassed for being there! Like they felt they were committing a crime.. and there were those people on the phone, bidding for someone even more hidden... and there were those people that bought a lot of stuff, clearly they have a big business buying there to sell somewhere else..
Oh well, I should go back there one day, perhaps I could do a fortune out of it, but I am too afraid of high investment.. so back on my PhD life everything is calm and fine, I feel lazy today, I didnt want to come but ... thats life...
I feel I should get more fun :)
Monday 23 March 2009
Snow trip part I
Hi everyone,
first of all my apologies for disappearing for such a long time, but first was the troubles with the moving into my new place together with the last days before going on holiday, you know to go on holiday means to leave a lot of work done and things organized such that my absence will not be that much noticed.. and that didnt give me time to post here and say goodbye before leaving on holiday. I didnt even told most of the people I know that I was going on holiday.. Anyway holiday was the main cause of my absence for such a long time. One of the most important things about this holiday was that it was my birthday present, a bit early but very convenient, my awesome great boyfriend offer me this lovely amazing time and I am really deeply thankful!
DETAILS: The holiday was spent in France, in the Pyrenees, most precisely in Saint Lary soulain and it was awesome, as you might already be thinking I went skiing and I found it genial!! I am so sorry that just with 24 I found my favourite sportive activity and I am even more sorry that it is very restrictive, since, for obvious reasons it cannot be done in a regular basis.. Never mind, that musT be the reason why I liked it so much, you know, or you must know that I am not a sportive person at all, therefore this is my sport! Thrilling as I like (I love emotions and adrenaline, I am sort of addicted to it), and I love mountains therefore this combination could not be more perfect! It is awesome!
Click to enlarge
I called this post the part I because I am still missing the photos and the videos so I will come back to this topic soon, nevertheless I wanted to say hello to the readers and up date to the latest news :)
As I said this was my first time skiing ever so it was the real adventure, since standing up in the skis to come down the hill without falling over or crushing with other people everything was challenging! This sport demands a lot of energy, to be fit helps a lot and whether you did some skating in the past it also helps! I didnt have much problems learning how to ski, but I found myself very exhausted and I have a lot of muscle aches coming for muscles that I didnt even know they existed! In the end it appeared that I am apparently skilled for skiing, I managed to evolved quite fast, but I think that was probably because I was forced to go into the blue slopes before I even tasted the greens! After all I feel I am quite brave!
Unfortunately almost in the end I had a little accident that gave me a little trouble, basically cut my forehead by crushing with a friend (the story is a little bit more complicated, but I will detail it later one day)... I am good now, just a few stitches but its fine ;)
Little tip for skiing: I found that if I was listening to music while coming down the hill my performance was 10 times improved because I was feeling much more confident!
And there you go my favourite. That made part of my skiing soundtrack! It was so much fun!!!
And at last I am settling down in Nottingham, so it means parties are coming!! Get ready, I will announce soon :)))
first of all my apologies for disappearing for such a long time, but first was the troubles with the moving into my new place together with the last days before going on holiday, you know to go on holiday means to leave a lot of work done and things organized such that my absence will not be that much noticed.. and that didnt give me time to post here and say goodbye before leaving on holiday. I didnt even told most of the people I know that I was going on holiday.. Anyway holiday was the main cause of my absence for such a long time. One of the most important things about this holiday was that it was my birthday present, a bit early but very convenient, my awesome great boyfriend offer me this lovely amazing time and I am really deeply thankful!
Picture of us as a tribute (I love you :))
DETAILS: The holiday was spent in France, in the Pyrenees, most precisely in Saint Lary soulain and it was awesome, as you might already be thinking I went skiing and I found it genial!! I am so sorry that just with 24 I found my favourite sportive activity and I am even more sorry that it is very restrictive, since, for obvious reasons it cannot be done in a regular basis.. Never mind, that musT be the reason why I liked it so much, you know, or you must know that I am not a sportive person at all, therefore this is my sport! Thrilling as I like (I love emotions and adrenaline, I am sort of addicted to it), and I love mountains therefore this combination could not be more perfect! It is awesome!
Map of my location:
Map of the trails
Click to enlarge I called this post the part I because I am still missing the photos and the videos so I will come back to this topic soon, nevertheless I wanted to say hello to the readers and up date to the latest news :)
As I said this was my first time skiing ever so it was the real adventure, since standing up in the skis to come down the hill without falling over or crushing with other people everything was challenging! This sport demands a lot of energy, to be fit helps a lot and whether you did some skating in the past it also helps! I didnt have much problems learning how to ski, but I found myself very exhausted and I have a lot of muscle aches coming for muscles that I didnt even know they existed! In the end it appeared that I am apparently skilled for skiing, I managed to evolved quite fast, but I think that was probably because I was forced to go into the blue slopes before I even tasted the greens! After all I feel I am quite brave!
Unfortunately almost in the end I had a little accident that gave me a little trouble, basically cut my forehead by crushing with a friend (the story is a little bit more complicated, but I will detail it later one day)... I am good now, just a few stitches but its fine ;)
Little tip for skiing: I found that if I was listening to music while coming down the hill my performance was 10 times improved because I was feeling much more confident!
And there you go my favourite. That made part of my skiing soundtrack! It was so much fun!!!
And at last I am settling down in Nottingham, so it means parties are coming!! Get ready, I will announce soon :)))
Wednesday 4 March 2009
One year of PhD life and a funny song
I did not have time to write this post yesterday but the 3rd of March deserves some attention and since my blog is somehow based on my PhD experience and life and could not forget this topic.
Indeed, yesterday I completed one year of PhD life. 365 days ago I moved from Portugal, most precisely from Almada to Nottingham to do a PhD in the University of Nottingham, School of Biomedical Sciences. Since then, a lot of things changed, I changed, but most of the things changed for better and I cannot deny I am very happy here and happy with my "job". Of course, as I am always complaining, this is not easy life but it has its rewards! I love science, I am passionate with discoveries and I like to work. Additionally, I have got a very nice life (dont get jealous ;)) ), now with my very nice new home, it is so comfortable and me and Pedro we are making it really nice and beautiful. I have holidays planned, I am going to skiing in two weeks, and I have got the perfect man, I am so happy :)))
Of course nothing is entirely perfect, I miss my parents and family and sometimes I feel really sad I cant hug them or my friends in Portugal, I miss our coffee times, our nights out, our funny moments or even the most serious ones..
But after all it seems that is being worth the effort!!
Not directly related to my sentimental-like post I leave this video below, just for fun and the sake of science showing that it can be funny too ;)
And thanks to Cati, that actually posted this video in the BCM communal blog: Sexy Hotte!
Indeed, yesterday I completed one year of PhD life. 365 days ago I moved from Portugal, most precisely from Almada to Nottingham to do a PhD in the University of Nottingham, School of Biomedical Sciences. Since then, a lot of things changed, I changed, but most of the things changed for better and I cannot deny I am very happy here and happy with my "job". Of course, as I am always complaining, this is not easy life but it has its rewards! I love science, I am passionate with discoveries and I like to work. Additionally, I have got a very nice life (dont get jealous ;)) ), now with my very nice new home, it is so comfortable and me and Pedro we are making it really nice and beautiful. I have holidays planned, I am going to skiing in two weeks, and I have got the perfect man, I am so happy :)))
Of course nothing is entirely perfect, I miss my parents and family and sometimes I feel really sad I cant hug them or my friends in Portugal, I miss our coffee times, our nights out, our funny moments or even the most serious ones..
But after all it seems that is being worth the effort!!
Not directly related to my sentimental-like post I leave this video below, just for fun and the sake of science showing that it can be funny too ;)
And thanks to Cati, that actually posted this video in the BCM communal blog: Sexy Hotte!
Monday 2 March 2009
I am selling my bike, anyone interested?
Hey everyone,
I am now selling my bike since I just moved into my new place :))) yeahhh it happened, and I am so happy but I will come back to that topic in a dedicated post. Now I have some urgency to sell my bike, I dont need it anymore, where I live now I cant park it and ride it to the university so I want to sell it.
As you can figure from the picture it is a girls bike, purple. It will fit someone not very tall, 160-175 cm. It looks good, has minor scratches, breaks are good and has a code lock included.
I am selling it for £40. If you are interested or know someone who could be interested please ring 07515284479.
I will miss it, but new home, new life :)))
I am now selling my bike since I just moved into my new place :))) yeahhh it happened, and I am so happy but I will come back to that topic in a dedicated post. Now I have some urgency to sell my bike, I dont need it anymore, where I live now I cant park it and ride it to the university so I want to sell it.
As you can figure from the picture it is a girls bike, purple. It will fit someone not very tall, 160-175 cm. It looks good, has minor scratches, breaks are good and has a code lock included.
I am selling it for £40. If you are interested or know someone who could be interested please ring 07515284479.
I will miss it, but new home, new life :)))
Thursday 26 February 2009
Latest treatment for overstressed people
Since my latest days have been really painful for the reasons stated in my last post (house hunting if you are not reading my blog), and since basically if I dont get a positive answer today or tomorrow I will be homeless soon (in two days), and since I am a PhD student, a scientist, and I enjoy developing new methods aka inventing stuff, creating, put my imagination to work, bla bla bla, I just recently developed an instantaneous formula to finish the stress of a working day by combining yoga, selfservice massage and high tech in light and power generation!
In my personal opinion the results were quite good and overcame the expectancies!! I personally recommend this treatment invented by myself ;))
In my personal opinion the results were quite good and overcame the expectancies!! I personally recommend this treatment invented by myself ;))
Tuesday 24 February 2009
To wait or not to wait (although the last option is not an option)
How horrible is the act of waiting???
To wait is like something is already set up, everything is ready for it but it doesn't happen due to one or some certain circumstances that need the time to pass.. that's the WAITING TIME..
The WAITING time is very subjective of course but it is usually very painful either for good or for bad. It is an assumption that inevitably something is going to happen after a certain time subsequently it just enhances the expectancies of the person who waits..
Examples from the quotidian:
I feel hungry at 12:00 but the lunch break is set for 1pm. Have to wait for the lunch time. The stomach aches, the head is felling dizzy, sick, I am so hungry that I cant work anyway.. But I have to WAIT!
Queue for the tilt in the supermarket.. thats fair enough but if it is too long?
Wait for the exam.. driving exam, any exam.. its like an exam is going to be done after a certain time.. but most of the times would be just better to do it straight away instead of counting down the days and get more and more nervous and anxious.
there are so many things we have to wait for everyday.. wait for the bus! thats one of the worst for me specially because in the morning the bus is always late and there are periods, long periods, of waiting time, thats wasting time..
Prisoner is waiting for he's dead sentence.. that must be very hard waiting time, in this case I reckon he would rather wait forever but if that is going to happen anyway maybe it would be quicker the better.
But why all this speech?? Because I had to introduce the topic that is most present in my mind and life at the moment!
Basically in the end of January/beginning of February I started looking for a new place to move in, I wrote a post (here) about it as well. That means that since then I am WAITING to get a new home and move there and start my life there, get use to it, make it look nice and comfortable and like a really nice home.. That was almost one month ago when I chose the place to live, paid a massive amount of money just to reserve it and I am currently still waiting to get in there!! Can you believe this? Remember my post about the shoes and Amazon and the incompetency of certain human beings (check it out)... its just again the same thing I think. I think one again I am confronted with another bunch of incompetents crossing my way of being happy... grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, that's so irritating! Its like, I am just renting a flat, ok? I am not buying anything. I am renting a little 1 bedroom apartment for a miserable amount of money (it is not cheap but I cant imagine if I would be renting a house with a few rooms or simply buying one...).. The agency advertises that this should take three day and eventually going up to one week.. But no, that's a lie!
And now you wonder that maybe I screwed up with my documents like I didnt get them all the information, or something like that. That's not true, everything is fine and right from my side since the beginning of the month, but still waiting! This waiting time is very very painful, like any waiting time of course, but this was something I wished so much, I want so much and is being delayed God knows why!
It is so annoying... but I have to be patient, thats what everyone would tell me and what comes to my mind just like a way to be civilized and not to go straight to the agency and start shouting and eventually biting them up... That's actually how I feel..
And thats it, I keep waiting with the hope in my hands that is is gonna be sorted soon and then I will show you my little beautiful Aquarium ;)))
To wait is like something is already set up, everything is ready for it but it doesn't happen due to one or some certain circumstances that need the time to pass.. that's the WAITING TIME..
The WAITING time is very subjective of course but it is usually very painful either for good or for bad. It is an assumption that inevitably something is going to happen after a certain time subsequently it just enhances the expectancies of the person who waits..
Examples from the quotidian:
I feel hungry at 12:00 but the lunch break is set for 1pm. Have to wait for the lunch time. The stomach aches, the head is felling dizzy, sick, I am so hungry that I cant work anyway.. But I have to WAIT!
Queue for the tilt in the supermarket.. thats fair enough but if it is too long?
Wait for the exam.. driving exam, any exam.. its like an exam is going to be done after a certain time.. but most of the times would be just better to do it straight away instead of counting down the days and get more and more nervous and anxious.
there are so many things we have to wait for everyday.. wait for the bus! thats one of the worst for me specially because in the morning the bus is always late and there are periods, long periods, of waiting time, thats wasting time..
Prisoner is waiting for he's dead sentence.. that must be very hard waiting time, in this case I reckon he would rather wait forever but if that is going to happen anyway maybe it would be quicker the better.
But why all this speech?? Because I had to introduce the topic that is most present in my mind and life at the moment!
Basically in the end of January/beginning of February I started looking for a new place to move in, I wrote a post (here) about it as well. That means that since then I am WAITING to get a new home and move there and start my life there, get use to it, make it look nice and comfortable and like a really nice home.. That was almost one month ago when I chose the place to live, paid a massive amount of money just to reserve it and I am currently still waiting to get in there!! Can you believe this? Remember my post about the shoes and Amazon and the incompetency of certain human beings (check it out)... its just again the same thing I think. I think one again I am confronted with another bunch of incompetents crossing my way of being happy... grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, that's so irritating! Its like, I am just renting a flat, ok? I am not buying anything. I am renting a little 1 bedroom apartment for a miserable amount of money (it is not cheap but I cant imagine if I would be renting a house with a few rooms or simply buying one...).. The agency advertises that this should take three day and eventually going up to one week.. But no, that's a lie!
And now you wonder that maybe I screwed up with my documents like I didnt get them all the information, or something like that. That's not true, everything is fine and right from my side since the beginning of the month, but still waiting! This waiting time is very very painful, like any waiting time of course, but this was something I wished so much, I want so much and is being delayed God knows why!
It is so annoying... but I have to be patient, thats what everyone would tell me and what comes to my mind just like a way to be civilized and not to go straight to the agency and start shouting and eventually biting them up... That's actually how I feel..
And thats it, I keep waiting with the hope in my hands that is is gonna be sorted soon and then I will show you my little beautiful Aquarium ;)))
Sunday 22 February 2009
Twilight
I actually didn't post anything about valentine's day, what is actually a shame because it was awesome! I am not going into detail, of course, but thanks to my awesome boyfriend I got a very nice time, as always, but we did some special stuff for that day and I got some presents :)
One was an incredible massive bunch of flowers, beautiful, awesome, that still lasts beautifully in my room; another present was what gives title to this post, three books, the Twilight saga by Stephenie Meyer.
We had watched the movie some time ago during our holiday in Portugal, and I loved it and loved the story. I quite fancy vampire stories and the romance is very enchantingly beautiful. I became very curious about the books and the story that doesnt end in the movie giving space for a few more.
Therefore, Pedro took my wish for reading as an idea for a present and bought me the Twilight and other two, the new moon and the eclipse. The Twilight is now 10 cm from me, I am reading it and enjoying very much, reads very well, I'm reading english version, the story is great but not much added to what I saw in the screen. I want to finish this and go reading the others, they must be good.
Love story for an in love person, a hidden and shy romantic girl (blush).
One was an incredible massive bunch of flowers, beautiful, awesome, that still lasts beautifully in my room; another present was what gives title to this post, three books, the Twilight saga by Stephenie Meyer.
We had watched the movie some time ago during our holiday in Portugal, and I loved it and loved the story. I quite fancy vampire stories and the romance is very enchantingly beautiful. I became very curious about the books and the story that doesnt end in the movie giving space for a few more.
Therefore, Pedro took my wish for reading as an idea for a present and bought me the Twilight and other two, the new moon and the eclipse. The Twilight is now 10 cm from me, I am reading it and enjoying very much, reads very well, I'm reading english version, the story is great but not much added to what I saw in the screen. I want to finish this and go reading the others, they must be good.
Love story for an in love person, a hidden and shy romantic girl (blush).
Monday 16 February 2009
The sad story of a pair of trainers and the incompetency of certain human beings
Once upon the time…
…The story I am going to tell you is a true story. It is almost unbelievable how could a pair of shoes be so desired and then so difficult to get rid of...
And the story begins...
Filipa and Pedro were talking about Pedro buying some trainers since his "collection" was getting old. Suddenly they thought there were those trainers with rollers, called Heelys, very appreciated amongst the kids and all generations I think, with an exception for the very old ones, I hope, but everyone knows what I am talking about, trainers with rollers, really nice to slide on a mall's floor or here in my department they would just work perfectly!
Me and Pedro we got quite excited about getting some shoes like that, for both, but since they are expensive I decided to offer Pedro a pair as a present for him being so nice; and because I didn’t get him many Xmas presents ;)
So I told Pedro I was gonna buy the shoes, we did some internet checking for him to decide which ones look better, we went for some black ones (very expected, Pedro wears in darkish colours usually)..
So I knew what to do.
Next day I came to work and went to the Amazon’s web site to buy the shoes, they had them in a few sizes and I got the size 8 (Pedro's size), paid and ordered. And it is here where the shoes' story begins.... the funny part!
Ok, as usual, Amazon works quite well, so in 2 or 3 days the shoes arrived, free of charged, very nice though. I decided to get them from Amazon because any shop I know so far here wouldn't have adult Heelys therefore I could only get them from Amazon or eventually from the Heelys web site. Moreover, I did order some stuff from Amazon before, like Pedro did and we have good impression from them besides Pedro had to return things before and it worked out fine for him. Thus, I thought Amazon would be, and I still think it is, the most reliable source for these sort of things (read unusual things).
Resuming.. The shoes arrived and Pedro tried them up, but unfortunately they didn’t fit him. Apparently the size 8 on those shoes is shorter than usual, so they were too small. Ok, decision was immediately made, the shoes had to be returned..
I haven’t returned any item before, so I didn’t know how it would be, I had to go to Amazon's web site and read the returning policies, and that was what I did the next morning when I got to work..
Amazon works with DHL for retuning purposes, I did work with DHL before too and everything was fine so I thought that was good to have DHL to do that. However, it happened that DHL works differently for different costumers..
So, as an Amazon costumer I couldn’t ring them to arrange the date for collection, I had to do it online by filling out a form and giving them an address and a date. Because I work in a quite complicated building (it is a hospital) I thought that would be better to ask them to go to my home. Pedro told me once, they would come in the morning almost for sure so I thought that wouldn’t be a problem to stay at home during the morning and wait.
On the arranged date, I stayed at home waiting for them.. the day passed and nobody showed up so far. The DHL people didn’t come, I rang them, 2 or 3 times during the day but I have been told that there is no costumer service for Amazon returning services and I just had to wait and wait and wait. The last time I rang them up, that was after 5pm, so after the time they were expected to come to me, and just by that time, never before, someone told me that the DHL driver had come by 11am!! I can promise you that no one came and knocked the door at all!! From their side no one said I was wrong, what makes me think that it happens that sometimes they don’t come but say they do, and in the end I just had to arrange another date... Of course I got very pissed off with both Amazon and DHL they made me stay at home the whole day, even doing some work but still very unpleasant to be waiting for nothing..
At this stage I already knew this was gonna be a complicated story..
And the shoes were still sitting there, waiting for some attention.. something to happen...
No chance to stay another day at home waiting, I thought, so I had to make them come to my working place. I had people collecting items from my lab before, but that’s true they rang me before asking for instructions how to get here. I wrote an email to DHL asking them to pick up the trainers from my work and additionally I left them some clues how to get here and not to get lost. I came to work with the trainers, asked everyone in the lab to be attentive on someone from DHL looking for me and told them the story too... (embarrassing)
Another day passed and no one came again... This time I wasn’t so pissed off since I didnt even realize the time passing as usually when I am working but still, when the day was done and I realized the trainers were still there, sitting in one of my lab’s chairs, waiting for me to take them home again, or to do something about them, that made me cry, grrrrrrrrrrr!! that’s irritating, bloody hell!
Ok, I went home took the trainers back again, understood that no one would ever come to fetch them and I would have to look for an alternative way of getting rid of them. Pedro suggested calling Amazon on their costumer call centre asking for help.
That was then the most logic thing to do.. Next day, and notice that since the trainers arrived has now been more than 2 weeks, trying to arrange dates for collection and bla bla bla, and the trainers were still there..
Ok, so I rang Amazon on the next morning, fortunately their call centre works pretty well didn’t get on hold for a long waiting time, and the person who I talked to seemed very useful. I told them my story and the problems with getting DHL to collect the trainers and they said that would be ok to go to the post office and send them back to them just by telling the post office the story because according to that person I was talking to, the Amazon and the post office had an agreement and the post office knew what to do.
Following these hopeful instructions on the next morning before going to work I went to the post office which is fortunately just on the way from my home to the bus stop. I popped in the post office and talked to the people there. They told me that they couldn’t return the item like that, because I had the labels for DHL, that the Amazon call centre supporter said would be ok, but it turned up that the post office cannot take Amazon items with those labels and require a special one done for them...
Ok again (grrrrrrrr) I rang Amazon again, actually from the post office to disclose the truth about that and indeed the post office woman was right and this time the Amazon person said I couldn’t return it like that.. but well I then asked to be sent another proper label (that should have been sent before of course), and the women on the phone (from Amazon) said she would do so.. So I took the trainers back again, home..
Once I got to work I went to see my email expecting a new label but NOOOO... the labels I had got were AGAIN the DHL ones.... OH NOOOO, such a pain coming all over, no one deserves that, like could everyone be so incompetent???? like DHL people incompetent. Amazon people incompetent.. bloody hell, I just wanted to return the bloody trainers and another week was going to pass... Ok...
Breath in, breath out (just as like a friend of mine uses to say :) and call them again.. Explain my ridiculous story once again by the fourth??? time and this time a guy told me to take the bloody packet to the post office, pay myself to post it to Amazon and then ring Amazon to tell them the postage expenses that they would pay me that and he also told me not to use any labels and to send it back to another address different than what I had before.
Ok, it seemed promising then, since I was going to pay there was no reason why the posit office would refuse to take the item, and I saw the light in the end of the tunnel :))) finally I would get rid of the trainers and most important get my money back! That I could then use to buy another pair of trainers to Pedro and give him a present he could wear!
Ok, next morning, this was Friday, so maybe 4 weeks since I had got the shoes and I consequently started trying to get rid of them, I went to the post office, and sent the trainers to Amazon, paid something like 6pounds but I was happy to pay that and didnt even think about getting the money back from Amazon.. I was happy just by solving the whole story !!
And then was Friday and I got to work and the story could just end here, but no!!
On Saturday morning… me and Pedro had slept at my place, since we still haven’t moved out :( we end up staying at mine or his and that night we slept at mine. I woke up earlier than usual for a Saturday morning but it just happened that because we had spent the week looking for our new place I didn’t manage to get much work done so I decided to go work just like in a normal day, so I got to the lab by 10am.
At about 11.30am Pedro rang me (I left him asleep in my room, that he didn’t have to wake up so early), and he rings me with very surprising voice tone and his first saying was "The trainers are just outside your room"!!!!
WOW I was wondering, "which trainers???", I asked, and he said that the box containing THE TRAINERS... those trainers, yes the ones I had just paid 6 pounds to send back to Amazon, the ones that I had just got rid off, and the story had just been finished had just started over again!! Can you believe this.. it was like a curse, apparently I couldn’t get rid of those trainers!!!!
That would be just perfect if they would had fit Pedro at the first place, but instead they took me and even Pedro through a long journey of how to get rid of a pair of shoes and get your money back!!
Ok I couldn’t really believe the shoes were there, I laughed for a while but since I was at work I couldn’t do anything but wait until Monday to go back to the post office and ask why did they send me the trainers, basically why did they send the post to the sender???? How stupid is that??? (there was my address as the sender with a "FROM" before to mention that I was the sender not the destiny!!!, how could someone be so dumb??? like I go to the Beeston post office 1 yard next to my home to pay 6pounds to post something to myself???? it is incredible again the incompetence that I was talking about, so to add another incompetent person to those already officially incompetents from Amazon and specially from DHL!!!)
It was with some calm and relax that I popped in the post office on Monday morning to slightly complain about the mistake done by them. The cashier was a bit ashamed, apologized and took the pack without even asking for the receipt.
A few days later I got an email from Amazon acknowledging the trainers and promising the refunding soon.
In the meantime, I got the money in my account. I bought Pedro an ordinary pair of trainers, Adidas in sale, but of course that was not what I wanted to buy..
Before that I still bought another pair of trainers that were this time, too big for him, so then we went to the shop (but this time it was in a shop ... uffff), and he exchanged them.
I am still looking forward to buying some nice looking trainers eventually with some funny feature like wheels but certainly I am not getting anything like that from Amazon, not anything that it is likely that I am going to return.
And that is a very big story, but it is a story not a little post, is the story of a sad pair of Heelys trainers that were looking for a home but I could’t shelter them, and they insisted to stay and they became my nightmare, they made people arguing, but they made people know each other better, they reinforce the idea about how the world is full of incompetent workers and how that can affect single people's life’s and ultimately the world's economy, in a world wide perspective!
Sunday 15 February 2009
Friends
I cant believe I left a horrible photo on top of my blog for such a long time.. I have been no time at all and not much inspiration too, but since I have got some photos from the time I was in Portugal with my friends (One of my friends just posted me a cd with very nice moments from my christmas holiday in Portugal, where me and my best friends and very much loved boyfriend went to a place called Vila Nova de Mil Fontes. I went there once before for a lunch with my family but didnt much realized how nice it is. And this holiday there, well, just three short days, with these people were so much fun!!! Cant wait to repeat something like that! And thank you for the photos, Margarida :)).
A tribute to my best friends :)
Ilha do Pessegueiro on the Background, Rui, Pedro, Boavida and Motinha.
Ilha do Pessegueiro and the shore
The girls, framed, Joana, Margarida, Raquel and Me.
Me and Pedro running down the dune to the sea
Me, Joana, Boavida, Raquel and Margarida, "The old friends"
Pedro, Boavida and Mota ("the very new friends.. or the boyfriends and the friend")
Two girls and a boy, a threesome and a friend reading the garfield apparently in french, this was waiting time
Me and you, with love:)
New year's
The chocolate eaters
A tribute to my best friends :)
Ilha do Pessegueiro on the Background, Rui, Pedro, Boavida and Motinha.
Ilha do Pessegueiro and the shore
The girls, framed, Joana, Margarida, Raquel and Me.
Me and Pedro running down the dune to the sea
Me, Joana, Boavida, Raquel and Margarida, "The old friends"
Pedro, Boavida and Mota ("the very new friends.. or the boyfriends and the friend")
Two girls and a boy, a threesome and a friend reading the garfield apparently in french, this was waiting time
Me and you, with love:) 
New year's
The chocolate eaters
A sight by the sea, cold winterful sea :)
Friday 6 February 2009
Friday 30 January 2009
The PhD, The Viva and the house hunting
Has been a while since I wrote my last post and thats a shame coz there has been a lot going on but so much to do then that it has been difficult to update my blog though. From the topic you wonder what is going on I think. Basically all starts and ends up around my PhD busy life that squeezes most of my time, so much to think about, so much to do and read and etc...
And regarding PhD life a week ago I officially finished the very first step of a PhD (in england), passing the first viva checkpoint, just like in a cell cycle one can only progress under proving of success and reliability to get into the next checkpoint. That just happened very fine, got an excellent viva (although I was very scared, because of all that mystery about it, like no one really talks about it and the criteria is not very clear, nothing is written or stated anywhere.. but in the end of the day everyone says that is just very easy, and indeed it is!).
So I am now an official PhD student, in england before the viva exam one is officially and MPhil candidate, and this degree is awarded after the first year with a successful performance, therefore I am now a Master of Philosophy!! The title is a bit funny but oh well... better than my sort of Bsc. (which is actually a bit more than that but not defined, therefore MPhil looks nicer)
So with all that thing with the viva and so my time to write here was shortened, but additionally to that comes the house hunting. That was a hassle and painful thing. Lacking time and patience and still having to look for the house was complicated. Its bloody hard like first looking in the internet for advertisements then calling and booking appointments, dealing with the others' convenient times or going to see the flat and no one shows up or get it cancelled and have to re-book, bla bla bla, go and see, shitty places, crap after crap, bureaucracy, asking things and things, details, bank, letter from the university, bla bla bla, its just crazy. Finally chose one flat, it is nice, I will detail it later because I am still waiting to know whether I can move in since there is those investigations to see whether one is corrupted or so, so I am waiting until that is done. Then will be the moving on, and I cant wait, I am so much anxious to get my own place!
Oh well and thats pretty much everything.
In the meantime there was snow in Nottingham, loads of it, it snowed for 2 or 3 days there were up to 10 cm snow, everything is still covered with snow, there are snowmen everywhere, most are pretty scaring though. I didnt managed to make one, again no time, but I guess there will be more occasions very soon :)
Also, I could have taken a few nice pictures but rather I decided to get a few rubish ones, there you go, a sample:
And regarding PhD life a week ago I officially finished the very first step of a PhD (in england), passing the first viva checkpoint, just like in a cell cycle one can only progress under proving of success and reliability to get into the next checkpoint. That just happened very fine, got an excellent viva (although I was very scared, because of all that mystery about it, like no one really talks about it and the criteria is not very clear, nothing is written or stated anywhere.. but in the end of the day everyone says that is just very easy, and indeed it is!).
So I am now an official PhD student, in england before the viva exam one is officially and MPhil candidate, and this degree is awarded after the first year with a successful performance, therefore I am now a Master of Philosophy!! The title is a bit funny but oh well... better than my sort of Bsc. (which is actually a bit more than that but not defined, therefore MPhil looks nicer)
So with all that thing with the viva and so my time to write here was shortened, but additionally to that comes the house hunting. That was a hassle and painful thing. Lacking time and patience and still having to look for the house was complicated. Its bloody hard like first looking in the internet for advertisements then calling and booking appointments, dealing with the others' convenient times or going to see the flat and no one shows up or get it cancelled and have to re-book, bla bla bla, go and see, shitty places, crap after crap, bureaucracy, asking things and things, details, bank, letter from the university, bla bla bla, its just crazy. Finally chose one flat, it is nice, I will detail it later because I am still waiting to know whether I can move in since there is those investigations to see whether one is corrupted or so, so I am waiting until that is done. Then will be the moving on, and I cant wait, I am so much anxious to get my own place!
Oh well and thats pretty much everything.
In the meantime there was snow in Nottingham, loads of it, it snowed for 2 or 3 days there were up to 10 cm snow, everything is still covered with snow, there are snowmen everywhere, most are pretty scaring though. I didnt managed to make one, again no time, but I guess there will be more occasions very soon :)
Also, I could have taken a few nice pictures but rather I decided to get a few rubish ones, there you go, a sample:
Monday 26 January 2009
6 Months smoke free
My post today is really short and I am just writing because I think this deserves attention.
Today is meaningful since it has been 6 months since the last time I smoke a cigarette and I haven't even touched one afterwards. This is a message specially for those who would not believe I was able to quit and to encourage those you may be thinking of stopping being a human chimney :)
I dont think I will ever smoke again and I feel really good now, a lot better at different points, speacially my circulation improved a lot and I dont feel easily tired anymore.
Today is special, I am happy I achieved this goal!
Today is meaningful since it has been 6 months since the last time I smoke a cigarette and I haven't even touched one afterwards. This is a message specially for those who would not believe I was able to quit and to encourage those you may be thinking of stopping being a human chimney :)
I dont think I will ever smoke again and I feel really good now, a lot better at different points, speacially my circulation improved a lot and I dont feel easily tired anymore.
Today is special, I am happy I achieved this goal!
Sunday 25 January 2009
Moving out, new home, new life :)
Its official,
I am now looking for a new home, another nest to live :) hopefully and certainly much better than the one I have.
When I came to Nottingham, the decision about coming and the time I had for moving and settling were very short, therefore I didnt have enough time to plan it and to spend some time looking for houses and/ flats. Everything had to be done quickly. I came here 15 days before I started the project and stayed for 3 short days to find a place to live, that once I would come to start everything would be entirely ready. By that time I wanted to live in town, in Nottingham city centre, but since many people from work suggested Beeston as the best place to live, I just looked for houses around Beeston. Being new here I accepted the suggestion since as you can see on the map I am posting below, the university is far from the centre and being in Beeston is easier to go to the university, but just by walk, because by bus the centre is 10 times better (but I didnt know that). On the minus side Beeston is far from the city and is a little tiny shopping area, with supermarket and other shops but nothing special.
Meanwhile, I end up choosing a 5 bedroom house in Beeston village centre which is where I still live, sharing a house with another 4 people. On that beginning I didnt think I would stay here longer than my original contract, there is 6 months. And that was why I was not very picky because the plan was to stay here temporarily until I would have some more time to look for something more decent.
But it just did not happen before, but now it is time! Finally I am on the way of changing homes, and hopefully close to get my own space, private and specially clean.
I do quite like the location of this house and that was why I did not think about moving straight after my contract was finished but the worst problems about this place are indeed not the place at all but the people inside.
As the only child I am, I am of course deeply spoiled in several ways and I am not used to share things. Also despite me being quite social (when I want to), I am not, when I am at home, I just dont have patience to socialize with the people from the house just because they live here. So I tend to stay inside my room, sometimes I dont even bother not eating not to face anyone and the dirtiness left behind them.. That is the very worst part of this story, people have different concepts of hygiene and cleaning and that is troublesome. I am fed up with most of the things around here and I am so so happy I am moving out soon :)
On the plus plus side, I am gonna have a much better house to welcome my friends visiting and on the plus plus plus plus plus top side, I am going to live with someone I love. Thats just genial! I can wait to see this dream coming true and in a way to start saying good bye to the house where I am still typing this post I leave a map showing where I live, where I want to live and where I work, dont get confused next time you visit me :)
I am now looking for a new home, another nest to live :) hopefully and certainly much better than the one I have.
When I came to Nottingham, the decision about coming and the time I had for moving and settling were very short, therefore I didnt have enough time to plan it and to spend some time looking for houses and/ flats. Everything had to be done quickly. I came here 15 days before I started the project and stayed for 3 short days to find a place to live, that once I would come to start everything would be entirely ready. By that time I wanted to live in town, in Nottingham city centre, but since many people from work suggested Beeston as the best place to live, I just looked for houses around Beeston. Being new here I accepted the suggestion since as you can see on the map I am posting below, the university is far from the centre and being in Beeston is easier to go to the university, but just by walk, because by bus the centre is 10 times better (but I didnt know that). On the minus side Beeston is far from the city and is a little tiny shopping area, with supermarket and other shops but nothing special.
Meanwhile, I end up choosing a 5 bedroom house in Beeston village centre which is where I still live, sharing a house with another 4 people. On that beginning I didnt think I would stay here longer than my original contract, there is 6 months. And that was why I was not very picky because the plan was to stay here temporarily until I would have some more time to look for something more decent.
But it just did not happen before, but now it is time! Finally I am on the way of changing homes, and hopefully close to get my own space, private and specially clean.
I do quite like the location of this house and that was why I did not think about moving straight after my contract was finished but the worst problems about this place are indeed not the place at all but the people inside.
As the only child I am, I am of course deeply spoiled in several ways and I am not used to share things. Also despite me being quite social (when I want to), I am not, when I am at home, I just dont have patience to socialize with the people from the house just because they live here. So I tend to stay inside my room, sometimes I dont even bother not eating not to face anyone and the dirtiness left behind them.. That is the very worst part of this story, people have different concepts of hygiene and cleaning and that is troublesome. I am fed up with most of the things around here and I am so so happy I am moving out soon :)
On the plus plus side, I am gonna have a much better house to welcome my friends visiting and on the plus plus plus plus plus top side, I am going to live with someone I love. Thats just genial! I can wait to see this dream coming true and in a way to start saying good bye to the house where I am still typing this post I leave a map showing where I live, where I want to live and where I work, dont get confused next time you visit me :)
Saturday 24 January 2009
Girly gangs and chavs
Today I went for a coffee with two girlfriends here from Nottingham, both doing PhD, but both foreigners like me, so of course we end up sharing a lot of feelings about the life here.. and one subject that got into debate today was exactly the question about the "girly gangs" in Nottingham and in general, but in Nottingham it is just more appreciated...
I think I slightly pointed out that in the past but basically for those who dont know the girls here in Nottingham, from Nottingham, or God knows where from, they tend to have very particular behaviours which I would say are far from one would think as normal. Lets be more specific... Girls here, like in most other countries go out in groups, there is nothing new about it. Those girls and each group tend to follow a style or a standard that means that all girls in the same group look more or less similar.. thats what I mean by gangs.. basically similar styles stick together and form a group...
Usually there is that group of fairly pretty girls, a group of girls that look like they read the bible before going asleep, group of girls that are a bit overweight, etc... there are a lot, BUT:
The awkward funny thing is that in Nottingham those "girly gangs" vary a lot more than our imagination could eventually think of, and thats the funny part!
Yesterday I went out and suddenly recalled how does Nottingham night life works... I have forgotten that since I spent a long time not going out here.. So basically I should first introduce you to a general concept of "chav". This is a slang british term according to the dictionary: Brit slang, derogatory a young working-class person who dresses in casual sports clothes, but actually it is a lot more than that..
watch the videos to get familiar!
Ok, so chavy girls go out in gangs, but unlike the other girls they are not simply fat, or simply pretty or simply ugly, or whatever because these girls have no simplicity at all!! They are a mix of dirty bitches with cheap chicks, look all very easy, very drunk and brainless no matter how old they are. Bear in mind that you find chavy gangs from all age ranges, from youngs to mums and grannys! Of course it is very hard to describe them better without any photographic material, but for example during the day the dress code is very sportive whereas by night their looks vary from when they organize to dress a specific costume, usually very very dirty or if not they will dress as less clothes as they can and there will always be a lot of make up and they usually look orange... its a must see! But they are not found in London for example, while here in Nottingham is like the chavy land.. apparently there are a lot around the midlands like birmingham and also in Liverpool (I saw)..
Conclusion, girls hang out together, thats fine, but when I see a group of chavs I know I am gonna be impressed, trust me, it is disgusting!
I know one day you see one you will remember my description or in case you already know what I am talking about you probably wonder why do this people have no taste? how can someone be like that?
I sometimes over criticize things and people but this time one has to agree with me, inst it weird?
I think I slightly pointed out that in the past but basically for those who dont know the girls here in Nottingham, from Nottingham, or God knows where from, they tend to have very particular behaviours which I would say are far from one would think as normal. Lets be more specific... Girls here, like in most other countries go out in groups, there is nothing new about it. Those girls and each group tend to follow a style or a standard that means that all girls in the same group look more or less similar.. thats what I mean by gangs.. basically similar styles stick together and form a group...
Usually there is that group of fairly pretty girls, a group of girls that look like they read the bible before going asleep, group of girls that are a bit overweight, etc... there are a lot, BUT:
The awkward funny thing is that in Nottingham those "girly gangs" vary a lot more than our imagination could eventually think of, and thats the funny part!
Yesterday I went out and suddenly recalled how does Nottingham night life works... I have forgotten that since I spent a long time not going out here.. So basically I should first introduce you to a general concept of "chav". This is a slang british term according to the dictionary: Brit slang, derogatory a young working-class person who dresses in casual sports clothes, but actually it is a lot more than that..
watch the videos to get familiar!
Ok, so chavy girls go out in gangs, but unlike the other girls they are not simply fat, or simply pretty or simply ugly, or whatever because these girls have no simplicity at all!! They are a mix of dirty bitches with cheap chicks, look all very easy, very drunk and brainless no matter how old they are. Bear in mind that you find chavy gangs from all age ranges, from youngs to mums and grannys! Of course it is very hard to describe them better without any photographic material, but for example during the day the dress code is very sportive whereas by night their looks vary from when they organize to dress a specific costume, usually very very dirty or if not they will dress as less clothes as they can and there will always be a lot of make up and they usually look orange... its a must see! But they are not found in London for example, while here in Nottingham is like the chavy land.. apparently there are a lot around the midlands like birmingham and also in Liverpool (I saw)..
Conclusion, girls hang out together, thats fine, but when I see a group of chavs I know I am gonna be impressed, trust me, it is disgusting!
Anatomy of a chav girl
I know one day you see one you will remember my description or in case you already know what I am talking about you probably wonder why do this people have no taste? how can someone be like that?
I sometimes over criticize things and people but this time one has to agree with me, inst it weird?
Friday 23 January 2009
Friday post
Thats a quick post to say...
Friday should be... the day before the weekend, right? and indeed it is. Friday is also the day before many people get two days off. But not if you are a PhD student.. Friday is just another day before a working day..
Thats me back, mourning again about PhD life.. And indeed (again) it is hard.. I could just be in Portugal at the moment and I am here, working my ass off , grrrrrrrrr, I had to write this, its just me crying out loud to someone not to eventually shout someone around me here at work.. The other thing is if I had a normal job I could not probably go to Portugal anyway, but the frustration is.. I can go, legitimately but I cannot because I have loads of things to do..
I am so so busy.. Ok, now calm down and relax, and lets listen to music :)
Song just more on the mood of an easy life, like university or so, but I like it, it makes me happy :))
And Hey Pedro I miss you a lot!!
Oh the wind whistles down
The cold dark street tonight
And the people they were dancing to the music vibe
And the boys chase the girls with the curls in their hair
While the shy tormented youth sit way over there
And the songs they get louder
Each one better than before
And you're singing the songs
Thinking this is the life
And you wake up in the morning and your head feels twice the size
Where you gonna go? Where you gonna go?
Where you gonna sleep tonight?
And you're singing the songs
Thinking this is the life
And you wake up in the morning and your head feels twice the size
Where you gonna go? Where you gonna go?
Where you gonna sleep tonight?
Where you gonna sleep tonight?
So your heading down the road in your taxi for four
And you're waiting outside Jimmy's front door
But nobody's in and nobody's home 'til four
So you're sitting there with nothing to do
Talking about Robert Riger and his motley crew
And where you're gonna go and where you're gonna sleep tonight
And you're singing the songs
Thinking this is the life
And you wake up in the morning and your head feels twice the size
Where you gonna go? Where you gonna go?
Where you gonna sleep tonight?
And you're singing the songs
Thinking this is the life
And you wake up in the morning and your head feels twice the size
Where you gonna go? Where you gonna go?
Where you gonna sleep tonight?
Where you gonna sleep tonight?
And you're singing the songs
Thinking this is the life
And you wake up in the morning and your head feels twice the size
Where you gonna go? Where you gonna go?
Where you gonna sleep tonight?
And you're singing the songs
Thinking this is the life
And you wake up in the morning and your head feels twice the size
Where you gonna go? Where you gonna go?
Where you gonna sleep tonight?
And you're singing the songs
Thinking this is the life
And you wake up in the morning and your head feels twice the size
Where you gonna go? Where you gonna go?
Where you gonna sleep tonight?
And you're singing the songs
Thinking this is the life
And you wake up in the morning and your head feels twice the size
Where you gonna go? Where you gonna go?
Where you gonna sleep tonight?
Where you gonna sleep tonight?
Friday should be... the day before the weekend, right? and indeed it is. Friday is also the day before many people get two days off. But not if you are a PhD student.. Friday is just another day before a working day..
Thats me back, mourning again about PhD life.. And indeed (again) it is hard.. I could just be in Portugal at the moment and I am here, working my ass off , grrrrrrrrr, I had to write this, its just me crying out loud to someone not to eventually shout someone around me here at work.. The other thing is if I had a normal job I could not probably go to Portugal anyway, but the frustration is.. I can go, legitimately but I cannot because I have loads of things to do..
I am so so busy.. Ok, now calm down and relax, and lets listen to music :)
Song just more on the mood of an easy life, like university or so, but I like it, it makes me happy :))
And Hey Pedro I miss you a lot!!
Oh the wind whistles down
The cold dark street tonight
And the people they were dancing to the music vibe
And the boys chase the girls with the curls in their hair
While the shy tormented youth sit way over there
And the songs they get louder
Each one better than before
And you're singing the songs
Thinking this is the life
And you wake up in the morning and your head feels twice the size
Where you gonna go? Where you gonna go?
Where you gonna sleep tonight?
And you're singing the songs
Thinking this is the life
And you wake up in the morning and your head feels twice the size
Where you gonna go? Where you gonna go?
Where you gonna sleep tonight?
Where you gonna sleep tonight?
So your heading down the road in your taxi for four
And you're waiting outside Jimmy's front door
But nobody's in and nobody's home 'til four
So you're sitting there with nothing to do
Talking about Robert Riger and his motley crew
And where you're gonna go and where you're gonna sleep tonight
And you're singing the songs
Thinking this is the life
And you wake up in the morning and your head feels twice the size
Where you gonna go? Where you gonna go?
Where you gonna sleep tonight?
And you're singing the songs
Thinking this is the life
And you wake up in the morning and your head feels twice the size
Where you gonna go? Where you gonna go?
Where you gonna sleep tonight?
Where you gonna sleep tonight?
And you're singing the songs
Thinking this is the life
And you wake up in the morning and your head feels twice the size
Where you gonna go? Where you gonna go?
Where you gonna sleep tonight?
And you're singing the songs
Thinking this is the life
And you wake up in the morning and your head feels twice the size
Where you gonna go? Where you gonna go?
Where you gonna sleep tonight?
And you're singing the songs
Thinking this is the life
And you wake up in the morning and your head feels twice the size
Where you gonna go? Where you gonna go?
Where you gonna sleep tonight?
And you're singing the songs
Thinking this is the life
And you wake up in the morning and your head feels twice the size
Where you gonna go? Where you gonna go?
Where you gonna sleep tonight?
Where you gonna sleep tonight?
Monday 19 January 2009
Monday Whatever post.. includes trip to Liverpool
Ok, I haven't been writing here for a while, I have been missing interesting topics to discuss, but I want to write something today so I can talk about the weekend and the time spent in Liverpool :) Yes, I went to Liverpool last Friday, after work, just for one night and a day, because some friends are getting married then they did an engagement party. That reason took me to Liverpool. Despite of lacking time to properly see the city I saw enough to do a little comparison between Liverpool and Nottingham.
Liverpool(not by me)
I like Nottingham a lot, and I think that might be one of the best places in England to be a student and to do a PhD when combining aspects such as the University, with the town, the life style and the prices it’s a fairly good combination. The city is tiny but that means that it's cheaper to live closer to the centre or in the centre, and still it has everything needed. And the rest is all positive, like the uni is well rated, the campus is awesome and the life style is very student friendly (since there are two universities and the University of Nottingham has over 20000 students/year everything is somehow done in function of the students). Liverpool was quite a surprise for me, as I thought it would look a lot more industrialized and "dark" but it shown up as a modern bright city. The very good point about it is the large presence of water, either the wide river or the sea nearby makes it nice. Nottingham has just one river, the Trent, which is almost inexistent, being just a tiny narrow course of water, there is almost no water around anywhere in Nottingham.
The second nice thing about Liverpool is the shopping area and the huge and nice buildings around, from the begging of the XX century showing that the city used to be exceptionally wealthy thanks to the money coming from wharfs and factories of the region. Another thing is that because Liverpool is more a city than Nottingham there are shops that one can’t find in Nottingham and that I miss a lot sometimes.
Liverpool(not by me)
In conclusion, Liverpool was worth visit. I enjoyed the party very much (got sick in the end.. but was ok, lololol .. ) and AH! And I can’t forget there was something worse in Liverpool than in Nottingham there is the coldness due to the wind coming from the ocean, ice cold blasts of wind made me freeze... brrrrrggg...
I would like to show here some photos of Liverpool but I still haven’t got them (they were not in my camera).
There are some last things to point out about Liverpool such as the people there. Mostly everyone was exceptionally nicer and more sympathetic than any where else in England! That is really strange that liverpudlians were talking to you without any problems they broke the silence on the train, they made jokes while one was waiting for food and even the taxi driver talked during the journey, that just reminded me about Portugal and made me mark Liverpool as a very nice place!
These same people seem to be all football fans, everyone seems to enjoy football and they are fanatic. One negative thing is the accents; a proper Liverpudlians will talk in an incomprehensive way.. Very bizarre accent though .. known as scouse... mostly everyone that talks like that also might think that Liverpool is not part of England but rather something apart, so they say that they are not English but Liverpudlians (from Liverpool) !!!
Liverpool(not by me)
And now I should get back to work on my Monday working mood, never very happy, of course, monday sucks (like Garfield says and I agree)..
Liverpool(not by me)I like Nottingham a lot, and I think that might be one of the best places in England to be a student and to do a PhD when combining aspects such as the University, with the town, the life style and the prices it’s a fairly good combination. The city is tiny but that means that it's cheaper to live closer to the centre or in the centre, and still it has everything needed. And the rest is all positive, like the uni is well rated, the campus is awesome and the life style is very student friendly (since there are two universities and the University of Nottingham has over 20000 students/year everything is somehow done in function of the students). Liverpool was quite a surprise for me, as I thought it would look a lot more industrialized and "dark" but it shown up as a modern bright city. The very good point about it is the large presence of water, either the wide river or the sea nearby makes it nice. Nottingham has just one river, the Trent, which is almost inexistent, being just a tiny narrow course of water, there is almost no water around anywhere in Nottingham.
The second nice thing about Liverpool is the shopping area and the huge and nice buildings around, from the begging of the XX century showing that the city used to be exceptionally wealthy thanks to the money coming from wharfs and factories of the region. Another thing is that because Liverpool is more a city than Nottingham there are shops that one can’t find in Nottingham and that I miss a lot sometimes.
Liverpool(not by me)I would like to show here some photos of Liverpool but I still haven’t got them (they were not in my camera).
There are some last things to point out about Liverpool such as the people there. Mostly everyone was exceptionally nicer and more sympathetic than any where else in England! That is really strange that liverpudlians were talking to you without any problems they broke the silence on the train, they made jokes while one was waiting for food and even the taxi driver talked during the journey, that just reminded me about Portugal and made me mark Liverpool as a very nice place!
These same people seem to be all football fans, everyone seems to enjoy football and they are fanatic. One negative thing is the accents; a proper Liverpudlians will talk in an incomprehensive way.. Very bizarre accent though .. known as scouse... mostly everyone that talks like that also might think that Liverpool is not part of England but rather something apart, so they say that they are not English but Liverpudlians (from Liverpool) !!!
Liverpool(not by me)
Wednesday 14 January 2009
I am becoming a programmer.. This is enrichment of my geeky brain slots
Yesterday I started a new course called Programming for beginners. This is a workshop-course run by the uni for post graduates interested in learning the basics of programming. The uni offers a large variety of workshops in a wide range of areas from languages to computer science, academic and industry skills development and so on, but most of them are boring and useless. Its a really waste of time, but I have to do them, so no more whinging.
Back on PhD stuff conversations and posts, as part of my PhD program I have to attend for these workshops to get 20 credits for my first year. Therefore until the 3rd of March I have to get 20 credits. This course, has then a few plus and convenient sides, and hopefully will be a lot more interesting than the ones I went before, getting me 8 credits, helps me recalling the basics of programming (something I did for a little while in the past), and that is now a tool important for my own PhD project since I intend to start my mathematical modelling and I need to do some programming for that... On the other side (not too bad though), it makes me a bit more geeky with the PhD in biomedical science slash biochemistry comprising a lot of computational biophysics and mathematics and with some programming background makes me someone no ones wants to meet once reading my CV.. (I will make sure I attach a photo of me to show I look human)..
Ok, I’m missing up the topic, back on the class yesterday, it was very nice to see how easy is still for me to pick up the programming basics, and I think I do understand it better now. Most of you don’t know but before I chose to get a biology degree I did a bit of computer science engineering, so got to know some programming.. Lets see how it goes from now on..
Another new year's resolution was to start doing sports, bought the university gold card that gives me free pass to any sportive activity and I am now committed to go to the gymnasium at least 3x a week and I will try to do some swimming too. There is the need to finish up with my unhealthy life here, eating rubbish and not doing any sports, I am decided to move up and become healthy again :))) (not something I have ever been, but at least I used to eat less grease and exercise more)
PhD is back on track now, back to the lab experiments and to the results, I will have my first viva soon, not yet know the date, but soon, afterwards whether I pass it (hopefully will, my God cant even think of the contrary), I will be an MPhil (??? hell???).. but the good thing is closer to the PhD award!
And that the mid of the officially first week back in Notts, a lot is certainly coming, I am quite exciting and happy :) have fun!!
Back on PhD stuff conversations and posts, as part of my PhD program I have to attend for these workshops to get 20 credits for my first year. Therefore until the 3rd of March I have to get 20 credits. This course, has then a few plus and convenient sides, and hopefully will be a lot more interesting than the ones I went before, getting me 8 credits, helps me recalling the basics of programming (something I did for a little while in the past), and that is now a tool important for my own PhD project since I intend to start my mathematical modelling and I need to do some programming for that... On the other side (not too bad though), it makes me a bit more geeky with the PhD in biomedical science slash biochemistry comprising a lot of computational biophysics and mathematics and with some programming background makes me someone no ones wants to meet once reading my CV.. (I will make sure I attach a photo of me to show I look human)..
What Kind of geek are you?
(click to enlarge and find yourself)
(click to enlarge and find yourself)
Ok, I’m missing up the topic, back on the class yesterday, it was very nice to see how easy is still for me to pick up the programming basics, and I think I do understand it better now. Most of you don’t know but before I chose to get a biology degree I did a bit of computer science engineering, so got to know some programming.. Lets see how it goes from now on..
I am starting with Java, therefore I still dont have a proper geeky gang signs, but I am gonna finish with C++, so I am glad I will, LOLOLOL
Another new year's resolution was to start doing sports, bought the university gold card that gives me free pass to any sportive activity and I am now committed to go to the gymnasium at least 3x a week and I will try to do some swimming too. There is the need to finish up with my unhealthy life here, eating rubbish and not doing any sports, I am decided to move up and become healthy again :))) (not something I have ever been, but at least I used to eat less grease and exercise more)
PhD is back on track now, back to the lab experiments and to the results, I will have my first viva soon, not yet know the date, but soon, afterwards whether I pass it (hopefully will, my God cant even think of the contrary), I will be an MPhil (??? hell???).. but the good thing is closer to the PhD award!
And that the mid of the officially first week back in Notts, a lot is certainly coming, I am quite exciting and happy :) have fun!!
Sunday 11 January 2009
Christmas holidays , photo reporting
As you may have guessed from the previous post I went in a trip to Geres, Geres mountains, for a short (too short) time. Of course it was amazing, the weather was great, always sunny, with great sunshine (not even in summer here in england one can watch that), the place was awesome, the landscapes were magic, green but colourful at the same time. The accommodation was also perfect, a mountain house placed in a strategic high place with a wonderful view over a big dam, looks like a big lake, imagine me waking up in the morning and open the window and look into such a beautiful view (see the photos), was very very relaxing. The days were spent in the mountains, either driving or hiking, that was awesome, finding water falls and great views, the mountains were empty of tourists therefore it felt really comfortable, no noise apart from water, wind and animals, just nature, was really a remarkable experience :)
I show here some photos that might make your mind and take you there :) for the last day we went to a SPA to get really good treats, the holiday was perfect, perfect place, perfect time, and perfect company :))
View from the room
On top of the world :)
Water fall
Next to the water fall
River Springs
Hiking up the mountain with a quick stop
On top "scenario"
The roads
landscapes
Magic trees
the colourful green
Hiking paths
gorgeous views
PERFECT!!
I show here some photos that might make your mind and take you there :) for the last day we went to a SPA to get really good treats, the holiday was perfect, perfect place, perfect time, and perfect company :))
View from the room
Pousada de Gerês / Caniçada - S.Bento
http://www.pousadas.pt/historicalhotels/EN/pousadas/Portugal/Norte/SBento/home/PousadaSaoBento_Home.htm
http://www.pousadas.pt/historicalhotels/EN/pousadas/Portugal/Norte/SBento/home/PousadaSaoBento_Home.htm
On top of the world :)
Water fall
Next to the water fall
River Springs
Hiking up the mountain with a quick stop
On top "scenario"
The roads
landscapes
Magic trees
the colourful green 
Hiking paths
gorgeous views PERFECT!!
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