End of the road?

My viva is in two days. Viva is the name of the PhD thesis's defence in the UK. I feel almost relieved but at the same time terrified. I wish I did not have to do this, but I guess this is the only way to finally accomplish what I have being working on for 4 years!! So I cannot wait! it is a big FINALLY! If I am successful, in two days time I am going to feel so free! My PhD has been kind of a torture, a true nightmare... I think most people would say the same, at least most people I know are unhappy and frustrated with their PhD's, but why is that? In my case there are many many reasons.. I think almost everything that can go wrong with a PhD did happen to me! Lets see... Changing projects because first project was no longer funded, waiting a couple of months to know whether there would be any funding at all to continue whatever alternative project... first supervisor and second supervisor broke up and I was left with just the first supervisor. Then, first and only supervisor disappears for a few months and I'm left with no supervisor at all. Later, first supervisor returns but refuses to give proper supervision saying he does not "believe" in it(weird..) .. This means: no training, no monthly meetings, no thesis planing, no planing at all.. He would see me if I had a result to show him and that is it! At this stage I should have mentioned already that I was in a lab surrounded by germans who spoke german all the time around me (including my supervisor).. I felt lonely and apart, without understanding what was going on for the majority of the time. No support, no help, no friends. The only non german speaker, apart from myself, was a technician (poor him), who eventually left after becoming depressed... guess why? Then ok, surviving all of this, I still had to fight against a crazy radiation inspector who hates my supervisor and who therefore decided he could seek some sort of revenge by messing up with me. He unfairly accused me of wrongdoing, a matter that triggered a total mess, starting with a formal complaint, followed by unlimited meetings with all sort of people in the school, professors, technicians, head of school, then students's Union.. After a couple of months everything eventually ended and I was back to work.. work, but with some bullshit supervision, no collaborations, no friendly lab mates.. hard methods, no one to teach, show, explain. I had to learn everything on my own, sometimes by trial and error, spending nights in the lab, weekends in the lab. Stuff eventually worked out, got some interesting results. Time to put it together in a thesis but run out of funding! At that time, bloody supervisor who was suppose to cover for my expenses, but did not, said I could not finish! Although I had no money and therefore no time. Worked for 4 more months without a penny, got more results and told stupid supervisor I wanted to finish. He did not agree, I run away.. went to Portugal, wrote the thesis, came back, gave it to stupid supervisor who eventually skimmed through and guess what? He did not like the structure! Of course! We never discussed the structure before, ever! We never discussed anything related to my thesis ever! Stupid supervisor gave me his comments, I followed his advice.. at this point I just wanted to get rid of anything related to the PhD, so best do everything he wanted as long as that accelerates the process... But, surprise surprise, gave him the second version following his advice but again he did not like it! Yet, it was now based on his advice!! He said he had changed his mind.. Bullocks! therefore do it again! Third time writing my thesis up while still being asked to come to the lab because of course one cannot just write up a thesis full time.. there are experiments to run!! At this point I felt desperate, I was being used and abused. Without payment I was forced to come to the lab to keep my supervisor happy such that he would eventually read my thesis and give me corrections. But obviously he was delaying it, such that I would come to the lab more and more... it was insane. At a point he asked me to write a paper, a book chapter that was more than overdue. Out of desperation I said I could help, thinking ok, lets keep this guy happy. At the same time I asked and begged him to please read my thesis because I was struggling to live like this.. no money, no time, no sleep, no eating, feeling distressed and aggravated, trying to cope with everything. Plus the pressure at home to have my PhD finished and move on with my life which was the obvious thing to do! Got depressed. Yet did not give up. Wrote the book chapter, did the experiments and eventually got my thesis mostly corrected with some exceptions. It came to a point I could not take it any longer. My sanity was at risk, my health was severely jeopardized by all the stress.. it had been a year with no money, working night and day.. days in the lab, nights at the computer writing and reading.. lost 8Kg, my face was like a zombie's face. I could barely stand up, no strength in my legs, couldn't eat, couldn't sleep. Decision made: hand in the thesis; tell supervisor to piss off! No second supervisor to ask for help, eventually got some support from a colleague and some other academics who could see it... supervisor went nuts with my attitude and is seeking revenge... kicked my name out of the book chapter I had devoted time to write: I filed a complaint against him. Rumour has that he is currently willing to destroy me. I do not know how, we do not talk, but I know he is mad and evil. I just want to get this done. I think I can tell that this means more than anything now. Good news are that I got a job, the job I wanted! Thus I just really have to pass the viva after tomorrow and everything will hopefully go back to normality I can go back to my real self. In hindsight I know today that I should have quit my PhD right at the beginning when I sensed all of this. I knew it! I truly did, but somewhat there was something in me that did not let me quit.. I think I always believed I would be strong enough to make it through, was I? I will tell you later ;)

The roads into my PhD..

Like I said in my last post, I am currently looking for a job as I have recently submitted my PhD thesis (I still cannot believe it entirely...) Today, I spent pretty much the whole day looking into job advertisements, recruitment companies websites and thus spotting possible future employers. At the same time I wrote a list of skills and assets I gained, mostly from my PhD, such that I can fix and update my CV, also I spent quite some time surfing in Linkedin..

Linkedin became quite useful as it quickly helped me remembering and learning about a lot of possible employers. At the same time, however, it diverted my attention to the forums of questions and answers that are constantly going on as part of the groups that one can take part.. I am myself part of quite a few groups that I joined for one reason or another.. from time to time, and more often than I would wish, I receive, in my email box, these questions and these debates and frequently realize they are redundant. The same questions and issues are raised several times and go on forever.. I reckon that is because they are indeed prevalent within the population and important matters to be discussed of course.. In particular, there is this question about "Why did you do your PhD" or "shall I hide my PhD in my next job application" of course these questions are posed directly to people who have done PhD's but who are very much willing to leave academia for good...

Reading all this, I could not help it but rethink on my entire decision of first having thought of doing a PhD and secondly having done it, or most of it.. (not 100% finished but confident enough that I will pass my dissertation exam.. hopefully... mixed feelings here)..

At the same time I came across this blog article from a guy I know and I discovered today is doing a PhD himself.. (sorry I didnt know about that).. Besides the article being really well written I think it explains very well why most people, who have a scientific background, are dragged into this kind of life.. aka PhD/research servant forced to get accustomed to a tyrant supervisor who has no respect for the fact that his students is a human being with personal aspirations and instead simply sees a brain on a stick... as very well characterized by Jorge Cham (PhD comics says it all)...

But Ok.. I am diverting a little bit from the message I wanted to convey today which was basically to explain how I came to do a PhD... So basically and to cut a fairly long story, it was when I was in the final stages of my undergrad degree that the word PhD reached my vocabulary.. I was undertaking my final year research project and quite successfully, I not only set up an entire new lab, as I performed good research, later appreciated by my supervisors and pretty much all the scholars around. On top of that I still did some teaching and master students supervision.. all in all it was a great achievement and I got the best mark ever achieved for this discipline, 19 out of 20! During this time I was heavily persuaded into pursuing a PhD not only by the academics around me, including my professors, but as well by the job market.. Before I just wanted to finish my degree and get a job, that's it. A cousin of mine had done a PhD some time ago and struggled to get a job due to over qualification, so I knew that should be something to avoid.. but somehow I went straight to it... After applying for a few research technician jobs without success, it seemed right to do a PhD, specially because it was very easy to get it.. Also, the job positions that seemed right for me at that time, they all required a PhD or extensive research experience, thus again, the PhD appeared to be the right and only thing to do..

Yet, I thought ok.. I can do a PhD BUT I should be in a project that is, in some way, linked to industry or involving industry partners, because, in fact, I never thought or planed to becoming an academic. Thus, I looked into this possibility and luckily and happily found the ideal PhD project for me. Unfortunately, the good things end here. 6 months later and my PhD project had to cease because the company I was collaborating with, and which was subsidizing the research, was in serious struggle to keep things up as the economic crisis spreaded all over Europe (we were in 2008). Consequently, my funding was cut and I was left with two options: give up and look for another project in a different place, essentially start it over from the PhD hunting point, or continue in the same place but changing the topic and the domain a little bit and doing a purely academic PhD just like the majority of people do.

I must say that by then I was already quite disappointed with many things regarding the PhD, and perhaps I should have quitted and tried to find a normal job and forget the entire PhD thing altogether... but me being me, giving up was not something that could be accepted, I do not accept defeat, ever, therefore my decision was to continue. That is, I did the most academic PhD one can ever plan, have two journal publications, can perhaps have 2 or three more, yet the things went so badly that at present I don't know whether I can be bother... I know one thing though.. I am going to leave this "world" and use whatever skills I achieved to be starting it, even if from scratch, in a different world. That was what I always wanted, so not giving up the dream! Say, it just got a little bit delayed...

One day I am going to write a post about the do and donts and my personal experience during the PhD, but I am going to leave it to another time, as this post is far too long already.. Thus for now I keep searching for a suitable career for the "after PhD life".

How to enjoy your research?

Or how to enjoy your academic research?
Does anybody know the answer to this question?


Personally I googled it, and unlike the usual google wasn't able to give me an answer!!! This never happened before! However, I am not totally surprised that there are no answers to this question. There are certainly many tips on how to enjoy your job and work and those can be used for academic research but they are common sense tips and motivators that do not simply respond to the question!


I know my today's post topic goes back to the recurrent topic of my life.. my research and my PhD. I feel particularly sad today. After a lot of effort and time spent to get some results, there are things that simply don't work..This is, as one can imagine, very frustrating, when you plan everything, spend hours putting a lot of effort, work after hours and over the weekends and in the end there is no result meaning that all that effort was in vain.. No one cares about negative results, that cannot be published and cannot figure in a PhD thesis, so upon failure one feels that has to catch up with the time "lost" which was the time spent working a lot but resulting in nothing, and the story repeats over and over again. I cannot enjoy this! How to enjoy this?


When I left the lab today I roamed through the corridors got to the lift then went back to the lab again to check on my cells (I am a bit worried with a cell line I bought yesterday, costed almost £600 and I am afraid to death they die before I freeze them). Then I left the lab again and again roamed towards the lifts and, as usual, stared a bit at the scientific posters on the walls.. Some of them aren't good or pretty or promising or interesting but regardless of that I always wonder how much time and effort (and money) was spent to do the research that's presented there..

The fact is I just can't see the light right now, or there's no shine in the dark for me now when it comes to research (or perhaps there should be). One day there is one thing that works just fine sooner followed by a set of frustrations... and that's the vicious cycle of research, I cannot see any amusement there!
Not to mention that (quite obviously actually) , there are people that, possibly under despair, fabricate data and publish fake results in order to move on, get funded and successful, and I don't know, but I guess sometimes it must be really complicated...


I guess I was just not born for this. I am a very hard worker and I usually enjoy working a lot, having results, achieving something, I like getting compliments for my effort and so on and so on.. With research I just feel that I am in a battle with myself everyday, testing how many hours I can work in a row without collapsing in order to compensate for the frustrations. I end up doing several additional less relevant experiments that I know they work fine mixed in between the tricky ones to cope with the disappointment  (its like giving myself a carrot, although I already know that..).. And if in the end I would at least offer something great to the world... but no, I know that my contribution to the universal knowledge is smaller than a sand grain. It is sad but it is just a purely academic dissertation about a very academic topic with inexistent applicability to the humanity..

However, if you know the answer for my question, please tell me, I can't hold it much longer...

PhD Advice, possibly the best advice one can get before starting a PhD

I decided to write about this topic now that have some experience in the matter. I started this blog more or less a few months after started my PhD and now I am on my third year, so roughly 2 years are gone.

Over these two years many things happened, good and bad things, and obviously I have been realizing that I added a lot of knowledge not at the academic level alone but I am talking about living experience knowledge. This post will be all about life experience and almost nothing about the scientific content of my PhD, although it quite annoys me too...

Basically I wish I was aware of certain things I am now before I decided to start this PhD, and I hope that if you are reading this and considering doing PhD you will remember my advice :) or otherwise do not complain! ;)

First rule: Get to know your group first! This is so important, and I have been told about that, but for one reason or another I ended up forgetting to know more about the group I was going to be part of. It is really important that you like the group where you work, remember you will be there at least 3 years, the whole day, sometimes 7 days per week, you will possibly need to ask for help or one or two favours, you will be pleased to have colleagues that help you, that you identify yourself with, that you can hang out with, even if they are not or will never be your best friends, you will like to talk to them and enjoy the conversation. Remember that your supervisor must be a nice guy, in the end everything goes down to him, and he will be the responsible for you and your work, so your supervisor must be the guy that you will never feel angry with or have any problems.

So, to know the group is even more important than the subject of your PhD (actually the subject is not very important but I will come to that later). It is more important than the institution, it is more important than the place in the world. I believe that to feel happy at work with the people around it is already a very good help to get the work properly done, because you enjoy to be there, and best is when people work as a team and not like a bunch of selfish guys trying to see you is better like in a race where in the end things do not work and one feels very unhappy.

So do not forget, try to spend some time in a lab before you decide to stay there for you PhD, then you can make sure you are in the right place :))

Second rule: Supervisor success! I already said that the supervisor must be a nice guy, which is absolutely fundamental, you may not believe but that are really freaking supervisors around that can make your life a real nightmare, so be aware! Next important thing about your supervisor is he's rate of success at several levels but most importantly with publications. This is something very easy to track down, as in www.pubmed.com you can search for your potential supervisor's name and see which publications does he or she have. Be careful!! Sometimes there are people with the same name, so a quick look may make you overlook things, make sure the publications are all from the same person by for example checking the institution and the other people in the paper you will be able to track down who is working with etc... Obviously if your potential supervisor has been publishing like crazy in really good journals it is very likely that your project is going to be a success and you will probably enjoy it (but do not forget to check if the guy is nice.. it can be that he is a rubbish bastard scientist that slaves everyone in the lab to get all those papers out). By checking advisor's publications you will also be more aware of the work that is done in the lab, the techniques and methods in use, animal work and so on, so be sure that you don't chose a group that does something you are against or do not enjoy at all. Also very important is to know how many PhD students your supervisor had so far and if they all were ok, passed and published (in case there was a failure I would never go there, but that's just me)!

Third rule: Meeting with the boss! The meetings with your supervisor are very important moments of your PhD, so this advice is more for post-PhD beginning, but I decide to include it here because it is very very important. First, PhD students always think that the supervisor is watching them, or is thinking that they are not good enough maybe a bit stupid, basically in the beginning we all feel a bit overwhelmed by our supervisors, but everything we think is a myth and sooner or later we realize that... In fact our supervisors do not care that much about us.. and that's a problem because they do not remember what we discussed before, for example in the previous meeting, etc.. so meeting with your supervisor should be something very natural. please always feel or try to feel very confident when you talk to your boss, that will make you believable and you advisor will have a great (very temporary) impression of you, and probably will trust you sooner (meaning totally forget about you, which has the pro of at least you dont feel stupid anymore but the cons that you will have to run after your supervisor to have a meeting with him, otherwise he will never come to you). Most importantly, do not disregard these meetings as they are a confirmation of your success (hopefully), and usually your supervisor will guide you (if he is good) and give you ideas and tips that otherwise you would take a very long time to figure that out, and time is quite precious as it runs so fast..

Forth rule: Number of people around you! It sounds like what? but it is quite important that you are not isolated but also that you are not in a crowd all the time, so the amount of people you work with in a daily basis must be something balanced, so great enough for you to have choice, choice of friends, not to feel alone, it also helps to cope with the peer pressure, enough people to compare results with and to entertain the supervisor. On the other hand it is convenient that there are not too many people which could shadow you, or that your supervisor will be so busy taking care of them all that he will not have time for you.

Fifth rule: Institution/place in the world: Well this advice is very general, in fact the best place in the world is where you feel good, but you dont know before you stay there, so it is difficult to predict. Sometimes the most appellative place turns to be horrifying and vice versa, so here it will be very random and thats why the group is so important, because no matter where you are, if you are surrounded by the right people and nice people you will always be alright and feel good :) The institution matters a bit in terms of career for the future, so I would always look for the best ranked institutions first.

And there are some literature about it that you may want to read:

http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php gives you an idea of how painful can this life be

How to get a PhD : a handbook for students and their supervisors / Estelle M. Phillips and Derek S. - gives you an extensive list of tips and advice on this topic.

Good luck and remember to be sure before you start, because then you commit to a three year nightmare or spend time till you decide to give up and start again or change your life. Nonetheless I can promise you it is not going to be easy even if you take all the advice possible!

Scientific Conferences

After a very long break in my blog writing I decided to come back at least I wanted to post something about conferences. Since I started my PhD (back in March 2008) I have attended now two conferences:
one in October 2009, in Lisbon
another one just two weeks ago in Vienna.

The second reason why I chose this topic was not really to report that but to highlight some aspects about the conferences in general..

Basically there are two aspects about them that intrigue me:
1. the people that go to the meetings!
2. the reason why people go to these meetings!

So obviously among quite a few thousand scientists all over the world, not everyone go to conferences, therefore there seems to be a criteria behind the people that choose to go, and indeed there is:

1. first type: the most common people you find at conferences are the ones that love to socialize and know that at work it does not happen that often therefore they feel the need to meet the other ones that also need to socialize. Then they attend the conferences to meet up people, to drink, gather friends and collaborations (then they have more and more excuses for further travelling). They bullshit a lot (meaning talk about everything with maximum confidence even when they are not saying anything really). I feel that I fit here! Usually in these group you also include people from industry and medical doctors. Not so often there are some supervisors and head of the lab here too.

2. second type: The super shy people that go to conferences because they have been sent by supervisors or bosses or the ones that fight the shyness of leaving the lab just because they are extremely interested in a certain topic that is being discussed at the conference. These people never hang out during the conference, they simply sit apart all the time, avoid talking, and when someone seems to be approaching they quickly manage to move or pretend to be very concentrated reading something. Usually they are not even that noticed and no one cares. They never ask questions, simply take notes, go to bed, come back next day, avoid the socials and in the end go back home, where half of them forget the conference entirely and some will remember the one talk that they thought was supposedly going to safe their life but in the end the speaker changed it or discussed it differently... These are the general frustrated ones, most of them look extremely geek.

3. third type: The super geek ones that stand out. These are usually the bosses/supervisors that think they understand everything that is being discussed, therefore they always ask questions out loud to the audience in the end of the talks. Their clothes and outfits are usually appalling, and the hair is usually forgotten to be cut or combed. However they are quite social among themselves. Do not interact very well with the first type (and obviously not with the second and no one does) but they usually criticize them because of their coolness. These are also the talkers themselves, they think they are the elite as they move the things forward having the best achievements and the best publications (which is many times true). They command and rule the conference. Eventually they show up at the socials but just to talk about science and gather with people just the same. Other type of conversation beyond science will be usually avoided unless it is extremely necessary to start a new collaboration or get some funding to the lab.

And there is no forth type, this is everyone you get at the conference, obviously there will be some mild phenotypes of each type, but you can easily spot these major ones then you go for the one that suits you best ;)

More personally I like going to conferences and I do really encourage everyone to go because it is a very good way to take the things forward (being in type 1 or 3 of course).
We cannot forget that beyond the journal papers and the editors there are people to be pleased and having good relationships with them as well as with other people, having collaborations and everything will make the life a lot easier when trying to get funded or go through the peer review process (as it is likely that the reviewers will be your friends than it is certain that your paper will go through).

Basically do not stuck in your lab forever trying to make the things work out just because you work a lot. Get out there, be social and you will find half of the work done for you ;))

And most importantly you get to travel for free and if your are lucky enough you may find a conference in Hawai :)



Poster session (my poster is the red one), Vienna, Feb 2010

Mathematical Modelling of Transcription Factors in Living Cells

or
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

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!

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:

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?

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)..

What Kind of geek are you?
(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!!

One day in my (scientific) life

Because I havent got much time to write a post today but essentially because I dont have time to think about what to write, like a nice thing, I am passing you a little bit of my day today. Today my day was pretty much spent in meetings (remember my previous post?!).. its just continuing..
Ok my first meeting today was about kinetic modelling, so basically there were me and three other scientists, or three scientists and me since I am the only one who is not (yet?!) a doctor, and we were looking (like donkeys) at a new software we have got. Apparently it does really nice stuff such as solves differential equations and models hypothesised biological systems coupled with mathematical models.. you see, very nice indeed. Its just another software like Madonna, Matlab and octave that I used at the uni but unfortunately found it pretty boring and now I regret I didnt pay enough attention. In the end of the meeting we decide to have another meeting tomorrow... (LOL)
Following this meeting I had another meeting with my student about his project, which is also a tiny bit of my PhD- not too long.
Finally I met with my supervisor about my report, which is now finally finished. WOWOWOWOWOWOWOW :))))))
Since whatever I could write about my project sounds boring I thought that I could leave you with examples of figures we acquire here. My PhD project deeply relies on several microscopy techniques including a lot of cell live imaging and confocal microscopy that accounts on using fluorochromes to label specific molecules within the cell. I found these images beautiful and artistic despite we dont really intervene to create such picture, we just label the molecules what is even more amazing! DEspite they being meaningful for me I think that for a common person they are still worth to see, just like a painting or a poster. There you go.









Ok, and now I am sitting in my office doing the final corrections to my essay and still have a lot to do, to plan and to think of. Remember than to do a PhD is all about how you use the brain..
I dont know what time I am levaing here, but my day will then continue, I might have some shitty food for dinner in a local pub, I cant be bother to cook during the week and then a little bit of leisure, watching something to empty the brain. You know that when you are asked to used your brain every day in a very complex way, and do everything very complex, all this complex research with complex ideas and, seek complex answers... the things you enjoy the most are then the simple ones.. like simple moments, simple games, simple films, simple etc..

Addendum to Doctor of Philosophy

Long time no post.. I am sorry. At first my current life has been incompatible with any leisure. If you cannot see the reason try to concentrate on writing a thesis, selling your bloody results as the best research ever done and see how ruined your life can become.. Despite all the sacrifice I am now nearly finished (as I hope), actually the first deadline is gone and the next and last one is on due next week, therefore is time to get this thingy done, revised and most important over!! On the course of writing up my first year report sort of little baby thesis, of course I wondered how is that gonna be for the big one but thats another story. Being just writing I moved my stuff home and spent here the most of my time going to the uni just for meetings.. such as lab meeeting, journal club, school seminars and after all meeting with the supervisor/advisor/boss or whatever you want to call the person to whom your services of researcher sort of slave are addressed to. My post for you today is then an Addendum to another post I wrote some time ago that you can read here Doctor of Philosophy, PhD or How to get a complex life (sometimes is nice!!).

Through meetings and meetings ...

Meeting with your group, but is more with your supervisor.

Something that happens in one's PhD life are the group meetings. One goes there, sits, handles a notebook with something to say (or not), and usually, at least for me these seminars aim to put everyone to know what is going on in the lab, including major findings or disasters.. In my group we also have a second kind of lab meeting where from time to time, members of the lab present results and discuss them to see the direction of research and get some feedback. I think meetings in my group are work fairly well, but apparently it doesnt work for everyone the same, have a look into the cartoons and see whether you identify yourself with them:

Meeting with your supervisor.

When it comes to meeting with the supervisor the things change a lot from student to student and supervisor to supervisor. In my case I am quite happy with it but of course I tell you this in comparison with what I know on this regards.. As a matter of fact I do still identify myself with the following cartoons and to be honest I dont know a single person who is happy with their project and with their supervisors. Sooner or later both tend to become problematic.. Let see first.. when is the ideal time to meet with your supervisor?

Secondly, the supervisors have a very, but very bad indeed memory for whatever gives respect to their students.. There are the pro and cons for that.. here you are the cons (the bad comes first):

And here you find the pros:

The reason is obvious.. For the students, the supervisors are the most important person in the world, the one who will ultimately decide on their careers since he has the power to award them with the so much sought PhD. Therefore the supervisor becomes some sort of a God, to whom one prays very day, unconditionally obeys and try not to disappoint him at all costs... On the other hand, for the supervisor, the student is as insignificant as another student and another student.. Is just one more student from a bunch of students, etc.. The supervisor has his own life and his own friends and never remembers the student, why would he do so??

Eventually he will remember the face and the name but never ever will recall what has so ever talked about in the last meeting with the student.




Conferences:
At a certain time in one's PhD life there is the chance to apply for a conference. Conferences are usually scheduled in nice places and it is very expensive to pay to go (And what is the point to pay go to THE conference?). Therefore the sacrificed and miserable PhD students apply for conference funding through the writing of a conference paper that will be further presented at the conference, usually a 5 minutes talk. No one guaranties that writing the paper you get to the conference.. there is to a nice 1 week free vacation at Hawaii for example.. There you go a suggestion of how not to spend unworthy time and that also gives you the chance to apply for different conferences (Hawaii, Skiing in Canada, beach resort in Barbados, sightseeing in China, etc, etc) :

Mind I said Hawaii..

Apparently here you can find a list of conferences in your area and where are they gonna be.. See how much you can get, there is whether your school pays you the expenses to go and the conference itself. Obviously avoid to mention the skiing forfeit or the diving course... I personally still didnt find the conference to go, besides I haven’t spent much time looking for. Next year I will do that ;)

Good luck with your PhD, if that is the case, or with everything else exciting you are doing. Have fun. I will as soon as I get released.. I may say I have been visiting the hell during the past month and I find it rather cold and dark and empty place..

Visitors from the 5 continents!!

Dear readers, this post is dedicated to you as a reader, does not matter how much of my blog you read, if you came by chance or if you follow my blog. Obviously I care a little more about those who follow my blog but that is just natural I guess. Anyway I do thank you all for your visits and although I know my blog does not teach anything to anyone I try to give a record of a normal, sometimes boring, other times very exciting PhD student life. It goes also beyond my PhD as fortunately my life is not restricted to it but sometimes it does take a lot of time and life out of me indeed..

Today I looked carefully at the visitors map and realized I have got visitors from all over the world, actually from the 5 continents :) As expecting the majority of my reader are in the UK and in Portugal, where btw are my friends too. Nevertheless, my biggest surprise comes from the amount of visitors from Asia, very nice!

Overall, thank you very much! I am keeping you posted ;)

AHHHH I love you Google!

AHHHH I think I found the solution for my problems, yeahh Google's the best tool ever who didn't know that?? Doing FRAP experiments? Got lost and stuck, not sure what to do with your data?

Go here http://www.embl.org/cmci/downloads/FRAPmanual.htm

and the here http://www.wavemetrics.com/support/demos.htm

and at last here http://www.embl.org/cmci/downloads/frap_analysis.html

get this K_FRAPcalcV9e.ipf

and go on.. I assume you are smart enough to solve the puzzle from now on ;)
yeahhh

Time minus Time equals zero Time and results in serious brain damage!!

Today I just realized why I am so sick and feeling down.. Can you imagine I have got two opposite wishes!! Just noticed that today.. it is very contradictory and perhaps the source of all this sickness!

Ok, don’t get yourself confused, let me explain:

1. On one hand I wish I would have more time to finish my report, not that the time passed would not be enough but with my inspirational problems I have been stacking a lot and the words hardly and slowly come to my mind. I know what to write but many times don’t have the wisdom to do so. Therefore I am running out of time, need more time, don’t want the time to pass or to do it as slow as possible that I can concentrate and finish this bloody thing, I may say the most difficult report I have ever wrote and trust me, I wrote loads of stuff before!

2. On the other hand I am getting home sick and miss my family and friends very very much. I want the time to fly as quickly as possible the I can can go home for Christmas holidays! Cant wait for the day I put my feet on that plain that will take me back :) not forever, which is not a problem, I am happy here, but for a little while to see my loved ones :):):) I am counting down for that day and very much looking forward!!

So, now you see, I want the time to go slow but I also want it to pass quickly which is absurd and ultimately these two events mutually cancel themselves. It is the same as plus one (+1) minus one (-1) equals zero!

+ time (for the report) = + 1 time
- time (to go home) = -1 time

+1 time - 1time = 0 time

0 (zero) time is what I actually have in my head since I am putting both the same wishes at the same time together. And what becomes a wish is 0 (zero) time, which conversely means I have got no time to live (in my wishes), and that cannot be a wish! That’s very awkward; thereby it is like I do not exist anymore. Combining this idiot deduction with my physical state that actually makes sense. As a matter of fact I am feeling ill and very down, perhaps due to this conflict of inputs in my brain. It is similar to give two opposite orders which obviously cannot exist at the same time. I guess a computer would came out with an ERROR message, I feel I am coming out with an ERROR message too.. Don’t know how to solve this equation differently, dont know how to overcome my wishes because they are both very strong and I cant give up any of them..
I have got a problem.. and probably I have to live with it until both the wishes are fulfilled, basically until the time passes and when the time is gone I will be good again :)
Be patient is probably what I can recommend myself…


To finish I leave you with my soundtrack for today, a bit more of Placebo, quite like these guys! And of course I hope the very end of this story is like in a fairy tail, pink and full of love ;)

Inspiration?!

Now a proper post, or not, to be honest I have been lacking proper inspiration or what I think is inspiration to write in my blog.. This writing up (my first year PhD report) is basically killing me and I cant see the day I finish this up and go on holiday, rewarded though!
I remember when I was doing only lab work I wanted to have some time to write something, and actually I think that should be the right way to do a good research not only performing bench experiments but intercalating them with a good reading and writing. However I reckon very little amount of people have that disciple and mostly everyone sticks to either do experiments or writing/reading but basically while doing one of them I seek to do another one (very human though).
My lack of inspiration is then not only regarding my blog but the bloody thesis-like report where I drop a few lines per hour, sort of a slow motion writing with the uncertainty of the sense of whatever I am writing plus the certainty that I will regret not having had more time to write it when time meets the deadline.. I feel that I am very good working under pressure and only when something is on due I am able to brilliantly make it happen (although always with a significant amount of psychological and physical effort like skipping night sleep and so on..)

For now I just feel so numb, most of my feelings are asleep and just a few of them are awake but just in a certain form of awareness, well, I cant explain, feelings are hard to explain and suddenly I just found the perfect song for today.. (yet out of the classics I said I would collect here and I WILL with time .. )



Unable so lost
I can't find my way
Been searching, but I have never seen
A turning, a turning from deceit

Cos the child roses like
Try to reveal what I could feel

I can't understand myself anymore
But I m still feeling lonely
Feeling so unholy

Cos the child roses like
Try to reveal what I could feel
But this loneliness
It just won't leave me alone

I'm fooling somebody
A faithless path to roam
Deceiving to breath this secretly
This silence, a silence I can't bear

Cos the child roses like
Try to reveal what I could feel
And this loneliness
It just won't leave me alone
And this loneliness,
It just won't leave me alone, ohh no

A lady of war

A lady of war

The Science of TODAY is NOT the Science of before

I think everyone who is involved with science nowadays and I don’t even say as involved as I am, but anyone who actual likes science or read scientific news on a magazine, someone who is generally interested on what is going on about new discoveries in physics, mathematics, genetics.... new technologies or whatsoever brings up a breakthrough on what is known so far may have thought the same thing:

The Science of TODAY is very different from what it used to be 10 years ago!

(In the past, but past in science is a very short time due to the speed of how things evolve and change and grow and.. ufff is exhausting!)

The reasons:

The most striking one is obvious: There was a lot more done in the past ten years than possibly in the 50 years before! It is just crazy the amount of findings that came out during the last decade! And of course, every time a step goes forward a new question arises or a new need arises taking the topic a lot further and further and then it’s just like a snow ball that goes faster down the mountain as soon as it gets bigger and bigger!

Also obvious is that the topics researched 20 years ago were different than what is going on now and that's always changing very quickly according to what comes out and what becomes needed and required and on the fields of medical research, pharmaceutics and IT it goes particularly more more fast!

Another big reason to explain this entire boost is INVESTMENT! Despite of the big economic crisis that is now spreading all over the world and the small ones that affected the USA and Europe, the principal scientific investors, there was a lot of money invested in science in the past decade. I am not going to tell you numbers but the results talk by themselves and since a lot more has been done it means there was money for that and that also generated more money! For instance, I noticed the amount of charity funded research provided by institutions fighting against cancer and other malignancies.

The chart below explains how science, technology and society talk among each others and the arrows connecting them, thanks to the big development in the IT fields are getting shorter and shorter and everything just happening very very fast.

The issue:
My personal reason why I am writing about this topic is because of my concerns on how do people are actually actively involved in this very fast circuit and how do they feel about it!

With everything moving and evolving very fast it is hard to stay on the front line and for a scientist that is absolutely essential! There makes no sense to research something that has already been unveil and published by someone else! That takes one to read and read and keep himself very up-to-date but that is a lot of time and then where is the time to perform the experiments? That is also a lot of time either! Shall we scientists become human robots and be design to perform science at the same speed it goes and forget about what behind it makes us human beings and not heartless machines?

How can a scientist succeed in THIS kind of life, professionally, having at the same time a family, a kid and a spouse? Most of them will definitely suffer. I just think that to be fairly recognized in this world one needs to work at least 16 hours a day, half of them reading and the other half performing experiments and the remaining 8 hours will be to eat/sleep and of course there will not be days off or holidays!
Personally I don’t feel programmed for that and I can’t cope with this fast, exhausting, pointless style of life, can you?

But then, since I have chosen that science is what I want to do, as my profession not as my whole live, I might not be taking it serious or enough serious and that means I might not get a job and then I might not work at all and then I cant have my private life because I wont be able to support it.. bla bla bla bla.. That is over then!

So, what way to choose? How far is this gonna be? How people are going to face this and cope with it?

Thought of the day (Two thoughts of the day actually)! (.....) The desert, the crisps and the monkey shows off!

First thought of the day:
While working after 11 hours with no breaks at all, even lunch I had sitting in front of the lap top while analysig my FRAP data (FRAP stands for fluorescence recover after photobleaching.. a very boring technique by the way although quite useful and the results turned to be interesting but to sit in front of the computer acquiring the data is very painful and analysing the data is another pain.. therefore it suits the rhyme "FRAP is CRAP".. thats what always comes to my mind.. sorry!), but ok, today I just came here to complain, bahh,

The (first) thought of the day ..

I did know the PhD would be a lonely jouney but I didnt know I was going to do it in the desert!

Second thought of the day:
The english food (in my opinion! sorry by the second time) has serious problems and in general is hard to find something nice to eat - I dedicated a post, some time ago, to the english culture where I expanded my thoughts about english food but today I have got to know that for christmas, therefore a seasonal speciallità, one of the crisps companys here in the UK, will sell a new flavour dedicated to the Christmas season which seems to be a cocktail of christmas flavours in a pack of crips!! It is reasonable to say WOW! How far are crisps taking us? Crips are becoming like meal tablets nowadays! There are every flavour for crisps, everything you can imagine, almost every day I find a different flavour! You have salty, cheese and onion, salt and vinegar and these are what I consider the NORMAL flavours but then it starts to becoming really creative coming with prawn cocktail, followed by greek kebab, feta cheese, sweet chili, roasted turkey with bla bla bla, roasted beef, dark souce whatever, tomato ketchup... four cheese and red onion (which is apparently different than cheese and onion!), bacon on toast.. sausage bla bla bla, turkey and thyme, etc etc etc, its ridiculous! It never ends!

SO.. some time ago every one would think that one day there would come some sort of tablets with flavours to replace the food in a plate taking much less time to eat and less effort as well and also could be helpful in a diet BUT instead of light tablets full of nutrients and with food tastes we have got plenty of tasty crisps possible to make a four or five course meal with all the flavours on it, (and a lot of calories though!)

Thus, concerning this reality, the second thought of the day is:

Even the monkey loves them!

and in a Jose Cid style.. the monkey loves crisps as I love you - even though it didn't improve.. Oh poor Jose Cid, you've got no chance! And who is Jose Cid? It's a must see ! ... (google it!)

And just a brief third thought of the day:

I ate three packs of crips today and they were nice and they are more or less the best thing I can eat in the desert...

In the meantime I try to have fun and hope you also do!

Got the counter and got a map BUT not the place..

Ok,
Dear readers,
finally got the visitors counter that I mentioned a few posts ago and even better!! Instead of a normal basic counter I have got a map counter that not only tell us how many visitors did come to this blog but also where they are from in the world! I hope I dont get too disappointed and the map will be getting red dots soon :) (At least my effort of writing in english for everyone should be worthwhile !)..

The point of today is.. ITS SUNDAY, I am sleepy, very tired though, going to bed after this, cant be bother working any further, I am death, has been such a busy time now and its just going worse and worse towards the first report and the Xmas holidays when before I must get a lot more work done than I have.. uff And just in sequence with my busy life of nowadays the following song reflects what I felt in a quite distant past (regarding that with my age one year is a long time and then I can also tell you that it takes me back to 2006)@ that time this song would be a great soundtrack, today it is one of my favourite Linkin Park's songs (therefore still makes part of life!): The place I belong I still dont know and I cant predict when I will know that, I have a special passion for moving and travelling although recently more than ever I have been feeling a need to go back at a certain point which was something I primarily discarded in the past affirming I would never go back to Portugal.. How and Why my mind is changing it is out of my conscious control under world influences (maybe astral ?!..) but you know time changes everything (and love as well!) so, from the uncertainty of my life for long terms I enjoy my PhD time and look forward to, sooner or later, travelling and or settle somewhere I belong ...

Freaky weather, shity food and facebook

What makes England such an attractive place for students all over the world?
That question comes to my mind from time to time, because actually there are loads of students coming to England every year to stay for their degrees either undergraduate or post graduate degrees, also for Erasmus or other sort of exchange programs not yet to mention all those other people who emigrate here to work!

England or shall I say the United Kingdom although Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales seem not to be as attractive as England nonetheless they also get a fairly good amount of foreigners looking forward for a good education and a better work.. for such a phenomena that must be a good explanation of course!
From my experience and since I came to England anyway, my reasons rely on the very high standard research with state-of-art facilities open to everyone permitting top world research specially in my field where a lot of equipment is required to do a proper project with no restrictions, therefore there is a lot of investment in the universities and there is, indeed, a lot of Money!
Secondly, what makes England more attractive than other countries in Europe with as good research conditions as England? The language of course! Doing a PhD is already a lot of work; I personally could not be bother learning another language in the meantime, which would be crucial for my thesis and project. These are my personal reasons and I am pretty sure that whether I would come out with a survey about this everyone would pretty much go for the same reasons as the top ones.
There might be other good reasons to move here but honestly I can’t see any other strong reasons to bring me here for living, not that I wouldn’t come for visiting because the country is nice at some points, but that’s it! Please feel free to express yourself whether you feel you had other reasons to come here ;)

And now let’s face the culture... tcharan: Freaky weather, shity food and facebook are the key words when you are a foreigner. (I could make a song, a poem about this! maybe later)

There is not ever best subject for a conversation that British weather! Portuguese whether is boring, any other weathers... BORING, BUT, British weather is so crapy that there is always a wish to complain about it and because it varies a lot you can have twice or trice many conversations about the weather than in any other country like:
In the morning waiting for the bus: "Oh, its sunny today but its freezing!" and after one or two hours in the morning break for a shity coffee (that’s another issue by the way) "its becoming warmer isn’t it but the sun is gone, its completely overcastted and it seems that will be raining soon" and later on when going for lunch with the colleagues "its so humid, because has been raining for two or three hours and there's no chance we eat outside" in the end of the day when heading for the lift a lab neighbour "the weather today is pretty rubbish it has been changing all over the day", etc, etc.. At least, it is always possible to break the silence and just in a Monthy Python's style "always Look on the Bright Side of Life"!!

Second reason one cannot avoid coming to England is the food (and it also includes the Coffee!). The food it’s just horrible! Sometimes I have to starve because nothing seems eatable! Mostly everything they have is chips (former French fries) and crisps (former chips) and other rubbish like a lot of grease everywhere, a lot of processed food, the cheese is bad, the bread is very bad, the ham is ok but very stupidly expensive, then they are a island but they don’t eat fish (can you get this???), and the fish they eat its fried on batter so again a lot of grease, them they mush peas and eat it with a big half boiled half roasted potato that they call jacket potato, and usually its accompanied by they lovely beans.. baked beans which are, seriously, really bad! And because their food its always bad anyway they end up putting a lot of sauces (and what they call gravy) in everything to hide the real flavour and give it an even more artificial flavour.. then their sandwiches with its inexplicable awful mayos and mustard.. thats just too bad. So traditionally a good lunch here is composed of a packet of crisps with a coke and a triangular sandwich, that in Portugal you only find in the gas stations and that even though are better then these here... The coffee.. its another issue, I cant count how many time I ordered a coffee and had to trough it away immediately because I couldn’t drink it even with 3 or 4 packs of sugar on it.. where are they getting the coffee from???

And now the really tcharan thingy which completes the story here and represents up to 1/3 of the time spent by a normal worker on its normal working day: The Facebook! this is a real phenomena.. moving to England? First question would be: Did you set up your facebook account? Not that you have got accommodation and a job, you might not get a job if you are not on face book! This is a serious issue! What is meant to be a leisure thing becomes more and more an important part of people’s life and its own part of the society by how do they interact on facebook. FAcebook is the tool to know more people therefore to enlarge your network, to be invited to the events to be noticed and to be known! there is no other place in the world where a gadget like facebook has been gone so far, and here its just a fundamental tool!




And now the overview of what I have got in England (from the country):

- Nice university that being part of my CV can give me a very nice job in the future wherever I go.
- All the conditions for my research as far as I am concerned there’s nothing missing!
- The opportunity to improve the English language and to become almost a native speaker, a skill recognized all over the world and that makes me able to communicate with a lot of people.
- Shity depressing weather
- awful food
- a strange society, actually I forgot to mention the alcohol which is a big part of the issues in this country but I will talk about that in another post later.

Any questions why?