Krazy Krystal's Laboratory

RANT

RAAHHHHH !!!! Arrgrhhh !!! Bleeeachchhh !!!

- ok now i feel better

:)

posted by Dr Krystal @ 11:26 am 0 comments

Fluffy Bunnies

Well my last post was a bit of a rant, and has inspired a few other rants too, so I think I'll retreat to some flippant la la la for a bit...

I bought a hat! Isn't it cute. Ok, so the little shiny bow doesn't really do it for me, I think I'll cut it off and replace it with something a little more hip. Someone suggested a skull and cross bones, but I think a funky little badge, maybe with a political or intellectual slogan. That or a cool button.

I think I might develop a hat addiction. Like some women who gain inordinate amounts of pleasure from buying and owning footwear. One of my friends here in York is a total Ebay junkie when it comes to shoes.. she's always exclaiming "Look at the shoes I won!" I try to explain that really she's bought them, but no, she insists she won them on Ebay. Hats are an essential part of UK winter. So whilst the purchasing and wearing of colour co-cordinated hats in Australia is linked to 14 year old girls and spring racing carnival, in England it's a fairly legitimate pastime. Besides, hats are cheaper than shoes and I have some issues with my feet.

Which is odd seeing as I photograph them all the time. Not that I have a foot fetish, or supply someone who does, but you see it all started when I was in New York, travelling alone, and found myself at the Statue of Liberty. I didn't have anyway of taking a photo of myself in front of this historic landmark, so I sat down on a bench and arranged a shot that showed my feet in the foreground and Lady Liberty towering behind. So began a trend and I have been amusing fellow tourists ever since with by setting up my compositions. In terms of well known icons I've got The Golden Gate Bridge, The White House, Tower Bridge, Big Ben, Buckingham palace, Aoraki (Mount Cook) and more recently, The Leaning Tower of Pisa. I will get the Eiffel Tower when I'm in Paris with my sister in January, and next time I'm home I have to make sure I get the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. I should also strive to get the Pyramids, The Great Wall of China and maybe Machu Picchu. Of course this hobby has lead to me generally photographing my feet whenever I have a camera - at parties, on the beach, dangling off a jetty, overlooking city views, at theme parks, and other less recognisable backgrounds. One day when I am old and senile I'm sure I will bore my great-grand nieces and nephews with my collection and they'll sigh and ask their parents to stay at home next time they're going to mad aunty krystal's house *giggle*

posted by Dr Krystal @ 5:15 pm 0 comments

Media Watch

I was really happy to see that the stem cell legislation bill was recently passed in the senate, a bill which will facilitate stem cell research and therapeutic cloning in Australia. This is an issue I've been following for a while - the original 2002 stem cell legislation was reviewed 12 months ago by the Lockhart committee, and the findings were highly favourable in terms of supporting and extending the laws to enable stem cell research. This new bill is the amended legislation that incorporates the recommendations of the Lockhart review committee. One of the sad facts is that Hon John Lockhart, who was the chair of the Legislation Review Committee, died on Friday 13 January 2006. I am really pleased that the the legislation has been passed in the senate and I really hope that the House of Representative vote later this month will also be in favour of the bill.

So then I got thinking about how removed I have become in terms of news and issues at home. I often read the Age online, but not consistently. So I did a bit of reading back and was shocked and dismayed to find the news about the Bali nine drug smugglers who had their sentences increased from either life sentences or 20 years imprisonment to execution upon appeal. I am so upset about this, and I can't believe I didn't already know about it. Now I don't want to get into a debate about the ethics of drug smuggling. I am not in favour of heroin, in fact I think it's evil. However I am also strongly anti-death penalty, in fact I think it's evil. This case makes me sick to the stomach, as these people are being used to send out political statements - why else would a judge turn an appeal against 20 years in jail into a death sentence? It's so far removed from the concept of justice and makes me feel so helpless and angry with the world. I remember what I was like when I was 19. I can confidently say that now, not quite ten years on, I have a very different attitude towards life - in the way i make decisions, the way i interact with people and the things that I want for myself and those I love. I'm not trying to use youth as a defense, but I am saying that the death penalty will not give Matthew Norman or Scott Rush this chance.

With the upcoming Victorian State Election I would really encourage people to think before they vote. Even if you just take an hour or two to google up your local candidates, read their profiles, think about the party they represent. Here is a good place to start. Please think hard about your senate vote too, it is so important to look at how parties give out their preferences! Let's not have another Family First debacle like the disastrous federal senate vote of 2004. I am going to be voting as I have registered as an overseas elector, which is very exciting, ohh.. which reminds me I have to apply for my postal vote.

Stop. Think. Continue. Repeat.

posted by Dr Krystal @ 9:02 pm 2 comments

Remember, remember the 5th of November

During my PhD I spent a summer (read: winter) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA where was able to witness and participate in the local 4th of July celebrations. To my utter disbelieve, people there actually asked me if we had 4th of July in Australia. And I don't mean the average "I voted for Dubya" man on the street, I'm talking about my scientific peers! Of course the only reply to that kind of question is "Yes of course Australians celebrate the American Independance Day. Without it we wouldn't have existed" and leave them to think about it quietly for a while. Now, while I would expect such ignorance from the Yanks, I was quite shocked to be recently asked if Australians celebrate Guy Fawkes Day...

Of course, to be fair, I do remember having bonfire night as a kid. I'm sure it had more to do with my mother being British than any commonwealth pro-monachist statement, though looking at the state of our nation, you could be forgiven for thinking. Of course, this was in the day when fireworks could be easily obtained and there wasn't a constant total fire ban due to catastrophic drought. We used to have fireworks in the backyard, and a fire in 44 gallon drum split in half lengthways and then we'd roast potatoes in their jackets and bananas stuffed with chocolate and marshmellow wrapped in foil. Ahh.. childhood, you always remember the food :)

Seeing as York is the birthplace of Mr. Fawkes, I was very excited to have my first official UK bonfire night here! And actually bonfire night really extends to include most of the week, there's been fireworks going off all over York since about Wednesday. In fact I can still see red and green sparks out my window right now, they must have put all the leftover stock on sale at Tesco. Yes, you can buy fireworks at the supermarket here. It is unbelievable. England is generally a complete nanny-state - you can't have a powerpoint or a light switch in the bathroom in case you electrocute yourself, but you can buy over the counter practically industrial strength pyrotechnics and blow yourself and others to smithereens all to the tune of "God save the King" and it's perfectly fine. I think that 364 days of sensible well policed "rules help control the fun" behaviour creates a subterranean seething mass of recklessness that explodes (literally) on November 5. Of course I'm not one to talk about OH&S with regardles to flammables. I know the "Cocktails and sparklers don't mix" rule. Now. *giggle*

I went with cazandy (who wish to be known as Candy, but won't be) to a pub in Bishopthorpe - a village just outside York. That's right. We don't have suburbs here in the English countryside: the local satellite communities are known as villages, cute huh? There was a HUGE bonfire in the back garden of the pub, and it was just amazing. It was a cold clear night, and it was awesome to stand in front of the fire and feel the heat radiate through me until it hurt and I had to take a step back because I felt like I was about to spontaneously combust. Then the fireworks were just terrific. I was bouncing. Lots. My favourite was the one that looked like someone took a great big bright silver shiny thing and mashed it through a garlic press and punched out hundreds of tiny bright silver shiny things into the sky all at once. Oh and the one with secondary bangs. It shoots up high in the air and then goes "bang" with coloured sparks that fly out of it, and then just when you think it's all over, the coloured sparks themselves go "bang"!! It was so cool !!!

NB: Anyone caught leaving comments on my blog using double entendres about fireworks will be frowned at for a lack of creativity - It's just too easy, so just resist the temptation and just don't go there.

Oh! And I cooked parkin. It's a traditional Yorkshire cake served on bonfire night (not something teenagers do to get to know each other better - oops sorry, i should take my own advice). I used this recipe, but i think it needed more ginger. And it's more traditional to use dark treacle instead of golden syrup, someone said it looked a bit anaemic, so i'm on the look out for my nearest treacle well.

Then to end off the fabulous evening, The Ghost Tour Guide, The Hat Thief, The E-Bay Shoe Addict, Magical Not-Trevor and I went and ran around Knavesmire with sparklers! Hooray !!!!

posted by Dr Krystal @ 7:43 pm 3 comments

The heat (er) is on!

The seasons revolve and I have admitted defeat and bowed to the comforting temptation that is my heater. The good news is that the fact it's getting cold is intimately related to the fact that christmas is coming! The Northern hemisphere has a much better contingency plan for the dark and dreary months. Whilst at home in Australia June /July/August seems to drag out forever, here the grey is broken up by many festivities. I tried explaining the concept of "Christmas in July" to some friends here in York, but it was just met with bewilderment and confusion. I had to Google the topic to demonstrate that I was not making it up.. this from the Girl who cried Neighbours Duty.

I'm not sure if i will be homesick at christmas. For starters, it won't feel like christmas as all the usual seasonal cues will be missing - no cherries or seafood platters for me! Secondly, i'm shipping myself a christmas present over in the form of maia, so I won't be alone. However it is my first christmas away from home, and in fact, the first time one of us crazy Evans' Girls has missed a christmas, so maybe I won't be so inert.

Recently I've discovered organic santa claus! Who comes and delivers a sack of mystery organic fruit and vegetables every week to my door. I race home on Tuesdays to see what new and exciting things farmaround has delivered. Tonight I sat down to a ratatouille made with all organic vegetables and organic rice and everything! The thing is that I like and appreicate organic food for what it is, rather than what it's not. What I mean is that my motivation for buying organic is not that I am anti-chemical, or anti-GM. However I am into food being as good as it can be, care and attention to quality, supporting local business, and not giving into mass production and consumer greed. I would rather pay a little more for my food and know that thought and consideration has been put into how it was grown for the good of the people as well as the earth, rather than save a few pence and pay a multi-national corporation to rip off producers and workers and the environment not care about what I the consumer think. Really, it's all about me and needing to feel the love. And the vegies come with a cute cover letter about local ducks and sheep and recipes for the produce of the week. The coolest thing is that all kinds of weird and wonderful fruits and vegetables can arrive at random at any given moment.. so I am learning what to do with kale and parsnips and pomegranate. The weird thing about England is the absence of pumpkin. It has appeared recently, but only as a novelty item associated with Halloween. You can get butternut pumpkin quite readily, but it's called butternut squash. And what we call squash, those little cute yellow and green vegetables, are not known in this land. I will have to make pumpkin scones.. if anyone has a good recipe, let me know!

The time for sleep is upon me.. the beaujolais tells me so!

posted by Dr Krystal @ 11:04 pm 0 comments

Things

Holding a cup of flowerpot tea, warming my five degree hands, typing on my shiny new laptop (craiga you are the bestest!) Wireless broadband is also the bestest (or second bestest) and if it gets much colder, which it will, i will be emailing from the comfort of my doona, which I will. Or quilt. I am back to saying quilt. When i was little i had a quilt, at some point it mutated into a duvet, then a doona and now the wheel has come full circle and it is again my quilt keeping me warm from the world. My wool quilt that is, which arrived with all the other boxes of stuff. The final link to home. My possessions are again fully in my possession. It was so strange unwrapping the sheets of The Age from May to find my trinkets safe inside. Smell is such a powerful emotive trigger. Maia sent me the tea and when i opened the packet, it was like i was standing in her kitchen again. Only one minor detail. Oh, and all my clothes smelt like vanilla.

The definition of early has become 7 pm. Late is 11 pm. I am not talking about bed time. One night sitting at the flow cytometry machine I decided to be left handed. Note to self: It looks bad to fill in the log book of expensive equipment that uses powerful lasers with handwriting resembling that of a four year old. It makes the technical support staff nervous. I still think I should have been left handed. My mum swears she always held the crayons out to us equidistant between both our hands so we could choose. I always thought I was left-footed at soccer and gym. Sometimes I just forget. Like the other day i was at the cash point (read: ATM) and it seemed a little tricky. I couldn't work out why i was being so slow till i realised i was doing all the pushing and pointing with the wrong hand. Perhaps I should develop my ambidextrous abilities. Or get more sleep. Or both.

Autumn leaves on trees, piled on the street corner, in our office. A cold stillness that is dry and quiet, almost holy, seen only in the fog of breath and the red of cheeks. A cold that purifies your lungs and makes everything seem more alive, even as it dies. The season is flavoured with ginger and cinnamon, toffee apples and pumpkins. Summer time has ended and the daylight is hugging itself in tighter. Luckily I work best under simulated nocturnal conditions, the sunlight always drains my brain and everything is in sharper focus in the darkness. Must be all the fluorescent light. Contrast is important.

My recently acquired technology cache also includes a web-cam, finally I too can be a movie star. I am not at all natural on film. Even less than in real life. Always the performer. And completely self-absorbed. I swore to myself that I will never do multiple takes, but my vanity does occasionally kick in. Oh ! Have you ever done that thing where you photocopy something and then copy the copy and then copy that copy and then copy that copy and then copy that copy and then copy that copy and then see what you get? Well i did this bizarre thing where I videoed myself watching a video of me, and then I watched the video of that whilst videoing myself, and then watched the video of that whilst videoing myself, and so on for about eight generations. It was interesting. And boring. And fascinating. And dull. All at the same time. If this whole scientist game doesn't work out for me, then maybe I'll be a digital installation artist. And film myself filming myself on film. And write deep and insightful paragraphs on placards and stick them on the gallery wall next to the flat screen. And only wear pashminas that match my shoes.

In short: Life is running at a baseline level of good.

posted by Dr Krystal @ 10:25 pm 4 comments