Wednesday and Thursday

So not a lot happened yesterday - met my project supervisor, decided on a project, did some reading, that kind of thing. The project is cool. Not sure how much to disclose, so going with the minimal approach here, just in case (Project is preciousssss). Suffice to say, it involves eye disease genes (duh) and direct-to-consumer genetic screening companies (oooOOOooo).

Oh, and FPAS screwed up big time. No longer sure if going to Notts - it's basically back to square one as they manually re-check every paper.

Science happened. You know, the kind with a capital S, and spoken in the voice of GLaDOS. Fortunately test subject losses were limited.

Today, it was like day 1 of proper work. I turned up at the office for my early (...10 am) start, and did more Science. The office is lovely - air con, spacious, good internet, a sofa, and a large table-tennis table are all highlights. I browsed the internet on a high-speed, free connection with no limits (finally). I chatted and made a new friend with the junior ophthalmologist who was sitting next to me, preparing to teach med students tomorrow (also part of Mackey's Lackeys) - by which I mean that I waxed lyrical at him about the failures of FPAS and explained how the UK system of med students->doctors works. It takes a long time to explain. This may indicate why there are so many problems. Food for thought.

I played table tennis at lunch time, and lost both games (21-8, 21-10, respectively) to opponents who had clearly been playing more than me recently, judging by their scores on the whiteboard in the office. My initial, the solitary 'P', now has its pride of place squidged on the end of the league table, with two tallies in the 'L' column. Good start. However, I am determined to rectify this over the next 5 weeks left. I have all the tactics, but pulling them off never quite worked. I lost count of how many times the 'perfect' backspin floater *just* landed on my own side of the net. Shots to their corner were just a tad overpowered. Little things. It'll come back to me. Hand eye coordination clearly out of practice. Need to play more.

Found out FPAS and Finals are now out on the same day, next Friday (8/3/12). Eeeeeeeeeeeep.

Struggling a little bit for dinner options - no kettle means pasta takes longer than I'd like, but the supermarket doesn't sell microwave meals or even oven-based ready meals of any substance bar pizza - was looking for something like a chinese/indian ready meal a la Sainsburys & co, but they only have pot noodle equivalents. I am sometimes a man of odd principles. This is one principle I have set myself. I will not eat microwaveable cardboard 'flavoured' noodles. Besides, they probably need boiling water, which defeats the object of what I'm looking for anyway...So I'm eating pasta and boiling the water in the saucepan, like a pro. Starting to need variety though. Bought a microwaveable pack of chinese-style posh rice, to have with chicken. May go all out and eat at a restaurant over the weekend, because I can - yeah that's right, I'm kind of a high flyer. Gotta keep up with my fast living.

Also, it turns out I've been over-estimating the costs here, which is nice. Means I can spend a bit more without feeling so guilty all the time. $15 = £10, which means that actually the $16 pizzas in the restaurants are about right. This had earlier outraged me, but my head calculator was apparently wrong. Yay.

Freedom Day weekend coming up - all that means to me is "Bank Holiday Monday". Good times.