Dan and Alice's Marvellous Musings

An illustration of the Brewer clan

2010-08-09T14:19:00.001+01:00

Our friend Sarah did a marvellous illustration of us at the weekend. I think she captures the chaotic joyous nature of my clan really well. I really love her stuff and she is now really in demand which is great. Check out her blog and her books ... Morris is genius and is done with the "purple ronnie" chap.

Comdey snow video

2009-02-25T14:53:00.003Z

This video was taken during a walk after the massive amount of snow fall that we got in Feb. The thaw is in full effect.

Snow!

2009-02-02T09:17:00.001Z

Look how much snow we have had!

Alice is pregnant

2008-11-06T14:15:00.001Z

12 weeks gone!
Great news.

The great hedge massacre

2008-09-15T20:58:00.001+01:00

We've finally got the back hedge cut back to a decent size (with some professional help in the end). This has the advantage that:
1) We can see the lovely trees on the common.
2) Dan can cut the thing
3) The garden feels bigger

Bon

Crazy Crow in Burgess Park

2008-02-04T20:40:00.000Z

This is insane footage of crow behaviour in Burgess Park. It kept doing this but we only caught it on film once. When I first saw it I went all cold thinking someone had actually hung a crow. Turns out it was doing it itself. Weird.

Anneli Bijou Brewer

2008-01-07T22:26:00.001Z

At last the wee beastie has arrived and shall be hereafter known as
Anneli Bijou Brewer

Here are the vital stats for your top trump card:

date of birth - 7/1/08
time of birth - 16:08
sex - Female
hair - Quite a lot of Strawberry blond
weight - 7lb 13oz
Length - ? But long

Labour and pre-labour were very long and torturous but we managed to
get there in the end using virtually all the painkillers known to
mankind

Alice and Anneli are doing well and are currently recovering in hospital.

PS if you want to see more photos, try this going to
http://picasaweb.google.com/weebeastie.brewer in a couple of days.

Wee Beastie's first Christmas

2008-01-01T19:52:00.000Z

If this weird undulating belly doesn't freak you out I don't know what will.

Christmas tree

2007-12-14T17:49:00.000Z

Christmas is almost here and Alice looks like she is ready to pop.

Happy Christmas everyone!

The wee beastie's room

2007-12-14T17:33:00.000Z

Dramatically, a couple of weeks ago we converted the spare room into a baby room of sorts. Here are the results.

Flooded!

2007-07-22T16:05:00.000+01:00

Well it must be almost unheard of, but whilst in Abingdon this weekend we nearly got flooded in. My parents house was fine, but the Ock flooded (usually this is a yearly occurrence with no effect on the houses, as the only house in danger is on stilts and quite used to it). This year however the little river obviously couldn't cope with the vast quantity of water coming down in such a short time. We had 76mm in 9 hours on Friday, and by Sunday this was the result.

Had to jump in the car to get out and to Epsom before we got stuck there!!! Pleased we don't live on a river!

Garden, 6 months on

2007-07-15T17:33:00.000+01:00

At last we have some flowerbeds with something in them! Thankfully the laylandii don't seem to have sucked all the water out of the soil (maybe that is just because it has been so wet this year), and everything seems to be growing really well.

My favourite plants of the year have to be the phlox "twinkle stars" which have flowered for ages, have brilliant colours all the way from white to purple to red. I'll certainly do them again next year. The dianthus I planted are also great, as are the sweet peas and dahlia that Dan's Dad gave us.

Vegetable patch, 3 months on

2007-07-15T17:13:00.000+01:00

Thought I'd do an update of the vegetable patch, and the garden (see above). 3 months on, we have harvested our early potatoes, and have a crop of King Edward's well on the way. We have carrots, onions, mange tout (two varieties), sweetcorn, courgettes, squash, and pumpkins all doing well. Here's a photo of the site:

And some produce:

We also have the greenhouse just about full of things as well! Two varieties of chillis, peppers, and tomatoes. I ate the first tomato today, but the chillis are huge! I am wondering how long it is going to take them to turn red, but experience of growing them inside is that it takes years!

Introducing the wee beastie

2007-06-26T22:17:00.000+01:00

Well guess what? we are having a baby! Yay! Due on the 8th Jan if all goes to plan. So far I have been sick as a dog, but now the first trimester is over I fully expect this to stop (here's hoping!).

Best birthday card of the year

2007-04-21T20:53:00.000+01:00

Just like to share with you the best birthday card I received this year. I am thinking of changing my profile picture in facebook to this one:

Veg patch day:1

2007-04-21T20:43:00.000+01:00

At last I have dug the veg patch! What an effort it was to get rid of all the roots from the old hedge. My back feels mighty sore I must say, but Dan couldn't help as he has a real back problem. Here's a pic:

I can also report that after only 3 hours Harold has already been and made his mark.

Currently in situ are sweetcorn, squash, pumpkin, sweet peas, onions and a new carrot variety I am testing for Gardening Which?

Mysterious flowers

2007-04-21T19:03:00.000+01:00

Does anyone know what these are? I must have planted them as I did this bed from scratch, but I have no memory of them!!!! the are very prolific, and I like them a lot. They're between 6 and 12 inches tall, once long single stem, with multiple flowers coming off at different places. They are really varied in colour, from completely dark red up to white, with most being an orangy red with yellow and black in the centre. I know they are from a bulb....

Any indentifications welcome!!!

Easter weekend

2007-04-21T16:14:00.000+01:00

For the Easter weekend we went down to Thanet and had a really great time. Unusually loads of my friends were all down at the same time and it was marvellous to see everyone. It was also great to get the whole family together.

Ahh if only every weekend could be like that!

Hedge gone!

2007-03-31T13:09:00.000+01:00

We had a local tree surgeon take outpart of our laylandii hedge that was is a right old state. He came while we were at work yesterday and did a marvellous job! I must say it is surprising how much space it took up. It is great to have it out though; there is quite a big gap now at the back where we will have to grow something, but I am thinking of putitng in an elder (after hearing Dad talk about how they make good hedging). That would give us greenery, keep the birds happy, and maybe a little elderberry wine too! Dan hates elderflower flavour, but I love it, so maybe some of that too.

The great thing is that there is a lot more sun coming in to that part of the garden (but it is noisier). We intend to grow vegetables there this year (as there are 12 people on the waiting list for our local allotments).

Chionodoxa Forbesii

2007-03-16T20:35:00.000Z

These are my new favourate plants! I bought the bulbs last year from Eurobulbs UK, and they are so beautiful. I had thought that there weren't going to be any flowers this year as they were advertised as one of the earliest bloomers in the Spring. As it has been so hot this year I expected them early but they have only just come out. Apparently they will self seed and naturalise, but we shall see. They look quite big in the photos, but they are actually tiny, just about 3 or 4 inches tall.

Magnolia

2007-03-16T20:25:00.000Z

At long last we have purchased a Magnolia for the front garden. We had wanted to get a tulip-shaped flower, but these are much more tree-like and in the front it will be much better to have a bush. So we went for a Magnolia stellata. So far I'm really pleased with it. Perhaps later we will have another in the back garden.

Seedlings seedlings

2007-03-16T20:11:00.000Z

I've been meaning to write this blog for ages! I can happily report the newspaper pots have worked excellently. Successful germination has been achieved for sweet pea, snap dragon, marigold, busy lizzies, heliotrope, fox glove, phlox, delphinium, penstemon, aster, mesembryanthemum, silene, lobelia, cineraria, dianthus, amaranthus, tomatoes, chillis, onions, sweetcorn, squash, and pumpkin!!! They have all been moved to the greenhouse (hopefully not too early)...

New bike

2007-02-08T21:37:00.001Z

So finally after months of laziness, I have finally ordered and picked up a new bike. It is a specialized globe sport 1997 which is a hybrid bike (mountain bike frame but thinner tires and a few other alterations which make it suitable for road, bike paths, bridal ways etc.). The photos are taken just before I took it out for its first ride, so it was as clean as it ever will be. On the first ride I went around the Epsom and Ashtead common, which was great, but unfortunately I chose a wrong path which was super muddy and so it was completely soiled. At least I won't get sentimental about it and I know that it can take pretty much everything I can throw at it.

I must say it is a super smooth ride and very fast compared to my trusty old bike. I rode to work the first couple of days this week which gave me a great sense of freedom despite the freezing weather. Not too great coming back in the dark but I will get a better forward light at some point. Lost a lot of my fitness but I am sure it will not take too long to get back on track. Unfortunately I have done my back in and so I will take the rest of the week off, probably caused by a combination of me having tweaked it at the weekend and the riding.

Newspaper pots

2007-02-03T22:05:00.000Z

I decided to sow all the seeds into newspaper pots this time, to see if it made things easier to deal with later on. The idea is that the pots can be planted straight out as are, and will decompose naturally. You can buy a pot maker proper for about fifteen squid, or you can just wrap paper around the bottom of a deodorant can like I do! just wrap a strip of paper round the bottom of the can 3-5 times (however long the strip is) and then fold over the bottom. The good thing about spray cans is they have a bit of an indent at the bottom, which means when you fold over the paper you can push it slightly in on itself and it stays like that when you slide it off the can.

Sown today:
Busy Lizzie
Penstemon
Mt Cook Lily
Sweet Peas
Mesenbryanthemum
Marigold
Heliotrope

The windowsills are starting to get full!

First Seeds Sown!

2007-01-28T18:01:00.000Z

The first seeds have been sown! I have taken the (perhaps) controversial step of sowing directly into homemade paper pots. The idea of this is to save me transplanting them later, which I find a bit fiddley. Also making the pots was fun...
This does create a bit of a problem in the question of how many seeds to sow in each pot. One thing that I have learned however, is that foxglove seeds may well be the smallest things ever invented. So I just went for getting at least 1 in each pot. Bigger seeds were easier. I know you should probably put several in each one, as some won't germinate, but it seems such a waste! So I will keep track of the percentage that germinate, and next year I will have a better idea.

Sown today:
Foxglove 'candy mountain'
Foxglove 'pam's choice'
Lobelia 'cambridge blue'
Cineraria 'silver dust'
Dianthus superbus 'crimsonia'
Antirrhinum 'night and day'

The bigger pots will have sweet peas in them tomorrow; I didn't realise that you have to soak them for 24 hours before sowing them. These are all random seeds that I bought from Wilkos because they were 75% off and I liked the pictures on the packets. Since we have a completely empty garden I reckoned that trial and error is a good way to go forward. The plan is to sow seeds every week or so, so that they are a bit staggered. Not sure if that will work but we will see.

A weekend gardening

2007-01-22T17:53:00.000Z

We have started on the garden at last! Dad came and put the greenhouse up last year, but we decided to put in some flowerbeds this year. What a job it turned out to be, I must say lifting turf is mighty hard work. At least it was much easier than in the summer, but we had to work quickly to get it done before the light went. Here's Dan hard at work:

An arial picture of the earthworks:

The plan is to fill these beds with flowers this year (many seeds to be planted) and to put a vegetable patch on the left hand side of the garden. We have some more structural work to do on that side, so we will have a vegetable patch there this year, and then next year sort the mess out (take out the hedge on that side and take out the concrete drive and move the shed), and hopefully get an allotment.

We also decided to get rid of this terrible Russian Vine. Man that plant is an evil thing. We cut it back last year but it was still in all the hedge and all over the place. It can only have been a couple of years old at the most (the guy that we bought from planted it) but the trunk was a couple of inches thick in places. Unfortunately it is all tied up with a nice honeysuckle, so we will have to try and work out how to get it out. at the moment we have untangled about half of it, and cut it down to a stump, but we will have to dig it out. Nasty nasty plant.

Nice to be started though!!

Christmas potatoes

2007-01-13T17:13:00.000Z

Just a quick picture of our first potato harvest that we grew in a large plastic tub in the greehouse. 17 reasonably sized potatos from 2.5 seed potatos isn't too bad!

India

2007-01-02T16:53:00.000Z

Over Christmas we have been in India. For one week at a wedding of a good friend of ours, Avnish and the rest of the time travelling huge distances around the South.

I commet a bit more on it here.

Photos can be seen here or here.

Tinkling the ivories

2006-04-14T09:39:00.000+01:00

We have purchased a piano! whoop whoop. Dan got it from a man at work that was throwing it out. He won an auction, and we are now the proud owners of a Berry 1959 upright. I'm pretty sure it is the best 50 quid can buy! We paid some removalists to move it though, and I'm pleased we did, as it was super heavy. It took four of them to lift it, and I have got the impression it will now be residing where it sits for ever as I seriously doubt Dan and I can move it. Now we have to find a tuner...

Update on the House

2006-04-14T09:33:00.000+01:00

Well actually hardly anything needs doing on the old place, as it has been refurbished wonderfully by the vendor, but it is the garden that need sorting. Sorting is the wrong word actually, as it is fine, it is all grass at the mo with a rather huge deck area, and a large concreted area. We are deconstructing a large pagoda trellis thing that was in the middle of the lawn attached to the edge of the deck. It would have been fine in a large garden, but it is a bit big for ours. Other things under consideration are:

Siting of the greenhouse that is to arrive from the parents in the next few months
Getting rid of the large concrete area and moving the shed
Deconstructing the big pagoda and seeding lawn where it now stands (or moving turf from another part of the garden where we will have beds)
Planting some stuff!!!!

It strikes me that I should take some photos actually to illustrate what I am talking about.

There is this wierd spikey plant in the front garden I have no idea what it is, but it has to go. I am thinking at the moment of replacing it with an acer. Other thoughts include where can we plant a eucalypt and where can we plant a magnolia. Mostly I am wondering how far they need to be from the house. Obviously I need to read some books!

Epsom ahoy

2006-04-14T09:14:00.000+01:00

Yes we are in sunny Epsom at last, and it is a welcome move from Horsham I can tell you. Horsham is a lovely lovely place. To visit. Very strange to walk down the main high street at 6pm and see no-one else. It could have been 3am for all that was going on. Tres quiet. Also a mite frustrating as you canna just pop out for something. Nothing is open after hours!!!!! Just shows how much we have become city boys. So we have relocated to Epsom, and it is brill. Although there is still a tinsy problem with shops closing at 6pm or something, before we get back from work. And the added difficulty of us still being walkers rather than drivers. There is no big supermarket within happy walking distance (over half an hour carrying shopping is too much for me), and all there remains is a tiny co-op and a little Waitrose. I refuse to do my shopping in Waitrose as I am not loaded. There's no denying that we are now middle-class whiteys since we own a three-bed in Epsom, but Waitrose is a step too far. I've had numerous arguements with people about getting what you pay for and Waitrose being super spiffing, but at the end of the day I bet you get what you pay for in Harrods too, I still don't have the money to shop there.
The big reason for arguements about Waitrose, though, is the need we now have for internet supermarket shopping. We are going through the list trying them all, and doing a months worth of shopping, and buying the fresh stuff at the market, bakery and the co-op in between (by the way, is there a nice butcher in Epsom, does anyone know?). Waitrose does seem to have the accepted best internet shop (Ocado), but we are determined that the normal supermarkets must be able to do it too. Of course things have changed a lot since the last time we tried this (undergrad days), and hopefully they are better. I know of someone that ordered 6 courgettes and got substituted 6 cucumbers...
So far we have tried Asda (RUBBISH) and Tesco (GOOD). The main problem with Asda (apart from the fact that I feel like I am exploiting someone somewhere with prices that low) is that their site only works on Microsoft Internet Explorer (how backward can you be), it crashed and lost all our shopping, it took hours to order it all, and they didn't turn up in the time slot they said they would. So all in all more trouble than it was worth. Tesco's site was much more user friendly and although they had to change the delivery slot they phoned up just 20 mins into the original one and said the van had broken down and arranged a new time. Also, you can pick what things you want to substitute if they don't have what you want. The only downer is you have to pay for the substitute price, not the price of what you ordered. There was a tiny problem when I noticed they had added an Easter egg onto our order worth 5 pounds (as if I would pay that much for an Easter egg unless it was a Darryl Lee one). I phoned them up and they gave us the money back, so actually it all worked out fine. Next month: Sainsbury's.

Back in the Land of the Living!

2006-04-14T09:05:00.000+01:00

At long long last we are back in the land of broadband hoorah! I must say the last couple of months without access have been particularly rubbish. In actual fact we spent one month living in Horsham (more of which, later) with no internet, and one month here in sunny Epsom with just dial-up. At least when you have no internet there is no expectation, so in a way that was easier to cope with. Dial-up really does suck your soul away though. A harsh reminder of life in the olden days!!!! I can't believe how much I have come to rely on the internet. To think that when I started university I actually had to apply for an email address (and that I did only because my brother told me it was a good thing to have!). How did we used to find out things before it was all there in the ether waiting to be tapped in to?

We have moved to Epsom

2006-03-19T16:47:00.000Z

A rather stressful week followed my viva with us having to cope with the complex web of solicitors, relocation agents and Southwark "slow slow slow" council. We eventually exchanged contracts and just over a week a go on the 10th March we completed and moved in.

And so far it has not been disappointing at all, in fact it has been great. It seems very large at the moment but I am sure we will fill it with junk over time. We have still quite a lot of boxes all over the place but manily confined to the spare room and study. Now all we need is a master plan of what to put where and to get some furniture (a sofa in particular would be nice).

Despite the house being very close to the train line most of the time we do not notice the trains going past and even when we do it is only a low rumble, so no worries there. Also sleeping very well so that is great too.

Transport to work is not bad and I have worked out a route on the bike that avoids all the major roads. Must get a bit fitter first though.

I will get Alice to write something about it a bit later

Dan's PhD viva

2006-02-17T11:35:00.000Z

Well it looks like I have done it ... whoop! I had my viva for my phD yesterday and I have passed. This is a great relief as you might expect!

See http://danbrewer.blogspot.com/2006/02/my-viva.html for more details.

Move to Horsham

2006-02-17T11:34:00.000Z

Last Saturday (11th Feb) we moved to Horsham into temporary rented accommodation. This is while the house we are buying in Epsom sorts itself out (hopefully we will be able to move there in March). It is a 2 bedroom, 2 floor flat that has a student-house feel about it (with only us two in it rather than the multitudes). It is right in the middle of town and is above a hairdressers. This is excellent for Alice's journey to work, just 20 minutes walking rather than the normal 2 hour trek! Not too bad for me either, the flat is close to the station and so the journey takes about the same time as it did from the London pad (about 1 hour 20 mins).

We still have our flat in London so it is a bit like being posh with a flat in town and out in the country!

The worse thing by far about the move is the lack of internet. I hadn't realised quite how dependent we are on it. There is definitely the sense of having lost the power to do stuff - it is such a pain to pre-plan stuff. We have also cut the phone and broadband at the London flat so today I have been forced to go to an internet cafe on the Old Kent Road - how very sad.

Moving Moving Moving!

2005-12-31T11:19:00.000Z

Whoop whoop! We have had our offer accepted on a house in EPSOM. So roll on the process let's move as soon as poss I say. It's a lovely place, just been done up, so we won't have to do anything, and best of all it has a big garden that hasn't had much done to it, so we can let our imagination run wild! Also it is very near to some allotments, so once the garden is done we can get one of them and live the good life (sort of). Here is a picture of the house:

All that green is not actually the front garden, there is a little green out the front. Also it is just across the railway from Epsom Common, a giant wooded and green area, so that is great news. Here are some handy google earth shots, can't wait to move!

I have submitted my thesis

2005-12-20T15:26:00.000Z

Yesterday I submitted my thesis, whoop. Just in time for Christmas. The next stage is for the examiners to read it and then have a viva, and then it is all over. I expect that the viva will be in February.

Dan gets a job

2005-12-07T13:46:00.000Z

Just a quick one to say that I have accepted the post of bioinformatics officer at the Institute of Cancer Research in Sutton. It looks like interesting and challenging work, it is inthe right location and the people seemed to be very nice. I should start there in the middle of January. It opens the way to us moving to a suitable place too.

My PhD is still plodding along but I am nearly there, but it all depends on the amount of corrections from my maths supervisor which I should be receiving tomorrow.

The great house hunt has begun

2005-12-07T13:30:00.000Z

In the near future we are planning to move out of London, to somewhere that is inbetween Alice's work and London. This is basically because it is impractical for Alice to commute to Horsham from where we live now (poor girl, it is doing her in) and Alice's work have a great relocation package.

To take advantage of that this weekend we spent a great time just checking out the areas that are within the relocation zone and close to a railway station on one of the two lines. The area is based arouns the North downs and is really beautiful, especially with all the trees dressed up in their autumn colours (in December!). The ideal place we are looking for is:
1) Close to the station.
2) Close to greenery.
3) Close to some life.
4) Affordable.
Not sure if all those criteria will be met but there are some promising places especially Redhill (and suburbs), Epsom (my favourite at the moment), Leatherhead and Dorking. The most suprising place was Horley, which is very close to Gatwick but seems to be a very pleasent place. The place to avoid is Salfords which managed to define a new level of lifelessness.

More bombs

2005-07-21T15:22:00.000+01:00

There has been another attack in London, although it all looks rather amateur. Possibly a copycat attack in my opinion, although clearly it wasn't a suicide attack as the men threw the bombs onto the tube and ran away.

Anyway, Dan and I are both fine...

Alice gets a job!

2005-07-19T12:43:00.000+01:00

At long long last! I have got a job at Novartis, Horsham. No news yet on when I will start or anything like that, but hoorah hoorah at least the evil wait is over.

More news as it comes...!

The biggest question people are asking is about relocation. Yes we will be moving at some point after Dan finishes his PhD, but as yet we are not sure where...somewhere in the region of Horsham. Until then I will commute, it is not too bad a journey from London Bridge.

London Terrorist Attacks

2005-07-07T12:38:00.000+01:00

Just to let you all know we are both fine, Dan works very close to the centre of the incidents, but he had just got to work when it all began. Obviously he is stuck there right now, but I am at home. The emergency services seem to have dealt extremely well with the events, arriving very quickly and covering all the sites. There seems to have been little panic, with some witnesses saying that people just seemed to be annoyed that their journey to work was interrupted!

I must say that it does seem to have been evidently a controlled terrorist attack, but not one aimed at large numbers of casualties or fatalities (although they are clearly numerous). It could have been much worse.

Not yet clear if the buses were hit at the same time as the tube, some reports say it was at the same time, some say there was an hour delay on the bus hit.

Obviously there is talk of Al Qaeda, but that is not surprising, just like everything used to get blamed on the IRA. We shall see. The BBC reckon that Al Qaeda have claimed responsibility, but they would, wouldn't they...?

London Hit

2005-07-07T11:02:00.000+01:00

As you probably know, London has been under attack this morning. Just to say that Alice and I are safe.

London 2012!

2005-07-06T13:20:00.000+01:00

Well done London! Great news as far as I am concerned, congratulations to Stratford, let's hope the boys in charge deliver on their promises! If ever we needed to keep Red Ken in charge it is now.

If only the anthem wasn't M People...

Baby Donkey (donklet?)

2005-06-28T11:38:00.000+01:00

As promised here is a photo of the cute baby donkey that was born on site while we were camping in the New Forest. The donkey is about 18 hours old at this stage and has just about worked out how to walk. The day after this it worked out how to run, and was charging around like a mad thing. As an approx. size estimate, the donklet came up to just above my knee. After I took this photo the father donkey tried to eat my camera.

Isn't it funny how baby donkeys look just like Disney pictures of donkeys when adults don't at all?

Interviews, Interviews

2005-06-28T09:58:00.000+01:00

I've got a couple of interviews in the next week or so after a long dry spell. Fingers crossed for these ones! Interestingly, one of the companies is devoted to targetting a gene network that is known to be mutated in many cancers. Sound familiar? For those that don't know, that is basically what Dan is working on for his PhD. It isn't the same gene network, but basically the same idea. If we can work out what goes wrong in a cell to cause proliferation (or lack of death, which amounts to the same thing), perhaps we can target those faults (or spot them when they happen) and treat cancers more effectively. Unfortunately this sort of work is right at the early stages, so it doesn't look like we will be curing cancer any time soon. The other company would be fantastic to work at, I have a really good friend there, and she loves it...there is nothing better than a personal recommendation for a company! Anyway, I'm not about to talk at length about jobs I don't yet have, so let's not get our hopes up yet.

I really must sort out the photos today, and put some up from the New Forest.

That cheeky squirrel

2005-06-19T17:03:00.000+01:00

A picture of the squirrel taken at about 5am from my bed. This was taken with my mobile so it is quite poor quality

A picture of just what that squirrel was up to (taken at a more reasonable time, with a better camera)! Ha-ha, he didnt' get our banana bread though!

New Forest

2005-06-19T16:20:00.000+01:00

For the last week (up to Thursday) we have been away on holiday in the New Forest. We were staying in my parents' excellent tent in a forestry comission camp site at Ashurst. It is set just off a wood and has reasonable facilities so it was perfect. I must say that I do love camping and the outdoor life, sitting outside and just appreciating nature. The weather was generally excellant and I even managed to get a tan out of it. Of course, it rained when we were taking down the tent, but thankfully the parents were fine to put it up to dry when the weather got better ... like this weekend!

Staying in a campsite next to a wood does have its downsides. For us it was the dastardly squirrels which we had a constant battle with. Invariably I got woken up at 5am by them scurrying around our food and they soon learnt that when I banged around a bit it was not a threat because I could not be arsed to get up! In particular they seemed to be driven crazy by the prospect of banana bread and hot chocolate. The squirrels managed to eat through the plastic jar of hot chocolate but did not seemed to like the taste! Other items damaged were a carton of orange juice and the container with the banana bread in (bite and scratch marks a plenty). So I would say we won the battle with the squirrels but a taste they did not enjoy.

It was a relaxing holiday with a lot of reading, walking and one day of cycling. The cycling was great but it made me realise just quite how unfit I am at the moment.

We will stick up some photos at some point including some cute pictures of a one day old donkey on our campsite.

Alice might add some stuff later.

Hoorah!

2005-06-05T21:38:00.000+01:00

Just wanted to say hoorah hoorah it is all over for me bar the corrections and mighty nice it feels too. Thanks very much to everyone that has sent their congrats, it is much appreciated, we just have to get Dan through now.

I haven't decided yet whether I will be using the title, but we will see, probably I will use it on the bank accounts!

Still no job, before you ask...

Hopefully we will see a bit more of people now! So if you haven't heard from us for a while look out! Give us a call or something and we will try and meet up (at least until Dan starts getting crazy with his approaching doom!).

Today's mood is: dorknerdy

Dr. Alice

2005-06-04T11:02:00.000+01:00

Well she has done it. Alice has passed her PhD ... well nearly anyway. Yesterday she had a 2 hour 45 min viva which was pretty nasty, the examiners didn't really like her thesis. But who cares about that, the result is that she has quite a few corrections to do on her thesis but has what is called a pass with minor corrections (this is the next down from a pass with no corrections). Even better she got the minimum requirement on the corrections, 3 months and she only has to show it to her internal examiner.

So well done Alice, one down, one to go.

Thanet Weekend

2005-05-30T13:18:00.000+01:00

This weekend we were down in Thanet for my Mum's birthday (it is actually on the 31st May, but close enough) and I must say it was great to get back to the Isle. After the oven-like heat of the bus and train, it was nice to get into the cool sea breeze of Thanet on Friday night.

Mum and Dad have got hold of an allotment up near Callis Grange school. It was pretty large and they seem to be working hard to get it into shape. Already in place are potatoes, french beans, onions and the odd lettace. Would quite like one myself, maybe when we've got a bit more time. Alice seemed to like it too. I'll be interested in seeing how it progresses.

On Saturday night we went out to an Italian resturant just by the harbour down at Broadstairs. I cannot remember the name, but I am sure Alice can sort this out later (Porto Vecchio - Ed). We've been before and I must say that they do a mean almond sponge thing. Unfortunately, they had cocked up the booking and had us down for 9 rather than for 7. It took them nearly an hour to sort out, but we did get a free bottle of wine out. I had some oven baked pasta thingy which was nice enough.

On Sunday we went round the Retallicks for James' 30th birthday thing. Loads of old friends around including Becki and Simon, Jen and Stewart, Jono and Debbie, Katie and others. Bit too much baby banter for our liking but still great.

Unfortunately, we had to come back Sunday evening because I had to come into work today ... pressure is just to much to be taking odd days here and there.

I have just sent out my 40th CV...

2005-05-19T16:21:00.000+01:00

...just wanted to tell someone.

Alice at home...

2005-05-19T11:09:00.000+01:00

I must say being at home all day brings on some strange moods. For one thing, the longer you stay at home, the less you can be bothered to go out. This is a good thing as far as our finances go, since I can spend very little money here, although I have spent a bit on the internet.

Talking of which, I have been introduced to an internet-based site that will print your digital photos for you on Kodak paper. It is only 10p a print, but the great thing is that you get 10 prints free when you join, and 20 for recommending someone else if they accept. Now if you have multiple internet identities like me, this is great, I have clocked up about 100 free prints! I sent of the first 20 yesterday, we will see how they turn out. Anyway if you want to be recommended let me know, and I will go ahead and get another 20 free prints...

Background

2005-05-18T19:44:00.000+01:00

Just thought I would fill everyone in on where we are at at the moment. I (Dan) am 27 and Alice is 27 too. We have now been married for nearly 5 years.

We are both PhD students. Alice is doing a PhD in Chemistry and is nearly ... so close ... to finishing. The title of her thesis is "Studies Toward the Syntheses of SNF4435C and D, CJ-12662, and Semi-Synthetic Studies Toward the Stereochemical Assignment of Paeciloxazine". She has got her viva in a few weeks and is then scotch free. No job lined up as yet, but everything will work out I am sure. So currently Alice is trying to revise at home, revision for the first time in 5 years ... nice. I am doing a PhD in Mathematical/Computational Biology (I know strange combination but it is the future I promise you) and hopefully will finish in October, well that is when my funding runs out. My title is "Modelling the p53 Gene Regulatory Network" which doesn't really explain what I do, but is close enough. I am a bit of a geek and sit in front of a computer for the majority of the day.

We live in a small second floor flat in Bermondsey, London. It is very wee, well the kitchen and bathroom are, but I really love it. We have no where near enough storage space for our rubbish, but I have a theory that the guff expands to fill any space. Even though we have been living here for 3 and a half years we have only just finished painting every room and still haven't done the woodwork. Bermondsey is a fine place to live, even though it is a very deprived area. It is mainly council estates and extremely posh flats with a few georgian houses sprinkled around. It is very close to the centre of town which is great but buses are the main public transport. Not that buses are bad, definitely better than the tube in the summer. My favourite bus ... the No. 1 ... is the one I take to work every single day.

Right ... enough for now. I will try to keep this blog up to date with news. If you want computer geekdom and random rants then check out my personal blog, but that does not say much about what I'm doing.

Template Changes

2005-05-17T22:14:00.000+01:00

Man I need some training in blogging, it just took me (with a huge amount of help from Dan) literally hours to sort out the header at the top of the page. The thing with computers is, it is very annoying if you know what you want something to look like. You can do it in two minutes on paper and then it takes you ages and ages on the puter. This was a major problem with writing my thesis too! Maybe I should do a course or something...

First Post

2005-05-16T10:41:00.000+01:00

Ta Taratarantantan Taaaaaaaaaa

Here you go everyone, a blog for the two of us where you can check out what we are up to, and no worries about compromising anonymity.

Enjoy!