So, a lot has happened since last week. I set fire to my fume hood in a big way (that was yesterday so pretty big in my mind at the moment!), went to life drawing, did some volunteering and in general made the most of the change in weather for the better.
Since “The Incident Of The Fire” I’m now a bit less confident that I’m on the right career path! But I suppose that if A-level has told me anything it’s that I can not get put off from chemistry by a little fire (or big fire, as it turns out) and I’m sure that after a relaxing weekend I’ll be raring to go again! To answer the FAQ’s I am enjoying my PhD so far apart from that, my fellow PhD’s have been really supportive and nice (and real demons with the fire extinguishers!) and I am completely unscathed (apart from my pride). I am sure that I will have filled out more than one incident form by the end of my next three years.
The most exciting news since last week is that I have bought a small tree for my room! Unfortunately for me I misjudge the times with the busses, so came out from the garden centre with a 2h wait for the next one. Luckily though, I had my back pack and the pot just about fitted inside so I was able to get back home with my tree and big bag of compost I bought for the hour and twenty hilly walk. I’m glad I did it as I now have a tree! I am never doing it again.
I went to the Drink n Draw that I mentioned before. For $20 I got free pizza, several glasses of cider and … a nude model! I had thought when I signed up for it that we would be doing landscapes, or maybe a bowl of fruit. Nope! It wasn’t really full of very serious artists which is lucky because part way through he did a lying down pose which reminded me of that bit in Titanic where she goes “Draw me like one of your French girls Jack”, after which I couldn’t stop giggling whenever I looked at the model. Who knows if I’ll be going back? Probably if I need a laugh!
Tomorrow I’m going to do some conservation work on some of the volcanic islands in the bay – tree planting and weeding etc. which I’m quite looking forward to. I’m hoping to see some great birds which I’ll hopefully take pictures of, although apparently it can get very hot with the sun reflecting off the lava fields so we’ll have to see how it goes . Also, I found out that they have wild possums in the parks here! Apparently they only come out at night so at some point this week I’m going to do a night time walk to go possum spotting! Hopefully I’ll have more pictures for next week!
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This is a Sunday-evening edit after coming back from the volunteering on the island. We landed on the volcanic island of Rangitoto, which is an island reserve where no rats / stoats / mice etc. live, meaning that flightless birds such as the Kiwi still live and thrive in the wild! After all bundling into the back of a small truck we bumped and jolted our way along a dirt track across the island and causeway onto Motu tapu. The planting was hard work but enjoyable and I was really rewarded when one of the regulars beckoned me over to see a real wild Takahe! They’re native, flightless birds to New Zealand and a lot bigger than the photo does justice to. As you can bet I was really excited to see one in the wild in its natural habitat as the conservation work I was doing was all to help restore and protect its habitat which has been destroyed over the years. They were actually thought to be extinct in the early 20th century which somehow makes it even more exciting when you see one in real life now. It’s so awesome when you get to catch a glimpse at what your working to protect!
I was amazed at what these volunteers have managed to do. They started in 1994 planting trees and now a lot of the hills and valleys on the island are covered in forest. Imagine being able to look at a forest and say “Yeah, I made that.”. I think I am a very small cog in a very big machine!
