Catching up

Yes, I know, apologies are in order. I’m a terrible blogger! Not a single post for August or September! Shame on me. But! I do have my reasons: 1) not much has happened, and 2) work has almost completely swamped me! So let me give you a quick overview.

From August 19 until August 23 there was the Estate Fair at Marienwaerdt. I would say there is no better way to spend your birthday shopping with your folks and catching up. Family time is important!

 Adore the little drool marks on the floor!

Last week I caught up with an old friend from Oxford. Remember the other Dutch girl who left quite shortly after arrival because of the nasty attitudes of my colleagues? Well, we kept in touch and try to meet up whenever she decides to cross the pond (she works in Cambridge now). We met up in Eindhoven and spent the entire day eating, talking and laughing in the restaurant Zout en Zoet (Salt & Sweet). She loves her new job and finally (FINALLY) got her own apartment. Seriously, research is the only type of field/work where you see people still sharing flats well over 30... Unfortunately, her contract is ending soon, so she's on the look-out for either more funding or a new job. Another thing I did not fully realize when I started my research education: although researcher are one of the most highly educated people, job security is never a guarantee. If you are lucky you get a (semi) permanent position working for either a university of hospital, but in most cases you're hired on a project basis, meaning your position is only for 1 or 2 years. Not ideal when you're trying to pay off you student debt... or trying to have any kind of social life for that matter.

As for work: I'm making progress. We finally decided on the concentrations we want to use for our final experiments. Now all I need to do is test what plasma concentration to add to get a nice response with my drug. However, our supplier is ignoring us (for some reason) so yesterday we decided to get our own pooled plasma, by asking other PhD students for a small contribution: 10 ml to be exact. That's what I call giving blood, sweat and tears for science! If everything goes as planned, we hope to finish the first paper by the end of this year. I'll keep my fingers crossed!

With love,

Willemijn

3 weeks home

One thing that always annoys me about coming back from holiday is how quickly you loose that happy-go-lucky-carefree holiday feeling. Just a week in and it almost feels like it never happened. Like it was almost a dream. Especially with all the shit, pardon, things that heppened in the last weeks.

Let me start of with some of the good:

My parents came over to sunny Groningen and we had a lovely day out in the city. The highlight being a wonderful high tea at the Prinsenhof (Prince court). It really does make you feel like a princess ;)

The beautiful gardens of the Prinsenhof. Apologies for the cranes.

Dinner at the Three Sisters.

Later that week, we got together with some of the PhD students for some proper bonding (a.k.a. complaining about our jobs and nagging about our bosses). We had dinner at the Pasta factory and went for an age appropriate movie: Minions! 

Lately, I've also gotten very close to a girl from another group, who's into horse back ridding. What a coincidence! So she's now becoming my horseback-ridding-buddy and we've been on two outdoor horse rides. Not without danger for our own lives of course. Horses and train tracks do not mix well. But we've had a lot of fun, so I'm sure we'll do it again sometime soon. I'll send you a picture of it ;)

Oh, and one of my old lab mates from Oxford came over! She had to learn a technique at the NKI, so she was in Amsterdam for a few days. Naturally, we had to meet up and share all the gossip of the last year. Unfortunately, our date was set at one of the stormiest and rainiest days of the year. So our trip at the red light district was cut short (her choice, not mine!). Se we decided to seek shelter in a nearby church. Don't you just love irony?

But there have also been some less nice events.

To start with, the lab technician on the project is getting fired. I'm not exactly sure what happened, I just know he had an argument with one of my supervisors, and since then things have gotten worse. To the point that they told him to look for another job. The news about their decision to let him go was told to me in the first week after my holiday. Not a good way to start. Oh, and I heard it from him, not a word yet from my supervisors. I'm really sad to see him go, as we got on really well. But I can't judge the situations, as I don't know what happened.  

And last but not least: my other supervisor (or money-boss) told me I had three weeks to finish all the experiments for the paper. THREE weeks. The nice thing is that he dropped this bombshell one day before he went on his holiday, leaving me at a near nervous brake down. I have no idea whether all of this is feasible, but I'm going to work my ass off to try and get it done. But holy shit am I crapping my pants. Nothing can go wrong right now. Especially since he decided to add another compound to the paper, one that has yet to be ordered and tested. 

Wish me luck!

Disastor trip home

What was a splendid holiday with my folks, has ended in pure bad luck.

Let me sum it up for you:

-Due to a huge, MAJOR incident on the M20 we had to divert all the way to Canterbury before finally arriving in Dover. A beautiful scenic route, but it cost us two hours extra.

-Upon arrival we had to wait for 2 hours before being able to board. Unfortunately, the boat was also 30 minutes late.

So once we finally landed on the French soil we were delighted! Nothing could possibly go wrong now?

Think again.

The car broke down.

There we were, stuck in Loppem, somewhere in Belgium. So we called the Dutch road service (ANWB) and they send Pierre. Don't you just love the name Pierre? It sounds like Pee-Air, right? But lest not make fun of the man, because he saved our derrieres! Booked a room and whisked our car away to his repair shop just as nightfall was upon us. The next morning we got the unfortunate call that the car could not be repaired, a bummer. But what took most of our time was convincing the Dutch road service to let Pierre drive us to the Netherlands, including car. The kind man offered to drive us 250 km home! And the ANWB was suggesting we take the bloody train! With two weeks and 3 persons worth of luggage! Ironically, my fathers has been a member of the ANWB for over 30 years and has not once used their services. But after much convincing we finally has permission to drive back to the Netherlands in Pierre's tow truck. A three hour bumpy drive. But it did make for a spectacular entrance in our street. One of the nosy neighbors couldn't resist to check out the noise at midnight.

So that was my holiday to the Cotswolds in a nutshel!

How was your holiday, or do you still have something planned? Or if you don't plan to leave, have a fun summer!

Holiday part III

Day 7 - Hanbury Hall

Since we planned to go to the Cotswolds show on Saturday, we decided to take it slow on Friday and visit Hanbury Hall. Hanbury Hall is located near Worcester and was built in 1701 by Thomas Vernon, a lawyer and whig MP for Worcester. On a side note: I always think it's so confusing that the British never pronounce the names how they write them. Worcester, for example, is pronounced "Wooster" (like wood). 

But anyway, back to Hanbury Hall. It actually has some ties to the Netherlands, as the house is modeled after the Palace on the Dam in Amsterdam. Recently, an old campaign poster was discovered, which played an role in the elections in 1715. These elections marked an important turn in the British history, as it reduced the power of the monarchy and laid more power with the parliament.

Besides this history lesson, Hanbury Hall is also a lovely place to visit for its gardens and excellent cream tea (which of course we couldn't resist).

 

Emma Vernon (1754-1818)

The upstairs ceilings and walls of Hanbury were painted by Sir James Thornhill and depict the story of Achilles.

 Day 8 - Cotswolds show

The Cotswolds show is held every year in the first weekend of July. If you've never been, I really recommend visiting this awesome show! It's a fun day out for the whole family with all kinds of (country) activities, including both mechanical (ferris wheel) and non-mechanical (donkey) rides, falconry shows, music performances, food and shopping.
But I took some snaps so you can see for yourself ;)

Can you believe I just ran into this beauty in the parking lot?!

During the day, many demonstrations are held, including on how to perform Parelli with your horse (communication based on natural equine behaviors). 

Rare/endangered farm animal breeds are showed, such as this Clydesdale horse.

  

And there are cute birds of prey! On the left a falcon of some sort and of the right is a little owl (I know, duh!) better specified as Athene Noctua. 

I don't think this owl was fully awake...

I'm guessing a falcon? I'm not really good with falcons... Oh, and a barn owl of course.

Wood sculpting with a chainsaw is so much more fun. And manly. 

Toys for boys!

Dad wanted to take the dragon home, but unfortunatly my mum said no. 

There was even a spitfire air show!

Its upside-down! 

Anyone  up for ferret racing?

And than there was this cutie. No idea why he was there, but he's rather sweet to look at, isn't he?

Day  9 - Stratford river festival
Of course a visit to the Cotswolds region is not complete without a visit to Stratford-upon-Avon, the birth place of the famous Shakespeare. We choose to visit this beautiful antique city during the weekend, during the Stratford-upon-Avond river festival. 

Mister Shakespeare, surrounded by bronze representations of his most famous pieces. 

And of course boats! Lots and lots of boats.

The perfect place to take your wedding photos would be surrounded by dozens of tourists, who will use you in their selfie background. 

Really, this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes the number of tourists.

There are almost as many tourists as there are swans and geese. 

But Stratford can also be very romantic once you get away from the crowd...

Day 10 - Baddesley Clinton
Baddesley Clinton is a unique Tudor house owned by the Ferrers family for 500 years. It played in important role in history during the times of the Catholic prosecutions, when it was a safe house for refugees. During the 1590s, many Catholic priests were hidden during so-called house raids up in the attics, behind the fire place and even in the underground sewer system. Because the family remained Catholic during the Protestant times, it was unable to increase their riches, like some many other families. However, this comes to our advantage in the present. Due to changing style and fashion, many old Tudor houses were demolished and replaced by Victorian style houses, but not Baddesley Clinton. This makes it a rare example of a Tudor house of this era. 

The little (dark) room of worship

The (literal) drawing room or art room

The legendary Kiftsgate rambler rose. It completely swallows whatever it gets its hands on and covers it with beautiful fragrant flowers. 

Curious little fellas ;)

Day 12 - Packwood house

Packwood house: "a house to dream of, a garden to dream in ". That was one of the quotes used by a visitor to describe Packwoord. 
Packwoord dates back to the 16th century, but was extended and restored as we see it today by the vision of Graham Baron Ash. Therefore, many different styles and time periods can be seen back in exterior of Packwood. 

  

  The famous yews of Packwood. The massive columns form a labyrinth-like pattern that's to intricate and large to capture in photos. You're just going to have to drop by and see for yourself. Trust me, its worth it. 

  

One more holiday post after his one, I promise!