Survived my first week

It’s Friday night after my first week at my new job. It’s been… well… I’m so used to things at the Uni and just, like, being IN CONTROL, that coming to a place where I don’t know where anything is and pretty much starting from scratch is a bit overwhelming!

But it’s all good. I know eventually I’ll settle into this new place and new role and actually I am quite enjoying learning a bunch of new techniques and getting to interact with a lot of new people (although I am missing the old faces quite a bit).

It’s been a CRAZY few weeks, what with submitting my PhD thesis, finishing up at the Uni, going away on holiday and starting this new job. Now I’m hoping things will calm down a bit and I can get cracking on this next phase of my life!

empositivityfocusImage courtesy Emm’s Positivity Blog.

 

First day jitters

I started my new job today!

It was a little daunting, but it went fine. Everything’s just so… different. Not bad or anything, just a lot of things to remember and learn and think about. Used to doing things a certain way and now it’s all up in the air! I guess you get pretty comfortable after almost 6 years in one place.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to this next “adventure” in my life and my career!scientist

A (not-so) slothy holiday

This week hasn’t been so much relaxing as I originally planned, but it’s been FUN! Themeparks and rollercoasters and shows etc. I was pretty skeptical about the rollercoasters but I had a huge grin plastered on my face like a five-year-old the entire time!

BUT. AS WE ALL KNOW. The BEST thing that happens when you go on a trip away, is seeing RANDOM SLOTHS! (Like this one on my last trip away.) Tonight we went to a diner for dinner, and THIS was on the wall. (Get it here.)

So good.

IMG_3709

Missed the flight

So, right now, at this moment, I am supposed to be on a flight direct to Bali, Indonesia. But, as expected, it was cancelled this morning due to the volcanic ash cloud.

It’s hard not to be upset about it, at the very least, pissed off. And this is the week between me finishing my last job and starting a new one, so it’s not really possible to reschedule the holiday for a later date.

However, we managed to scrape together another trip instead! The airline changed our destination, and we booked a different hotel and all done. We lose a little bit of money, of course, but overall it’s not the worst outcome. And there’s no real risk of getting “stuck” over there like it would be if we went to Bali.

At the end of the day, I get to go somewhere WARM, and RELAX, and have a GOOD TIME! And be back in time for work next week with no stress or anxiety. primatography hibisucs

From Primatography.

Methane production…in sloths…

I wasn’t going to write up about this Journal article published in June, as the results basically confirm what is already known/suspected about sloths:

“These results corroborate literature reports on low intake, low defecation frequency [and] low metabolic rate…in other sloth species.”

But then this caught my attention:

“In spite of the low food intake and the low-fibre diet…methane production was rather high…”

So, turns out, sloths got gas.

Lol.

babyslothcling

Student sloth no more!

Today I SUBMITTED MY THESIS!!

That’s it! I’m PhDONE!! I now have to wait a couple months to hear the result. SUCH a good feeling. Little Slumbert climbed my mountain of theses (?thesises?) this morning before I finalised everything. thesissloth

I haven’t posted a lot recently as I’ve been trying to finish it all off.

I have two days left at the lab. I cleaned off my lab bench on Monday, and a colleague swooped in that afternoon to claim it (I had an awesome window seat). Everything is now either in a box to take to my new job, or at home. I had a secret hoard of free stationery from trade displays – no way was I sharing that!

This weekend I’ve booked a flight to Bali, but the volcano Mt Raung is being a big pain in the ASS. Would love to be able to just change all the bookings but probably we would lose money in the process. Will have to wait and see at this stage, and try and change it in the meantime. So I should be looking forward to my holiday but it’s all very uncertain at this point. Anyway.

But today was a GOOD DAY. I submitted, I got fairy floss for lunch, and then I went home and binge-watched Mad Men (I finished OITNB). The boy is taking me to dinner tonight – I think I’ll have a couple glasses of bubbly to celebrate!!