Kai = food. Koura = crayfish.

After battling for hours at the depths of the ocean, a crayfish of excellent proportions and quality was wrestled from the, Kaikoura chasm. In other words the water was too cold and this chap was purchased at a local fish and chip shop.

Why Kaikoura? Good question. Lucky co-incidence saw that I along with quiz team stalwarts; Zannah, Sara and Josh, hosting the friendly all round good guy Clemens the German intern, (who will be futher refered to as Euroman he who makes our puny currency wimper and cry). Clemens works at Zannahs firm, someone at Zannahs firm likes both Zannah and Clemens, that person has a bach in South Bay Kaikoura, we stayed there on Saturday for free (almost like a free lunch) and had an all round good time.

Whales were watched, sights were seen, kayaks were kayaked and much gin was consumed (gin really is good for you, or is it the tonic, I feel a nature paper coming on).

A big thankyou to the six-day-weekend team, it was a great no hassels weekend away. Just amazing. (Left-Right, Sara, Zannah, Josh and Clemmens).

Is that enough scenery Ben? Next scenic New Zealand Destination is Queenstown. No free lunches there.

A dynamite lunch

Another Friday, another free lunch. Another free lunch with a twist. Today I had the pleasure of free lunch (club sandwitches in triangles and berry muffins) with a Nobel prize laureate. Sir Paul Nurse (Nobel prize in physiology and medicine 2001 with an uncanny likeness to Robin Williams) is touring New Zealand as the Rutherford lecturer and spent a couple of hours with about 20 students before he giving a lecture on the control of the cell cycle. It was great to see, clearly demonstrated how the concept developed and how, with passion, the pursuit for truth through experimentation is possible and worthwhile.

Denny Crane

Today I am missing another free lunch, always a disapointment, for the induction of my good friend Josh into the world of the law. One day he will be as great as the great Denny Crane, explore the cosmos and have a strange homoerotic relationship with a dude with pointy ears. Well done Josh!

Cricket tickets have been purchased, Grenada here we come!

I think I need more exclamation marks !!!!!!

Planning to take over the world!

Hey there. Well no free lunches as yet this week but with the end of the dreaded school holidays tomorrow is looking brighter. I can almost smell the mushroom and bacon quiche. As well as a free lunch, I get to learn about the treatment of depressed alcoholics, very depressing.

On a not so depressing note, progress is being made on Guy, Ben, and My mission of awesomeness to the Carribean. Oh yes, after years of pondering and making false starts on other ill concieved overseas missions we are off to the cricket world cup. Accomodation is booked and match tickets are well on the way to being sorted. It is all very exciting.

This weeks free lunch was bought to me by the kind people at invitrogen. For the first time the sales reps were selling stuff relevant to my project, so club sandwitch in hand (lamb, tomato and lettuce, perhaps the greatest of the club sandwitches) , I picked their brains about novel RNA extraction and quantification kits that invitrogen have developed (read: bought out another company and slugged an invitrogen label on it).

At one point the guy was so excited about a potential sale that he wet himself twice and had to take three deep breathes to maintain consciousness. He was very enthused and rather scary.

I sadly missed another one today :( due to a meeting with no food running overtime. I had to buy my own lunch which I think is pretty criminal.

Christchurch has been cold, damn cold (read: coldest June on record). Which is only good for one thing. That is snowboarding. Have had one wonderful day at Mt Hutt, where there was more snow than I have ever seen at this time of year, and being only 90 mins from the carpark I think I may well be seeing a bit more of it before winter is out.

Oh so very, very sore. Only the most masochistic run half-marathons without training. Right now my quadraceps are a quivering mass of painful jelly . Anyway in the words of Arnold its time to "stop whining".

The recently unemployed and wonderful Arun just reminded me how slack I've been with the reviewing of free lunches. How are the people of the world going to know what sumptuous and often no so sumptuous free morsels cross my lips.

Last free lunch attended was the Dept of Psychological Medicine clinical meeting. Got there a bit late and all that was remaining was a club sandwich with the most amazing filling. Date and walnut paste and on the otherside cheese and lettuce.... Someone at the caterers was having a good laugh but man was it tasty. It was a desert sandwich to be sure. The talk was on the outcome of depression. How in the longterm outcome isn't terribly flash and that the methods and clinical data used to predict outcome are even more dim. So with me launching into a PhD investigating if proteins in blood can predict how someone with depression is gonna go, the outlook from me could either be very gloomy (there's nothing to find) or super enthusiatic (I'll be the one that finds it all!). I think I'll try enthusiasm first.

In the rest of my life I've started playing sport again. My random mix of UnderWater Hockey, Ultimate (here's a did you know... one of the original creators of Ultimate was also the creator of Die Hard... what a legend) and Golf are keeping me busy. I'm really enjoying being active again after a year of opting out of stuff.

PS
We are having a party at our flat this friday (24thMarch) at 87Grahamsroadchristchurchnewzealand. You are all more than welcome from 7:30 come one come all!

At home today.... ah working from home. A way to get slightly more than nothing done. One problem with doing it today is I am missing the first clinical meeting of the year and subsequently the first free lunch! My, my this reviewer is slipping and must lift his game.

A free lunch of some note occured one week past, three meals were provided for the presentation of the Christchurch School of Medicine summer studentship talks. Research on topics ranging from the geographic location of eldery falls to the vaccum treatment of chronic ulcers were presented. Great to see the enthusiasm and drive of all involved. I gabbed on about the role of NTRK2 in mood disorders... More work to be done on that story. Oh so much more work to be done.

All my flatmates are back and kicking and we are now a fully dysfunctional household. Gotta love it.

Got the low down from a lab colleague that the first free lunch of the year was about to hit the scene... People where there in the tens reaching out for the Sponsors product. I am new to the game so wasn't familiar with the catering... but it appeared to be an outside job... a good sign.

"Todays luch was brought to you by MabThera" (rituxumab) an expensive magic bullet wonder drug for follicular lymphoma. Mabthera TM is made by the wonderful people at roche. The sales reps were rubbing their hands and looking around with their beady eyes for anyone with a stethoscope.

Lunch consisted of:

gourmet mini rolls (turkey and mustard) 4/5
chicken wings (teriyaki, cold, not sticky) 3/5
Vege and egg tart (rather dry) 1/5
Muffins (chocolate very dense) 4/5

The coffee today does not warrent reviewing as it was as pale as a albibo's legs and about as flavoursome.

Fruit provided: a satisfying mini banana.

All in all a good start to 2006..... no such thing as a free lunch don't make me laugh!

in the words of Clint Brown BOOYAH! I am trying a blog. i do love free lunches and working in a hospital setting i may get a chance to review a few and my life in general... well off to my first free lunch of the year right now... toot-a-loo