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Well are now into March 2007 and all will wondering (or not) where all the free lunches went. The reviewing feel into dissarray with my motivation which is now back with avengence.

Two free lunches were reviewed this week: both controversial, both intense and both presented by excellent experienced speakers.

Tuesday: What is more controversal or disturbing than the treatment programmes for convicted sexual offenders against children/adolescents. I'm not too sure, perhaps Friday's seminar presented by Prof Arthur B Lafrance (a constitutional lawyer by trade) on the physician assisted death statute in Oregon, USA. Currently the only jurisdiction in the world to have such a law (now before you shout "what about the Netherlands?!?", they have an agreement that Doctors who perform euthanasia (taking an active part in the killing) will not be prosecuted for homicide).

What occurs in Oregon is that if someone has 6 months to live, and has been an Oregon resident for over a year, they can request a prescription for a barbiturate overdose that they adminster orally themselves. I'm not sure what my opinion is on this yet. But that was todays talk. All the details, stats etc are here.

Today I found out where the Canterbury DHB free lunch comes from... Medirest, is a wholly owned subsidiary of compass the compass group, a FTSE100 listed company that brings in 11 billion pounds of revenue per annum.... That's alot of club sandwiches and egg containing tortilla wraps.

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".