We don't like cricket... Oh No!

A few snaps from the trip to date in the islands of Grenada and Barbados. Grenada is a genuine wonderland with mountains, beautiful coast and the intoxicating scent of nutmeg. The devastation caused by hurricane Ivan in 2004 is still evident in the scars on the landscape and the people. 90% of homes, industry and agriculture were destroyed and recovery is occuring slowly.



Barbados seems to have lost it to a tourism storm, rapidly transforming into suburbia with gated communities and jet-skis constantly buzzing the coast. Have to keep eyes and ears open when Snorkling.

I had a wonderful time with the whole team - My "boyz" Guy and Ben, the anatomy folk Dave, Jet, Tim, Sharon, Bridget and Steve. Big thanks to Lance for saving my bacon and I am looking forward to catching you in St Maarten some day.

Onto the the cricket. Only one game really stands out. Brian Lara's final game of international cricket in the final super 8 game at Kensington Oval, Bridgetown. It was the most electric game I have ever attended, the temporary stands rumbled like an overhead thunderstorm as the locals urged their team towards a victory which sadly was not to be. The batting from Chris Gayle and Kevin Peterson devestated the respective bowling attacks.



The other games, we saw Sri Lanka clinically defeat the blackcaps, then the blackcaps clinically defeat the proteas and then the South Africans clinically beat the English. Nice days out in the sun though. I will miss the rum punch on ice at the game, very refreshing.


Tomorrow I am off for more adventures in New York.

barbie ball banger

In honour of drinking at Speed house, Barbican center with my wonderfulsister Laura before ripping apart the Astoria and bouncing to Little Man Tate (a video For your entertainment ).

-BARBIE BALL BANGER-

Double measure congac, 250ml heavily chilled red bull with jacobs creek sparkling rose the balance. Garnish with orange peal with a round of orange for show. ~ do try it.

London is the town I should have grown up in. 4 hours in the tate modern, a run on the embankment and a massive gig it doesn't get much better. How about that for a cultural revolution? Photos are from the vertigo42 champagne bar.

..... and he's off...

It has finally come to that time where I depart on a great journey of personal and scientific study. On Sunday my travels begin with 30 hours of goodtimes en route to London, to see my wonderful sister, her super husband, my great great-aunt and many other friends, relations and other happy acquaintances.

I am out of Aotearoa for 7 weeks. London - New York - Grenada - Barbados - New York - Toronto - San Diego - home.

I'm sure I'll have plenty to review. Catch you all on the flipside.

The poster to the left is a summary of what my PhD is on, have a gander if you wish :)

Drinks with the Wizard

Free booze with the wizard of Christchurch, his sociologist professor sister and her husband the neuroscientist. An interesting night on the town.

What the kind of drugs you are addicted to says about who you are....

It could be a segment on Oprah, it really could. Today's talk, which followed a disapointingly undercatered free lunch, was a presentation on the impact on the structure of the "self" in the treatment of patients with addictions. Your self can be over or under-stimulated; fragmented or over-burdened. Alcohol seems to go well with all of these as the universal intoxicant but weed seems to go with fragmentation, stimulents with under-stimulation and benzos with over-burden. I learn all sorts of things everyday.

Fast times in speedos....

Today's free lunch was good as per usual, with my particular favourite, the chicken club sandwitch with avocardo and cream cheese.... mmmmm. The talk was on social psychiatry and I sat reading papers and generally tuning out after starting a PCR run at 7:30am.

Far more interesting than work was the first underwater hockey tournament of the year. The regional champs was hosted my favourite city, wonderful Wellington. I had the pleasure of playing with an all new Canterbury lineup. Who after playing together for the first time three days prior to the competition were magnificent and able to cause an upset win over Wellington B. As per usual, drunkeness ensued, but everyone made it home safely and reasonable unscathed. Big ups to the bouncers at "the establishment" and to all the 38 year olds out there.

Well done to Mark for getting the MVP prize for the tournament. A true champion.

It was sweet catching up with all the Wellington buddies, Andy (loving your moves on the D-floor), Dave (keep gardening), Boyd (hope the pancreas survives), Rich (Yay! no more bagels), Poss (always a pleasure being squeezed into tight spaces) and G-dawg (see you in Grenada)

HOT!

In the words of my monosyllabic flatmate Fi (even her name has one syllable) Christchurch is HOT! Out the window of my office I can see the leaves on the oaks lose their turgor and I can feel the radiation off the Oxford terrace tarmac.

The only place its not hot is the air-conditioned lab where it is a blissful 22 degrees. But there my PCRs fail *sigh*, so back to the office to write and stew.

Today's free lunch was nice... very nice. With a new improved bacon and egg pie, pineapple was included for a summery difference. Coffee could be improved, lovely powdered instant as per usual but hey its free.

Presentation was about the development of a memory clinic at Princes Margret Hospital. They follow up everyone with a diagnosis of "mild cognitive impairment" (that lovely intermediate between Age Associate Cognitive Decline, which is normal, and Alzheimer's disease, which is nasty).

In other news, I now live in a barn with five other farm animals, Mark, Fi, Tris, Jane and for the moment the irascible Doug. I imagine its going to be a year of awesomness and excellence judging by how its been going.