Home again

In the words of Jon Toogood I am home again. Back in Te Wai O Pounamu, in a barn of a flat in Christchurch, with a bunch of lovely barn animals.

The rest of my trip was great, I had a some really special time in Toronto and the conference in San Diego was incredible (food was alright too, only alright though). Some great feedback was received on the work that I presented and some of the talks convinced me that this is a field I would love to keep working in. I *HEART* THE BRAIN! but not in a zombie way.

Highlights in Toronto:

From cricket 2007

Meeting some really interesting researchers who look at the epi-genetics of psychiatric illnesses. Epi-genetics is the field of investigation of influences of gene regulation that are not encoded in the A's-C's-G's and T's of the DNA. Changes in epigenetic regulation can be caused by environmental exposures and more importantly can be inherited. Basically epigenetics research is at the bleeding edge of what is going on.

Being taken along to a Major League Soccer match by John and Emma. A young, fun couple who happen to be post-doc's who were really kind to me. I had the pleasure of attending TFCs first EVER win and the packed 20,000 seat stadium was bright red and rocking.

Running in a 10K race down Yonge Street, the longest street in Canada.

Witnessing the power of Niagara falls.

And the wonderful hospitality and company of Sarah, Trevor and Rose.

San Diego as a town I had less fun in. No I didn't go to the zoo and I regret it. The museums at Balboa Park were rather cool if not a bit run down and at the Museum of Man there was a exhibit of a North American mummified body, the lack of dignity that it was presented with actually made me feel ill.

Prior to the conference I went down to Tijuana for a few hours with a bunch of people from the hostel, it was a rather unfun experience as we stuck pretty much to Revolution the main area that hawkers target tourists. The boarder itself is a sight to behold. Mass movement of humanity across boarders. Some unwillingly, a DHS bus dropped a busload off as we arrived. Amazing Tacos.

The conference itself, well it was great. That about sums it up :)

Lately I haven't quite gotten back into the swing of things at work and there have been a few hiccoughs in my project. But hopefully will be all under control. I have consumed one or two free lunches since I have been back.

An interesting contrast between two of them. The first was a discussion of the challenges of treating mental health issues in WWII veterans, the interactions between post-traumatic syndromes and emergent dementia were particularly concerning. You can't help but wonder how this pans out in civilian population. The the was looking at the other end of the age spectrum. The average age of onset of schizophrenia is 22.4 (90% between 16 and 28) so digging for and identifying early "psychosis-like" disturbances can lead to the potential for early intervention and subsequent improved outcome. Non-specific signs given as examples given were: depression, compulsive behaviours, anger in young men, drug abuse and social withdrawal (in particular many, many hours a day on online roll playing games). The lunches have been ok too, maybe a bit too much cream cheese in the chicken club sandwiches.

north american good times

After departing the sunny Caribbean for one of the worlds greatest metropoli I was soon enjoying the land of plenty that is New York food and drink. A lunch at a bizzare restaurant with Sharon and Dave, booze followed at another (slightly more scary) bar, with the lovely odour of urinal cakes and sawdust, where peanut shells accumulate at the base of the bar stool.

Other eating highlights occured during the viewing of the debarcle that was the world cup final. I have never had more fun watching the covers being tended to for over three hours. It may have had something to do with the consumption of much "breakfast beer". Over time body became very relaxed and Matt hosted a wonderful example of grilling Jersey style. I was particularly impressed with Tree's cheese and bacon filled burger patties, (my lord, no wonder I have put on 5kgs since leaving home, time to get back to hockey training).

Later in the NYC time Brigette and I hit the epic theatre and saw a super show from
"indierockers" modest mouse. I never knew they played shows with two drummers. Tre-cool.



A great way to end a fun few days in NYC. Big thanks to Matt, Brigette and Steve for putting me up, champions ever-y-one-of-em.

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.

Arun the TV star

Wow.... My first friend to appear on French television.

http://wideo.nouvellestar.fr/video/iLyROoaftVbb.html

Arun you are a wonderful patriot.

Back on top

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.