Book love......

The completion of my first book (thesis) calls for celebration: books, books and more books to read. Happy as a clam!

Go Set a Watchmen. The much anticipated second novel by Harper Lee. It received widely mixed reviews and some scathing criticism but I was just happy to read something else from the author of my favorite book, To Kill a Mockingbird.

Letters to a Young Scientist. A great perspective piece by E.O. Wilson. And all the more enjoyable as I finished it just after thesis submission. :)

The Fault in Our Stars. Just because light fiction is fun to read!

198....

With heaps of hubbub these last couple weeks I'm just getting around to this post. When I started my PhD over three years ago I knew this day would come. Or at least people said that it would. However, many times throughout the process I feared the worst. That I would never submit my thesis. Apparently, this is a common fear among PhD students. Well I was no exception. So with that wandering preamble out of the way I am pleased, no thrilled, no ecstatic, to tell you that as of 28 September, I, Bridget Williams Brox, have submitted my PhD thesis for examination!!! There aren't enough exclamations in this world to really capture the excitement of this reality.

Let me take you back to the beginning for a moment. We first set foot in NZ in early 2012 and I was petrified. Not only were we about to start a new chapter in a foreign country but my first application to the Psychology PhD program had been rejected. Upon receiving this news we were already committed to moving and with fresh, matching passports and visas we jet set to NZ. Arriving was a flurry of newness, stress, anxiety and continual feeling of being outside any comfort zone that existed previously. I met with the folks who would become my PhD supervisors and organised a second application to the PhD program. Tim started work immediately and together we outfitted our tiny home. While I waited to hear about my application I started work as a tutor (teaching assistant) to gain a bit of income. I worried incessantly. I continually felt out of place. I wondered if I would ever feel normal again. If I would ever be caught up in regular day to day things like everyone else. And more than anything else I obsessed about getting into the PhD program. I seriously worried that I wouldn't be accepted. But even more so I worried that I would be. I don't remember every detail of that time but I can tell you that I was petrified about everything in the program. It was an opportunity to study something completely new and that meant starting at square one regarding technical skills as well as my understanding of the overall topic and associated literature. I seriously considered not taking the offer if I did get into the program. This all sounds crazy now but that's where I was at the time.

Then my acceptance letter arrived and somehow I decided to take the plunge. The flurry of paperwork had me running around campus to capture signatures and turn in forms. I was doing this when I was told, "Oh, right, you don't have a student visa? Well, you need one before you can get started". I thought I had regained some of my composure and everything was moving in the right direction when this happened. I panicked. To my great relief the visa officer talked me down, I applied for a student visa and by some miracle had that sticker in my passport within a week. I returned to the Faculty of Graduate Research, shiny student visa in hand. But I had to wait as another student was talking to the person behind the counter. She had a file box of papers and was holding them close to her chest, almost like she didn't want to let them go. Then she said, "I've worked on this for so long, it's hard to hand it over now". Despite my own personal drama I realized that she was submitting her thesis. I thought to myself, "Wow. I CANNOT imagine that actually happening for me". Remember at this point I was embarking on a journey where nothing seemed sure.

It was with all this in mind that I, bound thesis copies and accompanying paperwork in hand, walked through the doors at the Faculty of Graduate Research to submit my thesis. I could scarcely believe that I was uttering the words, "I'm here to submit a PhD thesis". The day had FINALLY come! And then I completed the most anticlimactic process of my life. My three soft bound copies were whisked away to be sent to my examiners. My electronic copy was transferred to their computer. We double checked all the forms and signatures. I was required to sign the "these ledger" where all students provide their name, school, thesis title and signature. I was given a few pieces of outgoing paperwork and then found myself exiting the office. What? What? That was it? It was only as the hours and subsequent days passed that realization started to sink in - I had finished my first book. 198 pages.

Book love....

Mutants: On Genetic Variety and the Human Body. Simply brilliant - a very readable account of the origins of genetic diversity. If you like historical medicine this one is for you.

Five big ones....

Yesterday Tim and I celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary. Yeah. Five years. It's hard to believe that much time has passed. I know I've said it in the past but I never imagined that I would marry and here we are five years later. :) That's a big smiley face!

If you had told me ten years ago that I would marry, move to NZ and complete my PhD I'd probably would've had some inappropriate outburst that a social norm filter would normally repress. I love that reality can be stranger (and more wonderful) than anything we could imagine. But this post isn't really about the five years past. It's about food. Food.

Every year Wellington restaurants pull out all the stops and put on a city-wide event called Wellington on a Plate (WOAP). And this is the first year that we've been able to partake. So a couple days ago we sat down and perused the long list of  WOAP participating restaurants and starting narrowing things down. Now some of this was easy when you've embraced a vegetarian lifestyle and some places only offer meaty portions. At one point we had twenty tabs open on the laptop. With some counterbalancing as only science nerds will do we narrowed the list down to ten contenders. Then with random pairings we narrowed it to six. Then three. And finally we picked a winner! To our surprise it was Southern Cross, a restaurant just two blocks from our house. Now you have to understand that Southern Cross isn't particularly fancy; they embrace an eclectic, bordering on chic, look with mismatched dining tables and chairs and a garden bar out the back. Since we moved to Wellington we've enjoyed going there and decided to do WOAP at Southern Cross for our fifth.

Upon arrival we were whisked to a cute corner table in the front window and I was thanking myself for making a reservation. The waitress arrived and described the WOAP protocol; three courses with an entree, a main and a dessert served with a regional bevvie. We both ordered the Urlar Sauvignon Blanc 2013 made right up the road in NZ wine country, Wairarapa.

Next came the entree and since both were vegetarian we decided to each order one and share around. The first was a delightful think tomato soup that was topped with pillowy soft pieces of smoked brinza. Everyone knows that tomato cheese pairs well but this was amazing!

The second entree was a Parkvale portobello mushroom burger. This came out and I realized that the chef was going with a very literal interpretation because the portobellos comprised what would have been the bun of a traditional burger. Sandwiched between the mushrooms was a light almond hummus and finely sliced beetroot. Now when we read the description on the menu it sounded good but the combination of flavors was spot on - admittedly I would've had seconds it that were allowed. :)

Feeling rather content we sipped our Sauv while the entree dishes and cutlery were cleared away. With the main on its way we were both sufficiently curious. The menu read, "Raw beetroot ravioli" and while we enjoy beetroot with the best of them you wonder, "What does that mean, exactly?". 

Soon after we were presented with the main and tucked in straightaway. On a bed of spinach and clouds of butter lettuce we found the ravioli. They were made from two thin slices of beetroot surrounding a scrumptious filling made of salty feta. On their own they were delicious but the course came full circle when you tried the accompanying pistachio and sweet potato croquettes. The course, in a word, was a stunner! Two thumbs way up. 

Lastly, we ordered both dessert options so we could try everything. The first was a poached pear with Carello del Gelato vanilla bean ice cream. Simply elegant. The second dessert was truly different: a Whittaker's Dark Chocolate cheesecake stuffed apple accompanied by Carrello del Gelato banoffee ice cream. I've never really considered chocolate and apple together but they were amazing!

Pushing back from the table we declared that WOAP has a sure winner at Southern Cross. :) I'm hoping I could convey some of the experience here.

Book love (catch up).....

Talk about a mix bag - all three were simply wonderful. :)

Complications. 

The Rosie Project.

Ender in Exile. 

Dark side.....

I must apologize. I haven't posted in months. In the past I've had the expected ebb and flow of blog posts however these last few months have been utterly and completely overwhelmed with work. I remember writing about being busy running experiments for months on end; those times were crazy however they pale in comparison to what I've experienced lately.

In short I completed the last of my behavioral experiments then spent weeks living in one of the biology labs on campus processing tissue. After that I finished collecting data at Wellington Zoo project. The following day Tim and I flew to the US where he spent a month working in the NMR lab at MSU and I holed up and spent my days writing. It was an incredibly productive time and upon arriving back in NZ I had serious drafts of all my chapters in the works.

Then it happened. Months earlier I had submitted two abstracts for presentations at the Australia and New Zealand Council for the Care of Animals in Research and Teaching (ANZCCART) conference. One outlined the training program we've developed at Vic and the other my small cats zoo project. After submitting them I heard back straightaway about the ethics training program and was given a presentation slot - great! After that I didn't hear back about the second abstract and assumed that it had not been accepted. The week before we left the US I emailed the conference organizers just to be sure. Apparently, an email had been lost along the way and the second abstract had been accepted but because they couldn't get in touch with me I didn't realize this until less than two weeks before the conference. They were relieved to hear from me but worried that I wouldn't have enough time to prepare. As insanity would have it I assured them that I would make it happen. So the week we arrived back in NZ I spent the majority of my time preparing the two presentations as well as the accompanying papers that the conference requires of the presenters. I was also scrambling to arrange a time to give my presentation of the small cats data to a group at the zoo. Thankfully we were able to squeeze this in - I'm a firm believer in practicing presentations and getting feedback before you give them for real. A veritable whirlwind of activity and unfortunately that left no time for the thesis. Talk about serious guilt. The conference started the following week and I was on a plane to Gold Coast, Australia, before I knew it. Both talks went very well and generated a great deal of discussion throughout the week. After each one I had people lining up to talk to me - I took that as a good sign. :) I'm very glad that I decided to go but as you can imagine it didn't leave much time for thesis writing during that week either. Sigh. More guilt.

After returning to NZ I had just one week until the end of July: my arbitrary deadline for thesis submission. As you might expect that was not going to happen. And it didn't.

Now we're two weeks into August and I am creeping ever closer to submitting this book. It's the first one I've written and currently is numbering 150 pages. Of my five chapters I've finished three of them. The fourth chapter and the General Discussion are both well on their way. So thesis submission will happen sometime in August and I can't tell you how amazing it is to consider this. After all this time, work, blood, sweat and tears - it is actually going to happen! More to come. 

Book love....

Clash of Kings. After an epic and all consuming run of molecular analysis my PhD lab work has come to an end! And so has this book. Another gigantic tome: just shy of 1000 pages. Now onto Storm of Swords. :)