Oh sheet

Not long ago I discovered that something I took for a fact is not always true. How do you make a bed?  Fitted sheet on the bottom, then a top sheet, then a comforter/duvet on top, and an extra blanket in between the sheet and the comforter if it's cold.  Right?  This just in:  not everyone makes their bed this way.  Australians typically use the fitted sheet on the bottom and then a duvet on top- that's right! No sheet! They routinely wash the duvet cover, so it's not as gross as I originally thought, but still, how do they regulate temperature when the only choice is duvet or no duvet? The sheet has its place- namely, when it's too hot to sleep with a duvet on top of you but you don't want to be completely uncovered.

I once said to my Irish flatmate something along the lines of "isn't it weird that Australians only put duvets on their beds and not a sheet?"  and she responded that that's how they do it in Ireland, and "sheets are for hotels and Americans."  I still think it's weird. Who sleeps without a sheet?

Anagram Generator

Time for some mindless fun:  I found an Anagram Generator online and the top anagram for my name is Needle Ennui.  Then I tried my sisters' names:  Drunken Rye and Reined Nun.  The anagram generator is now my favorite thing.

Hot in Herre

Last Sunday, I decided that I was up for some sort of exercise but didn't feel like going for a run.  I googled nearby gyms and yoga studios to see what places had drop-in classes on Sunday afternoons, and the only one I found was a bikram yoga studio.  As in that hot yoga that's done in rooms typically over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and all classes are 90 minutes.  I've heard of it but never tried it before, mostly because it sounds horrible and disgusting.  Nevertheless, I decided to give it a shot.

The studio was very beginner friendly, which was nice, and since everyone is still on their January exercise kick, I wasn't the only first-timer.  They also didn't mention any bullshit about purifying your body of toxins or anything like that (scientist pet peeve: misuse of the word toxin). When I checked in, they told me to stay towards the back of the room and my goal would be to stay in the room the entire time, and to lie down if I didn't feel well.  I mentally added "don't faint or barf" to the list of goals.

I entered the room, and was a bit surprised to see lots of dudes (about 40% men, whereas every other yoga class I've been to is about 10%), and everyone was half naked.  (me, not so into working out in a sports bra).  So it began, and within the first ten minutes I was absolutely dripping in sweat, to the extent that I had trouble keeping my grip on some of the poses.  I did start to feel lightheaded a couple of times, but a quick glance around the room led me to discover that there were already a handful of people laying down on their towels so I followed suit until I felt better.  The second half of the class was all poses where you were already sitting or lying down, so that was a lot easier.  And it actually went by pretty quickly- before I knew it, we were on the final breathing exercises.  I didn't hate it but I must say I prefer regular yoga.

The studio charges $19 per class, but they run a special for first-timers in which the next nine days after your first class for free.  The cheapskate in me loves a bargain, so I did go back again a couple of days later, with the new goal of actually doing all of the poses and not lying down on my towel.  It was a lot easier the second time, although still as sweaty as ever.   And I just might go again today.

I haven't become a bikram yoga convert or anything, but it does seem like a good way to keep my muscles loose for the upcoming soccer season, so I think I'll try to fit in a class every couple of weeks or so.

Home for the holidays

I'm not a big fan of holiday travel...basically, if you want to fly internationally during late December, it's double the price, and seems to come along with a greater risk of delays due to weather and business (or maybe the risk is the same, but it's way more annoying when your $2900 flight gets cancelled than your $1400 one). And maybe I'm a bit of a Scrooge but I'm just not that into Christmas- Thanksgiving is more my speed in terms of holidays. However, since I was in Australia for the last Christmas I felt a bit bad about missing two in a row so I made the trip back to Massachusetts.
Of course my flight got cancelled, which put in in a pretty sour mood, but at least the one day delay allowed me to attend my institute's Christmas party, where once again, the nutbush happened.
In total, I was home for 7 days and it was pretty jam-packed. I packed a couple of boxes of Christmas crackers in my suitcase (and did start worrying about halfway through the flight that they might be considered an explosive...whoops) and brought them to Christmas dinner- my nieces were not that impressed but the adults really enjoyed the bad jokes and paper crowns. My grandmother kept her crown on for the whole day. The rest of the week was spent hanging out with the family, catching up with friends, and eating at some of my favorite places (Mexican! Sushi! La Cantina! Framingham Bakery Pizza!). Unfortunately, I didn't have time to do a big night out in the city with my Boston friends, nor a lengthy trip to the mall- two of my favorite vacation activities. So although I had a great time, I'm already looking forward to my next trip back.

What I read and watched on the plane:

Books:
In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin. I picked up this collection of short stories set in Pakistan due to the National Book Award finalist seal on its cover, but it lingered on my bookshelf for ages. The stories feature various characters in modern Pakistan, most of whom are somehow linked to K.K. Harouni, a wealthy landowner whose fortunes and influence are on the decline as the feudal system becomes outdated. Despite its critical acclaim, I didn't like the book- it all felt a bit too cold and distant, and my biggest problem was with the depiction of women, the majority of whom were young peasants who sleep with their employers, with the main exception being a rich socialite who cheats on her new husband. I don't know much about Pakistan, but surely there are Pakinstani women who aren't sex slaves or sexpots.

Nightwoods, by Charles Frazier. This novel, which tells the story of a reclusive young woman who becomes the caretaker of her niece and nephew after her sister's murder, was very different (much shorter and paired down) from the epic Cold Mountain, and I didn't love it, but I did like it.

Movies:

Our Idiot Brother- Paul Rudd as a stoner who causes upheaval in his sister's personal and professional lives. Pretty good.

The Way- Martin Sheen stars in this Emilio Estevez-directed film as a man who ends up walking El Camino de Santiago, a famous pilgrimage route in Spain. Not surpising that they didn't find a role for Charlie. The kind of movie my parents would love.

A Better Life- A father in struggling to raise his son as an illegal immigrant in L.A. A surpising choice for an airplane movie.

Real Steel- Hugh Jackman, Kate from Lost, a little boy, and fighting robots. Awful but entertaining at the same time.

Crazy, Stupid, Love- Steve Carrell stars as a family man who goes through something akin to a mid-life crisis after his wife cheats on him. I had high expectations and thought it was okay but not as funny or edgy as I would have hoped. The babysitter was my favorite character.
Crazy, Stupid, Love

2011: The Year in Review

So I've been a bit slack with the old blog lately, but I'll stick to my tradition of the year end post. 2011 started of shaky but ended up turning into a banner year- I finally had some scientific success that included two publications, I paid off the credit card debt that had been haunting me since 2003, and I found a great group of friends here in Melbourne, people who make me feel like myself and make this place feel like a home.

I can't really list a song of the year, nor a movie of the year, because, frankly, my finger has slipped off the pulse of pop culture. And a lot of the Oscar buzz movies haven't been released in Australia yet. The Muppet movie opens Jan 12th and I am stoked!

But without further ado:

TV Addictions of the Year:
1. Top Gear (British version)- who would have thought that a show featuring British men and cars would be so damn entertaining? But it's great!

2. The Graham Norton Show- My fellow Americans, we have been deprived of the BEST talk/interview late night show in the world. It's so much better than celebrity appearances on Leno or Letterman- Graham's guests have actual conversations, I mean, you get to hear Rhianna talk about an awkward experience with a bikini waxer rather than 30 seconds of plugging her latest album. The format helps viewers get a sense of what celebrities are actually like, as does the fact that the host is a quick-witted gay Irishman. Bradley Cooper? As charming as you think he is. Rob Lowe? Kind of a stiff. Chris Martin? Way less of a douche than I imagined! Elijah Wood? Not only is he the star of Lord of the Rings, he's also a complete nerdy fanboy.

3. Deadwood. I never caught this HBO Western when it aired a few years ago, so I've been watching it on DVD and love it! The characters and dialogue are fantastic; the writers must have had such a great time working on this show. And if you don't like it, you must be a hooplehead.

Places Visited:
Helsinki, Finland
South Island, New Zealand
Newport, RI
Mt. Hotham, Port Fairy, and Dalyesford, Australia
Framingham, MA

Visitors (new category!):
Ern in March
Yuki and Jonathan in April
Kim in October

Most shocking event of 2011:
I went skiing...and liked it.

Most commented post of 2011:
This somewhat melodramatic (and embarrassing in hindsight) one about my break up. But thanks for the love, people.

Literary Addiction of the Year:
The Hunger Games trilogy.

As always, thanks for reading and commenting, and I will try to post with a little more frequency in the new year. Best wishes to all for a wonderful 2012!

The 12 Pubs of Christmas

My flatmate Susan is from Cork (in Ireland), where apparently a pub crawl called The 12 Pubs of Christmas is the norm in December. The title explains it all- one outing, 12 pubs, sometime around Christmas. We decided to organize a Melbourne version in our own neighborhood- apparently 34 is not to old to be a co-organizer of a pub crawl, for the record.
One of the perks of planning activities is that you get to make them convenient for you (pub #12 just happened to be located around the corner from our apartment, what a coincidence!). Plus, there are a lot of good bars and pubs and I haven't had a chance to check all that many of the out, so why not hit 12 in one day? A few weeks ago we did a reconnaissance mission on our bikes and mapped out a route containing 12 pubs. The date was set, the route and schedule arranged, the flyer designed, and we sent it around to our Melbourne friends, not really knowing how many people other that the two of us would partake.
The big day arrived and we headed out to Pub #1 with our props, a red felt cowboy Hat of Shame, which would be worn by anyone whom arrived late or was deemed to have committed a shameful act. We also happened upon a harlequin romance called Gentle Rouge, with a ridiculous cover and even more ridiculous (and very porny) conent. All latecomers had to read aloud a passage of Gentle Rouge (and there were some doozies, full of words like 'bountiful' and 'thrusted')and through the course of the evening, a few strangers got roped into dramatic readings as well.
One thing that came in handy is that Australian bars typically serve pots, a half-pint size of draft beer, which we drank instead of full pints. Even in my college days I don't think I could have handled 12 pints in a night.
The evening went along much more smoothly than expected- we had about 16 people at the max, and at least some of the group did make it to all 12 pubs, with much hilarity along the way. One bar turned out to be a classy restaurant (oops), one bar was completely sketchy with the worst entertainment I've ever seen (a man playing keyboard and singing along to recorded hits in a room covered in wallpaper and lava lamps...I can't even describe how bad it was), a digital scale provided much amusement to the scientists of the group, and pretty much everyone wanted to talk to us wherever we went (a trashy paperback is a great conversation piece).
I did post the pictures on Facebook and felt a little bit silly- "oh, that's a lovely photo of your baby in front of a Christmas tree. Here are some photos of my friends on a holiday pub crawl! Totally the same thing."

Tortilla Española Failblog

If you've ever been to a tapas restaurant, you've probably had tortilla española, which is essentially the Spanish version of a potato omelet. Although the ingredient list is simple (eggs, potato, onion, oil, salt, and pepper), I've never actually tried to make one, mostly because I was intimated by the process, which typically involves flipping the semi-cooked tortilla halfway through cooking. I mean, that's just asking for a kitchen catastrophe. However, today I was craving some potato eggy goodness, so I found this recipe and decided to give it a shot. As directed, I cooked the potatoes and onions in oil, then added the egg mixture and cooked and rested. Then it came time for the big flip...at which point I learned that the bottom half of the tortilla was stuck to the pan and the top was a blobby mess. Well, that's what I get for buying my non-stick cookware at the Australian version of Walmart. I reassembled as best I could, but the result was more like scrambled egg with potato than the beautiful tortilla española I had envisioned. The side view wasn't as ghastly, and at least the blueberry muffins (clearly, a reasonable accompaniment Spanish food) I made while the the potatoes were cooking came out well.


Score: Tortilla española 1, Eileen 0.
Now on the Christmas wish list: a decent non-stick pan

DYAC

Sorry for the lack of posts- I've been meaning to take photos of the new hospital and post about it but haven't had a chance.
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
So in the meantime, check out the Top 25 Damn You Auto Correct entries of the year.

I do suspect some of these are fake, but even so, I still laughed so hard tears came out of my eyes.

Reviews- four books

Lately I've been on a reading-in-bed-before-I-fall-asleep kick, so I've gone through a few books lately, namely:

Room, by Emma Donoghue. You know those creepy news stories where a man kidnaps a girl, keeps her prisoner for years, and the girl ends up having her rapist's child, Austrian basement style? Well, Room is a novel with a similar premise, only it's told from the perspective of a five year old boy, Jack, who has spent his entire life in a single room with his mother, not understanding that a world outside exists. His friends are Rug, Chair, and Dora the Explorer, and he sleeps hidden away in a wardrobe because his mother doesn't want the bad man who comes in at night to be able to look at him. The book is disturbing and completely addictive, and very cleverly written. My sister Kerry sent it to me and I couldn't put it down.

The Help, by Kathryn Stockett- after Room I needed something a bit cheerier, so I finally read the book that everyone I know had already read. The Help, set in the segregated South in the 1960s, is the story of white housewives and the black housekeepers who do their chores and raise their children. Although they spend their days together, they don't interact outside of strict societal norms, until one of the town's socialites, Skeeter Phelan, returns from college and decides to scratch below the surface. The Help is an enjoyable read, full of lively characters and a bitchy villian who is just so fun to despise, the type of book you could recommend to nearly anyone and know that they'll like it. My one critique is that I feel it's been overpraised as an "important" book. If it were written during the 1960s, maybe that would have been the case, but since the book was written 50 years after the troubled times it describes, it certainly isn't an Uncle Tom's Cabin or even a To Kill A Mockingbird. However, it's still a great story and well worth a read.

The Wonder Boys, by Michael Chabon. Michael Chabon is one of my favorite authors, so I had high expectations of this book. However, I wasn't a huge fan, mostly because I didn't like the protagonist, frustrated writer and college professor Grady Tripp. He's a 40 year old man who cheats on his wife, obsesses over one of his students, smokes pot all the time, and basically needs to grow the fuck up. He's not quite as awful as the husband in On Beauty or the dad in The Squid in the Whale, but is pretty much a rehashing of the pompous, male academic stock character. The side characters were a lot more likeable and entertaining, despite (or perhaps because of) their flaws.

Lastly, I read We Need to Talk about Kevin, by Lionel Shriver. I thought Room was disturbing, but it has NOTHING on Kevin. This book is the story of a school shooter, written by his mother in a series of letters to her estranged husband. She wasn't sure she wanted to have children, she resented giving up her former lifestyle, and then her child turns out to be...evil. Is she somehow to blame, or was he just born that way? We know at the start how Kevin turned out, but Eva tells the story in chronological order, from all of her doubts during and after pregnancy, to how difficult Kevin was as a baby, and then things go from bad to worse as Kevin displays an ever deeper streak of cruelty, to which his father is willfully ignorant. As a narrator, Eva writes beautifully and certainly reveals her own flaws...but with every chapter, the story grows darker and the sense of dread expands. I feel traumatized after reading it, but I couldn't stop thinking about it for days. I'll tell you one thing, though, I will definitely not be seeing the movie- the book was haunting enough. I'm going to have to read some Jennifer Weiner next as an antidote!

You'll pry the Oxford comma out of my cold, dead, and unambigously described hands.

Earlier this year, mayhem erupted (in certain circles) when a rumor that the Oxford style guide was no longer in favor of its namesake serial comma hit the press. Since moving to Australia, I've noticed that none of my coworkers use a comma after the word before "and" in a series -i.e. "please invite Ron, Belinda and Steve to the meeting." I think it looks weird and makes it seem like the last two on the list are a pair rather than separate, serial entries. Apparently the Oxford comma is standard in American English but only used to avoid ambiguity in British English. But I think it always makes the meaning clearer, and I refuse to stop using it! The sandwiches on sale are ham, tuna and peanut butter. See what I mean? Long live the Oxford comma!

World Pneumonia Day

November 12th is World Pneumonia Day. Pneumonia is the leading cause of death of children under the age of five worldwide, and not surprisingly, 98% of these deaths occur in developing countries. The sad part is that the vast majority of them are preventable- these children die because they lack access to vaccination, antibiotic treatment, and basic medical care. The World Pneumonia Day website is a good source of information and ways to help in the fight against a disease that belongs in the past.

My laboratory performs research on the bacteria that cause pneumonia, and recently received a large grant to run a pneumococcal vaccine trial in Vietnam (a grant that pays my postdoc salary- yay!).

On a related note, when I hear the anti-vaccine loons from the US and the UK spouting nonsense and misinformation, it makes my blood boil. Vaccines are safe, and people who are fortunate enough to live in countries where they have access to them should be grateful.

Beyond the pale

At the end of winter, I am so pale it borders upon light blue. I've never gone into a UV tanning bed because, hello, thymine dimers much? This year for the first time, I was considering trying to reduce the pale so I didn't spend the first couple of months of summer with lunar legs. I was thinking about getting a spray tan, which has the benefit of not causing skin cancer, but after some discussion with friends I realized they don't work how I thought they worked. "Oh they look pretty good but make sure you exfoliate first because otherwise it will flake off unevenly." What? It comes off? Somehow, even though it is essentially sprayed onto your skin, I thought it just sort of coloring that gradually faded and that I could get one at the start of summer and just build up from there. Apparently not. So I opted for a third choice, a tinted moisturizer. Dove makes one called Summer Glow- "mosturiser with a hint of self tanning agent gradually builds a self tan." Despite the lack of proper grammar and the z-less Australian spelling of moisturizer, it sounded like what I was after. Something to bring my legs from translucent blue up to pale before my trip to Queensland. And it worked! I used it 5 or 6 times before the trip and got just a hint of color, with no streaks! So I thought I'd share in case anyone else is looking for such a product.

For my next consumer report, I'll post a review of the new potato chip flavor to hit the Australian shevles: meat pie and sauce. I kid you not.

Weekend Report

The first Tuesday in November is Melbourne Cup day when the biggest horserace in the country is held, and a public holiday for the state of Victoria. The spring racing carnival is known as much for the fashion as the races, and I went on the Saturday prior to Melbourne Cup, known as Derby Day and traditionally when all racegoers where black and white. I do love a dress-up event, and this is one of the few occasions where fascinators and hats with netting are standard attire. I went with my friend Lauren, we drank lots of champagne, and lost all of our (fortunately very low stakes) bets, but still had a blast.

On Sunday, I decided to show some Halloween spirit- I didn't really get my act together in time to organize a costume party, so instead I invited a few friends over to carve pumpkins and eat pumpkin pie (made from canned pumpkin, not the carving pumpkins). Proper pumpkins are difficult to find in Australia- what they call a pumpkin is actually a squash, and two people did end up bringing acorn squash instead of pumpkins. None of the Australians (or my Irish flatmate) had ever carved a pumpkin before, nor tried pumpkin pie, and found both quite enjoyable. And now the pumpkins look great sitting out on my balcony. And I don't even have to worry about punk kids smashing them because they don't have that tradition here either :)

Reviews- one book, one movie, and one show

The first part of this review is a book-movie combo: One Day, by David Nicholls. The book tells the story of Emma and Dexter, college students in the UK who become friends on their graduation night, and follows them for twenty years, through bad jobs and bad relationships, tracking the ebbs and flows of their sometimes friendship, sometimes romance. At first I wasn't crazy about the book- I found Emma self-righteous and irritating, and Dexter self-centered and obnoxious- but they got better as they got older (although Dexter remains a bit of a dick for most of it), and a couple of chapters in, and I was hooked. It's funny and clever and you feel like you actually know the characters, but I must warn you, the book takes a completely unexpected turn towards the end that might leave readers a bit upset at the author.

Onto One Day, the movie. I saw the movie just a few days after finishing the book, so I was interested to see what they would do with the characters who were still so fresh in my mind. The two leads were great- Jim Sturgess is English and handsome and a natural choice for Dex. Anne Hathaway's English accent was a bit hit-or-miss, but she fit the role well, capturing both Emma's sarcasm and self-doubt. The minor characters Ian and Sylvie were perfect but they totally missed the mark with Suki, who was more like a cartoon character than a real person. I liked the movie, but not sure how I would have felt about it if I hadn't have read the book first, because I enjoyed seeing what parts they used for the movie and what omitted.

And now for the show- Okkervil River at The Forum. This Austin indie rock first hit my radar a few years ago with Black, the type of song that has you listening to the lyrics to see if you can figure out the story. To be honest, I wasn't very familiar with their newer stuff but hadn't seen them live before, and a $50 ticket is a bargain by Australian standards. (oh how I miss the Boston live music scene!). They put on a great set that was a nice mix of mellow songs with some peppier rock tunes as well, and inspired me to download a few of their new tracks the next day. (obligatory concert photo lifted from my friend Vinnie)

Haircut

The haircut I wanted vs. the haircut I got.
















Oh well.

Kim's visit- Part 2: Adventures on the Great Ocean Road

After spending a couple of days exploring Melbourne, Kim and I rented a car and drove down the Great Ocean Road, one of the most scenic spots in Victoria. On the first day of the trip, we checked out Bells Beach and spent the night in Lorne. Day 2 we stopped at the famous 12 Apostles (of which there may or may not be 12) and continued on to Port Fairy, a old timey little boating down past the end of the Great Ocean Road. Day 3 we drove back to Melbourne on the inland route, taking a small detour to check out the town of Fram(l)ingham, where we saw a lot of cows and sheep but did not spot a single human inhabitant. I had never been to the far end of the Great Ocean Road before, so it was fun to go somewhere new, and we had nice weather for most of the trip, although it is still far too cold to go in the water, so our surf lesson idea was abandoned.


Back in Melbourne, we did a little more sightseeing and visited Queen Victoria Market and the Ian Potter Centre, an art gallery featuring Australian art, which we were pleased to discover is free admission! We had a farewell dinner at Anada in Fitzroy (yum!) and took some silly photos at a nearby park. And just like that, it was time for Kim to fly back to Massachusetts. I had a fantastic time and it was so fun to just hang out and enjoy Melbourne and its surroundings with a friend whom I've known since I was five years old.

Kim's visit- Part I: Adventures in Melbourne

Last week I was graced by the presence of a very special visitor, my friend Kim! After she somewhat recovered from jetlag, we spent the next couple of days exploring Melbourne.

On Sunday, we checked out the weekend art market in Fitzroy, made a quick trip to the city center (known as the CBD- Central Business District) and then partook in some local sporting activities, with a visit to the Fitzroy Lawn Bowls club. My flatmate Susan had made me some birthday cupcakes decorated to look like...lawn bowling! Aren't they great? Tasty, too.


Monday we headed back into the city for a delicious lunch at Flower Drum, a restaurant that a man on an airplane had once told me was the best Chinese restaurant in the world. (I take advice given on airplanes seriously.) We had the four course lunch tasting menu and it was delicious and definitely a good amount of food- the steak pictured would have been sufficient as a meal on its own. After that, we did more sightseeing and shopping in the CBD and went up to the Eureka skydeck- the highest viewing platform in the southern hemisphere! (Australia loves those southern hemisphere superlatives.) It was a cool but clear day so the view was great, and we ate footlong gummy worms and I got mugged by a toddler who snatched a brochure out of my hand. Good thing he didn't go for the gummy worm because I would have fought back for that.




Stay tuned for Part 2: Adventures on the Great Ocean Road!

Link!

Okay, so I am a blog slacker and I have lots to post about (Kim's visit, mostly), but to tide you over I offer this link:

Apparently a haunted house in upstate NY takes photos of people while they are scared. It turns out that these photos are hilarious. Enjoy!

One of my faves.

via Metafilter

Mad about Vlad

One of my friends and I share a strange crush/fascination with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Okay, so maybe his politics can be a bit shady, but you've got to admit that he's one cool dude. Just look at the pictures! He drives race cars, rides a motorcycle, scuba dives, expresses interest in science, plays piano, and snuggles puppies.

(link via Kris)

Another year of soccer

One of the first things I did when I moved to Melbourne was to join a soccer team. Last year's team was a lot of fun, but also a bit on the Bad News Bears side- several players had never played organized soccer before, and we weren't the best at actually getting 11 people to show up for an early Sunday morning game. Our old coach (yes, rec sports here have coaches and practice- it's crazy) resigned right before the new season started due to work commitments and things were looking a little bit bleak for the Port Melbourne Sharks. However, as the season began, we ended up getting an awesome new coach and recruiting a few new players from the US, Canada, and England, and well as an Australian who is actually good (no offense but women's soccer is definitely not Australia's forte). We even got new uniforms so we didn't have to wear hand-me-downs from the men's team that were the size of circus tents (although I do miss the old Pinkles pink). We were good, but more importantly, we were fun, so playing this season improved my social life as well as my fitness. We won our last game on Sunday and finished at the top of the league.