Love at 1,860 meters - an Alpine Wedding

Dave and I had the lovely opportunity to visit Chamonix in the French Alps, a valley town at the foot of Mont Blanc and oft featured as a stage in le Tour de France. The occasion? James Grice, Dave's friend through undergraduate and graduate years in Oxford, was marrying Jen Thum, another New Yorker who found her match while studying in England.

Firstly, YOU CANNOT BEAT THE VIEW. I have a thing for mountains, and there were plenty of very big ones in every direction. Secondly, we had perfect weather. I'm not a skier, so I think I prefer the mountains in glorious sunny summer. Thirdly, I have a thing for French lunches... crepes with cheese and ham, a simple salad without cucumber, and a refreshing glass of crisp white wine.

Why the Alps? University College shares ancient ownership of the "Chalet des Anglais" with a few other Oxford colleges, and every year a group of undergraduates go on a "reading party." The students read lofty things in the absence of electricity and with rustic toilet facilities, go on gorgeous hikes, and take turns cooking dinner and doling out healthy doses of french wine. James and Jen had special memories of the two reading parties they went on together, and gained approval to be the first couple to be married at the remote chalet.

You get there by first taking a cable car up one side of a mountain and then walking a bit down the other side... although many wedding guests changed clothes for the occasion, I braved the trek with my trusty fascinator perched on top of my head (much to the confusion of hard core mountain bikers that we passed on the way, wearing full protective head gear). Dave was the best man for the wedding, with all the associated duties, thus it was me and our good friend Minesh for most of that trek... he also opted to stay classy and suited for the trip :)

Dave, Minesh and I spent Friday puttering around Chamonix and helping decorate the (second) chalet in Chamonix where the families were staying and the dinner was held. At one point we had six or so people with doctorates trying to hang bunting, with twice as many onlookers and commentators, but Dave and James came to the rescue and took charge with their magical engineering powers. The place looked charming, and Mont Blanc in the background did NOT hurt. In the evening, after a fantastic barbecue at the hotel/restaurant where most of us were staying, the bride and groom created a pub quiz with questions about them and the other guests. Teams were cleverly designed to each have a family member, a friend from home, a friend from college, a Canadian, a rower, and a few other token characters to answer the tricky questions, and it very successfully broke the ice.

Saturday, we all took vans to the cable car, trickled up/down to the chalet, and after a lovely personal wedding ceremony we had champagne and canapes before gradually returning down the mountain.

The evening started with cocktails and cheese boards, then a lovely outdoor dinner with all guests cozied into picnic tables and under lights hanging from the tent. Dave delivered an excellent best man speech to conclude the event (and I am not just being nice... it was lovely). I have no pictures from the rest of the evening, but suffice to say the very loud and drunken rowers from Oxford headed up one impressive dance party :)

The group was approximately half from Oxford and half from Brooklyn, which was particularly confusing for my subconscious (and accent), but absolutely lovely in the end. I could have easily ended up feeling like a "plus one," but not in this crowd. It was unusual for a wedding: we spent lots of time talking to the bride and groom, and their parents, and actually just about everyone. It was a very relaxed wedding, despite the challenging logistics of shifting an entire wedding party up and down a mountainside. Some guests at the chalet wore t-shirts, some wore three piece suits. The flower arrangements were made up of wildflowers picked on the walk there and placed into empty wine bottles from the chalet kitchen. Everything was easy and enjoyable, a perfect reflection of the happy couple.


Finally, on Sunday, after a leisurely breakfast back under the tent, guests slowly began the return to normal life. Minesh drove us back to Geneva Airport and away we flew.

Can I go back soon, please?

For the full photo album, visit my google album !

Settling in satisfactorily

To assuage the guilt of such a long absence, here are a bunch of pictures from life in Nottingham!

Sian and Kris were our first dinner guests! Dave and I had been watching lots of Treme on HBO, so we ended up spending all day cooking gumbo, buttermilk biscuits and cornbread muffins (oh, yes, yum).

My bit of the UK had a pretty decent 95% solar eclipse, and I got in on the action (here's half way through, via a pin hole camera). Some had eclipse glasses, some medics brought out x-ray film, and physicists had lots of fun kit to view the event with. I was lucky and tried a bunch. Mainly, it was super cool to see just how many hundreds of people spilled outside to "watch"

Start with an eclipse, end with a sunset...

My first musical gig in Nottingham, playing 3rd oboe in Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms: a damn good piece for orchestra and choir that I had done while in Cardiff. The music was satisfying and I hopefully made a few contacts for future gigs. It won't be as easy to find musical opportunities in Nottingham as it was in Cardiff, but I'm still optimistic.

I traveled southwest to Bristol to give a lecture; the train station featured Holland-ic levels of bicycles and, um, a steam engine train? This was my first guest lecture at this level, as there aren't many obvious teaching opportunities for me. I stressed, but it went very well: I had fantastic social media analogies to explain brain network structure that seemed to work well 

Seeing as I was most of the way there,  I headed back to Cardiff after the Bristol course, where spring was waiting to greet me.

I got to see some lovely familiar faces in Cardiff; here's the end of the night out... thanks especially to Kevin, my ex-boss and continuing friend, who hosted me :)

Nottingham has lovely people too! Here is Sian, demonstrating her epic unicycle skills just out of frame.

And Ben with his crazy bouncy stilt legs. I *did give them a try, although I needed a lot of ground support...

And Matt, going a little crazy towards the end of his PhD, with unintentional coordination between copies of his thesis and his socks.

So yes, lots of fun things bubbling along in the background! In science news, I had a paper accepted (finally! we first submitted in July 2014!) and it's causing a bit of a stir. It was picked up by perhaps the biggest Neuroscience blogger in the UK, who writes for Discover Magazine. I was initially freaking out, because he got something wrong and wrote something misleading, and the take-home message was already getting misinterpreted across social media. But I used twitter, talked to the blogger, made corrections, and hopefully things are more accurately represented now. I'm even starting to enjoy the little bit of buzz that the paper has garnered! Totally new territory, reinforcing my science-love for the twitter (@BrightMG, anyone?).

Here's the blog post:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/neuroskeptic/2015/04/18/is-fmri-noise-really-noise/

It's also an open access paper, if anyone wants to chance a reading!
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811915002669

Musical weekend in Hereford with the British Police

I've just returned from a quick weekend trip to Hereford, playing oboe with the British Police Symphony Orchestra. The What? you may be asking... The majority of players (although certainly not in the wind section) are affiliated with the police, and the ensemble meets once a month to rehearsal or perform, spending the night in police accommodation or a budget hotel. Two members of their wind section filled in with another ensemble I play with when we toured in Reims, France last summer, and they passed my name along.

I wasn't sure what to expect of the group... the musicians I had met were good, but the police? really? I've played in my fair share of community orchestras that have been challenging to sit through, but I also know that an "NIH orchestra" can be surprisingly successful despite its name, so I gave it a shot. I'm glad I did; the BPSO impressed me mightily this weekend, and earns its reputation as one of the top amateur orchestras around. Not only was the music high quality and the rehearsals run in a professional manner, but everyone was insanely FRIENDLY. Smiles and introductions and offers to give me a lift or invitations to join for dinner... after my experience with the most unfriendly orchestra in England a week prior, this was a breath of fresh air. There was banter. There was a big crowd in the pub until 1am. And I'm happy to report, there was the invitation to join them long term.

I can't play in their big splashy December gig in Birmingham's Symphony Hall (paid work/holiday in Germany, what can I do!?), but I'd start up in January once I'm more settled in Nottingham. In the new job and city, I don't have an orchestra lined up, and this would fill that void very nicely. Another plus, it's an orchestra that is not filled with all 18 year olds or all 80 year olds. Meeting on weekends is a bit tricky to negotiate given that's my usual Dave time. However, it is sounding like the BPSO might need a third player in the section to fill in on cor/english horn. I do know this guy who might be willing and able... :)

Here are some random phone pics from my wanderings between the knackering musical schedule!

Hereford Cathedral, the venue for the evening concert

Members of the wind section and the front of the cathedral

New friends in front of what I assume is Hereford cattle

View of Hereford from the Cathedral School during a break in rehearsal

The river Wye, scenic as always!

And it was a perfect autumn Sunday up until my train back to Cardiff

Weekend in Aberdeen for our last wedding this summer

At the very end of August, in a summer full of holy matrimony, Dave and I trekked up to Aberdeen on the north-west coast of Scotland for my fifth and final wedding of the year (I think). We met each other on Friday evening at Birmingham airport, which will be my new local hub when I move to Nottingham this winter, and coasted through the little airport with carry-on luggage only (I have never done this. It is LIBERATING.)

The groom, Rhydian, is an an exceptional Welsh trumpeter (you can read into that as you will, and you are probably getting an accurate picture of him) that we know through the Oxford/London music scene. Although I don't know her very well yet, his new wife Louise (from the Aberdeen area) is lovely, and the wedding was a vibrant affair. Being Rhydian, the wedding ceremony was graced with four additional fantastic trumpeters in the organ loft... the result was outstanding. In addition to a damn fine trumpet voluntary as the processional, they also played for the hymns, and at last, this is how I've always wanted church hymns to be: crystal clear brass in perfect juicy harmonies, and playing properly LOUD, so that everyone can sing along at a full belt and enjoy themselves. Needless to say, we were seated with a crowd of other musicians in the church, and we definitely gave it some oomph.

The wedding was an excellent excuse to reconnect with old friends and their significant others

Our table was comprised of good friends and we had good fun: there was a bet on how long the groom's speech would be (the opening lengthy bid of 20 minutes was the closest, well done Rachel!) and Nick declared we had to drink every time any speech mentioned the word "trumpet." My fascinator made the rounds, being donned by the various blokes (who enjoyed it more than expected, perhaps). There was ceilidh dancing to leave us dizzy and winded. There were kilts and bagpipes. And towards the end of the evening, there was even a guest appearance by the groom joining in with the band on trumpet.

The next morning Dave and I explored Aberdeen. Known as the granite city, it is very very very gray. The buildings are gray. The sky is gray. One would expect the people to fight back with colorful doors and clothes, but no. Gray gray gray. Still, it has its charm. We found a nook inside a bookshop for coffee and a scone to start the day, then walked to the shore to meet up with Tomi and Jess for lunch. At last, we found some color: the sun came out on the sparkling water, and the boys contributed with overly bright shirts.

The boys are providing much needed color

And after this brief adventure, we headed back to the airport and back to "the south." I think I like Scotland, and this trip made me more aware of how it is truly almost a separate entity from the rest of Britain. The money, although the same currency, looks different. The dialects can be fierce. And at the moment there is the pending referendum to determine whether Scotland should sever all ties and become fully independent. I hope that doesn't happen; it's a nebulous feeling, but I like the balancing between celtic/gaelic and englishness. Regardless of the vote, I do hope to get back up to Scotland for more exploring in the future.

For more pictures of the weekend, including shots of men seriously enjoying wearing my fascinator, please peruse the full album:

Photo album from Rhydian and Louise's wedding

Report from a traveling scientist

Phew, I haven't spent much time in my own apartment lately. The great summer scientific conference season is upon me. I don't want to sound like I'm complaining; I mean, I am getting paid to be an international scientist of mystery. It certainly does NOT suck. However, in my impending middle agedness, I am sublimely happy to be back in my own bed this week. Also, this brief respite gives me a chance to fill you in and upload a bunch of photos from my travels. Enjoy!


First up: Annual Meeting of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) in Milan, Italy.

This is my big event for the year. Our world revolves around the ISMRM schedule: we cram to finish all of our new research to submit for the deadline in November, and then cram all of the actual analysis into early spring to get results to present at the big event. Get a poster accepted, and you can probably find money to attend the meeting. Get a talk, and you are a golden rock star for the year. This year I had one of each, and was feeling rather pleased with myself.

I enjoyed every ray of sunshine that Italy could offer.

Approximately 7.5k people attend, including scientists, clinicians, and representatives from industry (Siemens, GE, etc). The conference venue was massive and awkwardly laid out, and there were many parallel streams of talks and workshops so it constantly felt stressful and challenging to get to all the things I wanted to. Hard core physics development and the latest translational patient work are inevitably overlapping. Still, my work garnered a lot of interest (for example, I was scheduled to stand in front of my poster for one hour, and ended up there for almost 3 hours talking to interested parties).

A sample of the several thousand posters being presented

The conference is also a social whirlwind. Every night is an event, and I didn't buy dinner once. An opening reception got things going the first night. Then GE wined and dined select people, wooing us with a rather adorably corporate inspirational speech from the ex 'evangelist' of Apple. Tuesday was an event for Women in MRI held in the castle, where we nibbled on canapes, drank prosecco, and were all rather surprised to recognize how nice it can be when there are no blokes around. Wednesday was a celebration of 30 years in MRI, with the biggest names from the last 30 years of literature being announced (interestingly, following Tuesday's event, all awardees were male with male co-authors. sigh). Thursday was a closing ceremony with live music. What you are missing, however, is that after every one of these events we then Went Out to the pub. Nothing like surprising a local Milanese pub with 200+ scientists drinking into the wee hours of the morning on the sidewalk until the neighbors call police... These events are where the real networking happens, and I am enjoying feeling like part of a big community. Every year I know more people and more people know me. And every canape and every pint helps.

Scientists networking. (Before heading to the pub.)

Now, the best bit of ISMRM being in Milan is that my very bestest of best friends from MIT lives there, and I stayed with her for an extra two days after the conference finished up. We figured out that we hadn't seen eachother in 4-5 years. SHAMEFUL. I admit that I was a bit nervous about how the reunion would go: would we even like eachother any more? And it was a wonderful weekend. Absolutely lovely. We had dinner at her mom's apartment, then spent Saturday shopping in the local market and spending a whopping 60 euros on the most amazing meats, breads, cheeses and fresh produce. Next, we spent the rest of the weekend eating it all with gluttonous pleasure. Despite the weather, we stayed indoors on Sunday and watched period dramas like the good ole days, before heading to La Scala for a premier of Strauss' Elektra (a very neat night out, but a rather shouty opera). How could we let so many years go by? SHAMEFUL. Already working on our next visit.

For more photos, you can scroll through the album.

Next up: Annual Meeting of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping in Hamburg, Germany.

This conference has a lot of overlap with ISMRM, but definitely has a different culture. Replace all the clinicians and corporate reps with psychologists and cognitive neuroscientists... besides making it much less likely to observe anyone wearing a suit, it also makes the atmosphere more informal and friendly. The smaller scale (more like 2-3 thousand people) and having most of the day be 'single track' (as opposed to parallel sessions) fostered a feeling of community and collaboration.

I had minimal stress at this conference, as I was presenting the two projects I also presented at ISMRM. So instead, I met people. I introduced myself over email, met over coffee, jotted down contact info at posters... dozens of new connections were made and many tenuous acquaintances are now firmly established in the 'friends' column. It was all definitely good for my career, and it lit a bit of a fire under my ass to get things published as I sensed other people would be highly interested and potentially swoop in on these topics if I left it too long.

New friends from San Diego

 The German food was a bit heavy over the course of the week, and we all drank too much lager. Kevin ("boss"), Jess (a grad student) and I all woke up at the crack of dawn on Sunday morning before the conference to go to the famous Hamburg Fischmarkt on the waterfront... some people had been to bed, others hadn't, and at 8am as many people were having coffee as having a pint (we opted for the later, just to fully appreciate the experience :) We also visited the world's largest model train exhibit, which sounds nerdy, and is then beyond cool (although yes, definitely still nerdy).

8am on a workday. Not bad.

I dusted off my meager German, and the city grew on me over the week. The sunshine and scientific success didn't hurt, either.

For more photos, you can scroll through the album.

Sometimes I really love my job :)

The Great American Family Trip of Autumn 2013

This September, Dave and I trekked across the Atlantic for the best of reasons... my uncle Bill got married! After two flight transfers we were scooped up by my cousins Emily and Lizzie at Indianapolis airport and deposited into a Holiday Inn full of my extended family.

Bill and Tracy Gallogly got hitched on the most spectacularly sunny of days, and looking through the photos you will see just how happy we all were. The bride looked gorgeous (bride and groom looked TAN), and everyone was smiling. This visit I especially liked reconnecting with my cousins; I think some of us naturally drifted apart over the last decade or so, as people moved away, got new jobs, got married, and got busy lives, but something in that process has stopped or even turned around. We're all still very different, but I loved the easy-going family thing that we seem to have aged into. The other excellent bit was how easy it was to drop Dave into the middle of the family chaos. I think he knows more names of distant relatives than I do, and I didn't have to worry at all when I wandered off and left him to fend for himself. So yes, bravo Dave, and bravo rest of family, you all work out nicely.

USA trip September 2013

After the wedding weekend, Andy headed back towards Japan while Dave and I joined my parents for the long drive home to New York. There we ate a LOT (it turns out I actually do like dry rub BBQ ribs), drank a fair bit (wine tasting out east at Channing Daughters winery), and enjoyed the sandy beaches and pumpkin farmstands of Long Island in the fall. One glorious day Dave and I invaded Brooklyn to gossip with the lovely Kate Stocker and putter across the Brooklyn Bridge at sunset. It was perhaps my best visit home yet (having Andy would have been icing on the cake). I was sad to leave after only a week, but while in transit at Dublin Airport we managed to catch Bill and Tracy on their way back from their Ireland honeymoon. Not even a week of driving on the wrong side of the road could dim their newlywed happiness :)

Science Outreach with a steampunk slant

This August, an idea hatched by the public engagement committee here at CUBRIC finally took shape as we brought quirky neuroscience demonstrations to a new kind of venue: a four day music festival in the mountains. While this might sound massively bizarre, the Green Man Festival in the Brecon Beacons in Wales has started to get an interesting reputation for more than indie-pop. Each year, the area dubbed "Einstein's Garden" attracts exciting science stalls and performers: knit blood vessels, crawl through a model of the digestive tract, or make music using skin conductivity! And this year, I am pleased to say, our Laboratory of Neuroillusions was the star of the festival. 

Seven of us donned victoriana steampunk costumes and invited festival-goers to try the Phantomic Hand (make a rubber hand feel like your own), the Psycho-Kinetic Chambre (levitate a ping pong ball using brain waves), and the Optical Inversion Glasses (watch adaptation in action as you learn to adjust to wearing prism goggles... then take them off). As quasi-performers, we were given "Artists" wristbands, meaning that we could pitch our tents in the special "Artists" area. The biggest names performing were obviously not staying in dome tents and using porta-loos, but it was fun to be surrounded by the more "up-and-coming" musicians. Even better, there were much shorter queues for the SHOWERS. I had stocked up on baby wipes and dry-shampoo under the impression that showers would not be possible, but to my great relief and joy there were hot showers for me three times during the six day adventure.

Camping was fun, albeit very different camping from what I'm used to. Although we were among the first to pitch tents in the artists area, waking up the second morning we found tents placed nearly on top of our own as the field filled up. Fortunately, the exhausting days, copious nighttime drinking while staying up to watch bands, and good use of ear plugs meant that I slept soundly at night; in the mornings I would be regaled with tales of what our neighbors got up to (ranging from Chloe crying over a lost mobile phone, potential scary domestic abuse, and men wrestling less than 1 meter from my head). Following a civilized campsite breakfast of fresh coffee and scrambled eggs, we manned the stall from 10am to 8pm every day... which was absolutely K N A C K E R I N G. I don't think I've ever done anything more exhausting. Although we took rolling breaks, the seven of us felt a bit guilty if we left for more than an hour and so we made our lives more difficult than they needed to be. Still, as the biggest and most exciting stall, we were really proud of how word of our illusions was spreading through the festival. We probably saw upwards of 3000 people, ranging from little kids we helped make pipe-cleaner neurons to stoned band members who could barely see straight Before putting on the prism goggles... it is surreal to jump between those two audiences in the space of a deep breath, before launching into the appropriate spiel.

End result was a massive sense of accomplishment and success, my first pair of wellies, the decimation of my vocal cords, and my first exposure to a British music festival. Really happy to have been a part of it. And now I have a set of steampunk clothes in the back of closet... did I mention I did everything I described in a corset?

GreenMan2013

Another summer, another van trip across Europe

Each summer, Dave and I drive a van full of musical instruments to some exciting European destination so that the Oxford Millennium Orchestra has things to play on. The orchestra members fly, but it's tough to fit a double bass or timpani in the overhead compartments these days. Following the previous two tours to Porto and Budapest, this year we made the trip to lovely Bilbao on the northern Basque coast of Spain. Not only was the destination closer (a piddly 16 hours of drive time, compared to 24 hours to Porto!), but we have learned a few tricks from previous years.

1. Snacks. For example, peanut M&M's don't melt in the hot cab of the van. They claim these things have air-conditioning, but this is a lie.

2. Audio book for Molly. When drives are long, you understandably need to take naps when you are between driving shifts and catch sleep when you can. Without someone to talk to, driver-Molly needs entertainment beyond the immensely dull straight stretches of  toll roads in France (admittedly well-maintained but exceedingly expensive and mind-numbing). This year our van didn't even have an audio-in jack, so I made a last minute trip to the Oxford library for a Norweigian detective mystery on CD (12 discs!). I am clearly turning into my parents... one day I'll voluntarily listen to a Tony Hillerman navaho mystery book on tape. My 9-year-old self shudders, my 29-year-old self nods with approval at such sensible action.

3. Car-adaptor for electronics charging. This year our TomTom (satnav) made a pathetic clunking sound rather than turn on, so we relied on phone GPS and actual paper maps to get us places. Keeping the power-sucking GPS phones running was critical. 

4. Enjoyable rest-stops. Previous years we have stayed overnight somewhere that split the distance roughly in half, at a hotel that was as cheap as possible while being as close to the motorway as we could manage. We have had a few bad experiences trying to find a Travelodge at 1am in the dark business parks of suburban Tours. This year, we were smarter, and had more flexibility with driving schedules. On the way down we stopped in Chartres, getting to see the immense cathedral illuminated at night by an impressive, quirky, animated light show. On the way back we stopped in Poitiers, known for it's university vibe and a special type of buttery biscuit, and quite enjoyable to putter around in. Knowing that a long-wheel-base van is frightfully difficult to negotiate in medieval cities, and secure parking is critical to protect our precious cargo, we researched parking garage height-restrictions in our search for good stopover places. Our choices were successful... nice accommodation, new cities to explore, and I got to practice my French while ordering gorgeous croissants and baguettes.


What we learned this drive:

1. Reversing a transit van up an incline, around a blind corner, into a busy sidewalk and traffic intersection.... bad.

2. Doing this with hand brake still somewhat engaged... stinky. And that stink doesn't go away for a while.

3. Dave is a parking fiend. Utterly amazing. I admit that we swap places such that he always handles parking the van. However, he did hit me with it once or twice while I was helping guide the parking process... and I did have to shout frantically once to prevent him from ramming into a confused Basque driver.

4. The Parkopedia website shows you the locations of parking, the prices, the height restrictions, the time limits, and the google street view for parking lots in your destination city. So helpful.

5. It wasn't a fluke, customs agents continue to take one look at me and Dave and immediately decide our giant van is more likely to be filled with wholesome presents for orphan children than illegal smuggled contraband. This is helpful, and so far entirely accurate.

6. It shocks the system when the toll booth operators change nationalities at border crossings... how many times did I ask for un reçu in Spain or say gracias in France? But it is nice knowing any faux pas I perform get attributed to British tourists, due to the big GB sticker on the van and the right-side-drive.


The drive was surprisingly easy and the two stopovers were precisely what we were hoping for: good food, minimal stress, and something interesting to see or do while we were in town. Only real hiccups included some shocking interpretations of the word 'espresso' (no, it is not overcooked filter coffee tar poured into a small cup. no, it should not fill a large travel mug.). But the quantity of butter I ingested while traversing France may have cancelled out this bizarre caffeine issue. Yum.

Please enjoy this album of photos from our drive across France... more from the actual orchestra tour in Bilbao to follow soon!

OMO van driving through France

Mountains, Mormons, and Meetings (oh My)

Every spring I get to enjoy the main "perk" of being in academic research: the international conference meeting. Thus far, I've been reimbursed to travel to and enjoy Berlin, Toronto, Honolulu, Stockholm, Montreal, Melbourne and in 2013... Salt Lake City.  Yes, I admit it lacks a certain glamour that our typical destinations boast, but it is apparently over a million dollars less expensive for the society to host it there than in Europe, so fair enough.

The main benefit of Salt Lake City is that flights from LHR to SLC can be manipulated to pass through NYC, and thus I can nab a cheeky visit home within my travel budget. It was a short stay, but it was made rather wonderful by the simultaneous appearance of my globe-trotting brother, who was briefly returning to US from his assignment in Japan. Andy apparently stuffed every nook and cranny with small Japanese gifts for us, including a wide range of bizarre edible snacks (most pleasant surprise? chocolate bread bites. yum. most distressing item? too-realistic plastic shrimp.)

Loot from Japan!

During the trip, Andy and I escaped into the city for a day of sunny perfection: we meandered down the "High Line" and basked in a streetside cafe in the West Village before meeting up with my friend Cailin for drinks and my friend Becca for a posh manhattan mexican dinner. On our last full day together, we drove out east to a new art museum in the Hamptons. Although I admit that I was sceptical, the museum turned out to be more engaging than I anticipated: neat architecture (apparently it looks like a "potato barn" and is surrounded by manicured acres of "natural Long Island flora" and a nearby vineyard), interesting-enough art, and a fantastic cafe serving up curried carrot and peach soup. We stopped off at the beach afterwards, and I enjoyed suitably silly barefoot prancing about on the sand. It's so easy to forget these aspects of Long Island; it really is a glorious place to live if you take advantage of the beautiful spaces. Friday morning, we said our goodbyes and I was delivered to the local micro-airport of Long Island to began my trek to Utah.

First and foremost, Utah has mountains and sunshine (see above picture). As predicted, the 7-lane roads that dissect Salt Lake City into an enormous grid system were not particularly enjoyable to navigate as a pedestrian: everything is much further away than it appears on a map, particularly when rushing to make a certain poster session after lunch. My first impression of the city was rather negative, perhaps due to the shock of Mountain-state distances on my walkable British town sensibilities. It was also difficult to tell whether the city was "on the up" or declining, with abandoned lots pervading the city center. However, by the end of the week I was enjoying the glimpses of mountains at every intersection, the genuine friendliness of folks, the pervasiveness of book shops and the odd culinary gem.

The conference also provided a boost to my science mojo. Last year I struggled, for months, with a bit of science that just... didn't... work. It felt as if I was bashing my head against a wall, with nothing to show for it after months of labor. Add to that the stress of finding funding for next year and I had been a little anti-science or anti-research in the period leading up to the conference. I should have predicted it: being surrounded by the 6-thousand-odd people that really care about your area of work is very stimulating. The plenary sessions are full of big names talking about their early years (typically with photographic evidence that they once, as a grad student, had HAIR), reminding us that we all have awkward beginnings and just have to hang on. Seeing old lab connections, and meeting friendly interesting people through them, is always a joy. I was also able to gain a bit of perspective on how far I've come since my first ISMRM conference in 2007, and I enjoyed the "Session Moderator" ribbon on my name badge, the increasing number of attendees I recognize and interact with, and my growing confidence in my own scientific capabilities. Coming back to CUBRIC, I am bursting with ideas and have numerous scientists to contact. The mojo returns!

More pictures from my trip, including my walk through the LDS Temple complex, can be found in this Picasa Album

Celebrating in Dublin

After a wonderful Christmas at home with family, I boarded yet another plane and headed back east. But unlike previous years, my plane was white and green with a shamrock on it, and headed to Dublin!

Kevin (my friend in Cardiff who happens to also be my boss) married Fiadhna just outside Dublin on New Year's Eve Eve. They'd been together for, er, roughly ten years I think, and are brilliantly well-matched. The wedding was constructed to make everyone feel welcome, and it incorporated boatloads of music. Fiadhna's family is seriously involved in Irish music, and the whole clan turned up with instruments. When I say seriously, think of them as an the von Trapp family of Ireland. The father of the bride wrote the music played as they walked down the aisle, performed by her brothers, and later on an entire room was colonized by the McEvoy clan and friends and the occasional impromptu ceilidh dance. Guests could meander between the band, the bar, and the folk music and back again, bumping into new friends and even catching a moment with the bride and groom over a proper pint of Guinness. The newlyweds were goofy-happy, and everyone was smiling with them. It was a joy to be around such a giddy pair of generous and hilarious people!

As seems to be the fashion, the wedding had a "part two" on the day after, which happened to be New Year's Eve in this case. Kev hired out the top floor of his favorite pub in the center of Dublin, the Stag's Head. He waxed poetic about the perfectly poured Guinness and the gentle care taken with the pipes, and I'll admit it was more than tasty. Almost everyone stuck around for the second night, the stress of the previous day disappearing with every pint.

I've learned that Ireland really is a tiny place... Alan (a friend from lab, but also from Dublin) brought his girlfriend Sinead as his plus-one, and she recognized several family friends! Ireland is friendly... even though it felt a little bit like junior prom, Alan's dad very kindly picked the four of us up in the wee hours of the morning to avoid us needing to drive after the wedding reception, and delivered me and Dave to our guesthouse, 30 minutes away. Ireland is tasty... we passed so many places I wanted to eat at! I'm already planning my next trip to Dublin with Sinead and Alan, because I really didn't get to see enough on this visit.

Now, I'm not particularly attached to the magical "midnight" moment of New Year's Eve, so I ushered Dave and me onto the airport shuttle bus about quarter of an hour earlier (rather like Cinderella, if I'm being generous, or like a fuddy duddy, if I'm being honest). About three hours of sleep at the airport hotel later, and we were back to the terminal and checking in to our flight to Edinburgh, where Dave's dad was very kindly picking us up. Another four days of rest and relaxation in Northumberland with his folks and we were speeding south to Oxford by train, and a day after that I finally made it back to my Cardiff flat, 3 weeks after I set off. Sure, my washing machine broke and my cold tap water smells worryingly of skunk, but it is good to be home.

Excellent traveling though!

Here is an album with captions from the Ireland portion of the trip:

Dublin Celebrations

Here are two videos from the wedding, including Fiadhna dancing with Kevin's dad and later joining in on concertina with the family band:

And an example of the family playing a big proper venue:

Some more from Melbourne

My epic Australia/Malaysia/Conference/Holiday - part 3

Due to delays in my connectivity with the internets and having given my laptop (with my camera SD card reader) to my boss to bring back to the UK while I traipse around Malaysia... here is a much belated set of photos from Melbourne. Not pictured (yet) are koalas and kangaroos and penguins that I managed to see in the final days in Oz. You know, just hanging out, IN THE REAL WORLD. I'm not inclined to be very verbose with the figure captions, as I am currently knee deep in Malaysian shenanigans, but I am going to try to keep writing in semi-real-time so that I don't forget everything!

I thought I would provide some shots of the convention centre, which came with it's own tall ship, apparently. The building you see in this picture is the plenary hall and some of the meeting rooms, while the long low building in the background stretches for several city blocks and contained multiple trade show spaces. While we used one small hall for posters and exhibitor stalls, the others were used by fisheries and hatcheries people and a mass air-con convention. As always, fun to play the "guess what conference THAT guy is affiliated with" game on the escalators. (Although, perhaps not as fun as when the female body building convention shared the space with us in Canada...)

This year, I gave my first talk at the conference. I would estimate between 150-200 people attended, although the room was huge so that number barely made a dent in the expanse of empty orange seats. Pictured is the last talk of the evening, given by a new friend (who presented really thought-provoking stuff, I might add), to give you a sense of the scale of (half) the room. My good friend Manus, who gave the first talk, appears either exhausted or preoccupied in the foreground. My own talk went reasonably well. I am not thrilled with the amount of 'ehms' that slipped out in the first few minutes, but I think that people listened and understood: someone even asked a later speaker a question in the context of the results I presented :) So yes, talk was alright, but mainly it felt great to have one under my belt.

Despite worrying weather forecasts, we managed to have some decent autumn sun in Melbourne! This is a view from the pub next to the centre. Australian sun is impressive... when it emerges, you strip down to a tshirt, but when clouds return you have to get the winter coat back on. Powerful stuff... isn't the ozone hole somewhere over here?

Following recommendations (thanks Jaani) I managed to find multiple coffee shops I would deem "exceptional" in Melbourne. While very good coffee shops were everywhere (happiness!) the best of the best were in relatively obscure locations down alleys and in reclaimed warehouses. As shown below, a standard trend for Melbourne is the unfinished wall/ceiling aesthetic. And while the "flat white" may be the national coffee drink of choice, and I really did try to like it, I remain a double espresso girl at heart <3

Next up, a slightly random shot of "The Clocks" at Flinders St station, which are surprisingly helpful and efficient and informing late night commuters how much time they have to pick up water or a snack for the train home. Due to the incredible generosity of a friend's brother (a resident of the Melbourne suburbs) I was able to stay in town a few days post-conference without breaking the bank and with the benefit of good conversations over very nice wine.

And finally, a last shot of the Melbourne skyline from the Southbank area where my hotel was. I have many more pictures trapped on my camera, and I dutifully promise to post/caption them upon my return to normal civilization. But for now, I have picked up my trusty (and wonderful) travelling companion Dave in Singapore, and we have just embarked on our 9 day exploration of the Malaysian peninsula. Already an adventure!

A welcome to Melbourne and the conference begins

My epic Australia/Malaysia/Conference/Holiday - part 2


Following a surprisingly enjoyable layover in Singapore, I was herded back onto an A380 Singapore Air flight to Melbourne for another 7 hour flight. This was (whee!) my first time on a double decker plane, and I of course reserved an upstairs seat. Honestly, it wasn't much different from the normal planes, and I didn't even see it from the terminal to coo over how amazing it looks to have two storeys of windows, so perhaps a tad disappointing. Nonetheless, an uneventful flight seated next to one the of the chiefs of my Cardiff lab (yes, we planned it, and yes, there was gossip, and yes, we eventually shut up and let eachother pass out and sleep).


Arriving at Melbourne we faced a ridiculous queue for immigration, followed by a dog-sniffing of our suitcases. This might be the one country where the dogs aren't looking for drugs... they are looking for contraband fruit! Then, in what might be officially the best reception in a foreign country I've ever had, I was scooped up by a driver in a hired car who shepherded myself and Dan (friend from Oxford, from Tasmania) to the house of Dan's brother just outside the city. Sudden torrential rain meant we couldn't avail ourselves of the new hot tub he had just installed in his back yard, but a proper breakfast and shower and brushing of teeth left us renewed and much more capable of facing the challenging prospect of staying awake for another 14 hours or so, despite every cell in our bodies saying SLEEP.... SLEEP NOW.... IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT YOU SLEEP IMMEDIATELY... BEING AWAKE IS INCREDIBLY INAPPROPRIATE.

I was then deposited at my hotel once check in was available, and left to fend off jetlag alone (which is surprisingly challenging). After noticing that, around 4pm, I was literally falling asleep while standing and drinking coffee, I came up with a very simple plan: walk. Walk until you can't anymore. It was the one thing I could do without nodding off! I survived until 10pm before passing out, and so I think I successfully dealt with the worst of the jetlag and have been able to be awake and have meals at appropriate times since then. There is still a strong urge to nap around 3pm though.

The next morning, Ashley stumbled in after her own trans-Earth flying ordeal, and I encouraged a day of seeing sights to help her own acclimatization. 

Melbourne is set on a river, with a satisfying number of bridges for pedestrians, cars, and the ubiquitous trams. The weather might have been frustratingly Welsh-like, but the trees told of a different climate.

Lots of random acts of art dot the riversides. The tall building with the gold top is a casino next to my hotel (shorter and not visible) on the south bank. The Southbank area is roughly a mini-Vegas for the city; restaurants are pricey and there are even towers shooting alarming fireballs outside the casinos, but it's convenient to the convention centre and has access to morning espresso (all a girl needs!).

Ashley and I also stopped in an art museum (Ian Potter museum... thanks Jaani!) that featured contemporary aboriginal art (they only started painting on canvas in 2001, to put it in perspective). I was immediately attracted to the colors/patterns of the style, although the gift shop did not* have the same taste as I did when they chose what they offered as prints (alas, I even have a poster tube prepared for this type of thing!)

The geography, attitude, and tastes of the city I shall have to address in a less long-winded post. I am also being remiss in not mentioning the purpose of the funded trip to the other side of the globe: the conference. It is the annual meeting of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM), where 5000 people get together for a weekend educational session and 5 days of talks, posters, venders, and general mayhem (erm, I mean, "collaboration").  It's fun--there is a lot of seeing old friends and some meeting of new ones. It's exhausting--conference fatigue already hovers, after only a day! It's rewarding--this year I have my first talk at this conference, and I am ever so slightly petrified. It's pretty damn awesome, actually. Perhaps I'll even mention the science in a future post :-p

The foyer of the centre, prior to invasion. There are two other conferences in the centre... air conditioning and fisheries and hatcheries. I think it's pretty easy to spot the MRI folks, although not quite as easy as when we shared a centre with a female bodybuilding convention.

The beginnings of an adventure

My epic Australia/Malaysia/Conference/Holiday - part 1

I am writing from the floor of perhaps the nicest airport on Earth...

Changi airport in Singapore is hitting all the spots, as did the national Singapore Air. The flight was nearly empty, so I and the other guy in my row moved up to the vacant bulkhead before anyone else could grab them. Most people were able to snag 3 seats together and lie down horizontally (it's possible, when short) while I was explicitly told by long-haul pros that I should *not* sleep during this leg of my trip to help with jetlag; so I watched Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and read a trashy Patricia Cornwall book I bought in the airport from the comfort of the bulkhead seat. They give you fleecy blankets and Givenchy socks. An easy flight, despite being the longest I've taken to date (13 hours I think?). Upon arrival at Changi, I leisurely picked up a fancy exotic flavored Starbucks frappucino before getting the LAST seat (phew/whoops) on a free tour of Singapore meant for people with long layovers. The bus drove us into the city from the airport, gave us 15 minutes to take pictures at a temple in Chinatown, a twisty tour through various other neighborhoods, and drove us back, all in about 2.5 hours. I learned several fun facts... did you know that 85% of Singaporeans live in apartments, rather than houses? But about 90% of them own their home rather than rent? OK, so it was terribly touristy and consisted mostly of people taking pictures through the windows of a coach bus, but it gave me a nice overview of what I might like to come back to on my day in Singapore post-conference... the national museum, the narrow streets of Chinatown, Arab St, etc.

Back at Changi, and following a long walk, a train, another walk, and a shockingly informal security process, I was back in my terminal with still plenty of time to kill (case in point, I'm blogging). Some scrumptious curry later, I explored the airport's own Butterfly garden:

Next up, another long flight to Melbourne, but this time on the upper deck of my first two-storey plane! One of the heads of my lab has the seat next to me, but odds are we both just pass out and try to avoid painful jetlag come Australia. Wish me luck!