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

Celebrating with family

This summer brought another family wedding, this time of my cousin Aaron and his wonderful wife Jen. The extended Gallogly clan converged on a lodge in the Pennsylvania hills to celebrate, and being all together "in the middle of nowhere" was brilliant fun. There was even a total power outage during a thunderstorm after the reception, and we all huddled together by the glow of iPhones with bottles of wine in our rooms like afterhours at summer camp.

Introducing (the very happy) Mr. and Mrs Gallogly

Andy and I flew into Pittsburgh from Baltimore (see previous post on my birthday shenanigans) and were scooped up by our parents and driven to the Foggy Mountain lodge. Following the wedding rehearsal (Andy was a groomsman and mom and I were readers in the mass) and a delicious rehearsal dinner, many of the family congregated in the lodge common room to sing happy birthday for me and have cake (aw shucks).  Thank you very much, Aaron and Jen, for providing a wonderful excuse to see everyone.

The next morning, with the sun peeking through, we all got dressed up and headed to the church. I have never seen my cousin so happy, and I am thrilled that Jen is now an official part of the family. I think the best bit of being asked to do one of the readings was that I got the opportunity during the mass to see the faces of the bride and groom... thank you again to the newlyweds for the opportunity!

My parents, looking rather good, no?

After the wedding, we headed back to the lodge for the reception where I was introduced to an unusual western Pennsylvania tradition: the cookie table. For months, nearly half a year, Jen's family has been baking. Maybe two batches over a weekend, one during the week; her mom, her grandmother... it all added up slowly but surely. Freezers stockpiled cookies, of all shapes, sizes, and flavors, and then all defrosted and revealed for the reception. Every guest had a box to take away as many as they could carry... probably three dozen or more per person. Absolutely delicious tradition. (And of course I left my box in the hotel when we left... whoops)

It was a great party, complete with a photo booth, balloon animals and hats, and school dance music that had everyone enjoying themselves. I've put up many more shots from the wedding in this album, I hope you enjoy!



Come Sunday morning, we got back on the road towards Long Island, with Bill and Tracy following our family out in their car. We brought them into the city one day ( and certainly made them walk... er... a lot ), but New York was at it's sunny summer best and I hope they had a good (albeit slightly exhausting) time. The next day Andy and I hopped on a ferry to the Fire Island Pines. We both hadn't been there in nearly two decades, and we had forgotten about the stunning beaches that you can see from the end of our street. Besides the jaunt to the beach, we rode bikes and even painted the garage. We drank wine at vineyards out east. Mom and I went kayaking one morning. We ate fruits and veg straight from the garden, and we ate them outside in the sun (and with a few bugs, unfortunately).  And there was plenty of shopping, both necessary and unnecessary. It was, in short, Summer at its finest, and sitting in chilly rainy Wales I am missing it dearly.

How summertime meals should be

Gazing back at Long Island from across the Great South Bay

Dad enjoying wine out east

Many more shots of the city, the beach, and home in general can be found in this album.

Birthday in Baltimore

I think I've been subtly brainwashed. Growing up, our kitchen had pictures of my parents eating crabs. With friends, with family, and with great enthusiasm. So now, as an adult, I associate celebrations with eating crabs. And thus, a slightly random idea was hatched for my 30th birthday.

I think I can say that I know how to eat a crab now, without someone putting it into cake form for me. I love food that comes with a weapon and protective clothing.

Where does one eat crabs, if possible? Why, in Maryland of course! I knew I would be flying solo to the US for a family wedding, to occur the day after my birthday. I also was running under the assumption my parents would be off camping in the wilderness during that period. So I arranged (in the vaguest sense of the word) to head down to Baltimore for a few days and see some of my most darling of friends to make the most of this slightly awkward scheduling.

Ashley (on the left, below) was my closest confidant in Cardiff before she relocated to John Hopkins, and Tracy Jill (looking fierce on the right, below) was my closest confidant at the NIH until I traipsed off to the UK and she left DC for Baltimore. My life is ever so slightly less for not having them physically nearby, and this visit was a much needed reconnection.

To our surprise and drunken delight, Baltimore was hosting "BronyCon" ... a large annual meeting for Bronys. What are Bronys, you ask? Well, I have learned that they are men who are obsessed, proudly, with My Little Pony. I'm sure they are lovely people, but en masse it was a very very surreal addition to our little pub crawl

I stayed with Ashley, and upon arrival we promptly drank a bottle of wine (followed by another) and caught up on the necessary gossip. The second day we visited her lab at Hopkins; her colleagues also moved there from Cardiff, so I had a nice mini reunion along with a tour of 'the sights.' (Highlight: I had just finished watching season 3 of the wire right before this trip, and we got to walk through the market where McNulty has his kids trail Stringer Bell.)

As an aside, I did feel Baltimore was somewhat strange, as a city. I can't tell what was a real impression and what was a pre-conception based on watching the Wire and hearing about Bodymore, Murderland, but it was genuinely interesting and occasionally unnerving how the city stopped and started. But for my birthday celebrations we stuck to the highly gentrified Fell's Point area on the harbor, so my parents didn't have to be worried.

You may have noticed that Andy featured in the first photo. "But Molly," you may be asking, "doesn't Andy live in Japan?" Well yes, yes he does. But he is also an absolutely amazing brother who flew into JFK and went straight to get an Amtrak train down to Baltimore to join in the evening fun. He was jetlagged, he was travel-weary, and yet he faced down crab picking and Bronycon pubs for ME. Well, the intercontinental travel was mostly to go to our cousin's wedding, but the extra bits were all mine.

So we ate crabs and went to a bunch of pubs. I drank too much and we stayed out too late, and Andy had to help me stumble delicately to BWI the next morning to get our flight to Pittsburgh. And we saw a goat wearing a diaper in the airport (no joke, but sadly no picture).  It was a damn fine way to usher in the next day/month/year/decade/whatever.

Feeling a bit blurry; I'm not as young as I once was...

Special thanks to Ashley (and George), Tracy Jill (and Matt), Nick (and Gemma), and of course Andy for giving me this present :)

And as usual, more photos can be found HERE.

An Oxford wedding

July brought us another celebration: our friends Dan and Rosie got married on a sunny summer day in the glorious New College chapel. We know the couple through music, which may help explain the absolutely fantastic trombone archway for Rosie's entrance...

The ceremony had beautiful music, with excellent organ and choir, and our bench of orchestra friends sang the hymns enthusiastically (and occasionally with harmony). We then trickled outdoors to greet Mr. and Mrs. McGowan in the grassy courtyard of the New College cloisters. Unfortunately, Dave and I did not manage much time with the bride and groom, but it was a wonderful reunion of Oxford music friends. A few of us occupied the afternoon with pizza and pints in a new gastropub before making our way to dance at the evening reception and ceilidh.

Please note my shiny new fascinator... Dave suggested I take the plunge and buy one, so we purchased this gem on the walk to the church. I was fascinated with it, to say the least.

Many congratulations to the happy couple; all our photos can be viewed in this album, enjoy!

Two weddings and a Poplet

This summer is full of weddings... everyone told me this would happen at some point, so now I'm officially in "that stage" where one by one my friends and family get hitched. It's a lot of time and money and travel, but also absolutely lovely to share in all the bubbling happiness.

First up this year was the wedding of Dave's brother. Peter and Mari have been together since the equivalent of high school, have spent many years of university apart while Peter was in Oxford and Mari in Cardiff (sound familiar?), and everyone was thrilled to see them make it official. The wedding was held in a register office and then guests walked to a nearby italian restaurant. It was smaller than other weddings I've been to, and everything was personal and laid back.

Not sure what Peter was saying here, but I love this photo.

Dave and I did have some jobs to do during the day... in addition to Dave being one of the witnesses, we were both drafted in for a slightly unusual musical ensemble. For the recessional, Dave, me, the bride's sister, and a friend of the couple played an arrangement of the Queen of Sheba written for four oboes. Odd? Certainly. But it was fun and made everyone smile (even the four of us). It's not too often that four oboes can get that reaction :)

Oboe quartet. And no, I never look attractive while playing the oboe.

More photos from the day can be seen here.


We also were invited to a wedding of two musical friends of ours that have played for years and years in the Oxford Millennium Orchestra (OMO, the one Dave conducts and that tours in Europe every summer). Natalie and Alex had a lucky burst of sunlight as they were married in a charming English village church near where they grew up, a little drive outside of Oxford.

During the space between the ceremony and evening reception, four of us drove our hired car to a nearby village where we had a few pints and an excellent meal at a gastropub. We rejoined the wedding party as the ceilidh band was starting up. If you don't know what a ceilidh (pronounced cay-lee) is, think of it as celtic/gaelic square dancing or line dancing. A caller takes you through the steps, like 'strip the willow' and the slightly dangerous spinning 'basket,' and the general feeling is of giddy dizziness. The effect was, I admit, amplified by the free-flowing wine :)

After a quick night's sleep, Dave and I headed out again, taking our trusty hire car to visit our friends now a few hours drive away. Laura and Tim Popkin were hitched sometime last year, and quickly started getting down to business by buying a house and having a baby. We were overdue to see both house and baby, and we found the most perfect day to visit.

James (still known as Poplet, which is what we called him long before he had a proper name) was adorable and quite patient with the two interlopers. Dave and I didn't mess things up too badly. Laura and Tim were delightful hosts, providing a BBQ feast in the blazing sunshine. It gets harder and harder to keep in contact with friends as they do the marriage/house/baby thing, but it is definitely worth it.

For more pictures from Nat&Alex's wedding and our visit to the Popkins, the full album can be seen here.

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 :)

Sunshine BBQ

Nothing too special, just reporting some actual summer weather in Wales. And sunshine means... BBQ! Dave documented my glee (and ferocious beer drinking). I figure it's pretty rare to have these kinds of shots of me posted here, so I'll share the, er, moment. The food was pretty good, too :)

But Dave, can we please just EAT!?

Yeah, I don't know.