Crochet coin purse & update

I made this pouch some time back when I was sick at home for a week. I couldn't stand not doing anything so there I was in bed either crocheting or reading (when I'm not sleeping that is). I managed to read Life of Pi which was an interesting book and definitely worth a read. I am all better now, that week off put a dent in my progress but I figure if I didn't rest then, I'd never find the time to actually rest. So sad, I know.

Anyways time for an update. I don't know who actually read this blog anymore but it looks like I've got a few new visitors - hello there! So at the moment I'm preparing my progress presentation for labchat tomorrow. It's been 3 months since my last one and boy have I made progress! Not to get ahead of myself but I have worked extra hard these last few months. It wasn't all smooth sailing though, just last week my third attempt at an experiment actually worked. These transconjugants are so tempermental! I was so stressed out and wasn't a very nice person to be around (I yelled at bickering honours students and almost burnt down the lab!). I'm usually a calm and collected person so my outburst really shocked some people lol. I have mellowed down again so don't worry. Thanks to those who have been praying for me during this stressful time! God has been faithful in answering prayers for progress and teaching me patience as well as perseverence.

So how long to go? I hear you ask. My original plan was to be done by October this year (thesis submitted and all) but that ain't gonna happen. I have two more final experiments left to do before I can stay out of the lab for good. One experiment is to detect the plasmid in my transconjugants using pulse field gel electrophoresis (if it all goes well, it'll only take 1 week). The other experiment is to make (clone and express) a certain protein that I need in order to analyse my metabolites. I give this 3 weeks if all goes accordingly. However this is never the case in biological research, things are bound to stuff up along the way so let's multiply the time I need by 2, which means 2 months to wrap this up! So I'm giving myself til October to finish these experiments. That is also when my scholarship money finish (fair enough they've supported me for 3.5 years already!). I've taken up teaching a class for first year molecular biology this semester so that means some extra income to get me over the line. After that we'll just have to live on husband's income alone until I finish and get a job.

My supervisor seem to think I can write my thesis in 3 months! 150-300 pages or 40-80 000 words in 3 months! That's just crazy! But I guess I need that kind of pressure to get me going. I do have until March next year to submit so that actually allow for 6 months of writing time from October if both of my experiments work. So far I've written about 1/3 of my thesis (assumming I aim for 150 pages), very rough draft of mainly Materials/Methods and Results. This also include my paper (we submitted it in June but still haven't heard back from reviewers) being transposed into thesis format. Having written the paper really helps me with the writing process becasue I no longer see it as one big daunting unachievable task.

Sounds all busy and no play right? wrong! In the midst of all this I'm actually going to take some time off to go on a holiday. See! I'm being kind to myself lol. Husband and I have been planning our epic trip to the US of A for over a year now! It revolves around a conference I'm attending call the 13th International Symposium on Microbial Ecology (ISME13): Stewards of a changing world. I will be presenting a poster on my research there. So our itinerary is San Fransisco (~1 week)> Seattle (conference, 1 week)> NYC/ Washington DC (~1 week)> Los Angeles (3 days)> home. We are quite fortunate to have family and friends in most of these places to host us and or show us around. This is my first time to the US so I'm really excited about not knowing what to expect lol. We fly out on the 16th August which is in 12 days!!! I probably won't post anything until after I come back so until then take care!