Lab ware badges on Etsy

 Photo credit: scientificculture

Oh dear, I came across these on Etsy lol how cute is the micropipette and lil' buddy Eppendorf ('epindorph' lol) tubes? Plush microbes are being sold too although not as detailed as the Giant Microbes. On a different note, I found a site where you can search for local Etsy sellers here.

Just add water

Tan and I went to see our friend's band Sweetlick play at the Artichoke in Manly last night. The place was adorable, food was tasty and the music was awesome as ever. What made my evening in particular was that little white object there. When it came out with my paella, these were the thoughts streaming through my head: how come this mint have the word TISSUE on it? maybe it's a tissue-flavoured mint? I've never seen a tissue-flavoured mint before...and how come it came in this little plastic container used for meds at the old people's home? and how come I got a mint and Tan didn't? So by the end of the meal I had deduced with all my 'scientific reasoning' that it was a mint. I popped it in my mouth. I was expecting that fizzy minty taste but instead felt as if it was sucking on my tongue! I took it out and noticed its disintegrated state. I began to pull it apart and before I even realised it, I was holding a TISSUE! After we had a laugh, the waiter came back to tell me that it was a 'Towel in a Tablet' just add water! hahaha

Our lab on TV!

The most random thing happened this week, our lab was on TV! A Current Affairs to be exact (should I even be proud?!). The segment had nothing to do with our research but it was Microbiology nonetheless. It was on different laundry powders so if you missed it, you can watch it here. Yeah that's my Supervisor doing the experiment and talking about those 'nasty microbes' hehehe. This totally reminds me of that PHD comic with the film crew:

BTW you might've caught glimpse of the 'back of my head' at about 3:48/5:49 hahaha

Sewing (mis)Adventures

I finally found time to sew yay! Nothing major just fixing this and that (read wardrobe reconstruction or refashion as some might call it) as well as some hemming. Before I show the goods to you I'd like to share some lessons in sewing that I learnt the hard way.

Lesson #1
Always always try on jeans (or long pants) before taking up the hem!
I made the big mistake of measuring my brand new pair of jeans against my old worn pair thinking to myself that as long as they're the same length it's going to be ok. How wrong I was! I found to my shock horror after I had finished cutting/sewing and trying it on that it was too short! So the genius that I am (thanks David), I went about fixing it by taking it all apart and sewing back the bits that I had cut off - I'm not kidding! I then went through the whole process of hemming again. So what took a few minutes to sew resulted in a few hours to fix. Fortunately I was able to add length without revealing the mistake. Phew!

Lesson #2
Never leave a full cup of tea within close proximity to your sewing station
My hubby (God bless him) seeing me hard at work decided to make me a cup of tea. The tea was too hot so I left it to cool a bit while I went back to sewing. I was so stuck into it that I forgot all about the tea. Before you know it I turned around to reach some stuff and knocked the whole cup over. The entire content of liquid spilled everywhere! Fortunately most of it hit the floor which made it easy to mop up. My yarn bag which was on the floor got wet but when I opened it to inspect my yarns they were all dry. Thanks goodness for waterproof lining on yarn bags!

Failed!

Today we had our monthly postgrad bible study lunch at Golden Fang. As part of the planning committee, I was in charge of organizing a 'get-to-know-you' game for the group (since there are many new people this year). I played this candy icebreaker game once before so I thought it was a safe option. Basically you get an assortment of candy in this case M&M's and the colour corresponds to what question you have to ask/answer with the person sitting next to you. I made the little colour-code cards and bought a big packet of M&M's on my way to the restaurant. When it was time to play, I opened the packet and to my astonishment there were only GREEN M&M's! hahaha I didn't read the packet "...now sold as separate colours" because if it's mixed then you'd actually win a prize hahaha needless to say we all had a good laugh out of it!