Working in an academic environment has much to recommend it. My deep enthusiasm for proper science, without the backing of any actual knowledge or education in any field remotely related to science, has me totally fitting in! This week I went to a lunchtime lecture that included much scientisty stuff about cell regeneration using a protein found in frog embryos, that could eventually be like kryptonite to muscular dystrophy. This is obviously because they are both green.

Also, new job has bestest staff canteen in the known universe. This is very different to when I worked in Basingrad and suggested to Chef that vegetarian options may be a nice compliment the daily adventure of the mystery meat pie wrapped in another meat, served with possibly meat sauce. With a raised eyebrow, he suggested I rethink my ‘fancy London ways’.

I spent an evening up a tower supping champagne and ruing my choice of shoes in order to celebrate the first year in business of a fabulous friend, who also happens to be my agent. It was a great night – topped off by a performance from the luscious London Gay Men’s Chorus. I caught up with loads of people I haven’t seen for years. There was much LOL’ing.

And then the awful phone call that a beloved colleague from a previous life had suffered a fatal coronary while crossing the street outside the office. A few hours later the newest Bradshaw was welcomed to the planet.

And so it goes.

Image credit: LusoFox

All the nerdy science types will tell you that they are formations of cemented mudstone, shaped by coastal erosion. ‘Obviously’ this is bollocks (what is it with all the sciencey evidence that just RUINS IT FOR EVERYONE?).

Clearly, Moeraki Boulders are either: a) dinosaur eggs that fossilized, b) alien space-craft that turned to stone when zooming through the atmosphere or c) a cargo of eel baskets and kumaras that petrified into rock when a Maori canoe crashed onto shore.

And now thanks to some mad-ass petitioning, Moeraki Boulders are also an OLYMPIC SPORT. And ohmygodyouhearditherefirst: REX IS IN RUNNING FOR A MEDAL IN 2012!

I know.

We are so excited that our very own barrel of existential meh has been chosen as a contender. I helped him try on his training tracksuit yesterday and I will admit to a massive flush of pride.

We are just doing everything we can to support him now that he is deep into his Olympic training programme. This takes HOURS of dedication every day. His is on a strict diet of EVERYTHING. And of course with this level of training his body needs time to recover, so we are letting him sleep as much as he needs. He tends to be quite private with his training, and has shunned all media interviews, preferring the zen of peace and quiet to get ‘into the zone’.

I managed to sneak a quick shot of him in the middle of what turned out to be a SIX HOUR training session yesterday.

His dedication and his sacrifice is just so humbling:

Rex in Training

‘Actual’ Moeraki Boulder

We had our End-Of-Project-Party on Monday night. Several hundred people in posh frocks and suits piled into Madame Tussuad’s for an evening of waxing lyrical (heh) about the last 18 months. (NB: I have never understood the attraction of seeing not-quite life-like replicas of celebrities. They just look like shiny corpses). The highlight for me was standing in the changing rooms at Debenhams as the first frock I tried on slipped over my hips and zipped up perfectly. A long, red, off the shoulder number that, with the firm assistance of Rigby & Peller’s magic scaffolding made me feel a.maz.ing.

On Radio 4 this morning, they interviewed a bearded Santa/Professory type from CERN. They have captured anti-matter! Basically anti-matter is antihydrogen. And when matter and antimatter get smushed together (in a Very Scientific Manner) they combust and create energy. The Starship Enterprise was powered, thus. I reckon they have about 25 years before Bob is going to be ready to captain the Starfleet, so this is good news for us all. Especially Bob.

Last week 50,000 students marched down Millbank to Conservative Party headquarters. The Vodaphone protests closed loads of shops across the UK in a campaign over £6billion of tax avoidance. And after Paul Chambers was convicted and fined (and lost his job) for a stupid joke on twitter, everyone had an ‘I am Spartacus’ (Spartapuss) moment. It seems that the polite residents of Wouldyoumindawfully Land are going completely against nature and staging uprisings all over the show. It’s AWESOME! Because civil disobedience is essential in a democracy (and especially out of one).  I am all for persuading people of the justice of your cause through dialogue and the ballot box, but  direct action is an inevitable consequence of government and business interests refusing to listen to communities under threat, and an essential tool for people of conscience to make themselves heard.

After a week of recovery from dermatitis and bung-eye, Rex is looking a teeny bit happier. He has been in a grump all week; growling at anyone that comes within a foot of him and only leaving his bed to forage for food, or do his Private Business in the garden (he looked out at the rain last night and sighed dramatically). Badger doesn’t seem to understand/care about his delicate state. As a consequence, he may be contemplating a move to Wiltshire as the local Council are planning a wide-reaching badger cull.

(This post mentions Lost, but there are no spoilers. Promise).

I am currently in mourning. For six years I watched every single Lost episode, (even when it got a bit shit around Season Three). I was hooked from the pilot. I loved the mad geek fan sites, and the writers who never spoon-fed cliched plot lines. Also: Sawyer. I especially found the (admittedly sometimes illogically executed) exploration of time and space, completely fascinating. So I was very excited to find Philip Zimbardo’s talk at TED on the secret power of time.

Zimbardo discusses how our individual perspectives of time affect our work, health and well-being. Time influences who we are as a person, how we view relationships and how we act in the world. He says that there are six main time zones that people live in: two focus on the past (Past-Positive, Past-Negative), two on the present (Present Fatalism, Present Hedonism), and two on the future (Future and Transcendental Future). He notes that we all divide our experience into time categories; the difference is how we do this. When you’re speaking with someone he or she might be thinking about past experiences, and ignoring the present. And you might be doing a cost-benefit analysis and thinking about the future. I think that this might play into the ‘energy’ we bring to any given interaction – the way phrase and tone can trigger emotion.

You can find out if you are a Past-Positive or a Transcendental Future-oriented person by taking his Time Perspective Inventory. I also found this very cool animated video which probably explains it way better than me.

I love the idea of time travel that happens in our own brains, across our own lifetimes. Ain’t science cool?

‘If the Universe came to an end every time there was some uncertainty about what had happened in it, it would never have got beyond the first picosecond. And many of course don’t. It’s like a human body, you see. A few cuts and bruises here and there don’t hurt it. Not even major surgery if it’s done properly. Paradoxes are just the scar tissue. Time and space heal themselves up around them and people simply remember a version of events which makes as much sense as they require it to make’ ~ Douglas Adams, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency