Hello again,
I've just completed my first week of project research, which was really good if a little tedious. There are two of us try to use the same piece of equipment so we can be a little limited as to what can be achieved in a day. I am working on the BIACORE machine, using SPR (surface plasmon resonance) to detect binding of small molecules to a protein. There is a lot of set up that has to be done first, such as checking the right pH levels (pH scouting, which I have completed for the RNase E E. Coli molecule, but still have to do for the RNase E TB molecule) and finding the correct buffers, so as not to make the protein too unhappy. Toni, I will be working with HPLC in a few weeks I think, so I am not fully sure of the methods used yet, as I still need to be trained on the machine. Just in case you're wondering, (most of you probably aren't!) I have also been studying the turning on and off of genes, and embryo development, including a practical in a few weeks cutting up a chick embryo.
In other news, I've had a really good God week. I asked if Adam (Blade) could find me someone to mentor me through this year, as I feel that it is something I really wanted to do, and would be good to have that extra support. I met her on Sunday, and she is lovely. We had our first "proper" chat on Monday evening over coffee, and it was really good! I found it incredibly helpful, and I had space to think and hear God. Things had got a little...foggy, over the past few weeks, and after letting some stuff go, it was really good to feel God's presence everywhere in my life.
I'm settling into the house well, and getting back into the swing of fending for myself, kind of. My clothes are mostly clean and I haven't starved yet!!
Last weekend I paid a trip up to see Ben, Dan and Nikita in Reading. It was great to arrive on the Friday evening, and feel like old times again. I miss it, but realise that the friendships I've made may be sightly different, they are still as strong as the were. The one problem I've found with going to Reading was that I always end up bringing back more than I went with, and that usually means I've been shopping :S but it's still fun!! Ben and I met up with some of the King's guys who had gone up for a conference, and came back with them on the Saturday night, so Ben could see Portsmouth people. And annoyingly they are renovating the lock near Ben's house on the Kennet and Avon canal, so I could go sit on the balance beam as I wanted...so I'm going to have to pay another trip to see them just to do that :P.
Finally, if anyone can help me make sense of miRNAs that would be appreciated! I have a paper analysis to write by next Friday, and I am totally lost in my subject!!
God bless,
Clare xxx (Or Bristol, as I seem to now be in the house!!!)
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Major woops!
I seriously hadn't realised how long it had been since my last post, but the answer is quite a while, my bad!
I've officially started year 3 (argh!! How did that happen?), moved out of Stansted Road ( :( ), moved into my new house, with 4 other girls (3 from church, one on my course), turned 22 (!) and been on holiday (on the canals in and around Birmingham! Great fun, but stupidly early starts for a holiday!).
It's been an emotional time. I found moving back here much harder than I expected. I've become close to two of my friends from back home, so I think that played a factor in my homesickness. But I think the biggest factor was that I was really scared about starting year 3, my final year, the big one! I felt, (and still does a little) like I was standing on the edge of a huge dark abyss. I couldn't see the bottom, or the other side, and there in front of me was a tiny white line, or tightrope that I had to walk across, with the knowledge that one wrong step and I would fall and fail. But I've started walking. My big fears are all turning out to be stupid. Yes, it is going to be a very hard year, but as long as I am sensible, do my work, not sit around blogging all the time (!), and most importantly, trust God, I will succeed. I won't just get through, I'll do well.
I am also realising how blessed I am by all the amazing people I have around me, who I am proud to call friends. There are some who I don't get to see all the time any more, but who are still supporting me. But there are others who are here, at church, in my house and on my course, who are all so amazing. I hope that I can be as great a friend back as they are to me.
This is a very serious blog today, but in a good way. And just think, it could be worse, and I was writing about telomers or HPLC.
On a random side note, I now have a deviantart account, where I have posted some of the pictures I have drawn over the past few years, some really reacent, some much older. The address is: http://roofster86.deviantart.com/
So I'm back! And I will attempt to update this at least once a week.
Clare xxx
I've officially started year 3 (argh!! How did that happen?), moved out of Stansted Road ( :( ), moved into my new house, with 4 other girls (3 from church, one on my course), turned 22 (!) and been on holiday (on the canals in and around Birmingham! Great fun, but stupidly early starts for a holiday!).
It's been an emotional time. I found moving back here much harder than I expected. I've become close to two of my friends from back home, so I think that played a factor in my homesickness. But I think the biggest factor was that I was really scared about starting year 3, my final year, the big one! I felt, (and still does a little) like I was standing on the edge of a huge dark abyss. I couldn't see the bottom, or the other side, and there in front of me was a tiny white line, or tightrope that I had to walk across, with the knowledge that one wrong step and I would fall and fail. But I've started walking. My big fears are all turning out to be stupid. Yes, it is going to be a very hard year, but as long as I am sensible, do my work, not sit around blogging all the time (!), and most importantly, trust God, I will succeed. I won't just get through, I'll do well.
I am also realising how blessed I am by all the amazing people I have around me, who I am proud to call friends. There are some who I don't get to see all the time any more, but who are still supporting me. But there are others who are here, at church, in my house and on my course, who are all so amazing. I hope that I can be as great a friend back as they are to me.
This is a very serious blog today, but in a good way. And just think, it could be worse, and I was writing about telomers or HPLC.
On a random side note, I now have a deviantart account, where I have posted some of the pictures I have drawn over the past few years, some really reacent, some much older. The address is: http://roofster86.deviantart.com/
So I'm back! And I will attempt to update this at least once a week.
Clare xxx
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