Cath and the City Part 2

The end of Part 1 saw me sitting on Jericho Beach and congratulating myself on fulfilling my dream of moving to Vancouver. Here's what happened next...

My first year in Vancouver was great. Hard at times, but great. I was lucky enough to be part of a very social lab in a very social department, and I found myself with an awesome group of friends who all lived close together in a part of town called Kitsilano. This was lucky because it can be pretty tough to meet people in this city, and I did spend quite a lot of time alone in my first year. I usually have more random conversations with strangers in shops, bars and on buses in my 2 week trips back to the UK than I do in a typical year here. So much for British reserve!

Living in Kits was like being on vacation the whole time. It's a bit twee, but there are great shops, cafes and bars, not to mention the beach. The World Cup was on in Japan that summer, and I would get up ridiculously early to watch the games on TV, then head to the beach at about 6.30 am. There's nothing quite like sitting on a log on the beach on a crisp sunny morning and watching the city come to life.

I took up kayaking, taking a weekend course on the first available date and then joining a club who went out every Monday evening over the summer. (This is the source of the photo above, which I liked so much when I posted it last time that I decided to make it a permanent feature). I went on my first kayak camping trip (more on that subject in a future post), went on some hikes, explored the city by bike, started to learn to ski, and generally enjoyed myself and saw as much as possible, in the way you do when you think you're only going to be in a city for two years.

There's nothing like a morning cuppa on the beach before a long day of paddling. I'm not going to tell you where this photo was taken because the campsite is already way too overcrowded on weekends! We try to make this trip an annual event, and we had the whole place to ourselves on a midweek trip one May.

I met Mr E Man almost exactly a year after I arrived. It quickly became obvious that I was going to be staying for a lot longer than two years.

Living permanently in a city gives you an entirely different perspective on things. There's no longer that mad dash to tick off every trip on your wish list. I also got to know a huge group of friends who all grew up here and who know the city in a completely different way. I eventually moved in with Mr E Man¹ and got to know a completely different area of the city. Commercial Drive is a seriously funky place, but introduced me to a whole other side of Vancouver. We had a choice of several excellent bars and restaurants within a two block radius, but would often open our front door to find someone sleeping on the front step. We'd hang out on some great neighbourhood patios, but be badgered for money by passing street people. We saw drug deals on a regular basis and were frequently woken by loud drunken yelling and unmuffled motorbikes on weekends.

See, that's the thing. This is a port city, and also the only place in Canada where you can sleep outside all year long without freezing to death. Everyone gravitates here. There are parts of town that are worse than anywhere I've ever seen. The number of people with mental health problems and / or addiction issues who live in the Downtown Eastside, on and off the streets, is simply staggering. The more I live here, the more I appreciate that this is not a paradise for everyone.

And while we're talking about the city's downsides, I have to mention the rampant NIMBYism (Olympics? No! Rapid transit expansion? No!) and, of course, the rain. It rains a LOT here in the winter. The summers are great, but avoid November-April if you don't want to get wet. This last year was especially miserable; everyone was complaining about how dark and murky it was. Being a skier helps - if it's raining in town it's probably snowing on the mountains - but we can't afford to go skiing often enough to mitigate the gloominess.

But hey, the summers are great, and we'll hopefully be spared the worst of the predicted future water shortages. I just hope the American army is nice to us when they invade looking for water in 30 years or so ;-)

I've put down roots here now. We bought a house - not a very good house, but it's a start - and I am still in love with Vancouver. When I first moved here I'd have what I call "Vancouver Moments" - when I would catch a glimpse of the mountains or the water and think "I am so glad I live here". They're not quite as common now, but I still have my VMs. Especially on the first clear day after the onset of the nasty winter rain, when the mountains come into view from behind the clouds and reveal their fresh snowy caps.

View from our living room window. Part of the delay in writing this second post was due to the wait for clear weather at the right time of day - necessary for this photo! When we looked around the house, the previous owners stressed the mountain view and we scoffed about it in the car on the way home. "Call that a mountain view?! You can only see part of Seymour Mountain, and nothing of Cypress or Grouse!". Of course, now that we own the place, we tell everyone we have a mountain view.

The last couple of summers have been busy beyond all belief. We bought a house in 2006 and got married in 2007, and we spent more time with realtors, mortgage brokers, caterers and florists than with our friends. I only went camping and kayaking (on separate occasions) once each last year, and we never seemed to have any money. Now that the madness is over, I can't wait to start really enjoying the city and its surroundings again. The sunshine is back, camping trips are planned, and we're going for our first paddle of the year later today. Just a 2 hour cruise along Jericho beach with our out-of-town guests, but hopefully the start of a good season.

I look forward to seeing the city through our visitors' eyes; it's good to be reminded of how my time in Vancouver began.

¹He broke his leg and was powerless to stop me. I moved in to help him with his cooking and laundry while he was in his cast, and never left.

Fancy a cuppa?

Here's a little something that a grad student in my post-doc lab made for me back in 2003. I had a kidney infection and was banned from drinking tea for two whole weeks.

I don't know if you can read it, but the label below the tea bag says

"in case of emergency, break glass".

(The thing next to it is the plush lymphocyte that Mr E Man got me at Christmas. It's wearing a Nature Network button. Did I mention that I'm a geek?)

I love tea. Mostly what I would call "proper tea", which goes by the strange name of orange pekoe in North America. This caused me no end of confusion on my first day in Vancouver. Jetlagged beyond all belief, I stopped at a Blenz outlet on my way to my new lab for the first time, and asked for "a large tea please".

Barrista: "What kind of tea?"

CAE: "Just tea."

Barrista: ...?

CAE: "Normal tea. Tea tea."

Barrista: "You mean orange pekoe?"

CAE: "No, normal tea. Black tea. Not orange flavour."

Barrista: "That's orange pekoe."

CAE: "No it isn't."

Barrista: "Yes it is."

CAE: "No it isn't."

Barrista: "I'll just make some orange pekoe and you can tell me if that's what you wanted."

...

CAE: "Oh, this is normal tea. Erm, thanks. And sorry."

I did wonder what the hell I'd got myself into. The Bryan Adams CD I'd been subjected to over breakfast at my hotel didn't help either.

But worse was to come.

Did you know that some Canadians don't have kettles?!! Yes, it's true. I had to buy one in my first week. Apparently some of them make tea using a microwave, FFS. (Yes Dr G, I'm talking about YOU). There's no death penalty in Canada, but if there was... they'd be next in line after the folks who serve tea by giving you a cup of warm water and a tea bag. People! You make tea by pouring boiling (not boiled) water onto the tea. Any other way is unacceptable. You'll only get repeat tea-drinking business from me if you do it properly.

Thankfully, Canadian supermarkets sell Tetley tea (and Branston Pickle, no less) so I can make my own.

I also like all kinds of herbal tea. My usual weekday regime is a big mug of proper tea in the morning before work (with a little bit of milk and no sugar),

Home tea stash. The silver caddy is stuffed with proper (Tetley) tea bags.

a cup of fruity tea, a cup of minty tea, and another cup of proper tea throughout the day at work,

Work tea stash. I have my own kettle on my desk and keep my milk in the nearby fridge. The mug is a gift from Mermaid and the text inside says: "n. having more creative ability while drinking tea". This sums up my performance in my last job, where I had all my best ideas while either drinking tea or riding my bike.

and sometimes another fruity or minty cup in the evening. I'm drinking the last of the black cherry tea right now. I do drink green tea, but only very occasionally. I'm not quite sure why I have so much of it.

Most Saturday mornings involve sharing a big pot of tea with Mr E Man while we tackle the New York Times crossword in the local paper. This is the best part of the week.

What we're really missing over here is a tea blend that's optimised for the local water, a la Yorkshire Tea, Scottish Blend etc. Maybe this is an opportunity for me to develop my own blend and become the Tea Queen of Canada. Kneel before me, ye Colonials...

You can leave your hat on

Does anyone else read PossumMomma's blog? (aka Atheist in a Minivan). The usual content consists of thoughtful posts about atheist parenting in a world full of theists, and (fully justified) rants about Warren Jeffs. Highly recommended.

A recent entry stood out though. Click through and discover the perfect birthday present for the atheist who has everything.

Book review - My Sister's Keeper

Oof, it's been a while, hasn't it? I have actually read a couple of books since my last review, but I've been lazy about the corresponding blog updates.

So what's it to be - fiction or non-fiction?

I think I'll go with the fiction option, because it's fresher in my mind. (I marked lots of pages in the other book to aid with the review process, so hopefully I'll be able to write something coherent about my rare foray into the world of non-fiction at some point. Any month now).

I ordered My Sister's Keeper (by Jodi Picoult) after reading about it on the Womens' Bioethics Project blog. The story revolves around a pair of teenage sisters. The older girl has a rare form of leukemia, and her younger sister Anna was conceived specifically as a genetically matched "saviour sibling". Although the initial plan was only to transplant Anna's umbilical cord blood stem cells into her sister, the years that followed have entailed endless blood transfusions, not to mention a bone marrow transplant. Now, Anna's sister needs a kidney, and everyone assumes that Anna will once again rise to the occasion. But instead she decides to sue her parents for the rights to her own body.

The author chose to use multiple narrators, which was probably the only way to effectively drive the complex and multi-layered storyline. We hear from Anna herself; both her parents; her older brother; her lawyer; and a social worker involved in the case - everyone, in fact, except for the sick older sister, an interesting omission. No-one is completely in the wrong, no-one is completely in the right, and the decisions and conflicts faced by the parents in particular are agonising.

But then, at the very end, after we've heard every possible side of the story, after the trial's verdict, after a wonderful twist, and after my own empathy was pulled in every possible direction, the final chapter is a total cop-out. The ending pissed me off more than any book I can remember, probably because the author had done such a great job of sucking me in until I was completely emotionally invested in the characters. She chose such an easy way out. Rather than having any of the characters actually face up to what was happening and make the final, heart-rending yet necessary decision, she went with one of the worst examples of Deus Ex Machina I've ever had the misfortune to come across. I almost threw the book across the room.

So there you have it. The book is 99% wonderful, with the final 1% being a huge pile of crap and a terrible return for the emotion I'd invested. Amazingly enough I'd still recommend reading it, because the vast majority of the book is so strong. Just be prepared for the frustration and anger at the end. Oh, and try to borrow the book or buy it second-hand if at all possible; why spend all that money on a nice shiny new copy that may end up being thrown down the loo or off a bus?

Mermaid, I'll be reading your book next. I promise not to throw it anywhere.

Meddling in the muddle

In one of those funny blogging synergies, my last post coincided with a couple of calls to political action on Arduous' wonderful blog. Although both posts were about issues I care deeply about (equal marriage rights and climate change), I declined to take part in either action. I detailed my reasons in a comment on the climate change post:

"I agree that American policy has huge implications for those of us who don't live in the country. But I'm afraid I'm going to pass on this one. I have VERY strong opinions about not meddling in the politics of countries I don't live in. Even my last post caused me a lot of anguish before I decided to go ahead and post it (I changed my mind about 10 times first, and I was only sharing a funny photo and stating an opinion, not lobbying anyone).

As an ex-pat Brit, I don't even vote in the UK any more. This is despite the fact that it kills me not to have a vote (I can't vote here in Canada yet). The reason is that I don't think it's fair for people to participate in such important decisions if they don't have to live with the consequences. I used to get seriously pissed off when the ex-pat vote was mentioned during UK elections, and any attempt by individuals from other countries to sway voters in the UK or Canada really gets my back up.

Sorry to go on a bit, I told you I had strong opinions!

Think global, act local, right?"

Arduos graciously replied:

"CAE, I totally respect your opinion and you make very, very valid points. I totally get why you wouldn't want to meddle. However, as an American, I realize that American policy affects the whole world and not just America. So the truth is, the entire world from Bangladesh to Canada will be living with the consequences of America's climate policy. Where global issues like climate change are concerned, I think country boundaries matter less.

That said, I completely respect your decision, and thank you for voicing your views so articulately and passionately."

I responded (now with added links and corrected typos):

"Oh I totally agree that climate change has consequences without boundaries. But there are right wing political leaders closer to home who need to be leaned on first - Harper's* government is almost as blind as Bush's in this regard. And believe me, as soon as I'm a citizen, I'll be leaning as hard as I can.

US politics are so tricky because your government's decisions affect me so much - possible more than the Canadian government's, and definitely more than my home nation's!"

So, what do you think? Should I join in the lobbying of US politicians and make my voice heard as someone who will be affected by US policies? Or is it none of my business?

Did my not-entirely-serious last post cross that line already?

I'd love to hear from both Americans and citizens of the rest of the world!

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*The English footballer version of Stephen Harper listed at the top of that article is my team's goalkeeper and one of our most solid performers in recent years. I have significant cognitive dissonance when I hear that name now.

Unnatural disaster

As seen hidden away at the bottom of a post on Passive Aggressive Notes.

Says it all really.

I honestly don't care much whether Clinton or Obama gets the nomination, although I have been edging towards Obama lately. Please, for the sake of the rest of the world, can you just make sure that the nominee beats McCain?

Thanks in advance.

"Nazis. I hate these guys".

I was delighted to find my all-time favourite movie on TV last night. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is, in my opinion, the finest moment in cinematic history. Everything about it is pitch-perfect, and whoever cast Sean Connery as Harrison Ford's father deserves Oscars, Knighthoods, and at least one Nobel Prize. I fell asleep before the end, but it hardly matters with films you've seen a million times before, right? And at least I got to see my favourite part - "Our situation has not improved".

And the new one comes out today! I rarely go to the cinema, but I'll make an exception for this one. In fact I think I'll be going a lot this year:

• Indy IV
• X Files II
• Narnia II
• Sex and the City (don't laugh)
• Harry Potter VI (my favourite of the books)

I'll have to email all the girls I know and see who's interested in which movies. None of the guys I know seem very enthusiastic at all. I wonder why?

w00t!

The first proper grant application* I worked on after switching jobs just got recommended for funding! It's excellent timing as last week's submission went to the same funding body, who apparently have decided that they like us. Yes, even though we're Canadian.

(Insert victory dance and beverage of your choice in this space)

Well, no rest for the wicked. I've just set up a meeting about the next probable submission, so I have to parse the application instructions (2 cm thick when printed on both sides) to pull out the actual required components. Oh, and read the relevant papers that one of the PIs just sent me (4 reviews and 4 research articles). They contain as much physics as biology, and I dropped physics at the earliest possible opportunity (age 16). My chances of getting all of the above done by 1 pm tomorrow are slim to none. I should probably stop blogging now.
__________________________________

*as opposed to postgrad and postdoctoral fellowships

New kid on the blog

My friend Kyrsten (of bot fly fame) has finally started her own blog. So head on over to Infinite Science for posts on, well, science, and a cat called Mr Obama.

Welcome back to the blogosphere, Kyrsten! Look out, it's addictive!

Happy birthday Vicky!

So how bizarre is this?

Monday is Victoria Day, a statutory holiday in Canada. I'd never heard of it before I moved here, and had no clue what it was all about. The capital of the province of British Columbia is called Victoria, so I asked a Canadian friend if each province celebrates its capital city, or something like that? She stared at me in astonishment and informed me that the holiday actually commemorates Queen Victoria's birthday.

We don't celebrate it in the UK.

Every Canadian I tell this to is astonished.

Ah well, it's a good excuse for a long weekend*. There is one stat holiday per month from May through to January, so this is the start of something good! Unfortunately Mr E Man and I have to do some minor renovations to our basement suite this weekend before we can rent it out again.

Monday is looking good for this:

It's a small price to pay for the first warm sunny weather of the year! Saturday might be a beach day!

Have a great weekend, whether it is a 2 or 3 day break.

_______________________________________

*Victoria Day is often known as May Long, as in May Long Weekend. I heard a great story from a friend's brother who used to live in the States. He'd mentioned this holiday, and his American friend commented that it was wonderful that Canada was so progressive and celebrated exotic holidays from other cultures. Wondering what was so progressive about a former colony celebrating a British holiday, the Canadian asked his friend to explain. Turns out the American had misheard the holiday as Mae-Lhong or similar and thought it was Chinese...

Psssst!

Fellow science bloggers! Come over here! Make sure no-one follows you...

Feel free to comment here if you don't have a Nature account!

Post-grant wind-down

Aaaaahhhhh.

That was me relaxing. I'm drinking a nice cuppa tea and everything.

Due to technical problems with the funding body's website, last week's grant deadline got pushed back to today. This was a good thing, because it allowed us to spend much more time tweaking and revising the application, but it was also a bad thing, because it allowed us to spend much more time tweaking and revising the application. It's funny how these things expand to fill the time allotted to them. I sent the grant to our institute's coordinator for his sign-off last night, and the damn thing is officially submitted and off my desk as of this morning.

Believe it or not, I actually quite enjoy the rush - as long as I'm confident that we'll actually get things done in time - and at least the work is interesting and useful. My last job managed to be both stressful and boring (lots of repetitive work with very tight deadlines), and when I took this job I made a mental note to remember how horrid that combination was during the inevitable stressful times ahead.

This job being a constant cycle between super-busy and more laid-back, today is wind-down time. In my usual tradition, I have spent the day:

• Attending a very interesting seminar (I tend to skip them when deadlines strike, and missed some good ones this month)
• Tidying my desk, although Mermaid will still be able to recognise it as mine without checking the photos and tea mugs
• Printing hard copies of all final grant sections, and filing them away
• Printing and archiving all of my early drafts / edits of each section (I like to give it a week or two and then compare my versions to the final ones approved by the grant's authors - it's a good learning experience to see what they decided to keep / edit / rewrite / scrap entirely. This time around there's a pretty good mix of the four options, with one section completely unchanged from my first draft!)
• Organising and archiving my email inbox
• Having lunch with the whole lab for the first time (fun! And yummy! So full!)

Things still to do:

• Meet a friend from my old job for a quick beer after work
• Go home and play with the kitties
• Get through the night without thinking or dreaming about the bloody grant

The whole cycle starts again next week with a meeting involving the two PIs of a potential new grant submission. And my boss wants to see all the information I have on a huge project that isn't coming along as well as we'd both like, due to the big grant time-suck. But it's nice to have just one day to organise my desk, my files, and my thoughts.

Potentially horribly inappropriate blog post

I've never seen this done before on any of the blogs I read, so apologies if this is a big faux pas!


I know I've said that I don't usually try to raise money for the charity that pays my salary, but hey, you don't get to have your photo taken with sexy hockey players without giving something back. So I signed up to take part in a 36 km sponsored bike ride on June 1st.


If you're at all interested in sponsoring me (and I understand completely if you're not - this is a regional foundation after all!), you can view my personal page and donate at this site.


I can personally vouch for the quality of the research that this event will fund. This is my second time working here, and I love the feeling that what I do makes a difference.


Thank you in advance, and don't be shy at letting me know if you think this is inappropriate! There's a similar event in August (for the MS Society), and the response to this post will determine whether I ever try it again!

One big happy interconnected family

My brother-in-law (not the one with the hilarious new girlfriend, another one I haven't mentioned before) lives overseas, and has done (in various locations) for a few years now. So whenever he's in town, it turns into quite the occasion. He stopped off in Vancouver on his way back from a conference in Toronto last week, so I got to spend lots of time with my in-laws, who are, without exception, totally awesome people and wonderful cooks.

I'm going to have to insert a quick who's who here because the following makes no sense otherwise! Here's a list of Mr E Man's siblings, in chronological order, with their spousoids on the right:

Sibling---------------- Spousoid
BIL1------------------- ---HNG
SIL1------------------- ---Husband1
SIL2 ----------------------Husband2
BIL2 (lives overseas) ---Girlfriend we haven't met yet
Mr E Man (the baby!) ---Me

There's a 10 year gap between BIL1 and Mr E Man.

HNG was meeting SIL1 for the first time, and they both instantly said they recognised each other. They still haven't figured out how, but no-one was really surprised, given all the other family connections:

• BIL1 knew Husband1 before SIL1 ever met him.
• Mr E Man and I knew HNG before she ever met BIL1.
• I knew BIL2 before I ever met Mr E Man.

We had a good laugh at how incestuous we all are, but I think it's just a sign of a happy family who all get along and who have mostly stayed in the same area. Mr E Man and BIL2 have lots of high school friends in common, and so do my two sisters-in-law. In my own case, I met BIL2 at several parties in my first year here, thanks to the same friends who would eventually introduce me to his little brother. In fact, the first time I met Mr E Man, our very brief conversation was all about how his brother was doing*. And last year, a high school friend of Mr E Man realized that his wife's new friend, HNG, would be a really good match for BIL1. Mr E Man and I weren't there the night of the set-up, but we were in on it.

The names are another thing entirely. SIL1 has the same name as me, and SIL2 has the same name as my sister. Husband1 has the same name as my Dad, and Mr E Man shares his name with one of my uncles. The wedding was very confusing.

Living as I do so many thousands of miles from my own parents and sister, I'm very happy to have found myself a whole new Canadian family.

Darwinian gardening techniques on my other blog...
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*BIL2 and his friends are known pranksters. The first time my friend and I met them, they said they were lawyers. The second time, they said they were carpet cleaners and that they'd only said they were lawyers the first time to impress us. We asked them how to get stains out of white carpets and they bluffed their way through it pretty well, considering that they are in fact lawyers. So when BIL2 told us at one party that he was moving to Kosovo the next day, we totally didn't believe him. We took the piss mercilessly: "hey baby, I'm shipping out to Kosovo in the morning" in a fake sexy accent and all that. We were quite embarrassed when we found out he actually was in Kosovo, working with the UN.

All Skyped up

About time, eh?

There was some discussion about webcams, which caused a bit of a delay while we debated whether seeing kittens outweighs having to sort out hair and tidy computer room before calling. We decided to just get microphones for now and see how it goes.

Drop me an email if you want to know my user name!

One and counting

Today is a momentous occasion. I'm stunned and amazed that there's no mention of it on the BBC, CBC or CNN. Maybe they're going to run a special feature on tonight's news instead.

Yup, today marks one year since my first post.

I started this blog while away on a conference. It's an open secret that I wasn't happy in my job at the time, since all the meaty writing assignments I'd been promised were few and far between and I was spending most of my time editing product inserts. Hardly the experience I was looking for in my long term goal of making a living by writing about science. Bored and frustrated, I started reading and commenting on various blogs - Pharyngula, This Week in Evolution, Genomicron, ERV; namely the ones with a fairly hard core scientific content. I loved those online conversations and realised I hadn't lost my love of science.

So, on a flight down to LA, I had an epiphany. Why not start my own blog? I started scribbling in my notebook, and by the time we landed I had a rough draft of my first post. It's perhaps not surprising that I chose to write about a purely academic pleasure - seeing my own papers cited in new publications.

There was lots of down time at the conference, and I set up my Blogger account and uploaded my first post from my hotel room. No response, as predicted. I made my way over to Pharyngula, left an on-topic comment, entered my shiny new URL into the relevant box, and some kind souls were nice enough to click through and leave me a comment.

I was hooked.

Without the comments, I don't know how long I'd have kept writing. I see some blogs where the host never replies to the feedback their readers give, and I think, what's the point? This is supposed to be a conversation, right? That's why I do my best to reply to every comment. It sounds corny (not to mention pathetic and tragic), but the first thing I do when I switch on my computer every morning is to check my inbox for comments.

By the time I got back to Vancouver, I'd written several more posts, including my first "journal club" (which earned me my first link - from Makita at Everything and More!). Within a month or two I was brave enough to give my URL to a couple of friends, and got some lovely supportive feedback. It sounds really bizarre, but I felt my brain kick up into a higher gear. I'd been idling for a while, so the feeling was very welcome. I actually felt smarter.

I can't know for sure, but I think this blog helped me to get my current job. I was torn about applying, mostly because it was advertised so close to my upcoming wedding and four week honeymoon, and if my brain had still been in neutral I might not have taken the excellent advice I got from my postdoctoral adviser (basically, you're an idiot if you don't apply, but in a nicer way). I even included the blog in my CV, under "science communication experience", and at least one of the several people who interviewed me had a look.

Of course the irony is that once I started the new job, my itch to write about science in my spare time subsided, and it is no longer suitable for inclusion on a job application! Especially since I got noticed by someone at Nature (and for those who've asked, no, they don't give me any money!) and transferred all my scientific content over there. Luckily, you all seem to enjoy the silliness.

So, happy blog day to me! Thank you so much for reading, for commenting, for linking, for writing your own blogs, for being part of a conversation. I really appreciate your input and I truly feel like part of a community.

Divided by a common language

During my six years in Canada, I have had the pleasure of sending many forms, documents and letters, not to mention lots of hard-earned cash, to the following address:

Consulate General of Canada
Immigration Regional Program Centre
3000 HSBC Center
Buffalo, New York

Notice anything strange there?

Canada officially uses British English spelling, which as a Brit I tend to notice only in juxtaposition with the US alternatives. In reality, American English is not only tolerated but crops up all over the place. I’ve seen a lot of strange mixtures of the two spelling systems - most Canadian research centres (it’s almost always a centre) have tumour programs, but the odd tumor program or even tumour programme might crop up.

The reason I’m writing about this now is that I’m in the middle of finali(s/z)ing a big grant application. We’re submitting it to a US government agency, who are funding fewer grants each year and are becoming less and less likely to send money out of the country. My department has a large British contingent and has always used British spelling. However I’ve managed to persuade them to use US spelling this time around.

My time in industry taught me that when your customers are largely American, using British spelling is detrimental. I think this is because Americans are generally much less accustomed to reading British spelling than Brits and Canadians are used to reading American English. Words like tumour, realise, centre, colour and especially programme tend to leap out of the page at them and remind them that this is a foreign company that's trying to get their money. My last employers switched to US spelling in all their materials based on this kind of customer feedback.

The same goes for grants. The last thing we want to do is constantly remind our reviewers that this research will not be taking place in the USA. Of course they will already know this, but when every paragraph keeps reminding them that this is not an American application, it must affect their opinion of the grant in some way. Using American spelling won’t give us an advantage, but using British spelling would be a definite disadvantage.

Any thoughts? I’ve cross-posted this at my other blog to see whether the comments of my predominantly US-based Blogspot readers are any different to those of the more international crowd at Nature Network, which also contains several editors and other professional writers…

If you're fascinated by sharks (and who isn't!) you might want to check out this post too.

We can has boxercise?

I can has a YouTube account!

Here are Google and Saba in the cute box moment described in my last post. Wonderful camera work, no?



And for added entertainment value, here is footage of me beating my rock star brother-in-law at Guitar Hero on Christmas Day. Camera work by Mr E Man.



I'm not really into computer games at all, but this one was fun! I might even be tempted to buy a second-hand system at some point.

Random bullets of lazy posting

• I have discovered a new diet. It is called the Don't Bring Any Food To Work, Forget Your Wallet, And Don't Have Time To Find Someone Who Can Lend You Any Lunch Money Diet. 100% success guaranteed. May cause stomach to growl audibly while talking to your boss. Send me $29.99 and I'll tell you how it works!
• As with my last big grant deadline, I have made up a new word this week. Unformation - unhelpful information.
• A mother-in-law who is a keen gardener but says "your garden looks so colourful!" instead of "my goodness, what a lot of dandelions!" is a wonderful thing.
• It is best to check the wedding video your friend kindly made for you for inappropriate comments about kilts and wedding nights before watching it for the first time with your mother-in-law. (In retrospect we shouldn't have allowed said friend to interview our other guests after they'd been at the open bar for a couple of hours).
• A mother-in-law who doesn't comment on the above is an even more wonderful thing.
• There is nothing cuter than two cats playing together in a box that is too small for them, alternating between play fighting and cleaning each other's ears.
• Young nephews will tend to agree with the above sentiment.
• Cats will tend to run away from said nephews.

The weekend was fun, but a little chaotic! Big deadline this week! Proper posts soon...

Shuffle meme - scores and answers

Well, the response was great, especially considering the number of album tracks on there! Thanks everyone who took part, this was a really fun meme!


With one point available for each correct song title and band name*, how did everyone do?


1st with 8 points, EcoGeoFemme
=2nd with 5 points, Arduous and Dancing Fish
=4th with 4 points, Makita and Mad Hatter
=6th with 2 points, Kyrsten, ScienceGirl, StepwiseGirl and Ceresina
9th with 1 point, HypoglycemiaGirl


Here are the outstanding answers, complete with video links and waffle.

3) Although my lover lives, In a place that I can't live,
Come on Home, by Franz Ferdinand.

This is my favourite song of theirs. We saw them live a couple of years ago and they were fabulous. I've never seen anyone play guitar while standing on a drum kit before. Shame about the second album though.

5) I've got a rabbit, it likes to hop
Intimate Secretary, by the Raconteurs

Ceresina gets a point for the band's name! I bought this album because I think Jack White is a genius guitar god and I wanted to hear what he sounds like with a proper drummer and a bass behind him. Well, the answer is, not as good as he sounds in the White Stripes.

I'd always liked the Stripes, but didn't truly appreciate them until I saw them live at the loudest show EVAH. It isn't until you see for yourself that one man is making all that noise that you realise just how good he actually is. He makes that guitar sound like it has a personality, an opinion. It sings, man.

Here's Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes, just because it's awesome. The guitar solo kicks in at about 02:03.

9) You can force it but it will not come
DancingFish recognised this as Radiohead, but the song title is a bit obscure (Planet Telex).

The Bends is one of the few albums that I prefer to listen to in its entirety (the others being Graceland and Abbey Road, which loses the uniqueness of the medley on the second half if you play it on shuffle). My favourite song is probably High and Dry - I've never quite worked out what it's all about, but on occasion it's actually made me tear up.

11) Once upon a time, Not too long ago, Took a day out in Manchester

Whippin' Piccadilly, by Gomez.

Best live band I've ever seen - and I've seen U2, twice. I've seen Gomez four or five times now and would happily see them again and again, any time they're in town. I can't recommend them highly enough. Favourite song? Anything on the first two albums, but Hangover Girl is a standout for me. Too bad there's only a short clip of it on YouTube! If this meme inspires you to check out one new band, it should definitely be Gomez.

14) I tried it, I couldn't fight it, Now I just wanna get back to me
Man I Used to Be, by K-OS.

I would have been astonished if anyone got this, because he's not even all that well known in Canada (well, not on the West coast anyway). He deserves a much wider audience. Mr E Man and I got into him after hearing the audacious Crabbuckit on the radio one day.

18) We were walking, Walking in two worlds

Jack Names the Planets, by Ash.

This is a ridiculous song, but I love it. They're probably best known for Girl from Mars. Another good live band.

19) You're so young, And you know so much
Queen of the New Year, by Deacon Blue (only clip I could find, sorry for the quality!)

My all-time favourite Scottish band. Your Swaying Arms was "our song" with an ex-boyfriend, as the lyrics include some Glaswegian references that were meaningful to us ("One day I can see us walking, Arm in arm in sheltered Kelvin way"). It took me a couple of years to be able to listen to it again, but luckily I can now visualise just Glasgow when I hear it, rather than its previous bastardly inhabitant!

21) Stop making the eyes at me, I'll stop making my eyes at you

I Bet That You Look Good on the Dancefloor, by the Arctic Monkeys

Ceresina got this band's name too. The photo I linked to suddenly makes sense! I defy you not to dance around like a crazy person when this comes on. I didn't like the album much, but this song was an instant classic!

24) The word is about, There's something evolving

History Repeating, by the Propellerheads with Shirley Bassey.

It was worth buying the album just for this one song, although there is some other good stuff on there too.

It's fun reminiscing about all those live shows, on the day that I'm going to my first gig in months! Danko Jones, at the Commodore - my second favourite indoor venue after Glasgow's legendary Barrowlands. My friend's been into the band for years and they're finally playing in Vancouver. He couldn't persuade any of us to go down to Seattle with him to see them last year, but there's a good group going tonight. It's gonna be LOUD.

*The reason I didn't tell you that this was a competition is that I just made it up.

OMG OMG

I just met Trevor Linden, Vancouver Canuck and genuine local hero. I shook his hand and he signed an autograph for my friend's son, who is called... Linden. (Yes, his dad named him after a hockey player).

TL: "How do you spell that?"

CAE: "Well, he's named after you..."

(Seriously. This was our actual conversation).

Look at all those grey hairs I have! That's the building I work in behind us.

There were lots of other celebs there, including two Olympic medalists. Pretty much everyone ignored them and mobbed Linden instead. Welcome to Vancouver!

My friend Dr. Spandex was more organised than me and brought his jersey to be signed.

Sweet!

Dr. S. also has an iPhone (the first one I've seen) and is therefore officially the coolest person I know.

First music night: by the numbers

Yes, I finally managed to get a music night going.

Busker catz will play for katnip

- Instruments: 1 classical guitar(me), 1 flute (brother-in-law's hilarious new girlfriend)
- Bottles of beer: 1
- Bottles of wine: 1 (no, not each)
- Breakdown of time spent:

• retuning my guitar*, 5%
• bitching about BIL's crazy ex, 70%
• telling stories about my crazy ex colleague who joined a cult, 10%
• playing music, 15%

- My ability to play the pieces that caused me no problem when I was 16, as a percentage of my anticipated ability: ~43%
- Apparent amount of interest in music displayed by my cats: 1%, and that was only until they discovered that guitar strings aren't tasty.

It was fun though! Hopefully it will grow as I persuade more people that ability and talent are not only unnecessary, they're actually an impediment to enjoying the evening.

*I swear it got more out of tune the more I drank, maybe out of sympathy. To be fair it's got new strings on it and they're still slipping about a bit.