Au revoir, zver muzhik

Today, one of my husbands decided to take a ride (with me) away from the playing field and into the sunset.

(Source)

He played his last professional match, losing 4-6, 7-5, 4-6 to Juan-Martin del Potro, in the Paris Masters. *sigh* Marat and Paris, two of my favourite loves and I'm not there to be with either :'(

But now that he's not constantly on the Tour, we're gonna start making those babies that he wants and that I'm happy to give him.

Pfft, what do you mean, you have plenty of time to find the right woman? I'm right here!!!
Y tebya lyublyu.

Happy birthday, Eurostar!!! I *heart* you!!!

Can you believe it? The Eurostar turns 15 this weekend! :D To celebrate, the powers that be are throwing a birthday party of sorts and it's possible to win tickets to it - just go to this website here. It feels like yesterday that I was watching the two tunnels meet under the channel when the French and British workers shook each others' hands. I also remember when the French kicked up a fuss about it being called *The Chunnel* because they felt it didn't adequately reflect the French bit. Hehehe. Incidentally, the French name is Le tunnel sous la Manche (the tunnel under the Channel). Even as a Francophone, that's not very catchy.

When I was planning my first trip around Euroland, I was adamant that I HAD to travel from Paris to London via The Chunnel. Some people were all *Eh? But you can get a plane ticket from Paris to London for like a pound.* Maybe so. But that doesn't take into consideration the time and ticket costs required to take to get from various budget airports! Why do that when I could get from the centre of each city in less than 3 hours?! In fact, its just over 2 hours now that it's moved from Waterloo to St. Pancras!

Checkin' out Gare du Nord in Dec 04.
Wow, look at all that crap I'm bringing. Wouldn't have been able to take that as hand luggage on a plane!

I remember being all :D when you felt the train kick in and go fastfasterfaster! and then my ears popping as we went under the Channel! WooOOooooOOoo! Seriously, oh so cool. When the Great European Adventure 2007 kicked off in ...er...2007, Lydia, Pooey and I did it all again - centre of London to centre of Paris. It was so sweet, I could barely contain my excitement while I was on the choo-choo!

So excited, I had to hide it from the others...

before showing it to the world!
Pooey didn't understand my excitement at the time.

At the end of 2007, the London terminal moved from Waterloo to a new and sparkly one at Kings Cross/St Pancras. Unforch, I didn't take any pics of the station (dammit) because I was stressed out at how long it was taking me to get a cab from OKR and then worried about the crappy London traffic. So stressed that when I got to the station, I checked in right away. Foolish me. But the ride was worry-free (as usual!) and I revelled in the sing-song bilingual trip.

But I'm not the only one filled with love for the Eurostar! Pooey soon understood my love when she took it to meet me in 2008 and again then she went and infected Fen-Fen with the love when they went to Paris this past October (without me. *sniff*).

You've certainly brightened up our lives, Eurostar. Happy FIFTEENTH birthday!!! xoxo

Link Dump

The aircon isn't working in my house for some reason and it is therefore too hot for me to think of something to post here. Instead, here are some things to tide you over

Do you like acquiring trivial knowledge? Do you like finding out strange things about the world? Then AtlasObscura is for you!

When you really can't be bothered getting into xmas but everyone expects you to.

PENIS POWER!!!! (seriously, watch this video, although it's NSFW)

and PENIS POWER, THE REMIX!!! (again, NSFW)

Sculpture of the week - Medici Venus

Roman copy after Greek original, Medici Venus, First Century BC

Uffizi, Florence
(Source)

The Medici Venus was discovered during excavations of Hadrian's Villa near Rome and taken to Florence in the 17th century. Due to the dolphin at her feet, it is believed to depict Venus as she emerges from the sea following her birth. Because it is a copy of a Greek original, many variations of the work exist to varying levels of quality. The Medici Venus is located in the Tribune Room of the Uffizi (under the cupola).

Although the arms had been broken off, they were restored by Ercole Ferrata and is a two armed variant of the pudica gesture - Venus is allegedly covering herself out of shame but also drawing attention to what she's covering. This same gesture is seen in other ancient Venuses such as the Capitoline Venus, and in Renaissane paintings such as Adam and Eve's Expulsion from Eden by Masaccio and The Birth of Venus by Botticelli.

When Awesomeness met Epilepsy

One of the (few) perks of being a scientist is that these big biotech companies often come to the uni trying to convince us to use their products rather than a similar product from their competitors. Sometimes to convince us that they are awesome, they'll try to bribe us with food and little goodies - usually things like pens, notebooks, stressballs...I once scored two mugs from Corning and a pair of binoculars from Molecular Probes/Invitrogen.

Well Invitrogen came to uni about a fortnight/three weeks ago to promote something. I toddled along for the free cake (mmmm, cake) when I saw they had some cute stressballs. This was around the time I was having those nightmares, so I was pretty stressed. Anyway, I wanted a stressball but to get it, I had to fill in a questionnaire relating to what they were promoting.

I think the questionnaire went something like *Do you do PCR? (No!)* *Do you do protein analysis (No!)*...basically I answered No! to all the questions. I submitted the form, got my stressball, took same cake, was one happy Mally. A few days later, I got an email saying I had won a prize from answering that questionnaire and would I be around to receive it. I wasn't so it was dropped into my pigeon hole. Basically, it's a plastic beer glass that flashes coloured lights when you push a button at the base.

It was so cool, I took it to drinks for people to use!

The view when using it.

As awesome as the cup is, everytime someone tried to drink from it, I think our eyes started flashing and people got headaches. So awesomeness produced epileptic fits in all us science nerds but who cares? Free cup!!!

Time to give up?

Don't worry, this is not about my Phd! (Although I do feel it is time to give it the heave-ho). This is about when to concede that a garment can no longer be worn.

A few months ago, Pooey bought me a tierd skirt from Primmy. I really liked it and wore it a few times before throwing it into the washing machine. It came out incredibly wrinkled! No worries. I'm not terrible at ironing (hi Lydia!) but I had enough faith in my ability to make it presentable.

I'm not sure how many times I've attempted it, but I'm about to give it up and throw it out. This is what the skirt looks like.

But I don't want to concede defeat yet!!! I will admit I feel pretty stupid about not willing to give it up. Because Primmy is a store that sells things so cheaply that it probably utilises third-world slave-labour, the skirt probably cost about 10 quid at most (about $20) and the low quality work is probably contributing to why I can't iron it. So, should I bother trying to investigate ways to iron it or should I just chuck it out?

This poll will run for a fortnight!

Is this true?!

You Are an Oddball

You tend to be understated and under appreciated. You have a hidden force to do amazing things, doing them your own way. People may see you as strange and shy, but they know little. Your unconventional ways have more power than they (and even you) know. Your strength: Standing up for what you know is true Your weakness: You tend to be picky and rigid Your power color: Silver Your power symbol: Square Your power month: April

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Blogthings: Quizzes and Tests and Memes, Oh My!