Free Rice

just one word for the day -- go to the following website www.freerice.com
it's fun and it helps feed people ...

in Halifax

-3 degrees!!! Yep that's the temperature outside right now at 9h30 am. Rather fresh like I like to say .. but the sun is filtering through the clouds and the light is absolutely gorgeous.
I've been here for a week - my oh my it doesn't feel that way at all!! - visiting my friend Marta who is a post doc here with Heike Lotze at Dalhousie university. The two of us met when she came for a short stint to UBC 4 years ago, whilst she was still working on her PhD. It's been wonderful wonderful to get to spend some time with her - and to have each other for company whilst we work 'til the wee hours of the night. Marta is a little machine -- very inspiring when lots of work needs to be done ;o)
However, we did take Tuesday off as Boris and Heike had invited us to their lovely house by the sea for dinner. It's an absolutely stunning place - in a little community of about 40 people, right by the water, it's quiet, idyllic, peaceful and yet you can see nature unfolding it's beautiful wildness right around you. The day before I arrived the tail of a hurricane had been sweeping through sending 15, yes FIFTEEN, meter waves crashing against the seashore!
After a week of working until 1 am we also took saturday off - which was a real treat!!! ...went into town and the market -- I LOVED it, it's located in a an old brewery and has so so much character, little stands of people selling cheese, right next to stand of people selling scarves, or ham or fruit of postcards! Full of visitors and regulars gently elbowing their way around... irish music playing at this corner, an incredible violinist practising at the other end. We sat on the steps in front of him for a while, his music delight to our ears... whilst eating a cinnamon bun that was rather tasty!!
On the way home we stopped in multiple small shops - getting inspiration for various xmas presents...
...and in the evening we went 'round to one of marta's friends' house, Diego and Allison - incredibly warm hosts and aquaria fans. They have truly stunning tanks -- 2 saltwater ones and 3 freshwater ones! The incredible thing about the saltwater ones is that they do not use any filtration equipment at all!!! and the corals look SUPER healthy - i was seriously amased -- trick of the trade - as few fish as possible ;o)

Diego is from Mexico - and his parents were visiting - so we got an amasing treat: mole. Absolutely fantastically delicious!!!
ahhhhhhhhhh life is good I tell ya!

Today we may brave the crazy cold and go explore a little bit when we take a break later this afternoon - Peggy's cove maybe.
Stay tuned ;o)

what it feels like in the tumble dryer

...this is exactly how I feel -- like I've been spun around and around and around and 'roud again... not really knowing where up nor down is... but slowly I am finding back onto my own two feet... the other day i said in an email to a friend of mine - i am trying to slowly move myself back into the eye of the storm.
the epiphany i had whilst caught in the storm and being tumbled around ... and whilst reading eat, pray, love by Elizabeth Gilbert (a book you HAVE TO read by the way) is that sometimes (that is relatively often these days) I've got my little control issues... i guess particularly as a scientist when you run experiments or play around with models, sure there is a certain amount of uncertainty that you have to content yourself with - but often you're the one in control... and studying in a place with so many strong personalities around 'control' is something important... but admitting deep within yourself that it's ok *NOT* to be in control and letting go is just as important ... and so i am smiling at myself as i know this but actually doing it is a whole other thing!!! ... and yet, it's just like in climbing where when you let go of the wall no matter how hard your brain is telling you don't do it, you know you ain't going to fall very far ... letting go in this instance is just as counter intuitive on some levels yet i also know nothing is really going to happen!!!

So i've moved to halifax for the next 2 weeks -- to focus on work and find my centre of balance again. I need to get a draft of my third chapter together - and it's been a real headache, to the point where it's had be up at night... the last couple of weeks have been relatively productive though so i am hoping to continue riding that wave. Plus my friend marta is here and she's got just as much insane amounts of work to get through so we can motivate each other and take breaks together :o) ... and she understands these crazy ecopath models better than i do so i hope to absorb some of those extra beams for sure and incorporate them solidly into my brain!!!!

the turtles are calling ;o)