I had an interview for a position at Leicester University today, and guess what, I got it

The position is an archive scientist, working with the LEDAS stuff and the superwasp stuff. The LEDAS side is looking after the hardware and software of the X-ray archive server at Leicester, so lots of web interface stuff to huge X-ray databases The superwasp stuff is along similar lines; looking after the hardware and software of the archive. This is fast becoming one of the biggest astronomical databases in the World, so lots of things for me to break. Then there is the research side too, I get to do independent research too!

So all in all it really is an awesome job for me, since I do the web stuff as a hobby this is kind of merging of my job and my hobby

They said I can start at the beginning of November, so by then I need to have finished decorating the house and sold it. Then I can go and move up to Leicester. Oh yeah, and I need to finish that minor task also known as my thesis….

Imagine a place where a giant raccoon can sit in a Japanese garden next to a green lady with wings, designing a satellite experiment with high school students from all over the country. This may sound like the deluded babblings of a mad man, but such a place really exists. Well, virtually. This place is Schome Park, and I am that raccoon.

Schome Park is a private island on the teen grid of Second Life®. It is owned by a group of researchers at the Open University exploring the cutting edge of educational theory. With over one hundred schools across the U.K. (and more in the U.S.A.) registered in Schome Park, we are toying with the very foundations of education as we know it.

Second Life is a virtual world where residents can create whatever objects they can imagine, programming them to behave however they wish. Each resident has an avatar that they can personalise; we have had everything from a brain in a jar to people with blue skin. This allows a degree of anonymity that breaks down any social barriers built by real life communication. The only departure from this anonymity is the distinction between adults and those under 18 via their avatar surname. One of the fundamental ideas behind Schome Park is that everyone can, and should, teach everyone else. It’s an idea that works, with the majority of activities being student-led and evaluated, giving them the responsibility of moulding their own education.

In collaboration with the Schome educational researchers, we (a couple of space science Ph.D. students also at the Open University) have successfully used this virtual world to engage teenagers in space science. We have entered a student team in a national competition run by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) and The British National Space Centre to design a satellite instrument for launch in 2010.

Exploiting the virtual environment of Second Life means we have not been restricted by the limitations of the real world - a great advantage when designing things that are out of this world! Using aspects of this virtual environment, and the supporting Schome forum and wiki, we have overcome our geographical separation and proposed an instrument to record Earthshine from Low-Earth Orbit.

Earthshine is sunlight reflected off the Earth onto the Moon. We have built scale models of the Sun-Earth-Moon system in-world, to understand the scientific principles behind the Earthshine phenomenon and the proposed instrument. The instrument (S.C.H.O.M.E. - Spectroscopy, Climate and Habitability from Orbital Measurement of Earthshine) comprises a spectrometer currently being adapted for the ESA ExoMars mission combined with simple optics. This will take albedo measurements from the Earth, and its apparent “signature”, as would be seen from outside the Solar System, can be obtained. More specifically, the instrument will record in the visible/near infra red wavelength range, where features of minerals/soils, vegetation, oxygen, water and ozone are visible, some of which are key indicators of life.

The application of measurements from the S.C.H.O.M.E. instrument are two-fold. Firstly, our proposed instrument can record the signatures of the only planet we know that harbours life. Earthshine measurements can therefore serve as a reference for assessing the nature of and the habitability of exoplanets. This ties in with the big budget missions such as ESA’s CoRoT & Darwin and NASA’s Terrestrial Planet Finder and New Worlds Mission which are all directed to discover exoplanets and assess their habitability. Secondly, such Earthshine measurements can also be input to climate models. This will help us to assess solar heating effects due both to albedo and specific spectral absorption features of components of surface cover, thus aiding our understanding of our changing planet.

Having been selected as one of six finalists in the competition, we have been working with engineers from SSTL and more scientists at The Open University to develop the instrument further, and have just submitted the final proposal. With restrictions on mass, space, power and money (100g, 10cm³, 1W and a £100,000 development budget) will our virtual satellite become a reality? The winner is announced at the IAF in Glasgow on the 3rd October. So, watch this (virtual) space!

To find out more visit www.schome.ac.uk

So Olly and I decided we were going to finally take the plunge….. As we both work full time, tend to travel a lot and live in a flat we can’t really have pets So Olly and I decided to invest in a plant each.  The idea being that if we could look after a plant successfully, maybe we could progress to a living thing of the animal variety (a piggy)! So we each chose our plants. Olly: a Bonsai tree.  More specifically the growing-in-the-rock type - a tree that represents the struggle to survive…. and Me: I bought a Venus Fly trap! I was wondering how the plants refelct our personalities… the Bonsai requires lots of meticulous preening whilst the Venus Fly trap is just a wild carnivore!  I’m so impressed - my plant is still alive and has caught a fly, i also saw it snap shut one of its traps yeaterday.  I’m hoping it will continue to grow [I'm thinking little shop of horrors style here!].

This is the first time i have been capable of using a computer (without getting nauseous) for 5 days now!  It started on Thurs morn, i woke up with a sore throat….nothing new there, i get them all the time.  I have a crap immune system.  By Sat night my temp was almost 39.6oC, was having severe throat pain, sinus probs, couldn’t eat and was severely sleep deprived.  On Sunday i saw a nurse at the walkin clinic at MK hospital.  She said I had viral tonsillitis and sinusitis, all she could do was prescribe me codeine to alleviate the severe pain in my throat but could not offer anything else. So Olly and i came back home.

I took one codeine tablet and became as high as a kite (!) so I passed out asleep [however, i must add, the pain didn't actually go away!]. About three hours later my temperature had started to soar again, my throat and face had swollen and i had broken out in red spots all over my arms, face and legs so Olly and I rushed to the hospital (panicking)!

I was seen by a Nurse who thought i had bacterial tonsillitis or strep (she didn’t know what the rash was from), then I was seen by a Dr who said i had viral tonsillitis and couldn’t give me anything for the pain :’(

By monday the red spots had turned into red blotchyness all over me (the photos aren’t too good)

Tuesday I went to my GP who within 2s of looking at my throat and said i had (bacterial) tonsillitis and prescribed me antibiotics, he also prescribed me this aniseed tasting liquid to gargle with.  It takes away the throat pain for an hour or so…..and i’m allowed to use it every 1.5 hours! I’m very happy - I have extended my ability to sleep!!!!

So currently, i still have a temperature, throat pain, am still red and blotchy and have a swollen face and neck - but all should get better now i’m on antibiotics….

Olly has been amazing, waiting on me hand and foot, putting up with my vomiting and inability to sleep at night!  I think he is also sleep deprived….I REALLY hope I haven’t given him tonsillitis

Ingredients

120 g soya butter, softened
115 g packed brown sugar
50 g white sugar
1 egg or egg replacer equivalent
1 tsp vanilla extract
100 g rice flour
125 g rolled oats
50 g unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

*preheat oven to 180oC
* cream the soft soya butter and the white and brown sugar together.
* add vanilla extract, rice flour, oats, cocoa, baking soda, salt and egg replacer (or egg) and mix well.
* Line a tin with greased baking paper, roll the dough out and flatten into cookies. Bake in the oven for 8 mins (for soft brownie like cookies) or 12 mins (for cookies crispy on the outside but soft in the middle).

Tips
Before putting the cookies on the baking tin you can fold in lots of other ingredients:
- nuts
- chocolate chips (dark, milk or white)
- marshmellows
- toffee pieces
- rasins

So today Olly and I went to Farnborough International Airshow to represent the Schome Space Experiment team in a nationally run competition for high school students to design an experiment to go on board a satellite!  Unfortunately none of the Schome students could go, but they did prepare a poster for the BNSC “Space for Inspiration” exhibit at the airshow.

Olly and I presented the Schome space experiment poster to Ian Pearson MP (Minister of Science and Innovation) and other invited guests. Olly and I actually got mistaken for High School students by some of the people there!!!!  It might have had something to do with the “bothered” T-shirt Olly was wearing!!!!! LOL! We had a chance to spy on the other entries (and entrants!) and even Buzz Aldrin made an appearance to chat to people. Olly and I also received three book prizes presented by Ian Pearson MP to the Schome Team for getting through to the final.

After presenting the poster Olly and I went for a wonder to look at various things from the Airbus A380 taking off, to acrobatic fighter jets.  We filmed everything but editing the podcast is taking ages…. i will get around to posting a link to it at some point. All in all a tiring day!

So I am back from Cape Town now, I might bore you with the details of the touristy things I did later, but for now you have to make do with my random complainings.

I stopped in a four star hotel called The Capetonian. It was in a nice location and at a nice price too (was about £30 p/n). I think I know why it was so cheep.

The staff were somewhat inept it has to be said. In fact I would go as far as saying that they would struggle to organize a piss-up in a swimming pool full of vodka when everyone is in the pool. And drunk.

When I booked in I asked (and paid) to use the internet in my room. Now to me that implies that I would like to be put in a room that can actually access the wireless. So when I went back to the desk about half an hour later and they said “Oh you want to use the internet? Well you won’t be able to use it from your room, it’s too far away from the access point” I wasn’t impressed. Grrr. Time for a room change.

Then I asked to use the shuttle bus to go to the docks, now it is supposed to run on the hour, so at a quarter to I asked if it is going and they said yes, then I waited. About half an hour later I went and enquired, “Oh, you want the bus? It will be leaving soon”. About fifteen minutes later I decided that the fifteen minute walk was certainly not worth more than a forty minute wait, so I walked.

It’s this sort of blasee attitude to life that makes me love my beloved Blighty so much.

And as for the hotel itself. Hmmm. It seems the South Africans don’t believe in fuses in plugs, or wiring plugs correctly for that matter. Every room I was in had sparks flying….

Then there is the building that was being demolished next door. When I came they put me in the room closest to it, not happy. It then took two days of being woken up at 8am before they would move me, not good when you have been working until 6am for the last week.

And of course there was the bathroom. I suspect that some kind of blind baboon installed it. All the fixings were not fixed to the walls properly and water ran along the bath, around the corner and onto the floor. Then of course into the main part of the room.

So my advice to you, if you are ever looking for a hotel in Cape Town, is don’t choose The Capetonian. Right, time to go vent some of this annoyance on hotel review sites…..

So I was wondering down to a restaurant in the centre of town to get some nice whisky steak when two guys started to head towards me. They looked like trouble. They walked up to me and started talking at me. I didn’t really understand what they were saying as they were mumbling. Then I twigged that they were trying to mug me! The bastards.

Then one said he had a knife in his pocket and he was kinda moving his hand around a bit in his pocket to make it look big. Clearly not a knife I thought to myself. So I said to him in a rather sarcastic way, “you, have a knife in there?” At which point I turned and legged it (there was no way I was going to let them have my student card - I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night thinking someone was getting my student discount).

Luckily there was a security guard/police man nearby who then gave chase. He called his friend on a bike who pursued them into the sunset.

I knew I shouldn’t be walking around late at night. Ho hum, can’t go to Cape Town and not get mugged I suppose.

Ok so i forgot to mention that last night, we visited a bar that served over 300 types of Beer - i was so drunk after my gigantic measures of cognac at dinner, that i couldn’t actually drink any alcohol in there….

I also forgot to mention that last night Spym got accosted by some jail bait! He was such a baby face, 18 (if that!). He had the added attraction [sarc] in that he looked like one half of Bros [cheesy 80's pop group]….made me chuckle! LOL!

Anyway, this morning after rapidly packing my suitcase [with the hangover headache from hell] - we went and grabbed a bite to eat before visiting the diamond museum. It was quite impressive to see diamonds 500 carrots in size (take note of the pictures Bint!).  We ventured back to the hotel to check train times and bumped into others that were on the hen do that were a little worse for wear, I think they were trying to sleep on the sofas in the hotel lobby!  We met up for lunch with the others in one of the little squares, after which Spym and I went wondering into many chocolate, lace and tapestry shops. The tapestries were beautiful, i only wish we had the type of home that could benefit from hanging tapestries - yes Spym and Al I am very jealous of your home!!!!!

We finally meandered back to the hotel, the others had already driven to the Chunnel by then. Thankfully no dramas on the Eurostar nor the rest of my journey back to MK….in fact i was back home by 8:30pm! Anyway lots of pics will be uploaded to the website and a selection to facebook tomorrow. Brugges was very pretty, I wish I could paint - the scenery was inspiring. I could not believe just how many chocolate shops there were, the smell of chocolate and waffles in the air as you wandered around was intoxicating! It was good to catch up with everyone on the hen do too - Steve and Elizabeth’s wedding is only a few weeks away now….I should really figure out what i am going to wear!

Well I have been back from the S.A.A.O. for a few days (when I say back I mean in Cape Town), so I thought I would let you all know how it went.

Firstly it is beautiful up there, the sunsets are amazing and, as you would expect from an astronomical facility, all the telescopes are cool looking too! Have a look at the pics. I even went to see SuperWasp this time.

I was using the 1.9m with a new polarimeter that Steve Potter is commissioning, this meant that there were plenty of bugs to play with. I got to have lots of fun figuring out why stuff wasn’t working and if the stuff we thought was working really was.

For most of the week I was in charge of the telescope and Steve looked after the instrument. This was cool ‘cos the telescope is operated from a control panel directly underneath it (instead of from the control room like most modern domes). So I got to see the whole thing move as I pressed the prettily lit buttons

We lost three nights of our seven, two for cloud and one for humidity. It’s so incredibly frustrating losing a night because of humidity, you can see the stars perfectly but you can’t open the dome as water condenses on the telescope

About half way through the week Steve found a spider in his room. I kinda wish he hadn’t showed it to me, it was big and hairy. So every night from then on when I got in (even if I was really tired) I would shake the bed down, what a girl.

It wasn’t until the trip back to Cape Town that it was pointed out that the nearest doctor was about two hours away, and the nearest hospital three! I think it’s probably best I didn’t know that really, since I am sure that subconsciously I would have made myself walk off a gantry or something.