Cambridge

Well I've been in Cambridge almost a week now and have slain the lumbering giant of Bureaucracy, and have thus been rewarded with the Talisman of Building Entry and the Spell of Wireless Internet Access. Unfortunately the wireless does not extend to my house, so I need to come into the lab to access it, but no matter.

I should probably do a full round-up of Font, but can't really be bothered. Check the photos on Flickr, and believe me that it is an astounding place. We barely scratched the surface, Bas Cuvier alone (where we spent one rainy afternoon) probably has enough lines to keep you going for a year or more. I didn't climb anything super-hard - coming back from a snapped collarbone will leave you weak - but I did climb some beautiful aesthetic lines. The one problem is that you tend to get spoiled by the prevalence of perfect landings, and skip over anything slightly sketchy, which wasn't helped by the fact that the people I was climbing with weren't the best spotters. I'll be back though, of that there is no doubt.

I arrived in Cambridge last Sunday (today being Saturday). The weather was, amazingly, gorgeous, but I wasn't exactly sure where I was going. I knew I needed to go to the Porter's Lodge on Andrews St, but was not aware that "Andrews" and "St Andrews" were used interchangably. My navigation woes were not helped by the fact that the only map I had was on my laptop, nor by the fact that I was toting 35 odd kilograms of stuff in my 2 packs. Nevertheless, I eventually found both the Porter's House and 67 Glisson Rd; my home for the next couple of months.

It is an interesting house, with 10 rooms intended for post-grads. The only other 2 people I have met so far are 2 American masters students, who seem harmless enough. My room is big and has a view over the garden. The shared toilet has the terrifying sound and action of Niagara Falls, while the shower shoots water out at a crazy angle that is likely to take out the eye of some unwary student. The kitchen is well set out, and apart from the massive pile of unwashed dishes that I refuse to touch, is quite clean too.

My first day in the lab was a touch weird; no one knew exactly when I was turning up or what it was that I was going to be doing. This was compounded by the fact that Steve and Debbie (Steve's secretary) were away. However, we eventually worked things out, and I am pretty much settled in. Things are still getting sorted out from the lab's recent move from Manchester, but everything I need is here. Juan Catrillo is in charge of making sure I don't break anything while I'm here, and his support and supervision has been fantastic. He's given me lots of feedback on my project, as well as on the techniques that I will be using, and we are both confident that we can achieve some worthwhile things with the short time available. I've met with Steve briefly, and he's given me some useful feedback too.

The lab set-up is quite different to what I'm used to in Australia, being somewhat post-doc heavy. The people in the lab are Nianshu (post-doc), Pinar (post-doc), Konstantinos (post-doc), Alex (who started here the same day as me - post-doc), Juan (post-doc), Trevor ("lab technician, but really he's the lab manager) and myself. So there are plenty of people from whom to get advice, which I really like. Juan is taking a really active interest in my project too, which is amazing.

Apart from work I haven't been doing an awful lot. I went and saw the Liverpool vs Arsenal match the other night, and have sampled a pint or two from nearby pubs (whoever says that English beer is not good is wrong - hand pumped ales ftw). I've been to the climbing gym twice and found that it may not actually be as bad as I had first thought. A campus board and hangboard would be great though. Today was spent wandering around getting snowed/hailed/rained on and generally checking out the town. It is, it must be said, a very pleasant town, even when you are being hailed on.

Two important things have happened back home while I've been away, Steve got a job in Melbourne and is off to join Meg down in cold town. "Cranky Steve" has been a good climbing partner for a while now, and has held the rope on a lot of my most memorable leads. Good luck mate, we'll miss your cranky lankiness, and indeed your lanky crankiness. More importantly though, my niece turned one while I was away! Happy Birthday Bri!