It's like waiting for a bus to arrive . . .

Unfortunately the old allegory of "it's like waiting for a bus to arrive; nothing for a while and then two turn up" didn't quite hold today. I was waiting for the X5 bus tonight (Cambridge -> Oxford) and ended up waiting for 2 hours before giving up and going back to college. They are supposed to be every 30 minutes from Cambridge to Milton Keynes - two turned up and drove straight past as they were full up! Not sure why it was full up, but it means that I now have to catch the crack-of-dawn bus tomorrow morning to MK or face an angry girlfriend, which is always very inadvisable.

Today we had a group meeting at the Magnetic Resonance Research Centre (http://www.cheng.cam.ac.uk/research/groups/mri/html/mrrc.htm) which is a fortnightly thing. Generally a couple of members present updates on their work and we discuss things about the site - usually which doesn't really concern me as I am based over in Engineering for the bulk of my work as my second (and arguably more important) supervisor is based there too. I find the others' work very interesting though - it feels as though they are doing "real" science whereas I just play with maths and computers all day! It can be a little overwhelming as the bulk of it is magnetic resonance imaging and catalysis, but I suppose that it's good for me to get a grip on the research going on and the techniques as it can serve me well. I'm collaborating with one third-year PhD student at the moment there as her work should provide some good insights into the two-phase models that I want to implement.

Sad to see the cloud back again though, it's been like a glimpse of summer here for the past couple of weeks! The ducks are all out and pestering the tourists for bread and other treats. The West Cambridge site is curious, as it's the only place where the University can actually build new buildings - good location for me (right next to Robinson College) but it's always very windy there! There is no protection from the natural Easterly breeze that rolls through Cambridge. There's a very nice pond and "garden" for the site though with a few picnic benches. Today when I was on my way back I saw a Chinese mum and her little daughter who was telling her mum "我要抱抱鸭子!" - "I want to hug the duck" - the duck though apparently didn't share the same want for physical contact. He did like the posh bread though!