Prepare yourselves for the GEL GEL GEL!

When I was little I lived more or less alone with my mam. My father died when I was 7, my brother and sister are much older than me and had moved away to uni etc etc. Although it was a horrible event that left us alone I value my life with my mother so much. It's hard to describe really, she is my mother and I love her to bits, but she's also my very best friend, confident, and big sister in so many ways. There's nothing I can't tell my mother and there's no one I'd rather have a cup of tea and a chat with. I'm super lucky as my husband and her get on fantastically even to the point that when she had an operation he took her shopping to get her out of the house! I'm blessed to have such an amazing family.

Although that was a bit of a sideways ramble, the reason is because I had the most glorious breakfast and it's all down to my mother. She eats like a sparrow so I was brought up with "sensible" breakfasts. Two slices of toast with jam on didn't make a breakfast in my mothers eyes, we'd fill up on low salt cereal and fruit. It sounds boooring but it's given me an appetite for fruity breakfasts. Here's today's offering, my very favourite:

Simple, tasty, quick and easy. Just to add I had both halves! It's sharp and drippy and definitely the type of fruit you have to eat before you put your work clothes on for the day -drippy slurpy fun! I have a fascination with grapefruits, oranges and most citrus fruits. It's amazing how they grow. Crazy yet nerdy stuff!

So the job is going brilliantly. Absolutely love being back in the lab and doing routine after routine and coming across problems I have to straighten out. Problems such as these:

On these plates are some spread colonies which really shouldn't be there. These are the results of repeating experiments and not knowing what is growing. I then have to take the colonies, make new plates on different agar and see what grows. The point of agar is to encourage certain types of bacteria to grow, they will provide what we call "optimum conditions" depending on the type of bacteria. If the samples in the above pictures turn out to be positive on the red circle you can just about see on the top on the pic then lots of £££ will be wasted as the whole run needs to be destroyed!

I have a downside to the job so far, but eventually it won't be my job thank christ! THIS is the sample room:




It's awful. It's where we keep 1kg of each sample of the production to make trial blends which are specific to each company which orders. For instance, some companies require A, B, D and Q while others need B, D, Q and Z. The tests we do in the "bug lab" (microbiology) aren't relevant to these blends, it's more the chemistry and the physics (the role I will be doing) that's important. Anyway, the reason I hate this place is.....


LOOK HOW DARK IT IS! Hello darkness and things that live in the dark. It's terrifying. Makes me get the willies just thinking about it! I gotta get used to it for now. I may have to pick up some of the slack when the girl I work with goes on hols. Ewwww!

So at the moment while I wait for my job to be created I do the easy stuff that I can do without training (mainly cos I've done it 4 years ago and the instructions tend to be the same from lab to lab!) I make a load of agar! Here are the powders dissolving up in some lovely beakers of DI water. I love these heaters cos they stir too, yay! Can just leave them work away on their own and let the power of magnets work their magic


Check my little stirring dude. Spin lil dude, spin!




I don't just make easy agar, I make hard, time consuming agar (hehe!) This is a broth which is a total pain in the bum to make. You have to sterilise everything before you use it as it can't be autoclaved - it would denature the broth. Then you have to boil it and swish it every 5 mins for 50 mins and not let the temp go out of a certain range.
On a separate note, check out the little balls. Clever piece of kit as it stops the water evaporating. Whoever invented those made a lot of money out of them. Pretty colour broth! Shame it stains everything it contacts (hence using old bottles!)





Work is great. It's pretty much stress free slow paced day. There are lovely people to talk to but no pressure should I wish to have a quiet day. We've all pretty much got one earphone in constantly and discuss music/podcasts a lot. Coffee flows freely and it's really cosy there. Great choice Leah, even if I do say it myself.

Habibi and I went out for post work dinner tonight, was luverly. We went to TGI Friday's and had a nice sharing starter and a hearty meal. I opted for the chicken and shrimp with a side of salad seeing as I'm trying to cut down. Thing is though, TGI's serve something I couldn't resist:

GOD BLESS THE COSMO! To be honest I score this cosmo only 5/10. It was over-shaken, in a warmish glass, too little cranberry juice and I had to ask for it to be topped up as it was well under 3cm from the rim! It should never be more than 1cm. The saddest bit was the bar tender who made it for me was an old colleague of mine in a cocktail bar so I KNOW he was trained to the same standards as I was. Bad times. Cosmo watch will return, watch this space!


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