Christmas~~~

Last Christmas season, the all empty streets in London impressed me a lot. How about Edinburgh exactly on Christmas day? The answer looks so appealing to me. Besides, I am also quite curious about how it feels when working on Christmas.

Would say, when catching the only early bus in the morning, people I saw on streets are more than my expectation. None of them looked anxious to home, which is quite different from our situation. Some dressed like tourists, but others, difficult to figure out, coming out for fresh air maybe.

Fish care was carried on smoothly, however, going back home became the biggest problem due to the so called SPECIAL SERVICE. Luckily I was not alone. It feels very intimate when seeing people also waiting there at the same time. This is better than none! Their comments sparkled in my mind. So instead of worrying about how to go back, I tended to focus on chatting. Our own work, hobbies and hometown all became very nice topics.

Although eventually the bus only took me to princess street so that I had to walk back, I still felt full of energy. Two sentences kept refreshing my mind, Edinburgh never sleeps and there is always good you have something to choose from.

Becker lab lunch

Have you ever imagined this amazing view that a group of while coat people holding flasks on one hand while swinging a pot on the other?

Well, although it looks funny, it's has been proved in our lab a good scientist will also be a qualified cook if he wants to.

Have you thought about trying different food all over the world without any travelling?

Well, come and join our lab lunch. Every Friday, you will have chance to taste international home-made food and absorb new recipes. Of course, the internationalized extent is depend on how many international colleagues you have.

But it is an interesting platform indeed. We ever tried Hiro, a Japanese classmate's first "experiment". Though he told us he had never cooked before, the feedback shows it's a masterpiece. See, we succeeded again to explore people's talents. We also have very experienced chef whose dishes can always surprise us. And the topic on the dining table could be various too. From politics to contaminated cucumber, from peanut butter to world history, what you get afterwards is not only a full-filled  stomach, also intellectual enrichment as well as joys and relaxation.

Perhaps, at the end of my Phd, there will be a thick book with pics and recipes called BECKER LAB LUNCH. But right now, regarding environmentally friendly, they only exist on line:

http://beckerlablunch.blogspot.com/

Enjoy!

lab lunch

It’s the first week since I came back to start my Phd study. I did not imagine my first big event is to prepare the Friday lunch for the whole lab, which is one of our popular traditions.

This time I chose to do one cold dish and another kind of braised meat concerning what Yujie cooked last time is extremely popular. As an experiment, I also baked some Chinese savory leek bread with an electronic pan. Hope the results don’t look so terribleJ

Personally I preferred sour and spicy. So in the cold dish, using carrots and onions as main ingredients , a lot of Chinese vinegar (Chencu) and chilly oil, plus a little bit soy sauce were mixed into this flavor, typical my style. It would be perfect if some grated spring onions are added. But again, the key is the vinegar and chilly.

红烧肉(Hongshaorou, braised meat) is one of my favorite because it’s very delicious but still easy to cook. Fresh pork belly is cut into dices, so it is with those potatoes. When the oil is heated, put the pork dices together with ginger and garlic into the wok. After a few stirrings, when the meat changes colour, add light soy sauce and a whole bag of Five Spice Powder. Then add half wok of water to leave the meat braised. Potatoes are optional. I chose it because I know many people love its flavor. One hour later, add potato dices into the wok and leave until they are cooked. When serving, no matter when you open the lid, the aromatic smell will give you a fantastic appetite. Even the sauce is superb for rice.

I quite enjoyed the process to prepare food for others. Hope you could also like this simple recipe.

Days with parents

How time flies~~~Since my parents came out of the airport with a big smile, almost one month has already passed. Now when recalling those joyful days, each scene is as vivid as happened yesterday.

We ever went around highland using public transport system. Though most of our days are quite wet, laughters and high spirits are shining in our meories all the time. When it comes to our trip to london, almost everyday there was some unexpected emergency going on stage, booking the wrong tickets, mobile phones out of battery and delayed train. Each story starts in shock but always falls down the curtain with endless joys.

Be honest, as a tourist guide, I came across the most picky and naughty "clients" that seem would continue to be my biggest headache in the future. However, as a daughter, I would like to express my gratitude here. Thank you for accompanying me around always in my way. Thank you very much!!!

For new people

Since more and more fresh force gonna join us this September, concerning my confusion when first coming to this city last September, I would like to share some of my lessons here.

First of all, find a proper place to stay, which is one of the important thing. Pay attention to the landlord and the environment of the community. I ever had a painful experience to deal with very nasty English landlord. Consulting the related office of university might be a good choice. Whenever it is, protecting yourself always comes first.

Then, it’s better to communicate with your future colleagues and classmates. Sometimes you cannot imagine how tremendous their help could be.

Besides, adjust to be adapted to the climate here. Better for you to explore your own  way to cheer up.

At last but not at least, enjoy your life here, after all it’s why you are coming for.

My Fish

Every time running between QMRI & Chancellor, I was always stopped by questions like ”what’s in your hand ”. So today I am gonna talk about, hush, be quiet, I don’t think my supervisor would like to hear my possessing that personally. Although I haven’t been in charge of any line, I bet everybody would say my dear after seeing them.

Actually these little guys are not easy to deal with. They have three meals per day, twice Artemia, one kind of live bugs, once dry food. We rotate to feed them every day, sometimes even when I am hungry, have to make sure they get food on time first. But watching them chasing Artemia is quite an enjoyable experience. Good Artemia is transparent when splashing into water, at this moment those fish would gather around the food hole, waving their fins to dance with those crystal like Artemia. They also love jumping, seemingly willing to get out of the tanks. But silly kids, don’t they know this would kill themselves?

We tried various ways to make them happy, music, talking or changing water. I ever tried to train them Chinese listening, however, they only turned to be more sensitive to the food. All of these is actually to make them lay more eggs for the experimental use. Sometimes it works, others may not. In that case we have to create as many one night loves as possible to push them. A little bit cruel, isn’t it? But among them, I also found a super couple who can lay tons of high quality eggs every week, which I believe there is definite some true love between them. See, in animal world it proves again true love is unusual stuff so once you come across, just hold it as tightly as possible.

Our fish are different in they can express fluorescent proteins. So under the microscope, it appears to be a distinct world.

Recent

These days, so many things occurred, maybe only a mosaic of short stories can cover most of them.

I know I rarely have good luck, but this time it appears even worse. Whenever my determined to do anything, so many unexpected things just pop up to challenge my “tolerance level”.

When preparing to cook a big meal for my lab colleagues last Thursday, I happened to know getting extra work to do, fixing the embryos, which means I need first move three embryos from one well onto a new petri dish, dechorionating them and deyolking, then transfer them into a 24-well plate, add the fixing solution after removing as much water as possible. If one round takes me about 20 minutes at least, not including the interval of cleaning the dish, then repeating almost 30 wells equals 10 hours and it’d been near 6pm at that moment. There is a desperate voice speaking by my side, give up bcz you have more stuff to deal with. Zhen said she felt I almost burst into tears at that moment. Thank goodness for her brilliant advice, putting all the embryos on the lid of the plate so that I can dechorionate and deyolk all of them at the same time, which saves me tremendous time and efforts. Although that night I worked till nine, rushed to the shop for those raw materials and cooked till midnight, I was still proud of that cramped evening. After all I finished everything necessary. Zhen also inspires me that never give up till the last minute and proper arrangement can have astonishing overall improvement of efficiency.

Sometimes the more eagerly you rush to one thing, the more creepy it turns out to be. I spent the entire afternoon to fix a plate of embryos but dropped it eventually when moving the roller into the cold room. How I wish the time could go back again when I would have definitely first placed the plate on the bench then moved the roller! Right now only one big lesson can be obtained from that.

The frustrating result of last project also came out last week. Though I thought to have tried my best last time, it seems there are still more problems to correct. No wonder they say we are all on the journey of learning. Fortunately I got some helping hands.

I think the essence of life is to carry on with various defects. So just be patient.