My levels of general lab incompetence peaked recently when I managed to set fire to the bench, the alcohol burner, three of my fingers, and my nice glittery zebra print T-shirt (should have been wearing a lab coat and gloves, what?). The lab staff were rather more sympathetic to me than I really deserved, and only laughed at me a little bit as I sat for 90 mins unable to continue with my practical work and trying instead to type up my results one handed while the other one rested numb on a block of ice. Lifting it off the ice for more than a few seconds released the kind of throbbing shocks of agony that reassures you that this is only a surface burn – the nerve endings are clearly all intact.
We have reached the final phase of our field work. The final domain is market sampling, zipping between stall holders with our clip board and cold box, collecting a lettuce and a cabbage from each. 10 lettuces and 10 cabbages neatly placed in zip-lock sandwich bags, in exchange for a fair price and a small gift pack of toilet roll and soap as a little thank you for the additional trouble of answering our questions about storage duration, nearest toilet facilities, and so forth. Back at the lab, I pour half a litre of the special salt water into each bag and shake it about, trying to wash whatever may be on the surface off into the liquid so that I can filter it and watch it grow into one of those little blue dots. Sitting around in salt water for hours makes lettuce look rather limp and unappealing. The cabbage, however, is more resilient and seems to suffer no ill effects. So everyone in the lab – from technicians, to secretaries, to managers, to security guards- has been eating a very cabbage-heavy diet for the last week or two. I myself have not been very adventurous so far. Cabbage and noodle soup and a spicy cabbage and tomato stew have been my only efforts so far, but with 5 and a half cabbages taking up a full shelf in the (shared) fridge, I feel I should stir myself from my usual kitchen-based laziness tomorrow and perhaps try out Claire’s suggestion for cabbage rolls. I will update you on the results.
Where's Viv? 