Little Frog

Honeymoon Last Part of the Journey

2011-12-07T18:56:00.038Z

After 12 hours of flight from Paris to Los Angeles, we waited for 2 hours at the airport and took off around 4.30pm (local time) for another 8 hours of flight to Papeete (Tahiti). I slept through most of the journey (just waking up for the meals!). For the hot meal we had:

· Appetiser: Grilled chicken and four bean salad

· Choice of Main Course: Beef Stroganoff with mashed potatoes and a medley of carrots, peas and corn or Moroccan-style roasted chicken thigh with white rice and mixed vegetables

· Cheese

· Papaya mousse

For the cold light meal:

· Appetiser: Fresh seasonal salad with mozzarella cheese and Thousand Island dressing

· Main Course: Bow tie pasta salad with roast beef

· Rice Pudding

By the end of the flight, the plane was quite cold and it was nice to drink some hot soups available on board.

I started to watch a documentary before we landed, talking about Tahiti and its traditions. The documentary started with typical French Polynesian music played by three people on a bench.

Then we landed in Tahiti. It was the scariest landing I’ve ever had! It was very dark outside; we could only see the surface of the sea with the moonlight. As we approached the landing site, all we could see was water under the plane! It came so close to the water that we could almost see the fish in the sea!

We finally, safely, landed at Tahiti Faaa airport around 9.30pm (local time). The first impression by coming out of the plane was the ambient humidity making every move difficult. It feels slightly less bad than being in a steam room but as you may imagine, you feel like you are sweating all the time and breathing is a bit more difficult (maybe that’s why exercising seems more difficult too).

Again we were welcomed by a Polynesian person giving a Tiare flower to each passenger.

I found so funny that w few minutes after watching a documentary in the plane, I could see the real guys playing Polynesian music!

After getting out of the airport, we were greeted by one of the Tahiti Cruise & Vacation Agent who gave us our holiday pack with all the details and a necklace made with local flowers to each of us. The necklace smelt so nice and it had very colourful flowers. She gave us a lift to our hotel at Tahiti Airport Motel. It was 2 minutes away from the airport. We arrived in our room at around 10.30pm. It was great to finally see a proper bed to sleep on! We had free Wi-Fi in our bedroom which allowed us to communicate with the European World where people just started their day. The last place we slept, well in what looked like a bed, was 27 hours before in a night train bed. The last real bed we had was on the wedding night which was 51 hours ago at this point. So, around midnight, after a long 23 hours flight journey, we both fell asleep.

The next day, we woke up nice and early between 5-6am. We had a lovely view on the airport when we went for our breakfast at 7am. Everything looked new. It’s as if everything looked familiar and yet so different. You see the trees, but none of them look like the ones you are used to. When you see birds, you think that they are pigeons or sparrows but they aren’t.

At 8am, we left the hotel and walk back to the airport to check in for our next flight. We were very excited about taking this flight after which our honeymoon would really start. The airport is very small and fans could be seen everywhere on the ceiling. Our flight was not taking off until 9.05am, so we sat down and watched a film to wait and relax.

We took our flight at 9.05am with Air Tahiti. The plane was rather small, being quite tall, I had to bend while walking in the alley of the plane. The plane was white with red pattern representing sea waves.

We were amazed by the view of Tahiti from the plane after it took off. However, it was nothing as good as what was to come on the journey...

...we were advised to sit on the left side of the plane to see the view of Bora Bora Island before landing. We had the best spot! I made sure we were on the front so we wouldn’t have the wing of the plane blocking the view for taking photos. A group of French television (France 5) seemed to be quite annoyed to be behind us because of the propeller of the plane in the middle of their view for filming. They came with a lot of camera equipments for filming and taking photos.

The landing in daytime was as scary as landing in night time. Again, all you can see is the water getting closer and closer until you feel the plane landing on some piece of land that just appeared underneath the plane.

The blue of the water was wonderful. It was quite windy, which was nice with the humidity level there. There were no security check of any kind there, no scanners, no x-rays, nothing! We waited for a short time for our luggage to be removed from the plane and after collecting them, a person from the Meridien Hotel took them, and placed them in a private boat. We were, again, greeted at the airport with a necklace of flowers.

We went on the boat with a few other people and were driven around Bora Bora to the Hotel.

I could never get tired of looking at the colour of the water. I was making sure that each bit of our trip was taken in photo and filmed!

We finally arrived at the Meridien Hotel were our luggage were being taken care of. We were greeted with free cocktails (very refreshing!) at the reception while we were filling some paper work and waiting for our room to be ready.

When the room was ready, someone took us on one of those golf karts around the Hotel Island and taking us to our bungalow over water.

There was a huge room with a plasma TV in our room 323 saying “Iaorana Monsieur Thomas Dudman” meaning welcome Mister Thomas Dudman.

There was half a bottle of Champagne Nicolas Feuillatte, Chouilly Epernay, waiting for us on a low table in a bucket of ice with flowers and two champagne glasses.

We drank our glasses on the balcony over the water.

After relaxing, we decided to take the free shuttle to the main island in the search of a supermarket to buy some food. We thought we would find something as soon as we would arrive because there was a school with a sport structure outside. It seemed like there were people living around.

I asked one of the children who were curious to see white people speaking French to them where they thought I could find a place to buy food from. They indicated me the direction of the road to take. By the way, there is only one road going around the island so if you ask you way it’s just a matter of going left or right. We started walking in the midday heat (we didn’t have any bottle of water at that point because we didn’t get to buy any anywhere).

We walked what seemed like hours (about 30-45 minutes) until we saw a tiny house which was a groceries store. They didn’t have any big fridge area, the food was piled up and the alleys just big enough for one person to fit. The light was barely existent, so t was hard to see the items in the back of the shop. There was a woman with a fan just next to her, so you can imagine the heat in the “shop” in the middle of the sun with the level of humidity. We bought some dry French toasts and things we thought would be safe to eat, well packaged, to make sure that nothing wrong would happen to our health.

When paying, we started chatting to the cashier woman about the reason of our trip and how “sad” it was that the hotel’s customers didn’t go to the island to buy food and stayed in the hotel instead. To be honest, if we had more money, we probably would have done that! However, it was very nice talking to that person, she was very nice. As a thank you, she gave to each of us a free wooden key ring with Bora written on it (very nice of her!). She said that her husband used to make them, so we would have a piece of Bora Bora with us.

We returned home and had a nice long rest. In the afternoon, I went in the water down the ladder from the balcony of the bungalow. The water was nice and warm (it always feels a bit cool when you try to get in!). The night falls very early (5-6pm) and very quickly, so we just enjoyed watching the sun set from the long chairs on the balcony of the bungalow. In the evening, we had a picnic in our bungalow with the food we bought and watched a nice film.

Honeymoon 1st Part of the Journey

2011-12-04T20:58:00.017Z

We arrived at the airport of Paris Charles de Gaulle on Monday 9^th May 2011 just on time to catch our plane due to take off at 11.30am.

I was very happy to see how exotic our plane looked. We flew with Air Tahiti Nui which is half blue, half white with a Tiare flower (White and yellow) on the back of the plane.

We were welcomed with a fresh Tiare flower which is the symbol of French Polynesia. The women wear the flower facing forward whereas the men wear it on their ears but facing backwards (unless you want to show your “feminine” side!). These flowers have a very powerful sweet smell that could be assimilated to vanilla but a bit more flowery (if that makes sense).

The inside of the plane was very nice with turquoise and blue colours all over the place. You could already imagine yourself in French Polynesia! The airhostesses were wearing traditional blue and white uniforms with heavy flower patterns (very exotic!).

We found in our seats sleeping masks, ear plugs, a very small pillow (about the size of a hand), a fleece cover (again very small, you could just cover your lap with it) and some stickers that you could put on the top of your seat to ask to be woken up for meals time and duty tax free items.

I was quite happy to have brought with me two (2 meters long or 6’6’’) fleece covers that we could roll up in a small package because the ones we had were too small. It can get very cold in planes at times or just because you are tired you feel like it’s colder.

The journey started by leaving Paris at 11.30am. In each flight we took, we received a welcome drink with a choice of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. Then we had a menu with a hot meal followed by a few hours later a hot light meal. On the journey from Paris to Los Angeles, the hot meal was composed of:

· Appetiser: Chicken and pasta with spicy rouille

· Choice of Main Course: Fillet of chicken with mango passion fruit sauce, potatoes au gratin and French green beans or Cod with bisque sauce, rice Madini and ratatouille

· Cheese

· Currant cake

Then for the hot light meal:

· Appetiser: Bacon, Lyons-style salami, cherry tomato lettuce and a pickle

· Main Course: Lasagne with tomato sauce

· Apple-pear compote

· Cheese

· Bread and butter, Fruit juice, coffee, tea and hot chocolate

Between the meals, a lot of choice was available to snack (for free) such as soups, sandwiches, ice cream as well as hot and cold drinks in the galley of the back of the plane. The menus were given in both French and English. Usually, each part of the meal were placed onto a tray given to us and sometimes, if they had leftovers, they would propose to you one of the mains left after your meal. I cannot say that we ever were hungry!

We had 9113Km to go from Paris all the way to Los Angeles. I was a little bit anxious about being bored during such a long journey! It was the first time I went out of Europe on a long flight. I have little patience and when I become bored (poor Tom!), I become quite annoying! Especially if I’m bored and I see Tom being busy or enjoying something on his own. However, we had a wonderful view from the plane which kept us (especially me) distracted for most of the time we flew! We started to see some mountains with a bit of snow...

...before too long the snow became more present and covered the whole ground. At first, I thought there were a lot of clouds because of the brightness until my eyes adapted to the light and I could barely distinguish some mountains on the ground.

You could see the cracks in the snow...

...and the temperature outside the plane from the monitor in the front seat: -44°C!

We had a wide range of games, films, music available in the plane. Plus, I brought some card games such as Uno, Mille Bornes, a normal pack of cards and guess who (we never actually played any of them). I also prepared a special pack for each of us (Tom had no idea what was in them). We each had a long fleece cover, a very thick and soft sleeping mask, a pair of ear plugs, eye drop moisturiser, skin spray moisturiser, flight socks (these were so great!!!), lip extreme moisturiser, antiperspirant, clean wipes, mini tooth brush and toothpaste and a pen. After a trip to India, Tom complained about the dryness in the planes on long flights, so I made sure I got all of the items to keep moisturised (he can’t complain about the flight then!).

Soon, we could see the snow melting and becoming patchy.

Then, we arrived in Los Angeles. I must admit this is really far from being my ideal place to live in, if anything, it is quite the opposite of it! Lines of houses and concrete as far as one can see from the plane! The only green bit was a golf course in the middle of the town.

Finally, we landed in Los Angeles around 2.30pm. It is by far one of the most horrible airports I have ever been. We had to wait two hours for the transit, which in itself isn’t so bad, but there was nothing to do, nowhere to go to. There was just a very small kiosk selling some sweets and magazines in dollars (which we couldn’t get hold of because there was no exchange point). It was just a long corridor with benches to seat and wait. If you wanted to go to the toilets, don’t expect intimacy! There were huge gapes above and below the toilet’s door and almost half an inch on each side of the door. You could basically see people doing their business when walking past outside (shudder).

Honeymoon 09/05/2011-23/05/2011 - On the way...

2011-11-17T18:54:00.004Z

After the Sunday where we had lunch with everyone, we packed and got a taxi taking us to the train station of Perpignan. There, we took an overnight train leaving at 10.10pm and arriving at Paris Austerlitz at 7.28am. We were in a first class cabin, so we slept with 4 people instead of 6 in other compartments. The night was fine! I was surprised that we could sleep that well in a train. We were in Car 26, place 022 and 021 on the bottom of each side of the cabin.

Due to arrive at 7.28am, I got up around 7am to have some time to get ready to leave. Suddenly, I realised that there were trees all around the train and fields (something that doesn’t exist in the surrounding of Paris). I tried to get some information to know where we were. Someone told me that the train had 2 hours delay. The flight was due to take off at 11.30am, which meant that we had to arrive before 10.30 or we couldn’t check-in!

We arrived at 9.30am at the train station with 1 hour left to queue for a taxi and get to the airport in less than 1 hour on a Monday morning! (It usually takes about an hour and a half in “normal” traffic). We really thought that we wouldn’t make it but tried to go anyway.

We went to queue for a taxi; only two girls together were in front of us. I thought that I would ask if we could go upfront because we were going to miss our flight. The only answer I got was: “Sorry, but we have appointments to go too.” => Rubbish selfish French girls!

After waiting for our turn the taxi finally came, even the taxi driver thought that we wouldn’t make it! By some miracle, the traffic panels indicated that the roads were all cleared and there were absolutely no traffic at all. We managed to arrive at the airport 10 minutes before the closing of the check-in.

We didn’t have to wait very long before boarding. I usually like to do that for normal flights, but for once I would have been happy to wait for hours at the airport...rushing wasn’t quite my idea of a perfect beginning for the start of a honeymoon! I was very happy and relieved to be in the plane knowing that for the next 24 hours I will not have to run everywhere, have to remember anything or taking care of anyone! Just relax!

WEDDING - Saturday 7th May 2011

2011-11-13T20:19:00.024Z

The wedding took place on Saturday 7th May 2011 at Saint-Cyprien in the Mediterranean South Coast of France. At 5pm -ish.

That is a photo of Tom getting ready for the wedding...

Everyone gathered at the Hotel de Ville of Saint-Cyprien waiting for the bride to arrive...

This is me getting my hair done for the wedding.

Here you can see (from left to right) Danny Peters (Best Man), Lawrence Peet (Master of Ceremony), Tom Dudman (the groom), David Brown (Best Man). Danny and Dave are showing the wedding rings (I hope they didn't drop them!).

This is Tom with his parents, Clare and Christopher Dudman.

The guests were waiting for me....

...and waiting for about 30 minutes past the time of the wedding ceremony.

When finally, I was ready and took a taxi to the Town Hall...

...and arrived there very happy!

My bridesmaids were wearing 60's style turquoise dresses with silver shoes and a blue orchid in their hair (I did their hair, make up and bouquet).

My grandfather (Marcel Burliga) gave me away. I'm laughing because he was walking fast and I was pulling him back to go more slowly (he probably couldn't wait to get raid of me :D ).

Jean Romeo, Deputy-Mayor of Saint-Cyprien, celebrated our wedding. He was a very friendly fantastic guy! It was his first wedding. I was organising the ceremony (papers) with the person on the left and he asked me if I minded him doing our wedding because it was his first time. Well, I said it was my first time too, so why not? I was very happy he did it!

After getting married, came the kiss!

My grandmother (Colette Burliga) gave a very cute speech, she was all shy! She finished by a sentence in english which made everyone laugh (she doesn't know any word of english!). I think that she did a good job at reading it!

She was followed by Tom's mother (Clare Dudman), who told us the history of the family's name and stories of when she acquired the same surname. It was probably the only part of the ceremony where everyone could understand what was being said. She did a great job! She also made a great effort to end it with a sentence in french for the French people.

My sister, Harmonie Laurent (on the left), and Aurélie Thibault (on the right) did a very funny speech. My sister was saying a sentence in french and Lili was translating it in english. It reminded me of a little show made by children! Very cute and funny!

Guests had cones with dry lavender buds (it looked very much like rice!) which smelt very nice! However, it went everywhere! We woke up the next morning with lavender in still in bed!

We booked a little "touristic train" that is usually used for tourists to visit different places. I found this very friendly. We got to be with everyone all the time, waving at people in the streets, laughing, we had a good time.

We arrived on the beach at the Venue "Le Caliente" where we had a wine reception with tapas.

There is my wedding bouquet with the "Livret de Famille" where the official wedding certificate is signed. It is also used for parents to show that they are legal guardians of their children.

This was Tom's idea to put up our countries' flags (the french one has a slight problem on the photo but it has been put up by the staff, maybe they had a bit tto much to drink...they are French after all!).

The centerpiece consisted of a fish bowl with blue and white orchids with light blue marbles, a light in the middle and a floating candle.

I threw the bouquet and Lili's sister (Johanna) caught it! Let's hope it brings her luck!

Before the meal started, my grandfather gave a welcome speech (with a few words in english too!).

Lawrence Peet (aka. Loz) was our Master of Ceremony. I think that he did a fantastic job! He spoke in english AND french for everyone to understand the series of events happening in the evening.

After the main, Tom and I poured champagne over a pyramid of glasses (which didn't fall!)...
...we traditionally crossed arms and took a sip from our special glasses with the wedding date engraved, in english for Tom and in french for me...

...before Tom started his speech!

He was followed by Dave, who played a joke on Tom by asking him to choose in between two envelopes: one was "family and friendly" the other one "not so family-friendly). Fortunately, Tom picked the right one!

Danny made an excellent french speech which was quite romantic and elegant.

We cut the cake and fed each other. The cake looked quite horrible but at least it was delicious. It did not look anything like what I asked, but at least it made everyone laugh when we tried to cut the panels around it which was pure caramel with crushed almonds (basically, impossible to cut). Then people thought we had a fake cake, when in fact, we had to open one of the panels to find the cake in the middle.

Then came the Garter Game (not one of my favourite!). I was just happy that one of my friend (Julien Combet) won it!

Finally, came the first dance! Everyone thought that we were going to be rubbish at it! We chose a salsa dance on "luna llena" by Elvis Crespo and I think that we did a pretty good job! (well...I was very happy with it and enjoyed myself!).

Tom and his friends had some more wine (some of them finished all the champagne glasses and drunk a lot of wine = next day, he was with a good hungover!).

The next day, those who were willing to, took part of the couple's hunt! We also gave them a password to find which was ironically "divorce" to give to the hotel's receptionist to get our room number.

Afterwards, we all went out for a meal. It was nice to be able to talk to everyone after the wedding day! With French people on one side...

...and English people on the other.

HEN DO 18/19 March 2011

2011-11-13T19:53:00.003Z

Lili (on the left), my sister (in the middle right) and her god mother Nathalie (on the right) organised my Hen Do in Paris.
We went to a Tapas bar were we enjoyed a lot of food. As you may see on the photo, we had a lot of fun in their toilets too!

Then we went for a walk around Paris.They booked a space in a "special" cocktail bar where only women were allowed. We were served by men in a special outfit composed of a small tight pair of boxers and a money belt.
We finished by going to a nightclub near Montparnasse where we met a group of French men doing a Stag Do, then a group of Spanish people coming to Paris to celebrate one of their mate's birthday (we almost spent all our night with them, and said goodbye in the metro).
We finished clubbing at 6am after which we took the metro and went to get almond pain au chocolat and one or two hours later I went to the airport to catch a flight going to Liverpool, then took a coach from Liverpool to Manchester and finally arrived at home very tired.

Engagement

2010-07-18T21:10:00.002+01:00

We got engaged on the 5th of July 2010 in France. Here is a picture of the ring: "The 0.7 carat aquamarine is set designer ring with intertwined lines, it has four prongs (with a diamond shape) each set with a round brillian cut diamond" (from the London Victorian Ring company)
Here is where the proposal took place... in the middle of fields and forest, next to a little stream with a stone bridge to cross it, there was a horse in a field next to it, a little red squirrel came very close to us.

That was me coming back just before Tom proposed to me because we took a bottle of white wine but forgot the corkscrew, so I had to go and get it while the bottle setting in between rocks in the stream which cooled it down better than a fridge would.
This is a photo take by Tom while waiting for my return.
We went to the restaurant with my family on a different day after which is a chinese restaurant with a glass floor where you can see fishes swimming underneath your feet. On the left is me, then Tom, then my grandfather (Marcel BURLIGA), my grandmother (Colette BURLIGA), my sister (Harmonie LAURENT) and my sister's boyfriend (Romain DESCARGUES).
To celebrate (again), my grandfather opened a bottle of Champagne Bonaparte! (which meant a lot to him, everyone who knows him would know about his cult of Napoleon BONAPARTE).

2nd Day in Barcelona - 2nd Part

2010-05-03T14:07:00.007+01:00

Here are a few more picture we have been taking of the Plaça d'Espanya (with its fountain and the Venetian Towers), Palau Nacional, Magic Fountain.

2nd Day in Barcelona - 1st Part

2010-05-01T17:29:00.006+01:00

This is the Sagrada Familia, the Cathedral of Barcelona. We just went to see the outside, we will go and visit the inside later.

That was the back of the Cathedral which is the first thing you see whenever you come out of the metro, right behind you. The next picture below is the front of the Cathedral.

After seeing the cathedral, we went to a restaurant famous for its tapas. The tapas aren't expensive but the drinks and desserts will cost more than the tapas themselves.
This is a potato omelette on toast
This is veal with sweet peppers on toast
This is a sweet pepper stuffed with tuna on toastThis is a mushroom with parma ham on toastFor dessert, I had almond cake with a mint chocolate stick
Tom had an ice cream with whipped cream and melted chocolate.Here are some pictures of the restaurant:
Tom happy from his meal:
Here is the Casa Milà, we did not visit it butit is very famous for its shapes. The building has NO straight lines or corners.

In the street, Passeig de Gràcia, is this house called Casa Batlló designed by Antonio Gaudí

A little further in the same street (Passeig de Gràcia) is the casa amatlle

This is the shopping centre "Centre Comercial Diagonal Mar" where we go to buy some food next to the hotel

Barcelona First Day

2010-04-30T09:04:00.003+01:00

Fantastic flight from Manchester to Barcelona with Monarch airline. It took about 2 hours to get to Barcelona, here are some pictures from the plane of the Pyrénnées:

Once arrived at the Princess Hotel, we went out to get some food and found a supermarket in a shopping centre. We got some good wine for about 2€ and dry meat and saussages with bread for dinner. Later in the evening, while watching a film, a swallow hit the window and fell on a little balcony just outside the bedroom.
Luckily, in the morning it was gone! What was it thinking?! They are not really meant to be flying during night time!

We are on the 25th floor of the Hotel (which has 26 floors) with a wonderful view on Barcelona! We can even see the cathedral! And a little bit of the sea. Iwould recommend anyone to book this hotel! It also has a swimming pool on the 3rd flood (heated, outside on a balcony!)

Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology - Art Gallery

2010-04-13T18:51:00.009+01:00

There was an exposition on different tribes of the world:

This was the modern art side, very interesting!
The stings of metal looked dipersed from the sides and you couldn't tell it had a human shape.
This was a wheel spinning with different men inside attached to it and with a strobe light. In the end, you could only see one man running with arms and legs moving...easy to make but still amazing to look at!

One of the eye of the robot had a camera built in, when you went on the side you could see the display on a screen built in the brain.

These are examples of Art and Microbiology

This is my personal tutor Prof Joanna Verran. There were shapes of stones that you could hold and if you found the right position they would fit with the shape of your body when you hugged it.
This was a box making different sounds by the way you moved your hand in it (on the picture is Kath, one of my supervisors).

Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

2010-04-13T18:35:00.006+01:00

Here are a few photos of another museum we visited there:

They already had a great idea of how to represent men at the time!

3rd Day in Cambridge: Whipple Museum of the History of Science

2010-04-07T20:27:00.039+01:00

It is not a very big museum but I took pictures of everything there were in it! This first picture shows you the overview of the room, there is a second one on the right and another floor upstairs.

It shows the history of different things such as microscops...

...or calculators, which was quite funny because I had no idea what the first calculator looked like.
Here some instruments of measurements.
We mainly went there because of these. The glass models of fungi in the pictures were all made by Dr. W. A. R. Dillon Weston of Cambridge University between 1936 and his death in 1953. As well as being an inventive way of showing farmers the structure of fungi that are normally only visible using a microscope, the models are themselves particularly beautiful. The Dillon Weaton models can be divided into two different types. The majority are of microsopicfungi that are a cause of disease in plants, modelled at a magnification of between 20-600 times. This type was generally made in clear, uncoloured glass and represent transparent or hyaline fungi. However, coloured glass where necessary, such as for the spores. These models stand without a base on their mycelium and are extremely fragile.

The other type of model represents larger fungi, vegetables undergoing fungal parasitism or seedling infection. Some of these models approximate the natural dimensions of the fungi, whilst others are slightly reduced in size. These are all made from opaque coloured glass and are robust than the transparent models.

Only on other collection of glass fungi models is known to exist, as part of the Blaschka collection in the Botanical Museum of Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

That's him, not a very good picture because of the reflection but we can see him while he is making one of them.

Dr. W. A. R. Dillon Weston spent all of his professional life in Cambridge. After obtaning his degree in Natural Sciences at St. Cathatine's College, Dr. Dillon Weston gained employment as a mycologist (an expert in the study of fungi) at the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. Ministry Pathologists at that time were stationed at universities, where teaching and supervision of students were inculded as part of their duties.

He began making models in glass, mostly of plant disease fungi, in 1936. Simple tools were used to make the models: piers, a Bunsen burner and imported glass from Czechoslovakia. The majority were made during the early hours of the morning at his home, Howe Farm in Cambridge. However, as Dr. Dillon Weston became more enthusiastic about his hobby, he also produced some delicate pieces during summer vacations with his family to Frinton-on-Sea between 1937-1939. These fragile models then had to make a careful journey back to Cambridge by car.

Dr. Dillon Weston's model making declined during the war years, as he became progressively busier. He was appointed as Principal Plant Pathologist for the Eastern Province of the National Agricultural Advisory Service in 1946. Tragically, Dr. Dillon Weston died suddenly of a heart attack in 1953, aged only 54.

This is an actual clock which is rather odd to look at but very intersting when it changes of minutes or hours. You can actually see all the details of the mechanism.

These are horses dentals.

A little bit scary...

This is the collection of the museum that you can see upstairs:

2nd Day in Cambridge

2010-04-03T20:33:00.007+01:00

This is the place where meals were taken. It was a very well organised conference, morning breakfasts were taken all together which allowed us to talk to people and get to know them. During breaks, we had tea and coffee with tasty buttery chocolate biscuits followed by a lunch sandwich buffet and another break with tea and coffee in the afternoon. Once the conference finished we were allowed some time to rest and get change for the evening where we had a pre-dinner drink (beers, wines, juices, etc...) before having a 3 courses seated meal which again allowed us to meet new people because we were on tables of 6 or 8.

These pictures were taken on the way to the university where the conference was taking place.

A giante (normal size) wale skeleton was on one of the entrances of the university

Cambridge 1st Day at Jesus College

2010-04-02T20:31:00.029+01:00

We arrived in Cambridge after 4 hours driving from Manchester. Nothing very exciting on the road to go there, just a lot of fields and motorways. Cambridge is a fantastic place if you like architectures, history and green places. There is no grass uncut, Jesus College is like a piece of art. Everytime you walk somewhere, the design of the gardens and buildings give you a new photoframe to look at. Here are some pictures taken on the first day:

This horse is the only one to be allowed to be on the grass because NO ONE is allowed to walk on the grass! There are signs everywhere to remind you of that...or probably to remind the students when they come back drunk from clubbing!

I do not know another College in the UK where you can come across faisans walking in the College, there were also ducks...Which remind me we had excellent duck a l'orange, perhaps this is where they came from!

I must say, this is probably art, but I don't know if you can imagine what this looks like at night if you had a few drink (or not!) => VERY SCARY

Here is a Picture of us, on the left Paul, a lab technician. Then, Kathryn Whitehead, my supervisor, Lindsay, a PhD student and me.

This is the restaurant we went to have dinner on the first night.

It had a cheminey with logs and nice bottles of wine with painting frames on the front as if the bottles themselves were pieces of art.

They had excellent brownie dessert with a milky hazlenut foam with mint ice cream (giving a light touch to the heavy chocolate). Very nice!

From the left: me, Kath (my supervisor), Paul, Joanna Verran (personal tutor and director of study), Lindsay and Peter Kelly (my other supervisor).

“Art of Science” Competition Results

2010-03-26T19:20:00.035Z

The winners of the first MMU’s postgraduate research photography competition.

Busy research students at the Graduate School of the Faculty of Science and Engineering were asked to capture their work on camera. After receiving 23 submissions from across the Faculty, a panel of judges and students selected their winners.

Judges’ favourite photograph
The judging panel, comprising Dr. Keeley Crockett (GradSchool representative), Dr. Martyn Amos (crossdisciplinary faculty research project NanoInfoBio), Sam Gray (public engagement), Matt Davies (painter) and Rachael Barker (photographer and art teacher) settled on two first prizes, both to receive £75 each:

Sunset in a bottle (left) by Angelique Laurent

Micro‐Solar system (right) by Justyna Sutula

All entries, anonymised, were evaluated on their originality, artistic value, quality and relevance of content.

The winning picture Sunset in a bottle (left). According to one of the judges “the colour and composition are foremost the most powerful aspects of this picture”. The co‐winner photograph Micro‐Solar system (right) impressed painter Matt Davies, with “great depth and precision”.

Winners’ comments
Angelique Laurent when asked about her artistic inspiration for the popular photographs said: “I tried to see in what way these pictures could be artistic and gave them the title of what they were making me think of (...). I'd say my favourite one is definitely Sunset in a bottle because it reminded me of the nice sunset in summer when the sky darkens and the clouds become red but there is still some yellow light from the sun getting through.”

“Microbiology is not just a repetitive work and long hours in the laboratory. It can be so much fun too! The beauty of microbes usually needs a close‐up to be appreciated. From there, your imagination’s the limit. Looking at all the entries it is clear that science and art can go hand in hand regardless the subject area!” says the author of the “Art of Science” competition and co‐winner of the judges’ favourite photograph, Justyna Sutula.

Students’ favourite photograph
Sunset in a bottle by Angelique Laurent (microbiology student) was indisputably voted the favourite picture amongst students by the MMU Faculty of Science and Engineering Graduate Students Group on Facebook. “It looked interesting and I loved the colours. I never thought it would be so popular!” says Angelique. She was rewarded with £100 cash prize. Congratulations to the winners!

The overall standard of photography was fantastic. We would like to thank everyone who entered pictures and voted on the Facebook website. Special thanks to the panel of judges for their time and comments.

Other entered pictures and some of the judges’ comments:

Right: Topiltzin Contreras “While surveying freshwater cosystems in Mexico, I’ve come across some very beautiful species such as these flamingos in Celestún Yucatan, arriving early morning to their feeding site.” Judge Rachael Barker, who teaches art and photography, said “it’s a beautiful moment ‐ the flamingos fly elegantly into the photograph ‐ a perfect capture”.

Other entries by Topiltzin Contreras. Left: “I have been involved in teaching undergraduate students vertebrate field biology. Here a group of Mexican students are observing the behaviour of Gobies in a shallow stream in the Pacific Coast of Nayarit, Mexico.”

Right: “I photographed these water snakes (Tammophis sp) gathering in a dead tree to take the morning sun in a temperate lake (Tonatiahua) in Zempoala National Park, Central Mexico”, says Topiltzin Contreras from the Environmental & Geographical Sciences at MMU.

Oral microbiology student Justyna Sutula captured Beautiful Mystery (left) snapshot of a strange hyphal forms produced by yeast Candida, found in human mouth. Light micrograph x60

Fungi in the Field (right) by Angelique Laurent was commented by one of the judges as “a lovely abstract image, which creates something beautiful, thanks to the photographers creative eye”. Angelique pictured mould unusually growing between the wall and a green carpet, to show a diversity of places for microbial growth.

Alan Lee from the Environmental & Geographical Sciences has, for the past four years, been studying dynamics in populations of parrots (left). He says “claylicks are sites where animals go to consume soil. Here a flock of parrots and macaws are taking flight from the world’s largest claylick, possibly due to the presence of a predator “.

Solid, liquid, gas and ... plasma. PhD student from Surface Engineering Group, Paul Barker photographed plasma – the 4th state of matter (right). Here, blue light of plasma is shining through the substrate drum inside a high vacuum chamber.

On the left, Blood Sea by Angelique Laurent was a popular image amongst voting students. The redness of the solution was achieved by dissolving a food dye powder in water.

Right: Finding the Green Spot is a micrograph of crosssectioned muscle fibers in red with bluelabeled nuclei. “It was quite a struggle to get those stains to work...I then searched through hundreds of similar mazes looking for green spots (muscle stem cells)”, says pleased with the result, Sander van der Meer from the Institute for Biomedical Research into Human Movement
and Health.

Alan Lee came across South America's most powerful eagle‐

Harpy Eagle (left). He says “this bird of prey is capable of catching
a macaw. They are a reason birds are nervous around the Amazon's claylicks”.

Right: Ka Lun To submitted SEM micrograph of Rabbit look‐alike made of wood plastic composite. Judge Matt Davies commented “the black and white works perfectly to emphasise the texture and complexity of the material”. This photograph also received many votes from students.

Left: Biofilm rainbow received from Devine Akhidime
presents FISH stained nitrifying bacteria in a biofilm
from expanded bed biological treatment of
wastewater.

Written by Justyna Sutula from Manchester Metropolitan University

Fouling & Cleaning in Food Processing 2010 Jesus College Cambridge, 22-24 March

2010-03-26T17:06:00.054Z

The Conference was divided into themed sessions. The sessions were as such:

Session 1 - Surfaces
Session 2 - Fouling & Techniques
Session 3 - Cleaning & Techniques
Session 4 - Dairy Fouling
Session 5 - Dairy Cleaning
Session 6 - Membrane Fouling I
Session 7 - Membrane Fouling II
Session 8 - Membrane Cleaning

Three posters were presented in this Conference:

Angélique Laurent from Manchester Metropolitan
University made a poster on: "The effect of humidity on cell survival on stainless steel and novel antimicrobial surfaces"

Laura Head from the University of Bath made a poster which talked about: "Fouling of microfiltration membranes during
the removal of thermophilic spores from high solids content milk protein isolate (MPI) solutions"

Cristiane Boxler from the Technical University Braunschweig made a poster about: "Fouling and cleaning of milk components"

And presentation were given all day for two days and a half:

Joanna Verran from Manchester Metropolitan University presented: "Food safety and protecting products from contamination continues to concern all food manufacturers, while the drive towards sustainable production has prompted many of the traditional methods or agents to be reevaluated." and she also presented Lindsay Smith's work from Manchester Metropolitan University on "A critical evaluation of sampling methods used for assessing microorganisms on surfaces"

She is my Director of Study and Supervisor

Thierry Bénézech from INRA presented:
"Food safety and protecting products from contamination continues to concern all food manufacturers, while the drive towards sustainable production has prompted many of the traditional methods or agents to be reevaluated."

Here is Peter Kelly from Manchester Metropolitan University, he presented:
"Food safety and protecting products from contamination continues to concern all food manufacturers, while the drive towards sustainable production has prompted many of the traditional methods or agents to be reevaluated."
He is also one of my supervisors.

Saranya Ashokkumar from the Technical University of Denmark came to present: "Food safety and protecting products from contamination continues to concern all food manufacturers, while the drive towards sustainable production has prompted many of the traditional methods or agents to be reevaluated."

Kathryn Whitehead who is also one of my supervisors from Manchester Metropolitan University presented:
"Food safety and protecting products from contamination continues to concern all food manufacturers, while the drive towards sustainable production has prompted many of the traditional methods or agents to be reevaluated."

Martijn Fox from NIZO presented:
"Prevention of fouling in heat exchangers: exploring the potential of ultrasound."
"Reduction of fouling in whey evaporators: Modelling of mineral fouling."

Jen-Yi Huang from the University of Cambridge presented:
"Experimental studies of food fat fouling using a novel spinning disc apparatus."

Wolfgang Augustin from TU Braunschweig presented: "Pulsed flow for enhanced cleaning in food processing"

Dominic Ash from the University of Bristol presented: "Cleaning small diameter pipes with ice pigs"

Marc Mauermann from the Fraunhofer Application Centre, in Dresden presented: "Monitoring the cleaning progress using optical detection methods"

Pamela Cole from the University of Birmingham presented: "The effect of cleaning fluid; temperature and flow rate on the removal of toothpaste from 2 inch pipe"

Patrick Gordon from the University of Cambridge presented his work on: "Studies into the swelling of gelatine films using a scanning fluid dynamic gauge"

Peter Fryer from the University of Birmingham presented: "Matching the nano- to the meso-scale: experiments with atomic force microscopy and micromanipulation"

Yahaya Sylla from INRA presented: "Removal kinetics study of
pseudomonas fluorescens biofilm from closed systems"

Kylee Goode from the University of Birmingham presented: "Characterising the cleaning mechanisms of yeast and implications for improving cleaning in place (CIP)"

Jaimin Patel from Fonterra and University of Auckland presented: " Issues with monitoring", "Effect of milk composition on dairy fouling in plate heat exchangers" and "Surface modification to reduce dairy fouling"

X. Dong Chen from the Monash University presented: "Surface pre-treatment using an initial, separate protein adsorption stage to reduce the extent of subsequent dairy fouling on heat transfer surface"

Eva Scharnbeck from the GEA Ecoflex GmbH presented: "Reduction of milk fouling inside plate heat exchanger using nano-coatings"

Eva Wallhäußer from TU Munich presented: "Acoustic impedance analysis for determining presence and cleaning success of dairy fouling"

Abd Malik Othman from the University of Birmingham presented: "Cleaning of sweetened condensed milk deposits on a stainless steel surface"

Ken Morison from the University of Canterbury presented: "Sulphamate ions enhance the cleaning of thick milk deposits" and "Effects of hypochlorite damage on flux through polyethersulphone ultrafiltration membranes"

Ruben Mercadé-Prieto from the University of Birmingham presented: "Fundamentals of model protein gel dissolution: the path to elucidating industrial dairy cleaning" and "Swelling and dissolution in cleaning of whey protein gels"

Cristiane Boxler from the Technical University Braunschweig presented: "Fouling and cleaning of milk components on DLC-coated surfaces (poster)"

Ian Wilson from the University of Cambridge was the main organiser of this Conference, he presented: "The effect of ageing on fouling-cleaning symbiosis"

Sarah Creber from the University of Cambridge presented: "NMR studies of biofilms on reverse osmosis membranes"

Sarah Jones' work from the University of Bath was presented by the man in the picture (on the right): "The application of fluid dynamic gauging to the investigation of synthetic membrane fouling phenomena" and "The effect of pretreatment protocols upon the fouling and cleaning characteristics of UF and MF membranes"

John Chew from the University of Cambridge presented: "Application of fluid dynamic gauging and optical imaging to membrane fouling"

Murielle Rabiller-Baudry from the University of Rennes presented thw following projects: "On the use of surfactants based on glucidic units for cleaning of PES membranes fouled by milk proteins", "On the use of degradation products of milk and vegetal oils for bio-cleaning of PES membrane fouled by milk proteins" and she presented Lydie Paugam's work from the University of Rennes " Cleaning efficiency and impact on production fluxes of oxidizing disinfectants on a PES ultrafiltration membrane fouled with proteins"

Thomas Pintelon from the University of Cambridge presented: "Cleaning simulations of biofouled reverse osmosis membranes"

Peter Bechervaise from the University of Bath presented: "Attachment phenomena during the microfiltration of concentrated gum arabic solutions containing thermo-resistant spores"

Anna van Dinther from the Wageningen University presented: "Prevention of fouling during membrane filtration with the aid of hydrodynamics"

Bio-Portrait

2007-10-17T14:34:00.002+01:00

This is not a picture made by a computer program, this is the wonderful work of Jeffrey B. Wyckoff, diplomed of Bachelor of Science in 1963 and degree of Master of Fine Arts. This is a photo transfer on Petri dish with bacteria on agar, realised in 1999, questionning the limits between the Sciences and Arts.

“As an artist, I have created work that explores the notions of form as it relates to all structures and shapes from the finite to the infinite. [...] I have produced an art that explores the essence of the physical make up of the world around us [...] As a research scientist, I have spent much time observing in awe the beauty and mystery of the biological cellular life. [...] I brought the theory and hypothetical basis of science and the experimental approach of discovery to my art.”

You can find more details about it on the website:

http://www.imageandnarrative.be/performance/vangelder.htm

14th of July

2007-07-14T13:43:00.000+01:00

The 14th of July is a national celebration day: storming of the Bastille. The storming of the Bastille was under the French Revolution in 1789, the Bastille was the symbol of monarchical tyranny. In contrary of what has been told, there were not a lot of people who died, a riot of one thousand people went to the Bastille which was protected by a few soldiers. Then people tried to make the story sounds more important and brave.
The main event of that day was the storming of the Invalides where was a riot of 40 000-50 000 people. At 10 am the population decides to go to the Invalides in order to get weapons. The soldiers refused to obey and did not want to shoot on the population of Paris, so the population take possession of the place and the weapons. The problem is they have the weapons but not the ammunitions that is why half an hour later they send a group of people to get it.
The soldiers at the Bastille do not want to let them do and start to fight them. After many group sent and fight they surrender at 5 pm. With the weapons the population decides to stop the monarchical tyranny and to take possession of Paris. The King Louis XVI will ask : 'Is it a revolt ?' and the Duc de La Rochefoucauld will answer 'No, sir. This is not a revolt, this is a revolution.' Since this time this speech became famous.
Since this time and every year, we celebrate this day of freedom and where our rights started to become more equal for everyone.

Les Saints de Glace

2007-05-10T15:55:00.000+01:00

On the 11th, 12th and 13th May of each year, in France, there is a celebration of 'Les Saints de Glace' meaning 'Saints of Ice'. From the popular beliefs of Europe, the north of the Mediterranean's sea, Saint Mamert, Saint Pancrace and Saint Servais are implored by the farmers to avoid the cooling down of the temperatures around this time that can bring the frost on the plantations. Once this period finished, the frost shouldn't be to fear.
On the 11th of May is celebrated Saint Mamert, on the 12th Saint Pancrace and on the 13th of May Saint Servais. In the calendar they are nowadays replaced by the names Estelle, Achille and Rolande.

Blue, White, Red...

2007-05-09T15:26:00.000+01:00

The French flag or tricolour flag blue, white, red, is the national emblem of France from the article 2 of the French Constitution of 1958. Composed of three vertical bands with same seize, its creation come back to the French Revolution.

The blue band exists since the crowning of Clovis, it reminds the Chape of Saint Martin, a relic that Clovis asked to take out his tomb in the memory of the coat that the saint (Saint Martin) has shared with a poor in front of Amiens.

The white was from 1638 to 1790 the colour of the royal flag and some marine flag. From 1814 to 1830, it also has been the colour of the royal army. The white symbolises the France and also in order of divine, of God, from which the choice of this colour as the symbol of the Kingdom. The King's power was coming from the hand of God.

It's from the reign of Hugues Capet, and then under his decent, that the Kings of France raise the oriflamme. This banner of red-orange colour is given to the Abbaye de Saint-Denis, prestigious abbey raised by Dagobert the 1st. Since Henri IV (1589-1610), the domestic staff under the King of France authority were dressed of white livery ornate of blue and red. The French Guards had adopted the three colours on their uniform and the emblem of their regiment. They keep the colours after the French Revolution and become the National Guard.

1st of May

2007-05-02T15:11:00.000+01:00

In French called 'Muguet' or Lily of the Valley in English, in France every year on the 1st of May, people buy this flower to give to someone to wish luck and happiness. It seems that the Muguet, origin from Japan, has been in Europe since the Middle-Age.
The plant of small bells has always symbolised the Spring and Celtic people were thinking that it would give luck to anyone who would have some. On the 1st of May 1561, the king Charles IX made it official after he received on this date some of those flowers as luck, he decided to give some every year to the women of the court. The tradition was born. The flower is also given as a gift of love.
For a long time was organised the 'bals du muguet' Lily of the valley's ball. It was the only one ball were the parents were forbidden to come. On that day, the girls were dressed all in white and the boys had some of those flowers at their waist coat. The Lily of the valley is also used very often in the wedding, as it is white and delicate.

French people...

2007-04-20T11:24:00.000+01:00

This is how I always imagined a typical french person, with the beret, the baguette, the camembert (cheese) and obviously the french wine. But since I came in the UK, I had another version of how people imagined us, probably because the only way to see us was most of the time when the french people came here to deliver the onions. So instead of this picture, I found another one, unfortunatly the person is not smoking. The typical french man trying to speak english and delivering the onions on his bike, travelling everywhere in the UK.

Recently I had another image of how the British people were imagining us. This concerns mostly the french girls, and I understand why so many people want to go to France in hotels, they probably expect having girls like that...

...this is a new program that we can watch on youtube. I was quite surprised to watch this, when you listen carefully you can notice an english accent when they try to immitate a french girls speak english. I was wondering why would some english girls try to pretend to don't speak english very well like a french girl would do...would they be jealous of us ?! I wouldn't be surprised....

I also like this...

2007-04-18T15:43:00.000+01:00

I love red onions, they have a sweet flavor and are the best onions to be added to salads. Their colour give a touch of art to any receipe. They are so good that we can eat them through all the year.

Not because I am French...

2007-04-17T15:14:00.000+01:00

I love the poison dart frogs for the wonderful mix of colours. They are very cute, but also can be very harmful. I think that my favourite one is the Leptodactylidea for its blue colour. Unlike the other frogs they live in trees. They lay their eggs in vegetation not water. Some species develop into froglets, bypassing the tadpole stage altogether.

Their aspect 'wet' make them look like aliens wearing a plastic uniform with different colours which is quite funny. I also like the other frogs but those are definitely my favourite ones.