On the commute to work.

I haven’t had a lot of time to update recently, I’ve been so tired. It’s really difficult getting back into full-time work after such a long study leave.

So I started my internship last week. It is incredibly interesting stuff. I’m doing a lot of biology, and reading through a lot of journals – it’s hard going when you don’t know what most of the biology words mean. I’m learning a lot, and I’m hoping that my courses next year will be a lot easier as a result of it. (Also, I got my results! I did pretty damn amazing this year…so happy, I thought I’d failed at least one module. Yay!)

The unit I'm working in.

The company is based in Leatherhead, and is much larger than I first thought. It takes up three warehouses on an industrial estate, and employs 160 people. I have my own desk, my own computer login, and most excitingly, my own company email address. It’s the little things! I’m working the Research and Development section. Having done the dreaded Design Study, it’s pretty awesome walking around here. The company is an orthopaedics one – they have samples of hip and knee replacements lying around everywhere, mounted on walls, a dozen skeletons lying around. I’m actually in heaven.

My office mug.

I’m currently involved in a massive project which is a collaboration between Finsbury, Imperial College and a few other companies. On Tuesday last week I went to their quarterly meeting at IC, where I went down to the Incubator in the BioEng department. I’d never been down there before – it was amazing. It’s underneath the Upper Dalby Court, and so nice. You wouldn’t know it was part of IC – I guess it’s cos not many students get to go down there!! Very posh and sunny, even though it’s underground. We got shunted off to the SAF though, and ended up in a tiny office which was sooo hot and horrible. The first part of the day was just scoping and planning – a project management exercise with no science. It was really interesting to see how they work together when compared to how we did our design studies. The project manager is external to the project (which we obviously couldn’t do) and it makes such a difference.

Partying at John's

In the afternoon we did the hardcore science. I can’t say what it actually is (which so makes me feel like a spy), but it was really interesting. It made me love Materials even more – you can’t do science without the materials, and they treat me like a bit of a celebrity at Finsbury, because I apparently know stuff! I don’t feel like it’s very true but anyway. The sad part about this bit of the meeting was that it was so hot and humid in the room that I was starting to fall asleep, and had to have some Coke to wake myself up. I was trying so hard to not have fizz, grr. But it worked, and I managed to concentrate and learn some really interesting stuff. It was also very useful networking.

View of the Thames from Putney Bridge

I’ve now been given so much stuff to do that I don’t think I’ll finish by September. I have to do three literature reviews, one market review, a report on a funding application that was rejected and summarise some research that has just finished. I’m starting to realise there is a lot of paperwork that we just don’t see, and stuff you would never think ever existed.

I’ve only been here seven days, but it’s convinced me that a PhD is what I want to do more than anything else, even with the UROP. They get to do the actual science, which is what I really want. I think I will get a chance to go in a lab here, but most of the research is done in collaboration with external labs, so I’m doing a lot of the literature reviews. Well, in my case anyway – it might not be like that in other parts of the company, but I’m not experiencing any of that!

Another group shot showing John's lovely Tequila Sunrises.

My first deadline was Friday, when my planning for the literature review had to be done. The meeting went really well, I was feeling so at sea, but my supervisor (who is a legend, by the way, even if she is French ) made me feel so good. Yay!

My life outside of the internship barely exists. I get home, eat, fall asleep! That said, we have done some stuff. Tom and I had a picnic in Bishop’s Park the other day, and I did a quartet mess around sesh with John, Tom and Ben. I made some cupcakes for this, which completely failed. The (lovely) hot weather does not like butter icing. We’ve decided our ‘rotating’ quartet on an availability basis is going to be called the Cupcake Quartet – thanks to John for the name! Website to be appearing soon. I sometimes think I give myself too much to do, but when I have nothing to do I start missing it.

Excursion around Fulham to get antihistamine.

I had an AMAZING weekend again. We partied hard at John’s, again, all of Friday night, then late on Saturday night too. It was pretty damn cool. Despite the football, when Tom discovered that I do actually have a few patriotic bones in me. The worst part of the weekend was Dr Who finishing! So sad about it I might just cry…never mind, we have next year to look forward to!

I’m doing a lot of overtime at the moment as I want to take the day off on Thursday (to move!!). My room is such a state, but I’ve signed up to StreetCar and we are almost ready.

I can’t put photos because I haven’t got the right programmes to resize them, and the ones my camera takes are too big. I’ve packed the computer with that one away, so you will have to wait with bated breath for next weeks update. [Edit: They're now up, obviously - but I'm not deleting the previous sentence because I like the use of the phrase 'bated breath']

Ciao for now!

I had a very special Corrie-fail, and wrote this a while ago, then never published it. So it’s updated to include the ICSE concert and the Summer Ball, but I’m sorry if it doesn’t make any sense in terms of tenses, because to be honest I’m feeling  bit rough after two nights of rather heavy partying and there are other, more important things on my mind!

Work this week has consisted of envelopes.

This week has been work, work, work with a bit of sleep and game playing thrown in. I have a new game called the Settlers, Rise of an Empire. It’s addictive. Maddy, Tom and I played Mah Jong the other night, and it made me happy. I like that game, and if you haven’t played it, you should. John made me basically decide we are going to have Mah Jong and Rummikub nights next year. It doesn’t have to be complex and alcohol related to be fun (although normally Pimms consumption results in a night deteriorating to debauchery and loud voices).

Group at the Diana Memorial Fountain.

In other news, John finished his degree yesterday. YAY! We celebrated in Hyde Park, at the Diana Memorial first, then on a random bit of grass after being told our “champagne” and Pimms were strictly forbidden in the memorial. Fair enough, though John was not pleased. We had a fun water-fight which involved me getting as far away from Tom, John, Naomi and Ken as possible and filming the boys getting told off by the fun-police.

Tom and I went to see Wicked again. It was just as good, if not better than the first time.

Barnce in the UCH.

The ICSE concert was on Friday night. Tom and I were stewards, and the concert was good. There weren’t very many people, and I encourage you to all go to concerts next year. Jonathan Silver, our DPE (that’s Deputy President of Education in the Union), played a solo, which was AMAZING. After the concert, the ticket got us access to a barn dance in the Union Concert Hall. John Sandall and a couple of his friends were doing the music, and I nearly cried I was so jealous of their playing. We went back to John’s house and spent the night getting through an incredible amount of Sambuca, Baileys and wine, and ended up crashing for a while.

The Noisettes.

The Summer Ball was last night. It was AMAZING. I made dinner for John and Tom while they slept during the day, we watched Doctor Who (Ohmigosh I can’t believe it) and then headed off. We got there in time for fireworks, Plan B and the Noisettes. We also went on two rides, which were really good. John and I had a more favourable reaction to the really high one, as we loved it - Tom and Cath not so much.

Our reaction to the ride - note the glee on mine and John's faces and the Fear on Cath and Tom's!

Tom and I left early because I’d had a grand total of about four hours of sleep, and we also decided we’d had enough to drink and that it was Time. If you missed it, I’m really sorry, but it was awesome. If you’ll be new to IC next year, you have to go. It’s expensive, but totally worth it. It’s not often your university gets turned into a giant festival in the centre of London.

Ashton has kindly set-up another blog for me to go on about more personal stuff over the summer. I will still be updating here as a result of my internship experiences, and also for the “Things to do in London” series, but if you want to know more about general life in Corrie-land, please feel free to check it out!

My internship starts tomorrow. I’m so nervous, but really excited too.

Showing support in Fulham.

That’s right ladies and gents, it’s time for the World Cup. Oh, you didn’t know? Where have you been, in a cave?! I didn’t watch the England match live, but I did catch-up on iPlayer. Toby asked who I will be supporting - England and South Africa. I’m dual nationality! But if they both get into the final (ha) then it will be the Lions. I only lived in SA for five years, most of which I don’t remember, after all.

Support from rooms in Beit Hall.

The weekend consisted of my own packing, and scoring a big TV and a load of stuff off Minyi, who moves back to Korea today. This is very bad news as she finished her degree and possibly will not be back, ever. We are all hoping and praying she gets a PhD in Australia, but also hoping she doesn’t she she tries to get one in England. Selfish? Yup.

Waiting to go down to the IMAX.

Monday was busy. My old school, Ivybridge Community College, came to London to the Science Museum. I went and met up with my ex-physics teacher and the rest who had come on the trip, and had a bit of a catch-up. He is the reason I’m doing what I’m doing (“Corrie, girls don’t do physics…” “Where do I sign up?”) and I feel I owe him a lot. As a result, I became a ‘mystery celebrity’ – this entailed wandering the halls of the museum being spotted by kids and having my photo taken with them. The scariest thing about it was I don’t recognise most of the Year 9′s and 10′s from my school…I only left three years ago!!  They got prizes for it, and it was quite funny watching them all catch on when I was hovering in the background after they’d been in the Launchpad so that I didn’t lose them, and them trying to take surreptitious photos. We went and saw Hubble 3D in the IMAX and they headed back to the Shire.

Getting excited about the bubble wall in the Launchpad.

It was lovely to see how enthusiastic the teachers got about the practical science in the Launchpad. When they are your teachers, you don’t think of them as scientists - when we were watching the ice melty thing, one of them started explaining nucleation and dendritic growth to me (which we covered in first and second years). I was too polite to interrupt (but it was fun feeling like I know stuff) because I got the feeling they were revelling in being able to talk about something a bit more complex than GCSE/A Level Science.

If you have any doubts about applying to IC and studenting here, I have one thing to say to you. Free weekday IMAX tickets at the Science Museum. That’s right folks, if you flash your ID card at them, you get in. Free.

To get another Materials Scientists view about internships, Ashton’s blog is updated to include America. He’s all-round better at blogging than me, but please don’t leave me either! Haha.