Moving to northern Europe in winter was never going to be easy. OK, coming from the North East US it's not that cold here, but it's really dark and grey most of the time.
When you move (and as postdocs we get some experience of this of course) I think you go through 3 phases. To start with everything is exciting about your new town. Then everything sucks - you want your old favourite restaurants, and your old friends - and you can't have them. Finally you get used to the place, and it becomes home. The dark damp winter moved us quickly onto stage two... I think we might go back to stage one once the spring comes and we can actually do stuff, but for now we're right in stage two.
However, I did manage some exploration last week, and in walking for the first time through one of the city parks I discovered an aviary of parrots, budges, and bunny rabbits. This is just in the middle of a city park. This city can't be all that bad if it looks after bunny rabbits. :) I'm looking forward to find a chance to take little one to see them.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Sorry - did I just break your mental image?
Last night I gave a talk to a local Astronomical Society. I haven't done this too much before, preferring to spend my outreach time talking to school kids in general. However the Astronomical Society asked (well they asked my boss, and he passed it off to me) so I said yes.
In general it was actually an OK evening. I'm a fairly comfortable speaker, especially when I'm sure I know the subject better than my audience (it's only those department colloquia which make me nervous now), and they all seemed to enjoy it. I got a lot of very relevant questions which I enjoyed answering. However the audience was depressingly homogeneous (in the old white guy sense)... I'm pretty sure I broke most of those people's mental images of an Astronomer. I think that's a good thing.... but it surprises me. This is an Astronomy Society which invites professional Astronomers to come and give talks once a month. Can they really have never invited a young female astronomer before?
Still, dealing with their frank disbelief that I was the speaker (and even more disbelief that I will be the speaker at a large national amateur astronomy meeting in April - a fact I couldn't persuade them to believe!) gives me a amusing anecdote to write about here!
In general it was actually an OK evening. I'm a fairly comfortable speaker, especially when I'm sure I know the subject better than my audience (it's only those department colloquia which make me nervous now), and they all seemed to enjoy it. I got a lot of very relevant questions which I enjoyed answering. However the audience was depressingly homogeneous (in the old white guy sense)... I'm pretty sure I broke most of those people's mental images of an Astronomer. I think that's a good thing.... but it surprises me. This is an Astronomy Society which invites professional Astronomers to come and give talks once a month. Can they really have never invited a young female astronomer before?
Still, dealing with their frank disbelief that I was the speaker (and even more disbelief that I will be the speaker at a large national amateur astronomy meeting in April - a fact I couldn't persuade them to believe!) gives me a amusing anecdote to write about here!
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
10 Random Things about Me as a Mother
Well I have mixed feelings about the "25 Random Things About Me" fad which is flying around Facebook, but I quite liked the idea of the shortened version for mothers suggested by "Mama", and which I also found on Two Women Blogging" done by Jay, so here goes....
1. Unlike Mama and Jay I love playing with little one on the floor. I especially like "colouring" with her.
2. I think I should want to keep everything which little one makes at nursery and is sent home, but I don't. I recycle quite a lot of it.
3. I'm absolutely the soft touch, and I think my husband is going to be a bit too strict. This worries me a lot as I think kids of parents who are too strict don't turn out well.
4. I love watching "Kung Fu Panda" and "Totoro" with little one, especially when she asks for "Kung Fu Panda" by collecting all her panda toys first. "Ni Hao Kai Lan" I want to toss out the window sometimes. "Elmo's Potty Time" is also starting to get a bit old, but I wish she'd get the idea so we keep watching it...
5. Sometimes I wish I had kept breast feeding past 15 months. I stopped because little one was no longer interested, but I think I might have enjoyed being a "militant breast feeder" of a toddler.
6. I still haven't let little one have any candy/sweets, except a tiny bit of chocolate when my husband wasn't looking.
7. I wonder sometimes if we should have waited a bit longer to have kids. I wouldn't change little one for the world, but I think I would have enjoyed a couple more years of pre-child married life and I still would have been having my first child in my early 30s (instead of late 20s).
8. When I see pregnant women part of me wants to warn them what they're in for, and then I remember how fun it was to be pregnant and play with newborn baby clothes and enjoy the anticipation. They'll figure out how hard it is for themselves, so I'll just leave them to it.
9. I wish little one would grow some hair so I could put it into pigtails etc. I tried for the first time this weekend, and it looked pretty ridiculous still!
10. I love watching little one "put her Dad to bed". "Lie down Daddy" she says with a surprisingly authoritative tone... if he doesn't obey she pushes him over, then she covers him with a blanket and jumps on him.
I hereby tag any mothers reading this post (that includes you AstroMaman), and if you are an "Astronomom" I would again encourage you to get in touch and join us - you can make it your first post here. :)
1. Unlike Mama and Jay I love playing with little one on the floor. I especially like "colouring" with her.
2. I think I should want to keep everything which little one makes at nursery and is sent home, but I don't. I recycle quite a lot of it.
3. I'm absolutely the soft touch, and I think my husband is going to be a bit too strict. This worries me a lot as I think kids of parents who are too strict don't turn out well.
4. I love watching "Kung Fu Panda" and "Totoro" with little one, especially when she asks for "Kung Fu Panda" by collecting all her panda toys first. "Ni Hao Kai Lan" I want to toss out the window sometimes. "Elmo's Potty Time" is also starting to get a bit old, but I wish she'd get the idea so we keep watching it...
5. Sometimes I wish I had kept breast feeding past 15 months. I stopped because little one was no longer interested, but I think I might have enjoyed being a "militant breast feeder" of a toddler.
6. I still haven't let little one have any candy/sweets, except a tiny bit of chocolate when my husband wasn't looking.
7. I wonder sometimes if we should have waited a bit longer to have kids. I wouldn't change little one for the world, but I think I would have enjoyed a couple more years of pre-child married life and I still would have been having my first child in my early 30s (instead of late 20s).
8. When I see pregnant women part of me wants to warn them what they're in for, and then I remember how fun it was to be pregnant and play with newborn baby clothes and enjoy the anticipation. They'll figure out how hard it is for themselves, so I'll just leave them to it.
9. I wish little one would grow some hair so I could put it into pigtails etc. I tried for the first time this weekend, and it looked pretty ridiculous still!
10. I love watching little one "put her Dad to bed". "Lie down Daddy" she says with a surprisingly authoritative tone... if he doesn't obey she pushes him over, then she covers him with a blanket and jumps on him.
I hereby tag any mothers reading this post (that includes you AstroMaman), and if you are an "Astronomom" I would again encourage you to get in touch and join us - you can make it your first post here. :)
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Do I Still Have a Baby?
Little one is fast approaching her second birthday... and I'm starting to wonder how long I can call her a baby... She walks, talks in 2-3 word sentences and recently started sleeping in a bed instead of a crib. However, she still has "baby hair" (ie. not much - little enough that she's often mistaken for a boy) and likes to be carried around. The Oxford English Dictionary defines baby,n as: "An infant, a young child of either sex. (Formerly synonymous with child; now usually restricted to an infant ‘in arms.’)" So by their definition I seem pretty safe with my "baby".
Friday, January 30, 2009
What's the big deal with maids?
Recently I hired a maid for the first time. This seems like a very sensible move to me. She'll come into the house every other week and clean the bathroom, kitchen, vacuum the floors etc. All the basic cleaning stuff that otherwise gets done much less often - basically only when the mould starts growing around the bathroom sick, or the colour of the carpet changes. In fact I'm surprised I haven't done this before now it comes to think of it.
So why do I feel a little bit guilty about it. Why, for example, am I hiding it from my mother (well not mentioning it at least). I use lots of other time saving devices. This morning I put a load of laundry into my brand-new washer-dryer, and when I get home it will be "cupboard dry" according to the instructions (although admittedly this gives me some pause each time I do it after having read last year the washing machine flood "adventures" of Mother of All Scientists - at least we don't live in a 3rd floor condo... ). I also have an iRobot Roomba - which rocks (well when the battery isn't old and worn out and lasts only 15 minutes - another thing I have recently sorted out), and I'm recently very much enjoying the pre-prepared vegetables that are so ubiquitous here.
As pointed out by Veronica in her article "I Have a Maid! What Professions are more important than others?", I wouldn't blink an eyelid at hiring a professional to cut my hair or change the oil in my car or do numerous other things I really could learn to do myself given time. I also spend close to half my salary paying other people to look after my child - so paying someone to clean my house seems very reasonable.
So what's the big deal about hiring a maid?
So why do I feel a little bit guilty about it. Why, for example, am I hiding it from my mother (well not mentioning it at least). I use lots of other time saving devices. This morning I put a load of laundry into my brand-new washer-dryer, and when I get home it will be "cupboard dry" according to the instructions (although admittedly this gives me some pause each time I do it after having read last year the washing machine flood "adventures" of Mother of All Scientists - at least we don't live in a 3rd floor condo... ). I also have an iRobot Roomba - which rocks (well when the battery isn't old and worn out and lasts only 15 minutes - another thing I have recently sorted out), and I'm recently very much enjoying the pre-prepared vegetables that are so ubiquitous here.
As pointed out by Veronica in her article "I Have a Maid! What Professions are more important than others?", I wouldn't blink an eyelid at hiring a professional to cut my hair or change the oil in my car or do numerous other things I really could learn to do myself given time. I also spend close to half my salary paying other people to look after my child - so paying someone to clean my house seems very reasonable.
So what's the big deal about hiring a maid?
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
More Great Blogs
The people at the American Astronomical Society Committee for the Status of Women recently started (well restarted) a new blog, which so far has been pretty interesting reading.
I've also recently been following The Motherlode at the New York Times.
I've also recently been following The Motherlode at the New York Times.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Kids and germs
How is it that kids always manage to get sick at the worst possible times? I think this is a classical complaint of parents, especially the working kind, but I still can't get over it. Our son is almost never sick, and when he is, he has lightning-fevers that last never more than 24 hours or so, and then he's back to normal. So I know I shouldn't complain too much, but it's how he "picks" these moments to get ill... it's usually when:
(a) one of us is out of town,
(b) one of us has a major deadline at work, like a telescope proposal to turn in, or some experiment time in the lab,
(c) we have to travel and/or have major commitments as a family,
(d) two or more of the above.
I think this time is especially ironic. After two weeks of Christmas vacations where we did not much else than relax at home, all three of us, it's today on the eve of our going back to work/kindergarden that Chatton comes down with chicken pox... talk about great timing. This means 7 to 10 days at home. What a way to start the new year at work, there goes one of my new year resolutions already!
(a) one of us is out of town,
(b) one of us has a major deadline at work, like a telescope proposal to turn in, or some experiment time in the lab,
(c) we have to travel and/or have major commitments as a family,
(d) two or more of the above.
I think this time is especially ironic. After two weeks of Christmas vacations where we did not much else than relax at home, all three of us, it's today on the eve of our going back to work/kindergarden that Chatton comes down with chicken pox... talk about great timing. This means 7 to 10 days at home. What a way to start the new year at work, there goes one of my new year resolutions already!
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