It is June already around these shores, but it does not feel “summery” at all! 🙁 As I’m writing this, the wind is blowing very strong outside, with a white sky covering everything and feeling very cold (I regretted not having put my gloves on when I took the bike out to the shops to get some milk… brrr, that was cold!).

Anyway, let’s update this! Took me a while to get to the WordPress admin interface, since some stupid hackers decided to launch yet another brute force attack against WordPress self-hosted installations. This time, my provider blocked the login script (wp-login.php) but by renaming everything I was able to get in. Whew!, I thought I’d be locked out for a couple of weeks again! 🙂

And since I’m basically trying to keep my posts a bit more lightweight, text-wise, let’s start with some images!

Beginning with the series of dinners and parties I’ve been having for the past two weekends – between house-warming parties, BBQs (thankfully the weather was nice that day), picnics and more BBQs, this has been a very busy life (not that it is a bad thing, mind you! 😉 ). And then there was the rowing – I was very lucky, there was a period of 2-3 weekends a couple of weeks ago when the weather was really great! So great indeed, that I started to develop my “onesie tan” – it is not as bad as it is in this picture, but it is still quite noticeable. Non-rowers seem to think that I am a lorry driver, I don’t know why, given that lorries are not usually convertibles! 😛

During the Late May bank holiday, me and a couple of friends from the lab decided to go on a day trip to Dungeness. Initially we were wanting to visit the nuclear power station there (Dungeness B), since they now host guided tours around the plant, however they require a 3-week pre-booking and they only do them during the week, so we gave up on that. Instead, we took the miniature train (Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway, apparently the world’s smallest public railway, with a 15-inch (~38 cm) gauge!) all the way to Hythe and back, stopping at New Romney to see a model train exhibition (I always get really excited by these exhibitions – must be the little kid in me! 😀 ). It was really great, we had a good time and I managed to drive more than 50 miles in one go for the very first time since I got the car here… 😛

Moving on, lately I’ve been quite busy with both work (papers, proceedings, changes in the system, lab reorganisation), while at the same time I’m preparing to move house. Yes, I’m moving! Life here in St Stephens is good, but I always knew it would be a short-term thing. I found a lovely bungalow in a nice little village which is located ridiculously close to the University campus (5-10 min walk!), I’m moving in next month if everything goes well!

Right then, this is going to be a very peaceful Sunday, as I’ve had my share of things to do (and money to spend) yesterday – between the week’s groceries, car servicing (£95 – outch! But it got the full treatment: oil & filter, air filter, spark plugs, and also the exhaust back box had to be welded back…), work and a nice little run in the afternoon, I am pretty run down, I think I’m going to cook myself a nice, tasty lunch and spend the rest of the afternoon with a good book. Oh, simple things! 🙂