I carry a spanner.

I don't believe you sir!

I feel like such an independent woman, I don't need the Green Flag man, I carry a spanner, I'm pretty much Beyonce!! I don't really like calling the Green Flag man out, not now we know each other, well, he knows me and likes to pretend his name is "Stig". Last time I called him out, he commented on me having "something on my nose", which was a bit tight as that something is a line that I have had since I was BORN! I understand that there may be more than one Green Flag man, but 50% of the time I get the same one. And I don't really like him. So I carry a spanner (a google image search confirmed that it is a spanner).

I have just submitted my questionnaire to the ethics committee. Hopefully they will find it ethically sound and trust me to follow the rules! Then I shall be able to proceed and put out my pilot study. Which will be exciting, and give me something to talk about in my 9-12 month review.

The biodiversity working group meeting was fun last night, though it did run quite late. There was lots of talk of wildlife corridors and green roofs, which is all very exciting. I only had 3 actions to go away with, one of which was make some biodiversity bingo...which I cannot wait to get started on!

I'm now off to a workshop on "PowerPoint 2010: Creating Cranfield Presentation". Which is long overdue, but will be useful for the thousands of presentations I have coming up.

EcosySTEM Services

Football in the hail. Good thing won.

I did  some volunteering yesterday, as a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) ambassador. I spent the day being an 'expert' in project management, helping the whole of year 7 keep their imaginary music festivals in order. This involved sitting in the textiles room (my office) and being approached by all the mini project managers with their amazing questions.

"How much will it cost to get this guy who is really funny and plays funny comedy parody songs of songs in the charts on YouTube to play at the festival?"

"Do you think 2 toilets will be enough for 30,000 people?"

"Why do you have the same phone as my mum?" 

"Were you on The Apprentice?"

Burn's Night Haggis

I obviously replied "Yes, and I won" to the last question and rambled on for a while about my experience of working with Lord Sugar, the £250,000 investment and all that it entailed. I stopped when I realised that they truly believed me.

The day was fun, and whilst the kids were consulting the construction, health and safety, electrical engineering and other actual experts I had time to write an article for the Cranfield students magazine. So although there was nothing really relevant to my PhD involved in the day, I got some bits done, and I realised that the word STEM is in the word ecosystem...which is knowledge I will definitely be using one day.

Irn Bru floats...a Linlithgow speciality

I now have the task of scrawling through all the contacts I have ever made and finding 10 people who would have a look at my questionnaire and be my pilot study group. They have to work in the environmental/planning/research/that sort of thing industry, and like me. I can think of 2 people so far...2 is not 10. Alas.

Again...no relevant photo's so just some stuff I've done.

Window Wipers

Today I got in my car to drive to Cranfield, and my window wipers don't work. My window wipers, how do they even break?? I'm not pretending like it hasn't happened before, because I have previously been trapped in Cranfield on an extraordinarily rainy day due to a window wiper malfunction...I got the nice Green Flag man out and he fixed it. So why is it happening again? Annoying, but at least my supervisor told me he won't be there either, so it was mainly going to be a social visit!

Kat and I in Glover's Reef, Belize

A social visit?! Friends?! In Cranfield?! Yes! My lovely friend Kat, who I was friends with during our undergrad, and shared a bunk with in Belize, is now at Cranfield! We have been sharing a supervisor for 4 months and not even noticed. Amazing! I was also going to bully her into helping me out and doing the odd bit of weeding on our Cranfield biodiversity plots, but I can bully her into it next week instead now. I had also arranged to meet seeding and weeding friend James for a coffee, and do the same bit of bullying for more of his spectacular weeding skills, he is just so good at it (I'm hoping he will read this and thus offer his services).

L-R Two helpful council lads with rakes, James, Me with a wild carrot!

I am excited for the biodiversity working group this month, as I have actually got some things to bring to the table, a few ideas and things that I have done. I'm going to get the group to read through an article I am writing for the Cranfield student magazine, which I think will help explain some of the biodiversity plots, and also help in recruit weeding volunteers.

Justifying IKEA

So, currently I am on my way to IKEA. This makes me feel guilty for two reasons. Firstly, I should be working. I have conquered this issue by getting up super early and finishing off my questionnaire, and sending it off to be approved. I have also made the falafel for tea. So efficient.

Secondly, I don't really like IKEA. My dislike of IKEA was started by my dad. He bought a house and made it cool. This process included enduring hour after hour, weekend after weekend in IKEA. Although the hot dogs and licorice did lessen the boredom, it just wasn't enough.
My other reason for disliking IKEA is my love of second hand. We have done quite well in furnishing our house with things that other people owned first. It has been 8 months now though and I need a dressing table. I am a girl. I like putting on make up and doing my hair. I have sourced, from eBay and charity shops, the mirror, the jewellery hooks and a few pots which will make up the dressing table. But I cannot find the storage space I need. So when mother said she was going, I couldn't help but say yes. At least then it wouldn't be my petrol that was killing the planet.

Thanks mum!

This afternoon, when I return home, I will be finishing a poster and writing an abstract for a Doctoral Training Centre conference. It needs to be submitted today. It'll be fine!

The list of events, presentations and training I have to do before the end of March is pretty long and intense! I like saying yes to everything, so I need to start acting on all of my yeses!!

We're here, coffee first then let's go get some storage.

Sorry for no pics I don't know how to do them on the mobile app!

EDIT...IKEA can do no wrong, free coffee before 10!

Say No to Bee Beards

Seaside 2p gambling with Grandma

So, we're all back after our Christmas breaks. I think I might have switched off from work slightly too much, as I found watching 'Bee Movie' a bit arduous. Although, a little bee holding a placard with "Say No to Bee Beards" on it, was pretty cute!! I'm littering this rather work focused entry with photos from the festive period, so it feels more cheery!

FESTIVE

Back to the grind, with all my new resolutions on working harder, better, faster and stronger, that will hopefully stick with me past mid-Jan! I'm currently working on two particular aspects of my PhD. I am spending a lot of time getting frustrated with GIS and InVEST, two programmes that are going to help me plot the scale at which particular ecosystem services are performing within my research areas. I have worked with GIS a lot in my BSc, but unfortuntely not since then, and not an awful lot has remained in my brain. But I am getting there, slowly and steadily!

Stockings on Christmas Day

I am also writing a questionnaire with which I will be trying to get other peoples opinions on scale and the issues surrounding it in the planning and policy environment. There are so many rules, regulations and ethics checklists that I have to comply with which doesn't make it easy. There are also an awful lot of differing opinions on how best to ask questions. I feel that I will be calling on a lot of contacts in order to pilot the questionnaire, because real world feedback is going to be the only way to really know what is going to work.

Walking in Wales

So, alongside these two major parts of my PhD, in the next 6 weeks I have a poster conference, a 6,000 word document on what I've been getting up to to write, and 3 presentations to give. One of the presentations will be to determine whether my project is PhD worthy, or whether I should call it quits and be happy with and MPhil.

Hopefully no MPhil.