Natural History Museum soapbox

One of the things I'm really interested in is how does research make a difference in the 'real world' - how does it get out there, and get communicated to the public (who are the ones who most often pay for it in the first place!).

So, while it's one of the themes in my research (although mine is more about interactions between research and policy, rather than the general public), I'm also trying to practice what I preach.  I recently had the opportunity to speak at the Natural History Museum's most recent late night as part of their Universities Week programme. 

The late night saw a whole heap of different universities turn up to the museum to talk about their research, and I was involved in the 'soapbox' event, where individual researchers stood on a platform for 45-60 minutes, talking to people as they went by.  We each had a question in front of us to draw people in (mine was, do climate sceptics matter?), and it was surprisingly enjoyable!  It was great interacting with different people and finding out what they thought.

There's photos and more info on the LSE website here.

Next weekend I'm also going to something called LSE Shout, which is a weekend away where we're learning to about creating research impact.  We're going to be looking at posters, web design, stand up comedy and films - should be interesting!

Finally summer!

Obviously I've been extremely remiss in keeping up the blog as of late - I'm going to completely blame it on the wedding (more on that soon though once we get all the photos!) - but I've made a resolution to try and be better about doing smaller, more frequent updates.

So, seeing as the topic on everyone's minds here at the moment is the fact that we've finally started to have some lovely weather, I thought I'd share a few photos from the last couple of days.  First up is our new garden, where the roses are in full bloom and all the wild strawberries are bearing fruit (which taste absolutely amazing).

Then on Sunday I went for a walk in Kent with some friends from LSE - fields of flowers (including some early lavender and poppies), gorgeous riverside houses, and the biggest cheese ploughman's lunch you've ever seen...

And finally, from less than an hour ago, lunch with Adrian (who's on call this week, and thus free and easy during the day) in Middle Temple gardens (only open to the public during summer).  The fuchsias were in particularly full flower - they look almost cartoonish in their shape I thought.

So, fingers crossed we'll have a lot more sunny days like these!

High Tea & Cocktails at The Savoy

Thanks to some very generous presents from siblings, we had an incredibly luxurious London afternoon to celebrate Adrian's 35th birthday.

First, thanks to a (very belatedly used) Christmas present from Dominik, we had high tea at The Savoy in the Thames Foyer.  Having been recently renovated, The Savoy is absolutely beautiful and such a sumptuous place to spend a few hours.  Adrian had the 'high tea' (sandwiches, smoked salmon and scrambled eggs, crumpets, and cake) and I had the 'afternoon tea' (sandwiches, scones, petit fours, and cake) - basically so we could try everything! 

Both came with the choice of an extensive selection of teas, and I chose the 'Lychee Red' ("Surprisingly sweet and soft, with lingering, lifted aromas of Asian fruits and perfumer’s flowers. Baroque, decadent, and irresistible") and Adrian had a really interesting yellow tea (I didn't even know you could get yellow tea!) which was the 'Huo Mountain Yellow Buds' tea ("Graceful, sappy with a hazel sweetness and a distinctive cool finish that leaves the mouth very refreshed").  We each had about four or five whole pots, so it was just as well we both really enjoyed our choice!  The tea was served from a tea set consisting of a tray, tea pot and water pot, the cumulative value of which was £900...

The food was delicious, with the favourite sandwich of both of us being the egg (lightly flavoured with mustard), and my favourite thing overall being my delicious petit fours (although the lemon curd that came with the scones was pretty nice too).

The funniest part though I thought was that we were in the very front table, facing the entrance way, so we had prime people watching position (you can see the front table where we were in this video).  I know we're going to appear in a lot of people's photos as well!  (Adrian reckons they put attractive people in that spot, so I'll take the compliment thank you very much.)  I also thought Emmy would be interested in this stunning display of orchids in the foyer.

I was absolutely stuffed after the afternoon tea (for over £50 per person I should hope so), so we took a short walk across the river to the Southbank to peruse the bookstalls before heading back to the American Bar to meet Pam and Dan for some cocktails.  Again, while pricey, they were an absolute treat and thank you to Alexandra for sponsoring them!  I particularly liked my 'Blushing Monarch' (gin, Campari, Triple Sec, passionfruit), named after Princess Diana, who apparently frequented the bar regularly.

We finished the night at Cay Tre in Soho, with some really delicious, fresh Vietnamese food - something completely different to The Savoy, but the perfect yin and yang I think.

So, a completely decadent day in London, but definitely well worth it!

Bibliophilia in Oxford

It's been an absolute age (nearly six months!) since I last posted which is absolutely terrible, as I've been doing so much travelling between then and now and have so many great photos to post, but I'm going to try hard to remedy the gaps and put everything back up - if only for the purposes of helping my memory and nothing else!

But, I thought I'd start with something altogether more recent.  I recently got an email from the LSE Review of Books (who I've written for a few times so far) asking for people to write about their favourite bookshops within a particular town, and I immediately knew I had to write about Oxford.  It's one of the best places for books in the UK in my opinion, particularly because of the Last Bookshop, where they sell remainder specialty books for only £2 each!  It was very hard to restrain myself from buying too many books that's for sure...

The piece is online here, and also talks about Blackwells and the original Oxfam bookshop, so if you're ever in Oxford and in need of inspiration for a book buying mission, check it out!

(c) Peter Titmuss/Alamy

A favourite place

Corsica is one of those places, where, if I could, I would visit year on year on year.  It just has everything that I love - beautiful beaches and crystal clear water, hot weather, great food, and is French!  My French is getting rustier by the day, so I always love an opportunity to try it out on unsuspecting locals...

We were incredibly lucky to go to Corsica and stay with good friends who were over in Europe from Australia.  The villa they hired was absolutely gorgeous and in a beautiful location called Porticcio, not far from Ajaccio.  We flew down to Marseilles, then picked up a rental car at the airport and got the ferry across to Ajaccio.  It was pretty nerve-wracking to drive on the wrong side of the road for the first time, but after driving for a week on the hair bend corners of Corsica, with seriously crazy Corsican drivers, I know I'll be fine anywhere!

It was the most relaxing week - we just slept, ate, swam, and then slept, ate and swam some more!  It was so much fun playing with our friends' daughters (two and four years' old) and we also went on two day trips, one to Corte, right up in the mountains in the middle of the island, and the other to Bonifacio, right down the bottom of the island. 

Both were beautiful but Bonifacio was particularly breathtaking - one day when I'm rich and famous I think I could easily have a villa there!  We could pop across to Sardinia for lunch even...  I particularly liked the cemetery right on the tip of the island, as it had lots of little houses almost for each family and was so peaceful and tranquil to walk around. 

The blue, blue waters of Bonifacio

It was also ridiculously hot, over 30 each day and lovely and dry.  My New Zealand tan was topped up nicely!  The memory of that will have to tide me over for quite some time though so I'm glad it was so good...

To see the rest of the photos click here.