Yes, obviously I'm bored, otherwise I wouldn't be writing this thing in the first place.
My last entry was on Thursday, I haven't written because Friday was a pretty bad day followed by a down and up Saturday and now onto an as yet undetermined Sunday.
Friday was quite crappy, I tried again to get my reaction to work using fresh material and a longer sitting time, all to no avail. I got a tiny amount of yellow material which I did not even bother to run NMR on. So again that left me sitting in my usual pose staring at my desk wondering where the hell do I go from now. So that left one route open to me using a compound called Chromyl Chloride, and so I rang Sigma-Aldrich (our chemical supplier) and asked whether they had it in stock. The answer? No. And it will take 4 weeks to get it from the U.S. Oh god… *sigh*
I went over to the library and was searching for a journal article from the Canadian Journal of Chemistry from 1958. As expected, our copies only went back to 1961. So I sighed and after some computer detective work found they had it at the National Library of Australia (NLA). So, having little alternative I jumped on my bike and headed over for a less than pleasant cycle. The day was windy and the air was full of pollen so I was practically choking and all the rest of the joy that comes of getting hay-fever, conjunctivitis and flu at the same time.
I got to the library and did the catalog search and when I finally got to the desk they said to me, "I'm sorry that book is at our warehouse and won't be available until 11:00 am tomorrow." Suffice to say this simple trip was fast becoming more complex. I couldn't do anything, so I said Ok and went back to the lab.
The article which I only had a brief outline of, used a compound called Chromyl Chloride so I went to look for a synthesis for Chromyl Chloride (CC) in the library, and I actually found one. It wasn't too hard, it's just that CC is close to one of the most hideous compounds one would like to deal with. A volatile liquid with corrosive and mutagenic properties, oh yay…
So I cooked up a small scale synthesis, and it was rather uncertain. The whole solution is the same red-brown color and I have to distill the remains to get my compound (about 10 mL). This I decided was too much hassle for me to deal with at the moment and I went home (~5:30 pm).
I did very little once I was there, and I crashed out in bed at about 8:30 pm.

I woke up about 9:00 am on Saturday, and was a bit groggy because it was now overcast. I did the email check and got one from Mack which was nice. After that I did some internet stuff and went and had a shower (!). I came back and got the fuzz of my face which was a relief and by then I figured I should get to the NLA and get the article. After several annoying false starts it was not getting any warmer and finally I was under way. At that time it was windy with just a few spits of rain. I got to the library and thought "Ah, this will only take 5 minutes to photocopy and I can get home before the rain comes." What foolish naivete. I got to the front desk and they went to get my book and Lo and behold it wasn't there. So after standing around for 15 minutes they said they would ring the warehouse and ask and that would take 30 minutes. I wasn't going to cry, but just went to sit down with a very heavy sense of fatalistic resignation. So after a very long half hour, I went back to the desk and they had my books. The morons had put them in the wrong reading room… I wanted to either choke or otherwise main the librarian but just said thanks and went and photocopied the relevant parts.
After that saga I went back outside to my now saturated bike and cycled home in the rain back to Johns. I don't know, is this my lowest ebb yet? I feel sure of one thing, God sure does hate Transsexuals… *sigh*
So I got home soaked and got changed into dry clothes and fired up the heater. I was just sitting around surfing the net and Susan and Jules dropped by. It was nice to have them drop by my room, they had been down in Phillip looking at more houses and had put their names down for two different places. I entertained them with the innovations catalog which was funny, and after a while Red rang. She came over here and had a whole swag of free goodies which she had snagged from the Vote Yes for a Republic thing on in Garema Place. So we sat around doing coffee and so on, and Bridget and later Astro dropped by. It was nice, a bit quiet, but I can understand that. After a while people started to disperse and I went down-stairs to get changed because I figured I would walk Red into town, I was walking down the stairs just as Lloyd was coming in, he was just getting back from Sydney, so we had a brief hello.
I walked Red into town, I had the full coat, scarf and gloves going along with my umbrella, and with sunnies down I felt reasonably disguised. ;) Red got on her bus about ~5:30 pm and I walked home. My shoes were hurting a little, mainly just on my left little toe which when I took my socks off had a nice blood blister forming. *ho hum* The curse of big feet, get over it grrl…
So even though I didn't really feel like it I ordered pizza and chewed on that. I watched a rather ordinary SBS documentary and later at 9:30 pm I watched a cool Hong Kong action type "Indiana Jones" clone. It was pretty good, over the top but that's expected. ;)
I was pretty beat after that, so I came back to my cozy little room and just vegged out. I wasn't feeling too energetic and so I went to bed about 11:30 pm.
Had a weird long dream that night, I was with the other Stephanie at the Meridian and then we were here at my place doing various… ahem… activities and then just snuggling which was the nicest. Bridget came in after I went to the toilet and then there were all these marauding Johns people and after that I was protecting a girl called Michelle (not her) and myself from these bunches of bullies whilst walking back to Johns. It was very odd, again lots of strong emotions. So I woke up at about 9:30 am headed down to brunch at about 10:00 am and chatted to Lloyd, Susan and Jules who were down there. Ate too much crappy food and came back here.
I'm interested in what effect progesterone would have on my breast growth. Apparently Peta is getting her estrogen script increased when she gets back, and Michelle was getting her progesterone along with her other injections. It bears thinking about for the moment. I probably won't need to worry about it until I go back to get my scripts refilled and I'll ask a few questions.
This week had been pretty fucked I have to admit, I'm hoping that from here forward it'll get better. I must have freaked Mum out pretty bad on Friday afternoon as I told her all about my crap days and the more I said the more pissed off I got. *ho hum*
Ok, I'll finish this entry off here, I'm updating the diary section and I may as well stick this one up also. Ciao.