Okkie, quite a good day today, I really enjoyed myself. Got up about 9:30 pm and after breakfast got into the lab about 10:30 am. I figured I should run an NMR of the white sample I had made last Friday but which I wasn't holding any hopes on. Imagine my utter surprise and happy astonishment when it came back as what I wanted, the iodo terminated ene-linked ligand. (yeah I know you don't care *s*) I was rather astonished, because it had taken me so long to get to this step that it was a bit of a dream. I booked 30 minutes to run a carbon 13 NMR, and that helped confirm it for me. I was feeling quite happy after that and got several reactions going. My rationale was that as long as I make a whole bunch of new compounds, it doesn't matter if they aren't novel, because they'll just act as thesis fodder and I'll have more stuff to show my supervisor when he gets back in around a month. The new guy in the lab hasn't had anything work I don't think, and unfortunately all he's going to have to show is a long list of failed reactions which would really be sucky. Everybody loves a winner, even if it's by default.
So I bumped on one reaction which didn't work later when I worked it up, and there are two more which will be investigated tomorrow. I will also try and get the characterization of the iodo-EDEN compound finished. It has the remarkable e value of ~83,000 which is rather impressive. More importantly, since the reaction has worked once, it can work again, it's just a matter of having sufficient iodobenzaldehyde on hand.
Ok, so after doing some rather productive work, I got a call from Peta at 4:30 pm and we organized for a coffee at Café Cactus at 5:00 pm. I nursed a reaction and then headed off. I took some stuff which I had photocopied whilst at the Sydney City library.
We talked and chatted, and as usual had a really great time. She is a bit up in the air not knowing when she has to leave for Indonesia, but hopefully that will get sorted out soon. I showed off my new license and it was just lots of fun. She had to dash off at 6:00 pm, and I was in a rather good coffee/company inspired mood, so I went back to the lab and puttered around for a fair while until I figured I should head home at about 8:15 pm, quite satisfied with the days work. :)
Got home, Mum had rung again and I was going to ring her back, but I got chatting to Soba on ICQ and then went and washed my hair and I figure that 10:30 pm was getting a little late. I'll ring home tomorrow.
What else is there to report? I suppose I should give a quick run-down of what I did in Sydney, since my hand-written diary isn't for general consumption…

Sydney

Got there Sunday night and majorly crashed out. Did some writing and went to sleep. Woke up 8:00 am Monday morning and was at the Land Titles office at 9:00 am only to find that deed polls had moved to the Registry of Births, Deaths and so on. Walked a long way back there, and ironically it was not very far at all from my hotel. Filled in the forms, took a number and waited.
There was a girl in front of me in the queue, but it wasn't till I got into the office with the J.P. that the conversation showed she was a tranny who was also changing her name, how that for coincidence. *lol* So did all that, wandered around for 2 hours and went back and collected my amended birth certificate. Went over to the Motor Registry and got my new license which was relatively quick. I then wandered up-town and got my bank and credit cards changed and also my mailing address since I don't want them heading home to Tumut.
By then it was 1:30 pm and I had organized to see Michelle in hospital at 2:30 pm. Got their via train and walking and saw her. She was pretty zonked out because of a recent injection, but I chatted to her Mum for a bit, because I figure she must be getting really, really bored. I headed off at about 4:00 pm and walked and trained and walked it back to my hotel where I collapsed and took a very long snooze.
On Tuesday I tried to change my other bank account, but they were more obstinate. I'll get around to that later, since I don't use the account much anyway. Went and got my Medicare card renewed, hopefully that will be here in a few weeks. After that I went and got my bus ticket changed to 4:00 pm that day since I didn't really want to stay in Sydney for that much longer. That was 11:00 am and so I had lots of time to kill. Went to the library, where I read some interesting books I hadn't come across before and also went to Pizza hut for lunch.
Crashed out writing my diary in Central station until it was time to get on the bus. I had the seat to myself, so that was cool. No movie so I was happy, though the batteries in my disc-man kept giving out. Got into Canberra at ~8:30 pm and walked home, thankfully the storm had stopped. Said a hello to Lloyd and Jules and got my keys. Checked my email, had a shower and collapsed into my bed (complete with doona of protection +2) *g*.
Okkie, so that was my exciting weekend in Sydney, I certainly came back a different person. Now if someone will lend me ~$20,000 I can come back from Sydney a really, really different person. ;)
Ok, 11:45 pm, time for me to crash, see ya!