Well, today at least was a much better day than yesterday and far better than last Friday. I deliberately took it easy because I didn't want to get all stressed out and flustered like before. I got up late, did my morning duties with deliberate slowness, but in the end I got into the lab not long after my standard time. It was a reasonably good day. I finally isolated two of the last trivial compounds I was looking for. I used a new technique of dissolving them in minimal dichloromethane then adding excess per spirit, chilling and then filtering. It was quite good. I also made up some more catalyst which may be the cause of my other failed reactions.
Peta called in the afternoon and said she was leaving for Jakarta tomorrow! We organized to do coffee at 3:10 pm, but she was really, really busy and got there late and so we decided to do dinner at 5:30 pm instead. I went back and puttered around the lab and then came home and changed. Got back to Essen at 5:30 pm and got to watch Peta and T- play chess together. After that we went to Sammy's Kitchen and had dinner. I tried to be as entertaining as possible for T-, but I'm not sure he is totally comfortable around me. I can't really blame him with my week's worth of stubble, decaying flesh on my face and semi-feminine features. But it was really nice anyway. I demanded to pay for dinner at least once, but Peta was as obstinate as always. She will be gone for a week to organize the contract, back for a little bit afterwards and then gone for a month or more. But it was great as always to catch up with her.
I came back here and watched the cricket for quite a while, before heading over to chat with Susan and Jules who are still in the throes of packing. It was nice to see them as always. I came down here to listen to my new CD "Northern Exposure II" but remembered after a while I had to go and set up an overnight NMR to make up for the one I abandoned yesterday. That thankfully only took a little while and I'll pick it up tomorrow.
Tomorrow is "Metal for the Brain" a big collection of heavy metal bands playing at the ANU. Hence I think I'll steer away from there tomorrow. Saturday will be mostly spent cleaning this pig sty and doing much needed laundry. And best of all, tomorrow will be shave day, hurrah! *s*
Ok, it's nearly midnight, I'm not enormously tired, but the sooner I get to sleep, the sooner it'll be daylight again and that means relaxing, showering and shaving… Ahhh… the simple pleasures… ;)