Today was fairly sedate. I was the first into the lab today, but that really counted for very little. After wading through the email and putting on one reaction I basically sat around bored. I guess it's easy to be bored when your supervisor is still on holiday.
Anyway, the highlight of today was the first meeting of the Australian National University (ANU) Queer Collective for 2001. I have to admit that I've been fairly apathetic about involvement in the Queer community, but I figured that this might be my last chance to do anything, so I rocked up to the Union Building at 2:30 pm. After figuring out where the meeting was, I sat back and listened because I had arrived late. There were about 10 people, the past and new sexuality officers, someone from the chaplincy and an assortment of otters erm, I mean others. ;)
There were two GG lesbians, two tranny lesbians (Yes! I'll get back to this in a minute) and about 5 gay guys. The meeting was about organizing stuff for the year including O-week and first semester plus budget stuff, the search for somewhere to call "Queer Space" and other things. After about an hour the meeting wrapped up and we went over to the bar for a nice afternoon of drinks and chats. I didn't specifically introduce myself, but the past sexuality officer knows me from the QC conference at Bathurst in July. Anyway, it was good fun. The other tranny (I'm fairly sure my "radar" was working correctly) was I think a graduate student (like me) from the Zoology Department. Her nick-name was "Gabrielle", and she had some double Venus symbol earrings, hence my presumption of her being a gay girl. She seemed nice enough, but naturally I have no idea if she (or anyone else) picked me, so I played things fairly low-key. After three beers (!) it was 5:30 pm, so I made tracks back to the lab where I did next to nothing before coming home for an evening nap.
I'm settling into my room, though it is taking a bit of getting used to. I don't know whether it is because my room backs onto the kitchen, or because it's exposed to the western sun or whatever reason, but it seems perpetually stuffy. Hopefully cooler weather will turn this into a plus.
Tomorrow there is a good chance that I'll drop by Woden Mall and pick up a new mobile. I've got my fourth batch of zapping next Friday, however yesterday was payday, so that is covered. Whilst in Woden I can drop by and see Susan, Jules, Marilyn and Rodney all in one shot.
Of other interest was that the number of Ph.D. students dwindled just a bit further today as yet another submitted his thesis. In terms of time spent on the Ph.D. that makes me number two after Nigel in our research group. I know I can get written up relatively soon, but I need time on the laser to get my results plus a bit of motivation would help a lot too. What I really need is to get a slew of papers out so that I can secure a good post-doctoral position, but at the moment that isn't happening either.
In a postscript before I crash, may I just say that oceans can be damn inconvenient at times.