So today was cellulose fibres (including the sermon on bamboo which at the end concluded with but these are all manufacturers claims and require research to prove...) odd but interesting went for my tourist photo opportunity this afternoon at the worldest steepest st naturally i'm too lazy to bother to climb it so you'll all be proud to know i walked to the bottom (which is flat) took some photos looking upwards and walked back to the afternoon lecture then qui...

So some of you may already have seen that after 30 hours, 3 flights and 5 meals i'm now in NZ! Spent yesterday wandering around and visiting galleries (beautiful cibachromes warping horribly after being screwed to the wall - the sad life of a conservation scientist) and museums (like museums used to be all dusty old cases and examples of types and just perfect because of it) then getting an early night (sleeping for 10 hours thats almost a record for me!). Altho...

So finally friday is here and part 3 of the great Em and Naomi road trip is underway. It's a relatively late start (thank god) which still begins with a just in case loo stop for Em, also we already know about problems on the M25 mmm could be another long day Arrive in london and start looking for somewhere to park in south kensington, after numerous detours and trips along roads because we can't turn left/right etc we finally park up outside the V&A, still ...

after a minor panic (well it was minor today but in a previous life before Em was a new woman it would have required valium and involved significant tears, hair pulling and mentally beating herself up for significant periods of time) but like i said after a minor panic we were on our way for the road trip part 2 today involved returning to thermolignum to remove the samples and image them. after a slight detour via the TCC to retrieve some of my own samples we s...

now in the V&A and setting up stuff for the freezer - we're up against the clock (well the parking meter but its similar) this should be the painfully slow process as not only do we have to repeat everything we've done at thermolignum but we also have to wrap each sample in tissue then double bag the blocks of three samples and then double bag the samples before putting in the freezer however team work triumphed and we finished by 2.45 so left early and were...