The second concert I went to exactly a week later was Muse also at the Ulster Hall. This was a big surprise, Muse had just released the first song from their new album before they announced a surprise intimate UK tour. The tour was announced the day before tickets went on sale but thankfully I found out about it and my brother was able to get us two tickets. I was very excited as Muse are probably my favourite band and I had never seen them live. I have to admit I was a bit worried when we arrived and there was a very long queue but its not that big a venue and we were able to stand with a relatively good view of the stage. I wasn't fussed on their support band but Muse put on a great show. It was a bit of a different set list they played two new songs, two b sides as well as other songs they don't usually play along with some of their classics. I just wish since they hadn't played in Northern Ireland since 2006 that they could have played for even longer, they have so many good songs that its hard not to be disappointed when they don't play some of them.
Moving on to my PhD it has been a busy period doing lots of lab work on the samples I collected last summer I also attended my first conference. Basically the idea of these conferences is for people from a whole load of different universities to come together and talk about what work they are doing, and network with other people. It is a good learning experience for PhD students such as myself, and I presented a poster on my initial results. The conference was in Liverpool over three days and it was actually my first time away from home (apart from school trips) and in a different country without my family. Though I did travel with my supervisor both there and back and three other people from the lab I work in were also at the conference which was great. The only issue was and its something I will have to deal with in the future is that ever present problem of communication. At the poster presentation one of the other people there asked me to explain my work and why it was important and I attempted to tell her but I got the impression that she didn't really understand what I was saying.Overall it was a good experience and it pushed me out of my comfort zone without anything bad happening with is always a plus.
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| My swanky hotel bed with light and air conditioning controls on the wall also a slightly creepy picture |
Whenever I do go away I always have to make sure to bring a spare hearing aid and batteries with me, unfortunately both my digital hearing aids decided to play up in the period leading up to the conference. One of them had stopped working a few weeks before and had been sent off to be repaired. Unfortunately when it came back it was now working but now emitting a loud buzzing noise, so it had to be sent off to be repaired again. Around this time my other digital hearing aid decided to start distorting. Long story short I had to spend a day and a half wearing my old analog hearing aid which was very strange now that I'm used to wearing the much better digital aid. Managed to get an appointment at the audiology clinic at the hospital I go to and the very nice girl (much nicer than the other not very nice or competent people who we have dealt with in the past) was able to reprogram the repaired aid and she also reprogrammed the other one which fixed the distortion problem. This was great as it meant I could go back to wearing a digital aid but I could also bring a digital aid as backup for the conference.
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| One of my digital hearing aids |
Thanks for reading.
