Ada Lovelace Day and Women in Science 2012 (by sarah)

I thought long and hard about this this year and you know what? I decided it was my teachers at school that really instilled the idea that I could do science now obviously there was not just one teacher and the male played as important a role as the female but I am going to dedicate this years Ada Lovelace Day post too Miss Scudder (I hope I've remembered her name right! I believe she turned into Mrs Black or Blacker or something like that).

Miss Scudder was my GCSE Chemistry teacher at Gaynes School and she did the extra bit which involved the beginnings of Geology like rock cycles and what have you as well. She was about the same height as me with curly dark hair that reached her waist - I had cut all my hair off but decided to start growing it again at this point 🙂 Alot of the boys had a crush on her and we used to make up stories about how she would marry the Biology Teacher (as you do at 14/15/16 ~cough especially when you have a crush on said Biology Teacher).

She had lots of funky ways of teaching meaning that she managed to get concepts across to EVERYONE!

Now for my GCSE's I was at a huge disadvantage, I had been put up into set 1 from set 3 something they weren't entirely sure of doing as I had missed alot of the basics that were needed but we all agreed (me the head and the science heads and my then science teacher) that I should give it a go and that I could drop down to set 2 if I really couldn't cope. I ended up in the Super Set 1 which was a smaller group that met at lunch times. I got a B which counted as two B's I didn't finish any of the exam papers and had a panic attack in the Physic exam and had to be taken out of the hall to calm down ( I couldn't remember Ohms Law - still can't).

Anyway Miss Scudder's teaching techniques were grate and she introduced me to flash cards, and coloured summary sheets and various other things which I still use when working on large prodects of going to give a talk. She is also the origin of my Periodical Periodicals in that she used to draw little cartoons of atoms interacting - cartoons where each was a little character - bonds were them holding hands etc...

It was she who intially told me of Terry Pratchette when she saw the novel I was trying to write - she thought it would be right up my street as it has science hidden within it. She made science accessible and even when the class miss behaved it was never bad like it could be for other teachers even if there was the inicided of the water tap being unscrewed and passed around the room!

I came 17th for my GCSE's in the whole year which I think was about just under 200 strong - not distingishing really except that a few years previously my parents were being told I was unlikely to be sitting them at all. I won awards for this etc... and a large chunk of that was becuase of the teachers believing in me. I went on to do A'level Chemistry - it was my lowest grade at A'level but I got more than enough points to enter a University that excelled at the subject I wanted.

But one of the things that I thought was so amazing was that Miss Scudder had had to work hard and over come obsticles to achieve her science credentials. She had gone to an all girls school that did not do science - they had no labs - they could handle the basics but they had to send the girls to the all boys school if a lab was needed. As a result she was the only one to take science A'levels and was on her own in with all the boys at the boys school. I always remembered this as a sign of - it could be done!

Women could be scientist and they could have fun, be fun and pretty as well. So I think I owe her a big THANKYOU.

The Monday To Moan (by sarah)

Monday is my day to get things done - Mary is at nursery and Jean at school until 4!

But this Monday I was awaiting a phone call from the Dr to discuess what was going to happen about the bleeding and coil and things so I made sure my phone was there next to me. However it had broken and switched itself to silent so I missed the phone call, I then could not get it off of silent no matter what I tried and even with people trying to help me via facebook and twitter. It was the Drs line so I had to await the next phone call.

I wasn't feeling to good anyway as I've been suffering with muscle spasms again and the whole of my left hand side was in pain or writhing benieth my skin unpleasently - I just wanted to go back to bed. But I took my pain killers and attempted to get on with things. It then occured to me that I was still attempting to use Alaric's old beaten up laptop. This became apparent as another 'deathline' appeared on the screen. It now has eight perminent lines going from the top from the bottom. So I prodded about my laptop and it turns out Apple still have not sent the replacement part so it could be another five days! I have now been without it since the end of August :/ For something that should have taken five days max to fix.

I got the phone call just as Jean turned up home from school an hour early - I'd forgotten that they cancel the clubs on parents evening week. The Dr said they were basically going to send me for swabs to check for infection before they do anything - they'd booked me in an avalible space on Wednesday morning as the surgery is so over subscribed they had to pounce on the appointment slot when they saw it. Then on the 30th if I am infection free they are going to remove the coil and take biopsies to check exactly what the thickening is. Then they want to replace the coil in the hope that it's edometreoscies and that it will help it. They will chat to me about all the options when I get there. The fact the coils not been in the right place might mean we can still treat things with hormones - lets hope. But I am still wigged out by the fact that I could have ended up pregnant and still have the coil inplace.

So anyway I then had Jean home early and the TV set is so broken that I declared we could not watch anything on it as it is probably a fire hazard! So we went up to the attic and she helped me with one of my art projects which was really nice but not novel writing :/ A cat threw up in the kitchen - this never used to be a problem but I am increasingly finding I am over sensitive to smell and like morning sickness - I get very nueause.

Alaric then arrived home to inform me that the nursery had been trying to phone me as Mary was sick - I'd stopped phone watching once I'd had the Drs call :/ Mary has Chicken Pox and is miserable and there is nothing to watch DVD's on whilst I snuggle her plus the snuggling is going to cause the flare up to get worse. Poor Alaric has also pulled a muscle in his back again and so can hardly walk.

SO I thought I would just get it all off my chest in a little moan - not a good start to the week in my opinion.

The Little Book of Spoogy Poetry – The Digital Release (by sarah)

It has been long awaited and finally due to me and Alaric working like very busy bees - here it is!

The PDF for free download (until October the 31st midnight) of The Little Book of Spoogy Poetry. You asked for it - you got it - I will sort out donate buttons at some point. Enjoy 🙂

I will hold a virtual luanch party later in the month for it 🙂

Cheltenham Litrature Festival – All Star Slam (by sarah)

Today at 3:30 I will take part in the qualifier for this evening All Star Slam which is a poetry event at the Cheltenham Literature Festival. I've done one poetry slam before so am very nervous but I have more poems memorised and the ones I had memorised I can now say slower without fear of forgetting.

I will have my Celestial Montage poetry cards on me if any body wants to purchase any.

Anyway hoping to catch up with friends etc... I'm disappointed that this is the only day I can make it into the festival this year.

Womb Gloom (by sarah)

Wednesday I went to the hospital for the much awaited scan and though it was only an ultra sound it hurt more than any I've had whilst pregnant :/ Just everything round there is really sensitive at the moment. I was cross about the scan - I had been waiting for it for weeks this time and I had recieved a letter informing me I had missed it so I'd had to phone up to book and be told off for something that was not my fault and made to feel small due to the Royal Mail being crap. And to make it worse the health visitor didn't turn up when she was supposed to be visiting me - this annoyed me no end.

Anyway the lady doing the scan was lovely and had a conversation with Al about the machine. The initial thing was it was weird there being not baby in there but we could see a line which was the coil and the coil is in the wrong place. So in the wrong place it is going to have been doing nothing >:( but worse than that I could have gotten pregnant and had the baby and the coil in there at the same time.

I am I admit it paranoid about things going wrong and I had felt that I had regected the coil just before the bleeding came back (it stopped for about 6 weeks after an initial large increase in the bleeding after the coil had been put in but then I felt like I had a series od contraction type things and the bleeding started again.) but the coil was still their when they looked so I had to go away and come back after it had been in a year. And though I thought I was over reacting about it I didn't trust it and so have been shall we say double careful which I am now so so gratefull for it is untrue.

Anyway I was told to phone the Drs and sort an appointment for a weeks time but had struggled to get through to them. Finially I got through today and I couldn't make an appointment like that - the earliest was the second week of Novemeber which the receptionist and me agreed was no good, So I had to wait for a Dr to phone so that they could book me in one of the ermergancy slots.

They were supposed to phone before one but the specialist that they want to deal with me couldn't be tracked down so I got the phone call as Jeany was coming in from school. The issue is that it is not just the coil in the wrong place but that their is inflamation and the womb linning is too thick. So they want to have a meeting to discuess my best options and then I can come in and see them. The Dr is going to phone me back again on Monday.

The thing is that the more I've thought about it the more I really want that other baby - I suppose that will always be the case with me and Al though when ever menopause or womb stuff happened. We had wanted to finish having babies in our 30's but did sort of think we would have the whole of our 30's. But I've found out that menopause has a tendency to hit women in my family in their 30's or endometreosis occurs again in the 30's so I'm feeling as hopeful as I had been.

And yes I realise that I am lucky I have my two lovely girls and a hubby who has not gotten fed up with me even though I have been basically pre-menstral for 19 months! But I am feeling hacked off. Many of my friends haven't even started their families yet and if I'd followed my 'career' path I probably would have only just started thinking about kids now.