Nice people thread part 4 - sugar and spice and all things

neverdespairgirl

Davesnave wrote: »

After a few weeks induction in Holborn, none of us was any wiser about our placements,

Where in Holborn?

neverdespairgirl

I am supposed to have said, at the age of 3, when i was a bridesmaid at my uncle's wedding, that I was going to be a barrister like my Daddy.

When at school, I flirted with various other ideas, but decided firmly on a law degree. So I've been fairly consistent throughout.

My next sister, Eleanor, did a foundation art course, then opted for a degree in primary school teacher training + modern languages (French and German). She worked for about 3 years in a really tough job, working with children in care who had been excluded from school. Then she became a journalist, and found her real niche, she's very good at it, and loves it.

My other sister, Olivia, didn't go to university. A levels were a real stretch for her (she's quite dyslexic) and instead she trained as a chiropracter, part-time, while also doing three day eventing. She's now qualified, and her patients are all horses.

My bruv did law at university, and then went to bar school, but didn't fancy pupillage right away. He thought about taking the Queen's shilling, but instead is currently in his second year teaching English in South Korea, to law students.

LydiaJ

zagubov wrote: »

Sounds familiar! Wanted to be a lecturer; tried research and found it dull repetitive and boring which is the opposite of what a good researcher would find it.

Sounds about right.

When I was nearing the end of my PhD, I confessed to my dad that I was considering other options besides a research career. He was a research scientist all his life - took early retirement at 62 and carried on doing research unpaid, just for the fun of it, until he gave it all up 20-odd years later to become my mum's 24/7 carer. I thought not going on to a research job would be an almost unspeakable dropping out, and I expected him to see it that way too.

He asked me what I really really wanted to do. The truthful answer would have been "anything in the world except this research lark - it's driving me insane". The answer I thought he wanted to hear was "I really want a job in R&D, but there's a recession on, so that's why I'm broadening my options." I opted for an answer that was the truth but not the whole truth, and said miserably, "I don't know".

He took me completely by surprise. "What on earth are you applying for research jobs for, if you don't love it? Go to the careers service tomorrow and start working out what you really want to do. Nobody should ever work in research unless they enjoy it even when the experiment doesn't work, because most of the time, it doesn't."

Having discovered that he didn't see a career change as dropping out, I realised that I didn't either. There I was at 24, believing that my opinions were my own independent ones, and they were shockingly dependent on what I (inaccurately) thought my dad thought.

I got a part-time job teaching (without a PGCE) in an independent school while I finished off my PhD. I knew very quickly that I'd found my niche. I got the PGCE distance learning a couple of years later, and I've never looked back.

fc123

lostinrates wrote: »

flakes the size of snowballs.....its incredible!

Did it settle? You may get a white Xmas down there.:)

Doozergirl wrote: »

I hate pedestal cleaning. I try to pick loos that are solid all the way to the wall with no detail for the same reason. You can't possibly clean a soil pipe properly which is why traditionally styled toilets bemuse me. I've never bought a house where the soil pipe wasn't an inch thick in dust.

http://www.victoriaplumb.com/Bathroom-Suites/Toilets/Close-Coupled-Toilets/Arc-Toilet-Cistern_440.html
My favourite toilet, simply for cleaning the outside.

God, I'm interesting

OMG perfect,,,,,2 of those will be spot on. Cheers Got to find a plumber now. Good one is booked up until Feb.

Answer to Vivs Q, I always knew I would do what I do now from about aged 9 I think.
When we cleared out my Grandads house after he died we found folders of dozens of 'garment' drawings and micro dolls clothes made from scraps and hand sewn that I had made when I used to stay there. I was about 9 or 10.

Took a while as I left school at 16, went into retail (W1) did well but came 2nd in a comp on Pebble Mill BBC so went off to college to train when I was 20. The grant wasn't enough but with Sat jobs I managed OK. If then was now would have had to go into debt to tune of 27k? I don't think I would have gone to college if that had been the case. ....and if I hadn't, I wouldn't have learnt essential skills, not had the biz we have now and so on.

zagubov

LydiaJ wrote: »

Sounds about right.

Nobody should ever work in research unless they enjoy it even when the experiment doesn't work, because most of the time, it doesn't."

.

That's my experience too. I was working on a microbe so difficult to grow I started calling it Imaginobacter notreallythereans. It made the Higgs Boson look like an everyday item.

A keen researcher would have been invigorated and inspired by this but I realised it was exhausting and annoying me.

I combined part-time research with part-time lecturing which became more full-time until had to drop the research. That happens a lot, I gather.

I enjoy teaching, which is what my job pretty much is, but I have a creepy feeling I've landed in the one part of the UK (maybe even the world) that gives the impression it doesn't value science.


,

vivatifosi

zagubov wrote: »

I enjoy teaching, which is what my job pretty much is, but I have a creepy feeling I've landed in the one part of the UK (maybe even the world) that gives the impression it doesn't value science.

This is a conversation I've had often with DH. I didn't grow up in a scientific household, we were surrounded by books, but not really scientific ones. We loved politics, history, geography but more than anything else music. For some reason the music gene got to my front door and forgot to knock. However when I did my MBA they divided us into Quants and Poets. I am definitely a Poet!

DH on the other hand is a gifted scientist. He grew up in a house where nobody had gone to uni and there wasn't any real scientific impetus, though I think having rels who worked in engineering probably helped. Getting into science sometimes felt like pushing water uphill. Having done a PhD that is widely accepted as brilliant and is still often quoted more than 15 years on, he has ended up out of science and out of academia. It just became too difficult to stay. Thankfully he's found something where he can remain very technically minded, but sometimes it is a waste. How much better would we be as a country if we appreciated our scientists more, and were better at monetising the ideas that this country comes up with. Then kids at school would want to learn hard subjects and zag's job wouldn't be as hard and the circle of pushing water uphill wouldn't feel like it was continuing.

purch

any NPs ever lived in NYC?

Yes.............

misskool

zagubov wrote: »

That's my experience too. I was working on a microbe so difficult to grow I started calling it Imaginobacter notreallythereans. It made the Higgs Boson look like an everyday item.

A keen researcher would have been invigorated and inspired by this but I realised it was exhausting and annoying me.

I combined part-time research with part-time lecturing which became more full-time until had to drop the research. That happens a lot, I gather.

I enjoy teaching, which is what my job pretty much is, but I have a creepy feeling I've landed in the one part of the UK (maybe even the world) that gives the impression it doesn't value science.


,

vivatifosi wrote: »

This is a conversation I've had often with DH. I didn't grow up in a scientific household, we were surrounded by books, but not really scientific ones. We loved politics, history, geography but more than anything else music. For some reason the music gene got to my front door and forgot to knock. However when I did my MBA they divided us into Quants and Poets. I am definitely a Poet!

DH on the other hand is a gifted scientist. He grew up in a house where nobody had gone to uni and there wasn't any real scientific impetus, though I think having rels who worked in engineering probably helped. Getting into science sometimes felt like pushing water uphill. Having done a PhD that is widely accepted as brilliant and is still often quoted more than 15 years on, he has ended up out of science and out of academia. It just became too difficult to stay. Thankfully he's found something where he can remain very technically minded, but sometimes it is a waste. How much better would we be as a country if we appreciated our scientists more, and were better at monetising the ideas that this country comes up with. Then kids at school would want to learn hard subjects and zag's job wouldn't be as hard and the circle of pushing water uphill wouldn't feel like it was continuing.

Thankfully, I am pretty lucky that most of my full time job is spent researching but it's not an easy career choice. I spend a lot of time with non-scientists/non-researchers so I do get the breadth of the world but I will have to do some teaching soon

zagubov

vivatifosi wrote: »

This is a conversation I've had often with DH. I didn't grow up in a scientific household, we were surrounded by books, but not really scientific ones. Getting into science sometimes felt like pushing water uphill.

How much better would we be as a country if we appreciated our scientists more, and were better at monetising the ideas that this country comes up with.

Couldn't agree more! :T

It's not even just the attitude to science and engineering, it's anything involving serious thought, foresight and planning-If you look at countries like Taiwan which ar the size of Belgium but with three times the UK's population density; they manage to build bullet train networks. The UK on the other hand struggles to build a fast train from London to Birmingham.

The government's masterplan is that we'll become millionaires selling our houses to each other and provide services to the rest of the world who'll feed us and supply manufactured goods.

I can't see how it'll all work- we're deindustrialising and importing our food and we're in danger of becoming a medieval theme park compared with our neighbours.:eek:

Rant over!

GDB2222

zagubov wrote: »

It's not even just the attitude to science and engineering, it's anything involving serious thought, foressight and planning-If you look at countries like Taiwan which are the size of Belgium but with three times the UK's population density; they manage to build bullet trains networks. The UK on the other hand struggles to build a fast train from London to Birmingham.

I agree with the whole of your rant, including the bit that I have not quoted. It just seems to me that we have become unbelievably soft. We just seem to spend years arguing about the precise route, rather than just getting on and doing the job.

The Americans are scared of erecting tariff barriers against the Chinese, in case it provokes a trade war. There has been a trade war raging for most of the last 30 years, and the Chinese have won it. I really do not see how to get people to wake up to what is going on.