On my way to work. 2nd floor journey in a row for £130 a pop.

"Do you use anxiety to stay productive or on time?" I don't understand the question, how else would people stay productive or be on time?!?!

Congratulations to @lancasteruni.bsky.social PhD student Harry Stephenson @hmostevo.bsky.social who passed his viva last month and has now had the corrections officially accepted. Here he is (after changing into his celebration outfit) with a proud supervisor and his internal examiner @vrooje.net 🔭🧪

Well done Dr Harry Stephenson!

I wish I had something to say that wasn't about trains or babies. I am v.boring.

Expecting perfect train power supply for all future journeys (now that I have invested in heavy power pack to carry around).

I love how they can just say "There will be no trains between Lancaster and Preston this week" 🫤

It's one of those rare evenings where the sun is out... and both the power and the WiFi are working on the train! A moment of work-related peace. 🔭🌞🚂

Grr why does train power never work 😡. I have time on my hands and a tired laptop after an afternoon marking presentations far from a socket. No work will be achieved on this train! 😠😠😠

Something weird about my wfh view today. Omg it's #BlueSky!

Motion to include some kind of laptop stand on trains 👩‍💻

I think I annoyed ChatGPT

We typo'd our email to the nursery - the baby attends "Babay Room" now 😎

When did the expression for "Excuse me" become "Sorry can you move?" 🫤

Interestingly, our 🔭 department at Herts has got a special room for milkshakes. Now, I've never managed to get in, so not sure if this is where you can get hold of a milkshake, or you just have to stand in there to drink one.

Found myself in need of a spoon at the adopted Lancaster office, but don't worry! SPAR sold me these handy desert spoons, which thankfully seem to work in the rain too.

I've updated my post on the funding crisis heading for British astronomy: docs.google.com/document/d/1.... UKRI made clear that astro and particle physics are being subject to unique cuts due to rising costs elsewhere. This looks like a deliberate decision not to fund fundamental physics. 🔭 🧪

Somewhere along the line turned into one of those people who will show you pictures of a baby you didn't want to see. Sorry about that.

I am having a bad day 😂 - but nearly made it to Hatfield 🎉

Rainbow as seen from my adoptive #astro desk yesterday! :)

Welcomed back to work by the small grant rejection of course. Writing it was all-consuming for a few weeks (even while quite pregnant) - can't help but feel we need a better system. #Astronomy

Back at work after ~7 months maternity leave. So happy to be back in the swing, but now with new dimensions of baby-missing and random complications. 🙂

Matleave thoughts 2... I've been re-watching all of the "Educating [insert location]" series. I'm now really anxious about my GCSEs. 😫

Matleave thoughts... thinking of starting a blog of nappy changing tales. Day 107: it's another Timmy-two-poos day 💩💩

For some reason all of the Chinese restaurants in town have been unavailable on delivery apps and/or closed for at least 2 days. Any ideas @beyond.radio ?

When did it become "fill out" instead of "fill in"? (Forms...)

So long DurNAM, it was good while it lasted! #NAM2025

Guess where I'm off to after my eye test! #NAM2025

Astronomers' chat here recently: i) authors complaining that their referee report is late. ii) referees complaining about how many review requests they get. iii) editors complaining that it's hard to find referees. No idea what the solution is, but it feels like the system is close to breaking... 🔭

Guess who just wasted a few hours marking the model answers (that she wrote herself) instead of the student's work? At least I passed.

Some kind of joke in here about Drakes too... 🦆

Final day of CPAD (enroute to our PGCerts/gaining FHEA as lecturers at Herts🤞)

Ahhh home at last

:-)

"Cool" stuff from Lancaster

Nice views across Hatfield tonight. First time for everything.

Congratulations to Isobel! :)

One problem with giant hot-desking offices is that I am unable to control the volume of my sighs 😬😅

Look out for this session at NAM 2025! Exciting!

I wonder how many injuries are caused by frustration at bureaucracy. Would also be interesting to look for statistically significant peaks in the location of particular universities :)

Listening to the recording of my lab - apparently I am incapable of pronouncing "literature" or "google" which is quite fascinating!

Hooray #astronomy

Survived Day 1 of semester B 😱 including one more viva from semester A, my first semester B lab (3 hrs!) and tutorial (1 hr). Now staring into the distance, before dealing with all the angry people and things I haven't done.

Saw a car with a bumper sticker this morning that said "I'm more annoyed than you". I would bet anything that this is not true.

Starting to wonder whether I need to take annual leave to get through viva time e.g. You're booked up for the full week with viva-ing, prepping and marking... but the rest of the job doesn't stop! Sorry, everyone/thing else.

It's that time of year again, 30 MSc vivas this week. 10 down today. 😥

It's a frosty day here at Bayfordbury 🔭❄️

📝 Job vacancy 📝 The Royal Astronomical Society wishes to appoint an Editor for its flagship members' magazine Astronomy & Geophysics. Want to apply or find out more? Visit: https://ras.ac.uk/news-and-press/news/job-vacancy-ag-editor

Solemnly turning off my out-of-office ❌🎄🎁❌

You know, if you went to the hospital for some emergency or other, and you didn't know how long you'd be there, it'd cost at least £7 to park 🫠 (I don't know what melting face means but it feels appropriate)