People Please tell me your experiences of hiring a car in a country that drives on the opposite side to your home country. What makes it easier to adapt? Already planning to sit in my car on some flat tarmac and practice changing gear "wrong" handed from the passenger seat. Any other advice?

We're home from Sicily. The cat is also home. I need a holiday after that.

We are going on holiday tomorrow. Mr Cat is going to the cattery this morning. We are all coming home on the 11th. I am SO ANXIOUS

Here's the link to check. bsky.app/profile/mode... Bet I'm on it. I swear like a chuffer sometimes

[paper from 1977] "The authors are particularly indebted to Mrs. M.H. Brady for preparation of the electron microscopy samples and for assistance in-TEM sample examination and data analysis" Why is she not FIRST AUTHOR That is literally THE ENTIRE STUDY you credit stealing bastards

"Side effects may include lethargy" *black and white streak gallops past, up and down the stairs a couple of times, attempts to eat headphones and paper* We're probably ok on that front

Shout out to Mr Cat, adopted as a problem biter in February, who went to the vet for an abcess today and stood there eating Lickelix while she examined it and cleaned it and did not bite anybody even once. He is a Very Good Boy.

Holy moly I'm through to interview for my fellowship! Aaaaaa omg!

There was an MMC/EMAG! I nearly lost my voice. Lots of awesome science. I think I first went to EMAG 15ish years ago and the progress is astonishing. Also it continues to be the friendliest conference I ever saw. Proud to be involved ❤️ And now...science time

I was holding off on signing this to make sure it was actually useful but now I've seen multiple trans people sharing it, I'm in. Are you a cis woman who is fed up of being used as an excuse for the far right to harrass trans women? Click on the petition under here!

First Dreamliner crash: in India, just after takeoff, onto a doctors' hostel next to a hospital. 242 on board, at least 30 dead on the ground. Bloody hell. What caused that?! www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

Some scientists in China used my tomography technique on MOON ROCK and the paper is EVERYTHING. Irradiation! Iron nanoparticles! Getting oxygen on the moon! This is awesome! advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Right! I got my fellowship reviewer comments back, and they're pretty good, a few questions that I can answer, and one "why are you doing this as a fellowship instead of as a standard grant" to which the true answer is "because I'm too little to be allowed to apply for those". How to phrase that...

As well as politicians apparently making up statistics of their arse - having a lot of immigrants doesn't make you a land of strangers. It makes you a land of people whose friends are from different places. This is obvious cynical bollocks just to suck up to Trump and it's wank.

Letter to MP in support of trans rights: written. Car: stopped displaying symptoms the minute we set off to the vet/garage. Instead it picked two new ones. Garage man: mystified. Replacing coolant level sensor. Looking askance at instrument panel.

People who know AI things: when you use the udm=14 option with google to make it not show you the AI summary, does it *actually not make* the AI summary, or does it still make it and just not show you it?

The Pope died and one of his last acts when he knew he was going was to summon Vance? I bet that conversation included a good telling off.

Things that broke today: The car (mostly just pretending/gauge a bit loose or something) The cat (hopefully also just pretending to make me guilty about picking him up and evicting him from a chair) The UK Supreme Court (definitely not pretending)

Bits of that supreme court ruling are simply false. Sex is objectively not binary; there are people who are in between. Biological characteristics are not plain, unambiguous or self-explanatory. This is a bunch of old people pretending science isn't true because they'd prefer the world to be simple.

Ooookayyyy they have figured out a timescale for the dread fellowship. There were more than 500 applications over Open, Open Plus and Postdoctoral so they have got WORK to do. Reviews will come out 21st May Responses due back 5th June Interview invitations 11th July Interviews autumn. !!!!!

Right, now I have an official offer I can announce it: I have a job! At Birmingham, working on austenitic steels for fusion, starting in early May, for 30 months. If I get the fellowship, I leave early; if I don't get the fellowship, I'm still doing fusion. Hurray!

@montezumaschocs.bsky.social you made an easter egg of my favourite vegan black forest choc! ... Oh you put fudge inside full of milk. Bit of a bait-and-switch there. 😠

Bank of Scotland: no, just because I didn't renew my car insurance *with you* doesn't mean it's now illegal to drive my car, you twits. Other insurers exist. What a foolish email.

Missing vowels round on Only Connect: PNS CRT Contestant: OPEN SECRET Me: PENIS COURT

Right I had been keeping my Twitter account dormant because I cited the "writing with SpLD & depression" thread in my fellowship application. But I just decided, fuck that, and overcame the activation energy barrier to log in and deactivate the fucker. SO GOOD. Like cutting off a nasty toenail.

I had a job interview in Birmingham and ughhhh it was bad. I was so inarticulate. On the other hand, probably won't be commuting to Birmingham. Was heartened that they asked about EDI. Less heartened at the "guess what this question actually wants" style. So tired. SO tired.

Mr Cat has started walking on us purring at 4am which is cute but also we would quite like to sleep.

I got an interview for a postdoc in Birmingham looking at steels for the same bits of fusion reactors that my fellowship is about. I wasn't sure about applying but if I don't get the fellowship at least I would still have something in the field. But I probably won't get picked for the job either.

Duuude My former employer was "most improved" over the 3 years leading up to now in the QS World Rankings. And then they fucking fired us all, so...let's see what the next one says. I am sooo inclined to never publish the rest of my Be work from there. But it was good so I prob still will.

Come to EMAG/MMC in July! -It's friendly -There are lots of cool talks and posters including yours -Actual election microscopes in the exhibition -Extended abstract deadline is tomorrow but it's not that onerous so you could totally write it in a morning -It doesn't rain EVERY day in Manchester

We have a cat! He is black and white and most of the noises he makes are *crash* *donk* but we have heard a few little meows. It's also possible he can open doors.

My mother keeps asking me if I'm paying into a private pension yet. What am I going to put in it, my breath? Nobody's booked me for a project yet, they only just found out I exist. Also the party she kept voting for broke everything and that's why I'm broke duhhhhh so maybe shush mum.

Right. Transphobic asshats have got a petition to repeal the GRA to over 10,000 signatures. Fuck that. Let's get this one higher: petition.parliament.uk/petitions/70...

If the US coup leaders just fired all the top military people, then they have just gifted the resistance some really helpful allies. I hope they don't mysteriously disappear in the near future.

Today I am mostly chasing a roofing company who are ghosting us after taking a deposit for replacing a slate that got knocked off in a storm. It's £25 but we are broke, I am petty and they promote their services on local social media pages. Let the games begin.

We are going to see a CAT this afternoon! Oooh will this be our cat?? Cat cat cat cat

We finished the shed! *splattttt* Also the EMAG newsletter

Signed, and thank you Professor Curry for writing it.

It's International Day of Women and Girls in Science, or in my case, Day of Woman Desperately Trying to Cling on in Science in Any Way.

Everybody go and unplug the drain hole inside your fridge if you haven't lately. It's not as important as *gestures at world* all this, but it's easier to resist fascism when you're not cleaning up a cold puddle from the kitchen floor in wet socks.

Electron microscopy peeps who went to EMC last year - who went to the conference dinner? What was it like? I am poor so I didn't and now I'm trying to write about EMC...

How do you do that thing where you save Bluesky posts? It shows up as a picture of a pin in the comments. I need to bookmark that list of companies that rolled over to Trump.

We built a garden shed! And now it is nearly stormproof and I am a complete wreck. Ughhhhh

This www.gardenbuildingsdirect.co.uk/wooden-sheds... Don't buy it Whoever did the cutting out was on drugs or something

Taskrabbit: earn money for helping people with DIY! First an ID check And then another ID check And another Oh we couldn't OCR that document so we're sending you back to the beginning. Current time input about 8h income £0

Hey hey miroscopists! MMC/Microscience with EMAG is now open for registration www.mmc-series.org.uk Abstract submission deadline is the 14th February so be our valentine and get some lovely abstracts in. There might be chocolate, there probably won't be flowers, but there will be science and coffee.

Well, Google is fussier than it was fifteen years ago. What do you mean you can't find a canonical version? Look it's there, you're sitting on it! I think I have fixed it now but it will take a few days (!!!) to find out. Aughhhh

YES I am pleased to announce my new business: Jo Sharp Microstructural Consulting www.josharpmicrostructural.co.uk If you need some bread-and-butter TEM done, quickly, get in touch! Right - over to LinkedIn!

Wow, making a website got harder since 2006. Configuring DNS in particular is a thing I didn't have to do then. I *think* I have now got it right...maybe

When we were in Cambridge after Christmas we walked past the Cavendish and I had a look in at the undergrad practical lab. I was surprised to see it was exactly as bad as I remembered - tube lights 1m overhead, 24 tables of 6+ people each, echoey hard surfaces. 1/n