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nostalgia science

Intimidated

I looked at my site stats for the first time ever. Intimidating! Not that there are that many site visits, but apart from the four or five people who comment here, I didn’t really believe anyone read my blog.

It’s better to imagine that no-one reads it except for a tiny few. Now I feel all intimidated and inhibited in what I might write!

I spent yesterday evening with my brother-in-law Paul. We ate Szechuan food and he talked to me about scary stuff; scary because of just how serious it is – his biotech company, the share price, investors, pitching to big-shot stock brokers, mergers and aquisitions, clinical trials.

And not for the first time recently it struck me how all my friends from my science days are now reaching quite elevated positions in their work, where the fortunes of quite a few people rest on their shoulders. Magda making full Professor at Monash University, my Spanish friend Ana considering a job as Country Manager for a clinical research organisation, Paul as Vice-President for Drug Discovery at his super-cool biotech outfit Phylogica.

Meanwhile I make up stories about conspiracy theories and actually get paid for it…

When I listen to Paul and Magda talk, I can’t help but wonder what I’d be doing now if I hadn’t left science. It’s not regret as such but curiosity because you know what…science is so, so, SO cool, especially biological science. It’s world-changing, awesome, totally mesmerizing.

Why would anyone study anything else?

Which I guess shows just how much I’ve been rehabilitated. Because when I left science I was tired and jaded, fed up of running gels and spending my weekends looking after tissue culture cells and worrying about funding.

Meanwhile Paul is as hilarious as ever. It was freezing as we walked to the restaurant, and Paul remarked that he wished global warming would properly kick in if it’s going to, cos all this cold was pretty rubbish. He’d just come back from Davos, Switzerland where they’ve had some nice deep, early snow. We talked about carbon footprints and people’s guilt over that. “The only people I’ve got time for,” he said, “the people with the tiniest footprint are people like my Dad. He consumes almost nothing, cycles everywhere and recycles as much as possible. And he doesn’t give a damn about the environment – he does it out of thrift! Good Scottish thrift. He’d reuse a nail! That’s why people shouldn’t waste stuff.”

I’m very fond of Ted (Paul’s Dad) too. When we go to Perth we stay in a flat built by Ted, on top of his own house. (He’s not a builder by trade, actually he was a Professor of Philosophy…but why hire builders, a real man should be able to do that himself!) It has terrific views towards a meadow and a pond which is almost dried out when we are there. Palm trees grow at the side of the house, which has a verandah all the way around the top. The trees are and nourished by waste water and the septic tank under the house. When a breeze blows the palm fronds rustle against the roof. Ted pre-stocks the fridge for us with a stack of Aussie beers, a huge slab of cheddar cheese, bread and industrial quantities of ice-cream. And because he knows I’m terrified of spiders he always does a special check for huntsmen and redbacks, scourge of Western Australia.

Best of all, the flat houses the collection of books with which my brother-in-law and his six siblings grew up. Including an entire collection of E.Nesbit books, which I settle down to re-read with enormous pleasure.

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4 replies on “Intimidated”

mg…you’re doing it again.
Don’t put yourself down!
My blog has only ever had ONE comment. And yet i still post stuff. And anyway, a few might look at this blog now, but februrary next year, thei blog will be mayhem. You will be well known, earnt a darn good paycheck, and will have loads of people on this blog. You just wait…

Lukas…

Lukas, you’re always so encouraging. One comment? I’m pretty sure I put more than one comment on your old blog!

Hey – I don’t mean to put myself down – I’ve worked darn hard to write these books and I think entertaining children totally ROCKS as a career.

But science is also seriously cool and I was actually pretty good at it, so now and again I miss it.

It’s just sad that life is so short and we have to make these radical choices. Arts or sciences? Business or creativity? Education or entrepreneurship? I’ve been lucky to be able to try a few things, but truth is that with most careers you need to stick at it for 10-15 years to really start to have an impact.

It’s great that you have faith in ‘The Joshua Files’. And I appreciate your help with spreading the word. The head of publicity at the publishers emailed me yesterday saying that you were a born marketer!

lol.
No you did more than one comment on my old blog. All together probs over 20. 😀 But like i was saying, there was still only ONE person eva viewing my blog. (Sorry i go all txt type, i’m on msn. :D)
Life may be short but that’s why we make the most of it. And this time next year there will be a hype about Joshua Files 2. And that’s when you will feel more appreciated, and how worthwhile it was to, um, break…your, leg. You know, i don’t feel comfortable saying that. “It’s great you brok your leg MG!”

Ooh, i like science. Not that i’m any good at it. Magnesium is sciences best friend. Reacts with nearly everything. lol.

Lukas…

Heh: read all the Perth-related stuff assuming you meant Scotland until you mentioned spiders…

It’s very shiny and pretty over here! And I love the shots of the cover (haven’t got round to watching the vid with Elv yet, must do that!). I feel quite skitterish with excitement for you, anyway. Jan is rather soon, no? 😛 Let me know when’s the earliest I can lay hands on the Orange Spectacle Itself, anyway: have nephews lined up. And coffee: must do that soon, want to know what you are plotting next…

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