It's A Sheep's Life ... Baa

I recently came across a great BBC interview with a young female scientist that's so positive and affirming for any aspiring young women considering a career in science. For me, it was the enthusiasm of my young female biology and chemistry teachers at Walthamstow Senior High School that gave me the final confidence to apply to London South Bank University to study a BSc(Hons) degree. However, when I started work, I didn't look like a 'typical' scientist when I rocked up to meetings as their scientific specialist in a bright green suit, heels and a pony tail. And the 'cockney' accent certainly threw them too. It took dedication to professional development, support from my line management to present my scientific research (including refusals to take minutes at meetings), as well as finally putting my BSc(Hons) and MSc after my name on a signature block (as all the men did), but I got there. I still remember my daughter's school friends asking me if I re...

While clearing out a bedroom drawer, I came across my old camera. The last time I used it was on my honeymoon in New Zealand, but I’d never had the film developed because after taking the final shot, the film failed to fully rewind into its canister.  Yes, the camera is the old-fashioned kind, but was fancy at the time because it automatically rewound the film into the canister at the last shot. Despite changing the battery when it happened, the camera still didn’t rewind the film. If I force open its back as it is now, then a fair few of the photographs will be ruined. It's moved house once and has sat in my bedside drawer for 22 years. That’s procrastination on a mega scale and far surpasses my usual procrastination traits.  But I thought it couldn’t be fixed, and I didn’t want to throw the camera and its precious memories away either. It includes images of the elusive yellow-eyed penguins at dusk on the South Island, the city of Dunedin and its links to Edinburgh (and the...