Pictures of my Triathlon

One of my highlights here in Sydney is definitely the triathlon I perform every weekend. It is something I am really going to miss!! Such a perfect start of the day. I have mapped my route via Google maps and added some pictures of it. Enjoy!

I start cycling from home towards Clovelly Beach

Cycling while the ocean in front of me is motivating me

I drop my bike at Clovelly beach and start running over the cliffs, passing a grave yard

Some staircases over the sea (which is a really good work-out for your bum by the way)

Can u see Bondi Beach on the other side!?

Just a few more meters to get to my swimming pool at Bronte Beach

I can focus perfectly on my forty laps without worrying about shark attacks

This is magic.

The long and winding road to Eureka

Today I have had a new, awesome, big experiment planned that would take up for 12 hours, but would still, theoretically, be totally worth it. I wanted to demonstrate that a specific subset of white blood cells (WBCs) would display increased expression of an immunosuppressive enzyme, upon a certain treatment, that could potentially explain the survival of - otherwise rejected - transplanted organs we are observing in mice. I wanted to make a 07:00 to 19:00 day and my alarm was set for 06:00. The drama started when my sleep was brutally disturbed by the smoke detector that went off at 03:00 A.M. Luckily, it was a false alarm and the batteries were merely empty. Nevertheless, it was hard for my adrenalin-filled-body to fall back asleep again. Perhaps it is not the smartest thing to perform a twelve hour during experiment on a basis of four hours of sleep. But I was so excited for this experiment, which would lift my research to the next level, that I was still having a very optimistic vibe. Plus, it took me three weeks to book this machine that was required for today's experiment. That's not something I just wanted to give up! So, I started my morning at 07:00 to collect the spleens of my treated mice, and continued isolating the WBCs out of these spleens. I was only interested in a particular subset of these WBCs called dendritic cells. In order for me to obtain these cells through this booked machine, I first needed to get rid of cells I wasn't interested in. This is called selective enrichment. I depleted all the B and T cells by a technique I was not yet familiar with. I find it that learning a new technique requires a lot of focus and energy. Therefore I am glad that this wonderful substance called coffee was invented. After my successfully performed selective enrichment, I started staining my cells for markers which are specifically expressed on the cells I was interested in, these dendritic cells. This awesome machine I booked three weeks in advance has the ability to recognize these stained cells and is friendly, more importantly, advanced enough, to select these cells and give it back to me in a tube. I started smiling when I had my hands on these tubes filled with my favourite cells, isolated from all the other white blood cells. I was walking back to my bench while protecting my precious tubes. Ten hours had past, two to go. The most tricky part was behind me. Now I needed to proceed with demonstrating that these treated cells produce more immunosuppressive enzyme compared with untreated cells. Cells are like little factories producing thousands of wonderful proteins. This production process is read from the DNA, and transcribed into RNA. I needed to isolate the RNA from my gorgeous cells living in my tubes. During this process of RNA isolation I made a mistake I could not afford at 19:00 o' clock. Instead of giving them a pleasant concentration of 1x PBS solution in which cells will happily flow for efficient replacement from tube to tube, I gave them by accident a ten times stronger concentration. I can tell you that cells are not happy with that. They weren't happy at all. As a matter of fact, they were dying in these conditions. After eleven hours of delicate procedures to obtain my precious cells, I accidentally intoxicated them!! At the end of the day, I only had tubes with selectively sorted dead cells.

Fuck.

Planning my New Zealand Trip

I have booked a plane ticket to New Zealand for three weeks in the period of April the 8th until May the 1st. During the last couple of days I have excitingly determined, based upon the lonely planet book and some feedback from friends, the route I will follow at the South Island of NZ. I have managed to obtain a cheap ticket to Christchurch from Sydney. This is because - something I found out after I purchased my flight - of the prevailing risks of an earthquake's aftermath in that city, which happens to correspond with flight discounts. Ah well, so far I have successfully survived the dangers of Australia with her spiders, snakes, sharks, alligators, killer birds, deadly jelly fish, but also her thunderstorms and bush fires, surely I can cope with a little innocent earthquake aftermath. I will spend three days in Christchurch, do some whale watching in Kaikoura, followed by a long weekend in hot springs and mineral pools in Hanmer Springs. Then I will catch a bus to Queenstown, where I will be staying five days in search for adventure and fun. Next I´ll be on my way to the dreamy Te Anau where I will spend a week finding my inner peace while exploring the magnificent Sounds fiords where the mountains stand so tall, straight out of the sea. After my rebirth, I will take my new found soul with me to visit the breathtaking Mountain Cook and Lake Tekapo, through Twizel, known for its flying fish. From there I will head back to Christchurch to catch my plane back to Sydney.

I would especially like to thank Arthur for broadening my opportunities to extreme widths by enlightening me with the Kiwi concept Naked Buses. By booking on time you can manage to find bus rides for only 1 NZ dollar (62 eurocent). Four out of my six booked bus rides have cost me 1 dollar, adding up to 4 dollars, and therefore in total I covered all my local transport at the expense of only 54 NZ dollars (34 euro). Arthur, thank you! I am so looking forward to this trip!

Update 18-01-2012:

Slight change of plans. I changed my return flight to May 17, so that I could spend three additional weeks in New Zealand with Onno Ebbens. Then we both go back to Sydney to prepare ourselves for a 6 week road trip on the East Coast of Australia (Sydney - Cairns). I am aiming to fly back from Cairns to Amsterdam on July 24. This needs yet to be approved.

Shark attacks, and thousand lightening strikes hit Sydney

Despite the horrifying title of this blog, I still have had a great weekend! On Saturday I did my usual triathlon, which involves cycling to the beach, running on Coastline, and swimming in the outdoor, shark proof, seawater swimming pool with a lovely view of the ocean including the people swimming in it and therefore risking their lives. Though, I did had to dodge some kiddies during my swimming laps. Ah well, I'll be the chicken in the kiddie swimming pool. Nevertheless, I have had every reason to stay out of the Australian sea. Last week a shark attack has been reported at a beach near Sydney, North Avoca Beach. Today Manly beach had to be abandoned due to a shark alarm. At least I am now capable of typing this blog with two healthy functioning arms, which is more than I can say for that particular unlucky surfer. I use the word unlucky, though, realistically is a rather incorrect term as that would implicate that there were no environmental factors present influencing this outcome, which was clearly not the case as this particular surf dude did decide to go surf in the unsafe water. Well, not me! I tried to explain this principal to the kiddies in the swimming pool, but they seemed unimpressed.

I went early to bed on Saturday night, because Sunday was going to be the first shooting day of the short film. Of course, I wanted to look fresh and well-slept as a huge camera would be in my face all day.

We were shooting from 09:00 till 15:00 and I must say I was exhausted when I came home.

We were filming mainly around Hyde Park area, and they aspired to use the same filming techniques as they use now in the new TV series called Modern Family. This particular program has an original filming method in which they combine the actual drama story line with interviews of the actors. We only taped the interview part last Sunday. Therefore, I had to memorize a lot of lines which drained my energy and focus, because you don't want to mess up as an actor after an extensive elaboration for every take. I have gained much more respect for TV show stars for developing new episodes every week! It also involved a lot of waiting, as the director, co-director, cameraman, and sound person had to discuss every angle prior to shooting. I really enjoyed myself though. The filming caught the attention of a lot of pedestrians walking by which was very funny. I am looking forward to the next shooting day!

Sunday night, hell broke loose. Sydney was undergoing a thunderstorm that dumped the heaviest rain in months on the city. Thousand lightening strikes were detected according to the newspaper Sydney Morning Herald. It was insane! I have never experienced such a thing before. I am not a big fan of thunder, so I plugged in my music earplugs and watched a movie on maximum volume.

Shark attacks!? Thunderstorm!? Is that the price I must pay for having three summers in a row?

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

Lianne does Sydney

Lianne had arrived in Sydney on Thursday the 29th in the morning and I went to collect her at the airport with my piece of paper, written in font 50, Lianne Kok. Unfortunately, due to lack of order in the chaotic domestic airport arrival hall, I was unable to predict the exact exit in which Lianne should have appeared from Brisbane. I took my chances and I stood at a random gate with my paper screaming her name while heaps of people were passing by and giving me weird looks. Eventually Lianne called me on the phone asking me where I was, and it had appeared that I stood waiting at the Melbourne exit. Complete failure! But then when I saw her we, very cliché, ran to each other welcoming one other with a big hug! If only they’d broadcasted Hello Goodbye in Australia. In both the bus and in my humble house over coffee, we’d been talking about geeky biomedical science stuff for hours. I really missed talking nerdy!

We had so much to discuss about with our internships abroad covering similar fields of Immunology. There was just too much to say and it was therefore amazing how much and how fast we could actually talk with only a few breathing stops. After this good old exhausting talking session, we decided to go for the classic coastal walk from Clovelly Beach to Bondi Beach and then laid there for a few more hours observing the supply of Sydney beach boys, while patronizing the potential competition. After a bottle of wine we decided to stay in for the night and we had watched a movie.

The next day I took Lianne to the city centre where we did some shopping and exploring. We then bought our stash of alcohol as a preparation for New Year’s Eve, and we went out for some innocent bar hopping in the city on Friday night.

On Saturday the 31^st of December we spend our day time at the beach relaxing, saving our energy for New Year’s Eve. We started drinking some beers and ciders in the evening while getting dressed for the big night. My party music was blasting from my speakers and we were getting into a pleasant vibe. With the taste of Southern Comfort between our lips, we discussed the ups and downs of 2011. Moreover, we started thinking about what we would like to see happen in 2012, and things that could definitely stay behind in 2011, the past. Of course these details aren’t meant for the public eye. We took the bus to Oxford Street around 22:00 P.M. and sang our way to Sydney Harbour. There, the population density was very high. But despite not waiting and guarding your spot for at least ten hours, we still had a pretty fair spot to watch the fireworks from. During the countdown, a big train blocked our view and we had no idea of how much seconds there were still left until some random person just screamed 4…, 3…, ­- and we followed - 2.., 1… Happy New Year!

The fireworks were released and the sky was filled with bright colours. Obviously Sydney has a very big reputation when it comes down to their fireworks on New Year´s Eve. However, it was still rather hard to see the big picture from where we were standing with all the skyscrapers in vicinity. It felt also like we were too much in the middle of the city, instead of a more global view from aside. Nevertheless, it was a very pretty moment. It amazed me to see that they used a lot of timing with releasing the fire arrows. Sometimes the sky was quiet and then out of nowhere several fire work pieces were released at the same time leaving Harbour Bridge and several skyscrapers. After the fireworks show we rushed our way into the city as we were feeling sobering up. That was not part of the plan! Luckily some random persons on the streets provided us the necessary alcohol boost and we were off to do some serious bar hopping. At the first bar we entered, a nice gentleman was kind enough to offer us some drinks which we were very willing to accept. Until at some point he came to us asking if we could buy a certain girl he was flirting with an expensive drink. As that was not in line with our best interests, Lianne smartly suggested ´´Ask the girl herself, she looks like she has a lot of money!´´ This brilliant diversion gave us time to down our glasses and we literally ran out of that bar on the streets to escape! The next bit is rather blurring in my memory, but it comes down to the facts that we had seen a lot of bars, dragged a random lonely guy with us for a bit – my neck is still sore! -, and at some point Lianne finally managed to get us a taxi. It was a very fun night which met up the expectations of how a New Year´s Eve should have been properly celebrated in Sydney.

On Sunday we dragged our hang-overs to the Royal Botanic Garden where we were enjoying the daytime while taming the New Year’s Eve headaches. After our recovery in this beautiful and peaceful environment we made our way to a traditional pub where we scored some decent pub food with huge Schnitzels.

Then we grabbed a coffee, followed by a night-time at the Sydney Harbour Opera Bar drinking a glass of wine, while swaying on Jazz music in between the pretty lights of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House. This was honestly and sincerely a magical moment which belongs under the sentence Living the good Life in Sydney.

We had decided to pay a visit to the Blue Mountains, in order to get some fresh air and to leave the hectic city! The train ride to these World Heritage listed mountains took for 2 hours, though it probably could have made it sooner if it would have speeded up a bit. I thought the so-called Sprinters were slow in the Netherlands.

Once we got to Wenthworth Falls we had to walk a bit to reach the Conservation Hut where our bush­-walking journey would start. We took a route over the National Pass to reach the Wentworth Water Falls, and then headed back over the Overcliff Undercliff route. We started our trip with fresh courage and we were very excited! It soon came apparent that the paths weren’t really easy horizontally to walk on. You really had to look out for every step you took. We took a million steps downwards to reach the valley of the mountains, knowing that we at some point had to go back up again! This bush-walk was rated as easy in my Walking In Australia guide book but we experienced no such thing. We had been walking for 5 hours over steps, slippery stones, mud pools and it was an intensive full body work-out! Though the scenery was very beautiful, with big red mountains (funny cause they’re called Blue Mountains), waterfalls, big trees, bright birds, hot sun, and cool shades. Every time we passed a waterfall the temperature would drop significantly, cooling us down with the water drops falling from mountains high up the sky right on your overheated neck. Lovely!

The last meters of the journey were tough, especially because the orientation signs stating Conservation Hut kept saying thirty minutes. Though they were at least ten minutes walking apart from another! On our way back we even spotted a snake! When we arrived near the train station we saw that our train back to Sydney was just arriving. With our last energy we ran down the stairs and jumped in the train just in time.

We woke up this morning at 5 A.M due to the fucking cockatoo bird mimicking a monkey with ADHD next to my window. Anyway, on this last day of Lianne in Sydney, we pushed our sore legs to walk to Sydney Harbour where we would be enjoying our final drinks together. Thank you Lianne for an amazing time! Hopefully, see you in Brisbane soon!! Click here to see more photo's.