Happy Feet

I tried to post something yesterday but for some reason I couldnt log in?!

Anyway yesterday was a hectic day, starting off with a trip to Heathrow airport. OMG what was that all about, it was packed, just take it that navigation through the crowds took a great deal of skill! But got the parents all safe and sound to Egypt Alhamdulilah and they are getting ready to fly out to Saudi for Hajj, may Allah accept from them.

Went to Bake and Cake, the new cafe taking the 'not so classy side' of Edgware road by storm for the Teachers event I organised for Saturday School. Quite a few faces turned up old and new and it was a nice way to end the term

A couple of us went to the cinema afterwards and ended up seeing Happy feet, not my choice! For the first 45mins I was thinking oh please no more singing, but by the end of the film I actually had mixed feelings about it, dont believe Im actually saying this but the film did intrigue me a little, it tackled a couple of interesting issues.........namely environmental and our impact and indeed carelessness when it comes to sharing the resources of this planet with the other species that live on it.

But to be honest it wasnt really enough to redeem the film in my view............ok ok Im being harsh, its a kids movie after all.

Ummm the amigos were cool.

Whats your Quest?

Oh oh before I forget

Check this out, Zahoor one of my buddies has decided to try out an entrepreneurial venture.

http://www.myquest.org.uk/

Brilliant work Zahoor!

Last Day of Term

Today I had a meeting with my supervisor. I classed it as quite successful as I was able to clarify my thoughts better and we kind of homed in on a research topic so that was good. But he gave me another massive wad of papers to read..........

Our weekly lab meeting (my first one) was given by an Iranian visiting Professor in our department. He talked about Azo dye degradation using aerobic and anaerobic sludge material (don't yawn!) Not directly related to my project but interesting none-the-less. In a nutshell he was discussing different biological approaches on how to tackle getting rid of dyes from effluents produced by the textile industry. He talked about degradation of reactive dye colours (his specific example being reactive black 5) and production of methane (a green house gas) amongst other things. By the way for those not in the chemistry know-how, Azo dyes are classified by the Azo bond which is basically a nitrogen-nitrogen triple bond. You can read more about it if you really want to :o)

Officially its the last day of term (yay). Ok so now you're confused, she starts term two weeks go and its holiday time already?! Well not to confuse you I started late due to work commitments but PhD's don't necessarily follow the formal term timetable.

Anyway back to helping my parents pack

My debut into the world of blogging

Seeming as Ive just started a new and challenging life, I thought why not document my decreasing sanity along the way.....well that's what Ive been told it will be like anyway.

Those that know me very well will be shocked at the fact that I'm willing to share the goings on in my life with hundreds if not thousands (ok slight exaggeration) of people I don't know as I'm known as the 'private person', but hey Ive always wanted to keep a diary. Oh and don't get too excited its all kosher!

Well its been exactly 2 weeks since I started my PhD at Imperial and I still haven't really taken it all in. Leaving work and deciding to go back to being a student wasn't an easy decision but what is life if we don't challenge ourselves once in a while.

Don't get me wrong its not like I didn't want to go back to uni, in fact doing a PhD is something I wanted to do since I graduated but after a number of disappointments with funding etc. I was a bit disheartened and thought of giving up. I also got myself comfortable in the world of work and was doing well, buuuuuuut behind the scenes I was still trying and I finally got a place and at one of the best institutions in the world.

So here I am and having worked and gained the experience I have in industry, I have now come to appreciate why doing a PhD straight after a degree may have not been the best option, that maybe I wouldn't have got the best out of it and that when God delays something He does so for a reason and as He says.........

وَعَسَى أَن تَكْرَهُواْ شَيْئًا وَهُوَ خَيْرٌ لَّكُمْ وَعَسَى أَن تُحِبُّواْ شَيْئًا وَهُوَ شَرٌّ لَّكُمْ وَاللّهُ يَعْلَمُ وَأَنتُمْ لاَ تَعْلَمُونَ

"........But it is possible that ye dislike a thing which is good for you, and that ye love a thing which is bad for you. But Allah knoweth, and ye know not" (Quran 2:216)

So take home messages are............

The Lord works in ways that our minds of limited mental capacity can not begin to comprehend

and

If at first you don't succeed try, try, try again!