For a moment [no pun intended] there, after I'd remembered to pause to document a fleeting moment of time ... after I'd scribbled down some notes ... and after I'd typed up some more coherent lines ...I realised I hadn't asked if Alexa at Trimming the Sails was going to be continuing the Simply A Moment meme into the New Year.
But fortunately she is ... so here's mine ...
[To learn more you can read Alexa's tips on how to record your own moments and if you do join in, there's a link box on her first moment of 2014 for you to add yours.]
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Date: Wednesday 15th January 2014
Time: 10am
Location: 1st floor chemical engineering laboratory
I'm wearing a lab coat.
Which is unusual for me.
I mean, that's generally the kind of outfit I like to keep for special occasions; like Christmas, birthdays and new episodes of Sherlock. Oh and ... when I also have to attend a science lab with the latest student I'm supporting.
According to the blue marker pen letter, written inside the collar, this coat's an 'M'. On a 'man-sized' scale too I reckon.
Only I'm not.
The sleeves are so long that I've had to fold them back several times ... so I'm pretty sure that I'm looking as casually-chic as a model in a GAP advert.
Either that or like a toddler playing dress-up as a scientist.
Whichever.
Slightly self conscious about hovering around my student while she works I focus my gaze on the experiment being demonstrated and sink my hands into the coat pocket.
There's a pen in there and my fingertips detect the rough texture and irregular surface of a lid that's been chewed.
And it's not my pen.
I quickly let go and make a note-to-self to keep my hand out of that pocket for the rest of the morning.
Last week, when on my first visit to this lab the tutor asked: "So, what's your background?" my immediate and only reply was: "Not this".
And I wasn't exaggerating.
I look around and realise that, bar my student's plum-coloured nail varnish and a bag of sugar over there on the scales ... almost everything else in this environment is foreign to me.
- All the need for accuracy is alien to me -- I use my ruler as a straight-edge ... hardly ever to actually do something as boring as 'measuring'.
- And the machines look so complex I can't even make a guess (educated or otherwise) as to what you'd use them for -- my ATG gun and Big-Shot are the only machines I need to use for work! [Although, to be fair, have you ever tried putting in an ATG tape refill? That's been know to take up 2 whole minutes of my crafting time!]
- And there isn't a dusty old book nor an opportunity to roll a well crafted phrase around your brain in sight -- like I say, my experience is definitely 'not this'.
... it seems rather appropriate that this lab coat simply doesn't fit me.
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Well, that's my moment for January. Don't forget to visit Alexa's to catch-up on some more moments from around Blogworld.
I'll see you soon.
Julie :-)
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