Hi everyone

Got back from the US a week and a half ago. Had a great time! Won a best student paper award at the conference I attended in Big Sky, Montana. Had beautiful weather, had a few barbecues and went on a bus tour through Yellowstone National Park. Then on to Berkeley, CA, with Alex (my partner) coming over. Had a super time there too. Spent three days in San Francisco and did everything we wanted to do there. Went to Napa Valley and silicon valley. Bought lots of clothes (and shoes!) and enjoyed the summer sunshine, only to come back to a cold winter in Christchurch.

I bought heaps of supplies, with two different sizes of glass tiles for earrings, and a larger square tile for pendants. I did a big batch all at once (over 50 pieces!) which I have lived to regret as each stage takes so long to complete! I'll have some matching earring and pendant sets now. I also have brooch backs so I can turn some into brooches. I have lots of new beautiful papers too.

When I got back from overseas I found out that I have made it to the final round in a national science competition I entered (the MacDiarmid Young Scientist of the Year Awards [link] This puts me in the top 20 in the country (PhD students and recently completed graduates). I'm been flown up to Wellington next week to give a ten minute presentation to a judging panel of five, and then up to Auckland at the end of August for the gala awards dinner, regardless of whether I win an award of not. The big prize is $10,000, and the smaller category prizes are $5,000 each. So that's been pretty exciting. I'll keep you up to date with that.

Anyway, better go work.

Petra