October Outing to Autumnal Albuquerque; part 2 - abandoning balloons...

Saturday we got up at 4am and bundled ourselves into the car to sit on the freeway and travel a quarter of a mile (or less) in over an hour. The intention was to go see the balloon fiesta but Saturday was the opening ceremony and people are rude. The problems were two fold 1) there was a lot of traffic 2) there were a ridiculous number of people who were cutting in to the line of traffic. Once we got to an appropriate point having missed the start of the morning glow anyway we abandoned the balloons and head to (you guessed it) IHOP for breakfast. It wasn't a waste of a day though, after heading home for a nap we headed out to 'Old Town' which is as the name suggests the oldest part of town. It was fun to be somewhere a bit older (the center of Albuquerque was founded in 1706 as compare to Seattle's 1851). It's a wonderful place to wander around and look through all the little shops many for them sell local art works which are beautiful. It was a little overwhelming so I ended up buying nothing because there was so much I would have loved to buy. Many of the buildings are built in the 'pueblo revival' style which mimics 'Adobe' style but in modern materials... Albuquerque is a curious mix of the 'traditional' american houses clad in wood and these more practical simple buildings with flat roofs.

Old town was busy...

it was bright and beautiful under that extraordinary sky

The market was for Saint icons which was interesting to look at 

There was live music from the rotunda

this is the church in the center of Old Town

 Route 66 runs through the center of Albuquerque and was the main route between the east and the west of America before the interstates were built. We stopped for lunch at a 50's style diner that used to feed those traveling route 66. I had a milkshake and a burger with fries and felt very american!

That evening we went to Mexican restaurant and ate too many foods with chili in!

October outing to Autumnal Albuquerque; part one - intro and altitude

Albuquerque is rapidly becoming one of my favourite words, given that every time I write it I have to try about six times to get it right there is a tremendous sense of achievement whenever I actually get it written. Why Albuquerque? 1) I have a friend who lives there; for those of you paying attention to my life she is the lady my sister and me stayed with when we spent the summer in The States when I was eighteen (that would be eleven years ago). In fact she drove us and some other teenagers from St Louis (Missouri, which is in 'the middle') to Idaho (which is one state east of Washington State). She then looked after Ruth and Me for about three and a half weeks and showed us the sights in Kenosha, Wisconsin. 2) They have a balloon fiesta 3) I'm a Fulbright scholar, I'm supposed to be absorbing the culture! So this weekend I left work on Thursday and hopped on a plane to Salt Lake City, then caught my connection through to Albuquerque. Internal flights are so much more pleasant that international flights... I may have to do some more!

Look how little it's supported by Dad
(evil daughter laugh...he he he)

Taking the plane after work got me in at 11:30pm so I could get up on Friday ready for a fun days sightseeing... Tish and Tim took me up the mountain (Sandia Peak) and I broke Tish on a 'hike'! See photos for the details of the day...

This is the 'tram' we rode up the mountain in,
Tim waited in the line for an age for our tickets
whilst Tish and I looked around... 

The journey up...

It's dusty hence the haze

Start of the hike... we went around the mountain
a mile or so then realized the quickest way back
was back the way we'd come - opps! 

this is the path...

and the view off the side (evil daughter laugh again)

it is a path, honest!

but look at the view!

look at the pretty pretty trees

look at the pretty trees...

look at the colours...

and these are some more of the tram

 Please note the elevation! Albuquerque itself sits on a plateau that is over 5,000 ft above sea level. It is also on the northern tip of the Chihuahaun Desert. In October the humidity ranges from 60-30% which left me high and dry (giggle!). Usually Bristol and Seattle range between 95-60% humidity.

Soggy September weekend in Seattle

*This was supposed to be posted on the 30th Sept but I was waiting for time/photos*

This week I have done my first solo experiment... First things first a little catch up on my weekend. I was house sitting for my previous owners (Laurie and John) this weekend. On Saturday I decided to have breakfast at the local IHOP a bus ride and walk away, which is fine when it isn't torrential rain. By the time I stood in the IHOP I was literally dripping and had a 20 minute wait for a table before I could order my regular (coffee with 'Irish coffee' creamer and strawberry and banana pancakes). Unfortunately I wasn't the only thing soaked through, luckily my passport stayed dry in it's leather case - yes I do carry it everywhere because it has my visa, paperwork and health insurance info in it.

extra soggy saturday

Once I got home I curled up on the sofa with some friends and used my newly acquired wool and needles to knit a tea cosy whilst I washed my ipod (unintentionally).

'some friends'

Finished Tea Cosy

Anyway back to that all important experiment. The reason I am here is to learn to study immune regulation. In type 1 diabetes the damage to the pancreas is caused by the body's immune system incorrectly attacking itself. There are a number of systems in place to stop this happening in the majority of the human race, although that majority is slowly declining as autoimmune diseases become more common. Once the immune system gets going even in the case of a viral or bacterial infection you have to have something that puts the breaks on the system otherwise you'd end up damaging all your healthy tissue. This is why regulation is so important. One of the important parts of the immune system (*importance being determined by which ever immunologist you are talking to at that point, they all have pretty important roles to play) are T-cells. They come in a few varieties; Teffs ramp up the immune system and cause the destruction of infections, or your pancreas (if you on the path to diabetes). Tregs basically stop the Teffs. Imagine the immune system is a car on the brow of a hill, the Teffs are the wheels, they do the business part of the moving, but there is also a positive feedback, once you go over the brow of the hill, you'll keep going and actually pick up speed and Tregs are the brakes that should slow you down. The aim of my game is to grow the Teffs (i.e. get them to multiply - which I can measure) and see how adding Tregs slows this down. Why this is important is because we think in people with diabetes that the clutch is broken, that is to say the Teffs don't pay attention to the signal from the Tregs to slow down, so they keep on rolling down the hill till they... *crash*

So if you followed any of that then you'll understand when I say this week I succeed in getting the wheels moving and the breaks engaged to stop it (a bit), that constitutes success! Although there is lots to improve and this was on samples from a healthy person...

Walking along the shores of Lake Washington and other news...

Wow it’s amazing how quickly time passes whilst you are breathing in and out. The 30^th of September marks my 100^th day in Seattle. I have had 13, that’s thirteen working weeks here and I have just finally completed the second run through of the technique I really wanted to learn as a priority – sigh! So what have I been up to since my last update? Mainly breathing in and out and watching reruns of TV series I love on Netflix (embarrassed face). Obviously work has taken up a reasonable amount of time too. I am continuing my church hunting; I visited another church where ‘the preach’ was given by video link. I have also revisited the UMC church I visited my first Sunday (with the expressive lady pastor), an impressive number of people remembered me and some even remembered my name!  I have ‘finished’ the Psalms of Ascent “How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity! … For there the LORD bestows his blessing, even life for evermore.” (Psalm 133), food for thought as I seek a new church community to ‘live’ with. 

I have also joined a flute choir which boasts four flute parts, alto and bass flutes, and allegedly piccolos. We’ve had two rehersals so far and I didn’t really keep up with the playing but at least most of the time I knew where we were in the music! I hope with more practice I will improve. It will also help when I become more familiar with having a conductor and using her to figure out the speed of pieces.

A few weekends ago I went for a 15 mile walk up to the top of Lake Washington and I have a few photos to share though from that (see below). 

The MOHAI (museum of history and industry) that I visited on
the first Thursday of the month (which is free)

Inside the MOHAI

See the proof for 'Seattleites'

The space needle, taken with the fish eye setting on my new camera

My walking root
(although this is the shortest route between the two points)

Tuna and sweetcorn sandwiches - yum!

little birdies that kept me entertained during lunch

Views over Lake Washington

Beautiful ripples

Look what I found in the grass Dad!

There were a couple of clumps in different spots...