Let's start with last Saturday.
Time to drive 5.5 hrs to my field site. Albeit I love the field and this site is one of my absolute favourite places, the drive is long, and as the only driver it feels longer. It was a bit of slow start as we had to make a few stops along the way to pick up various things, but we got there in the end. The end was around 9 pm to a cabin in the forest. Strangely I wasn't very cold. We eventually got the car unpacked, the camp unlocked, and the gas fridge started. We had dinner in the town we bought groceries in so at least we had eaten. I had a fair bit of trouble getting to sleep that night though. Which is pretty strange for me when I am at this particular field site. I didn't get to bed until close to midnight, but I remember looking at the time and it was like 3am before I had gone to sleep. I guess there was a lot on my mind.
- I had a volunteer I barely knew, who is also new to the country, but thankfully has field experience elsewhere in the world.
- This was the first field trip I was leading in over 3 years.
- There had just been a death in the family and I was debating whether or not I could make it to the funeral which is at least another 5 hours from my home, and also 5 hours from the field site, not that I could drive straight from the field in a uni vehicle and with my volunteer.
- I also had a bunch of unhelpful emotional personal life things going through my head that were unrelated and very unhelpful too
Sunday, as usual the first day in the field is always a slow start, but we got done what we needed. However, then it started to rain. We were coming back on a tricky road and the vehicle literally slide sideways like a crab. There was a bit of a drop off the edge too, but thankfully there was a log that helped keep us up. The car wasn't rocking or anything, but we waited out in the rain for help rather than in the car to be safe. The nearest town is between 60-90 mins away and with the rain the guy we called would have to drive a bit slower, so we were out in the rain for almost 2 hours. The guy that came was really good and knew what he was doing and it all went well. Still had a bit of trouble going to sleep but definitely not as bad. I still had a lot of the same stuff on my mind, but I did some 'journaling' too.
Monday, we went out and located my species and replicates to collect later. However, we decided to call the trip early due to the rain. One of the reasons why I scheduled the trip in August was because Winter is the dry season, and I wanted to get hydraulic threshold measurements. Doing these measurements in the rain means my plants are under no water stress and it would be fairly pointless to measure. I brought a bottle of wine up, so we drank that , since it was our last night there. The wine definitely helped me get to sleep. Still did some journaling to try and keep the thoughts at bay.
Tuesday, we packed up the camp, we collected my samples, so they would be as fresh as possible and we headed off. We made pretty good time, and got back to the uni by 5pm. I was the only driver as my volunteer hasn't got an Australian license yet, so I was pretty happy that I made it back in good time. I put my samples in the cool room and then my partner picked me up and we had yummy Indian food. It was nice to go out to dinner with them and spend time with them, with me being away for a few days and prior to that being sick, we haven't spent much time together lately.
Wednesday, I had a a bit of a sleep in and got to uni by midday. Then worked in the lab setting up my branch samples until about 8pm. If the instruments worked well I would have been able to leave earlier, but I had to restart and replace things a couple of times. By now it had been decided that I was driving my mother and I to where our family funeral was on Thursday, so once I got home I had to unpack from my field trip and pack for a funeral.
Thursday, was another day of driving for me, as Mum can't drive much. But we got up here in decent time still. In time to go to the local shops and grab some food. I used remote desktop to check how my measurements back at the lab were going. I eventually got connected with the motel wifi, but my measurements were going strange. I have taken measurements on this species from my other sites before so I was a bit worried and confused last night. I'm wondering if someone has turned up the air conditioning, and it is too hot in the lab for my species, so their drying out is accelerated. When I got into the lab on Wednesday it was 28 degrees Celsius, which is way to hot for not only my plants, but me too. So i put it back down to 22 deg C, so I could work. I sent an email at midnight to a post doc about my concerns.
Friday, is today. The funeral was today. I've definitely used a whole lot of spoons socialising though. My branches are at least generally consistent with the readings for the night before. So I'm not really thinking about it much for now.
Saturday, tomorrow, I will already be heading back home. This time by myself.
Sunday, I have a 4 hour job.
Monday, it's back to the uni office again, right? Or the lab, likely.
Okay, so this isn't a very deep post, but I kind of feel it is important to me just to record the exhausting things I am going through. Driving at least 6 hours 3 times within 5 days, a field trip that didn't go as planned, a death in the family, and still trying to stay mentally sane and do work on my PhD, it quite a lot to go through. I need to acknowledge that. I just wish other people understood how much I go through at times and that's why I may not be as "productive" or "social" or "energetic" as the majority of my colleagues.
On the plus side of the past week, I've been relatively migraine symptom free :)
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