Day 30

Kazakhstan could change its name! It is a strange but valid fact that most people, even enlightened and travelled, have major concerns about Kazakhstan. Mainly because it is not well known and associated with Pakistan, Afghanistan, etc. The name change could indeed happen. There’s a lot of historical reasons behind names in Kazakhstan, for example the World Airport Code for Astana is TSE, referring to Tselinograd – now the district surrounding Astana. Astana itself just means Capitol. The new name floating about is Kazak Eli, though for my tastes I would prefer something like the “Awesome State of the Kazakhs” and getting a cool acronym of A.S.K. Hmm, food.

Managed to start the preparation work for the new PhD programme in Advanced Materials and Engineering. There’s unsurprisingly a lot to do in a short space of time. But it is excellent to be a part of creating something from scratch and pouring all your ideas into a vehicle that could be realised. I’m still hopeful that I can get a few big toys approved on the uni budgets. A state of the art XPS (£1m) would be handy and then having several PhD students and staff able to process numerous papers. I can dream, but I am holding on to the hope that one day we might be able to land an FEI Titan, a £7m high resolution transmission electron microscope.

Tried to give a catch up lecture to the one that was cancelled earlier in the week. Only problem was that no-one told the students until part way through and even then only 10 turned up. It’s a Friday, so happy weekend!

In desperate need to go shopping. The cupboards are bare.

Ray