Hard day's night

This week is best described by the lyrics of the Beatles' song 'Hard day's night' - mostly for the 'working like a dog' and 'should be sleeping like a log' bits not for the 'come home to you' and 'be alright'!
Ive been working only to find myself at multiple dead ends. This maze of what is to eventually be my first, first-author journal publication must have a way to the centre. Im just praying that the cup is not a portkey!
Isn't it great that we can now do Harry Potter sayings!. 'Let's hope you're cup is not a portkey!' ,'I hope my wand has the right feather!', 'Don't get you're robes in an uproar!' - you get the drift!

Anyway - amidst paper writing, experiment re-doing and car-hunting, last week I managed to read "Longitude - The True Story of a Lone Genius who solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of his Time". This book is by Dava Sobel and follows the life and time of John Harrison, an English clock-maker who devoted his life to, not only creating an extremely precise and accurate time piece, but also to perfecting the art of precision watch-making to aid in measuring longitude. To us in this day and age longitude is something Google can possibly spout out at a click or others who can be bothered might want to look it up in an atlas or a book. Back in the day such ways were non-existent and turns out poor wanderers on sea either hit land unexpectedly or lost their way and died of scurvy on the high-seas for the want of a method to measure the longitude. This book is a great read and very concise and I would urge one and all to discover 'Longitude'.
In other goings-on, as the world and its father knows, the All Black's lost to France. Taking with them the hopes and dreams of that nation- New Zealand. We heard news of the mourning, the accusations, the aftermath. All very sad. Yet there is hope of winning the big one at home - in 4 years!
I have a weekend not-worth-looking-forward-to coming up, although I just heard from a friend that the oktoberfest is in town. Beer and sauerkraut might be just the thing needed after a hard week and weekend of labours! - Auf Wiedersehen then and wish me Viel Glück!