‘No, it’s fine, I doubt he’ll be that interested in what I’m doing anyway, he’s got his new venture to concentrate on now.’
‘You’re not annoyed with me are you?’
Nick sighed, ‘I’m not annoyed, I’m just thinking about this morning, I want to make a good impression, you never know they might have some in-service training places at this school and it’s had a good Ofsted.’
‘Well good luck, phone me at lunchtime to let me know how it went. Love you!’
‘Love you too, bye,’ and Nick hung up.
He paid one last visit to the loo before grabbing his keys and heading out to his car. He double locked the front door and turned to unlock his car on the driveway and swore. ‘Shit and shit,’ he cursed as he saw his neighbour’s van parked partially across his driveway. It hadn’t been there first thing this morning, he must have popped back between jobs and hadn’t been bothered to find a parking space or to pull up on his own driveway. Nick was furious. He put his bag in the boot, relocked his car and stomped round to next door. He rang the bell and simultaneously hammered on the front door with his fist. Nobody answered. This was unbelievable thought Nick, where was the guy? He must be in, he never walked anywhere, the furthest he went was from the front door to the van. He continued to keep pressing the bell and brought out his phone as he’d got Ryan’s number stored. He was scrolling through his contacts when the door opened.
‘Hold on, hold on,’ he said as he opened the door. ‘Oh, morning, mate, what’s all the fuss, I was just upstairs having a dump. My, you do look smart!’
‘I need to go somewhere and your van is blocking me in,’ said Nick sternly.
‘Oh, is it?’ replied Ryan casually, ‘can’t you get past?’ he said peering past Nick.
‘Not unless I turn my car and go past on two wheels,’ said Nick sarcastically, ‘you are at least four feet over my entrance.
‘Sorry, mate, was in a bit of a rush to get back, forgot my lunch and also Kylie thought she’d left the grill on this morning, silly cow she’s got a memory like a sieve. I’ll give her a good slapping when she gets home,’ and he leered at Nick.
‘Can you please move your van, I’m in a bit of a rush now,’ said Nick, heading back to his own property, trying to keep calm as best he could.
‘I’ll just have to find my keys, mate. Oh shit, where are they? I had them a minute ago,’ and his voice faded away as Nick went back to sit in his car awaiting his escape.
How much longer would he have to endure this he thought. He’d been so looking forward to this morning and now a sudden dark cloud of depression had descended on him. Fortunately, he’d left plenty of time for the journey otherwise he would have been doubly stressed now, worrying about the traffic and finding somewhere to park at the school. When he came back this afternoon he would send off his CV to some of the jobs he’d seen which looked promising, he simply could not contemplate the weeks and months stretching ahead with this constant irritant living next door. One day he would be sorely tempted to land one on him if this continued. He looked in his rearview mirror to see Ryan jump in his van and rev the engine producing clouds of disgusting black smoke as he pulled away allowing Nick to escape. He reversed out carefully and drove away, keeping his eyes firmly fixed on the road ahead. He was too annoyed to put his hand up in acknowledgement of his neighbour. He felt like giving him the finger rather than waving with his hand but that would only incite him even more. He took some deep breaths and tried to focus his mind on the day ahead. At least he’d be out of the house for a few hours. He’d deal with his parking situation if he had to when he returned.
Chapter 9
Professor Plumpton had gone home shortly before lunch as he’d felt too ill to continue with the detailed discussions. His wife had come to collect him and he’d told Erin that hopefully if he rested for the rest of the day he might be able to return tomorrow. On hearing this remark his wife had admonished him saying that he was being too optimistic and he might not be in for a few days, they would let the department know.
Erin felt so sorry for him, he was a lovely man and to see someone so clever and enthusiastic about their research being reduced to this shuffling wreck was heartbreaking. She wished him well and told him she’d look after the visitors who were just taking a break. Next they had a meeting with the chemists on the project to discuss their immediate plans which the professor had cast his eye over cursorily before leaving. Despite feeling sorry for Derek it was an opportunity for her to find out more about what was happening, although she doubted she would understand it fully. She hoped to get and idea about what the plans were for the compound which was furthest advanced.
During the meeting which had just taken place she’d noticed one of the business guys, Brett, everyone called him, having a good look at her cleavage. Dirty sod, she thought to herself, but inwardly she was quite pleased. It was good to know she could still turn heads. She fully believed that if you had it you should flaunt it. Besides she’d been eyeing up her admirer in the same vein. He was extremely fit in her eyes. Probably about ten years older than herself but what did that matter. She wouldn’t have minded a bit of fun with him sometime but he probably had a posh girlfriend and wouldn’t be interested in her. If Scott were to find out he would be furious. Once before he’d seen someone giving her the eye in a pub and he’d landed a punch on the bloke when he’d spotted him going outside for a cigarette. He’d made it quite clear that if he caught her chatting up other blokes she’d get a good beating. Sometimes she wondered why she stayed with him but he did seem to care for her most of the time and he showered her with gifts whose provenance she’d learned not to question too closely. No relationship was perfect she told herself, she must be grateful for the good times.
At that moment she was disturbed from her musing about her domestic situation as the professor’s colleagues arrived for the meeting. She followed them into the room to assist with their laptop and to check whether they needed another jug of coffee or any more waters. Matt and Brett also returned from their comfort break, the latter giving her a wink and standing back to let her wiggle her way into the room for the next part of the day.
**
Nick had sat through a GCSE science lesson and found it quite enjoyable. Today’s topic was crude oil and hydrocarbons as fuels. The students were well behaved and seemed to be quite engaged, asking loads of questions and showing real interest. It was a mixed group of slightly more girls than boys and it was clear that discipline wasn’t a major concern in this school. The teacher introduced him at the start of the lesson to explain the purpose of his visit. After the mid-morning break, he was due to observe another lesson, this time a practical demonstration and then the students would do their own experiments. He was looking forward to seeing how practical science was handled in a school situation.
‘So, Nick, how are you enjoying it here today?’ asked Greg Shandling, one of the chemistry teachers.
‘Oh, it’s really interesting. It’s so good to see the pupils asking questions and learning so keenly.’
‘Well, they’re good on the whole but we do have some less well-behaved groups. We stream the science groups by ability. So some of the lower sets are a bit difficult to keep engaged, they don’t see the point of science.’
‘Oh, I see,’ said Nick sounding slightly deflated.
‘It’s a really good school though, I’ve been here ten years now and I’m not thinking of moving on. I’m hoping to apply for Head of Science next year, well that’s if Mrs Higgins does finally decide to retire,’ he joked.
Nick smiled and they reached the laboratory where the next lesson was due to take place. The teacher settled the students and explained what was going to happen. It was a practical demonstration of a distillation and then after that, they would work through some experiments on their own using a worksheet to guide them. The students were all wearing their lab coats and safety glasses and were told to bring their stools around the portable fume cupboard
.
The teacher started to introduce the experiment which involved distilling a compound so that the fractions collected would be pure and the impurities would be left behind. The teacher picked up the bottle of chemical and uncapped it whilst holding it outside the fume cupboard. Nick was horrified. It was quite a hazardous chemical and should not have uncapped in the open laboratory, there was a fume cupboard there and everything should have been kept inside it.
Suddenly Nick also realised that the teacher had forgotten to switch on the extraction of the fume cupboard. It wasn’t making any noise and any fumes released would soon start to filter back through the opening into the lab. Nick was caught in a difficult situation, what should he do? This was so embarrassing, he was a visitor and yet he really wanted to point out that he’d forgotten to switch it on. He felt his pulse racing, how could he do it tactfully? He really liked this school but if he made Greg feel uncomfortable in front of the class he would be sure to mark his card. Nick was squirming, should he keep quiet? But that wasn’t ethical, some of the pupils right at the front would be exposed to the chemical.
As the teacher started to pour some of the chemical into the flask he spilt some down the side of it and that must have somehow jogged his memory as he quickly looked at the plug and flicked the switch to start the extraction. Nick breathed a sigh of relief. However, it was only a temporary feeling as he’d also noticed that the teacher wasn’t wearing gloves and it looked as though he’d actually got some of the chemical on his fingers. This was appalling, the guy was a complete amateur in Nick’s eyes. Didn’t staff have proper training? If he showed such a bad example what would the pupils be like? Nick’s day had started well but was now spiralling downwards. The teacher went to get a tissue to wipe his finger and then walked back over to the bin by the door and dropped it in the open bin rather than bagging it in plastic inside the fume cupboard. This was too much, Nick started to shuffle about on his feet, he could hardly contain himself.
The teacher got the distillation underway and the clear liquid started to distil over, he pointed out how the dirty residue was being left behind. As it boiled away the teacher left it unattended and wandered over to the front bench to look at his notes. Nick could see that the flask was starting to boil dry and the residue was obviously getting hotter and hotter. This could be dangerous and in some cases cause an explosion. Distillations should always be stopped before all the material was consumed. Nick could stand it no more. He strode towards the front of the class and switched off the heat.
‘Mr Shandling, I think the distillation is finished,’ he said.
The teacher came bustling over glowering at Nick. Thank you, Mr Thomas, I was just coming over to do that, I was just checking my notes for the next part of the lesson. Now, class, I would like you to sketch the apparatus and then I will hand out a worksheet for the experiments I would like you to attempt.’
There was a noticeable chill in the air. It would be very awkward chatting with this teacher for the rest of the morning. Nick was pleased he had a meeting with the deputy head after lunch. Was this really the standard of safety in schools or had be been unlucky just to have been landed with a complete cowboy? There was no way of knowing. He didn’t want to ditch the idea of teaching completely but the idea had certainly been tainted by this experience. Once again he felt his optimism being dashed. He needed to talk all this through with Polly this evening.
Chapter 10
Matt and Brett stayed behind in the meeting room with Hilary to discuss the financial details of the presentation and the scientific team picked up their copies of the action plan and left the room. Theirs were slightly different documents which focused on the technical details for progressing the lead biological entity, namely UP-627-TK. UP stood for the University of Persford, and the TK identified the compound as belonging to the Tyrosine Kinase project. It was imperative that efficient and accurate write-ups were kept and all data was labelled with the proper identifiers. Otherwise, they would have difficulty drawing up patents to protect their invention. So, after a fifteen minute comfort break, Dr Phil Sweetman was leading a meeting to further thrash out the chemistry team’s plan of action. Phil Sweetman had initially been rather resentful at having to step in when Professor Plumpton was off sick but now he realised what a tremendous boost this could be to his career. A successful project meant there would be ample opportunity to publish lots of papers in prestigious journals. Having some of those under his belt would surely put him in line to replace the professor when the inevitable happened and on today’s showing that might not be too far in the future. Derek looked gravely ill. A raft of publications would definitely open doors should he want to move to another university.
Derek’s determination was admirable but it seemed obvious that the cancer was now ravaging through his body and would make it almost impossible for him to keep up with the mental demands of heading up a spin-off company. Phil did feel guilty for thinking like this but it was a tough world and academia was sure to be facing further cuts, this could be just what he needed to ensure he stood out from the crowd. He’d been musing on this whilst staring out of the third-floor window, looking out across the university buildings towards the town centre and the river. He could just see some hardy rowers in the distance, seemingly undeterred by the autumn rain and blustery wind. His reverie was interrupted as he heard chairs being moved and his team as he now thought of them, took their places around the table.
‘Hi, guys, well let’s make a start,’ said Phil sounding incredibly enthusiastic. ‘I don’t want to keep you too long as I realise you are keen to get on with the science but we really need to make sure we have actions assigned to each of you.’
There was a general nodding of heads indicating agreement and pens were poised at the ready to annotate the folder of notes they’d been given from the Perzsolve presentation.
‘Pat, as before, I want you to be the “go-to” person for the team as I won’t always be available to advise you. Is that OK?’
‘Sure, Dr Sweetman, I’m more than happy to do that,’ and he smiled confidently.
‘Dan, now I want you to focus on sorting out the steps in the synthesis which are at the moment poor yielding. This could be a real stumbling block for us. Remind me again which are the two worst reactions.’
‘Well, steps four and five are at the moment thirty-percent and forty-five percent yielding which is a real bummer as we are losing so much material. We have improved them a little, a few weeks ago they were only in the region of twenty percent or so,’ and he paused to pull a grimace. ‘I have a few ideas what we can do but if these don’t work out I’m going to be running out of options, that is, unless we can have a brainstorming session and get some more input.’
There was a general air of despondency descending as the assembled team knew only too well how frustrating it was to be faced with a problem like this in research. It was hard to stay motivated when everything you tried seemed to fail or give hardly any improvement.
‘Well, it’s good that we’ve managed to do the preliminary toxicology studies in mouse and rat,’ said Phil. ‘But we will need to repeat at higher doses for much longer, so that will need much more material. Fortunately we’ve got material for metabolism studies and thank goodness the stuff is soluble otherwise, that would be a whole lot more work.’
Phil paused to consult his notes. ‘We’ve done really well so far, we’ve got a lot of data on the material and even a dose projection from the clinicians as you can see.’
He was momentarily distracted as he noticed Erin pass by the door once more, he wondered what she was doing apart from wearing out the carpet by walking back and forth.
‘Perhaps, if they manage to recruit this chap from industry it might help,’ interjected Pat. ‘He’ll be able to see things from a fresh perspective, a new pair of eyes, so to speak. I hear that two consultants certainly speak highly of him.’
‘Well, we’ll certainly do everything we can to help him fit i
n,’ said Dan enthusiastically.
Hannah Gregson and Seth Richards murmured their approbation but Phil Sweetman seemed less than enthusiastic.
‘Hmm, well, I don’t think we should get carried away. Sometimes these industry types are a bit lax with some aspects of rigour, not used to drying solvents sufficiently and so on. You know what I mean, they have lots of money and can just repeat things, buy in late-stage intermediates and so on. Time will tell, but I’d much rather we solved the problems ourselves.’ For the moment Dr Sweetman seemed to have forgotten they were going to be operating as one big team and the academia versus industry rivalry seemed to have reared its head. He paused and appeared to realise he had perhaps gone too far, it was as if he was giving himself a silent telling off in his own mind. The rest of the group cast their eyes downwards to their papers and started to examine some of the pages in great detail.
‘Right, where were we?’ said Phil, rhetorically. ‘Hannah, I want you to be responsible for ordering bulk starting chemicals. See if you can get some better quotes?’
‘OK, no problem, replied Hannah.
‘Check with Hilary that she has authorised the signing authority for them before you get started. Now, Seth, I want you to make sure you familiarise yourself with the first three steps which seem to go quite well. Dan will chat them through with you. Stop your work on making compounds for biological screening, for the time being, we have to concentrate on this. We can’t make new compounds for test and do the route development simultaneously.’
‘Sure, I’ll look forward to it,’ said Seth, somewhat over-enthusiastically.
‘Excellent, well, it’s all coming together. I’ll get Erin to schedule another meeting in a week’s time. Perhaps by then, we will have “wonder chemist” on board,’ he added sarcastically.
Phil Sweetman allowed his team to leave the room, collected his papers and headed back to his office. He nodded at Erin who was busy at her desk and now that the meeting had finished she would take the opportunity to slip outside and make a phone call. She’d spent the duration of the meeting popping back and forth to the pigeon holes near to the meeting rooms, pointlessly shuffling post about as it gave her a good chance to overhear the discussion in the meeting. This part of the building had recently been restyled and newly partitioned offices created. It all looked very swish but the walls were paper thin and you could almost hear people breathing through them. She’d not gleaned anything much new to add to that contained in the report which she’d hastily managed to photocopy before distributing it to the team members. She was no scientist but she now had a lot more information about the front-runner compound and its code name. There were also some brief details about how the clinicians envisaged the potential drug would be administered and the anticipated therapeutic dose. Of course these were preliminary calculations subject to modification in the future once a more detailed safety profile was established. Things were starting to take shape and become clearer. Thus, she needed to pass on this information to the interested parties and she hoped that her efforts would be rewarded. It was only fair that some of the success of this venture would rub off on her.
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