I flew into Los Angeles on the Sunday before the last-while-Cassini-is-still-in-orbit-around-Saturn Project Science Group meeting began. I was feeling dodgy when I got up at 6 AM, but I napped in the taxi and took some ibuprofen, and hoped that the feeling would go away.
It did not.
I made sure my usual mobile pharmacy (ibuprofen, paracetamol, Rennie) was stocked in my rucksack before I boarded the plane, and was glad I'd done so about three hours into the flight when my fever started spiking. I alternated ibuprofen and paracetamol every two hours. The flight attendants kindly granted all of my requests for cold water/cans of ginger ale, which were frequent. It was one of the most miserable long-haul flights I've ever had.
I spent nearly all of Monday in bed apart from a brief foray out to get a hot Thai curry into my belly for lunch. This paid off on Tuesday, and I was able to spend half a day at Caltech to dial into the penultimate operations meeting. (There will be one more after the crash, but obviously we’ll no longer have an instrument status to report.) I was excited about this, because I had been saving up something for a very long time.
At every operations meeting, the uplink operations manager goes through the list of instrument teams and asks them to report their status. Ideally, the exchange goes something like this:
Operations Manager: “[Instrument name], [Operations engineer name].”
Operations Engineer: “[Instrument name] is fine/nominal. We have no ground issues.”
No one deviates from this script if they can help it. It’s as concise as it can get.
At the penultimate meeting, however, there were a lot of extra speeches thanking everyone for a great mission, emphasising how much they’ll miss the spacecraft and one another, etc.
I had something else planned.
Operations Manager: “[Instrument name], [Nanila].”
Me: “Hello. I’ve been dying to say this for years. [Instrument name] is tickety-boo. We have no ground issues.”
I’m not sure anyone heard the last sentence because laughter exploded through the speakers.
Operations Manager: “Thanks, [Nanila]. I’m, ah, not sure how to spell that.”
After the ops meeting concluded, the room began to fill up for the science meeting. I kept hearing people saying “tickety boo”, and I felt a warm glow of satisfaction over having introduced a criminally underused phrase into the JPL lexicon.

I collected our (mine and
emelbe’s) badges for the Grand Finale event on Friday. They are rather beautiful.

I was given an end-of-mission lanyard and pin, too.
For the first couple of hours of the meeting, there were camera crews present. I sat to one side near the front of the room, directly behind a cameraman, thinking this would keep me safe from view. It mostly worked.
Lots of people gave speeches: the project scientist, the mission manager, the head of JPL, the Italian space agency rep, the European Space Agency rep, and so on. Everyone said nice things and patted one another on the back.

Before the real science discussions got underway, the Cassini Virtual Singers (all current and former members of the flight team) performed four popular songs with lyrics rewritten to be about Cassini. It was sweeter than I’d expected.
After someClassified Science stuff happened, I went to lunch with some of the younger colleagues on our instrument team. One of them happened to be a member of the Athenaeum, which is the most pleasant dining experience to be had at Caltech, so we all agreed to go there. I remember it being very nice there indeed, and the lunch buffet did not disappoint.

Here are some of thereprobates respected colleagues.

Here are the others.

And here I am, ready to dive into my lunch.

The Athenaeum features ridiculously ornate ladies’ toilets. They have always made me want to sit down and spend an unnecessary amount of time powdering my nose and fiddling with my hair whilst chatting to a friend. Sadly, I was alone, so I made do with another selfie.
After a coffee - and what sweet pleasure to order a cappuccino and have it involve a big pile of foam with very little milk in the espresso; Britain, take note, you still have not got this right - I felt my energy levels suddenly drop below critical. The achiness left by the fever began to claw its way round the edges of the painkillers. It was time to head home and flop for the rest of the day.

Me, on the walk between my accommodation and the meeting. I have missed palm trees, my friends.

The reflecting pools below the towering edifice that is the Millikan Library in the middle of the Caltech campus.

I was delighted to find that thetortoises turtles are still by those pools, endlessly sunning themselves on the rocks (“Do you like my arabesque? Wait, no, I don’t care what you think. I am gorgeous, darling, gorgeous.”)
to be continued
It did not.
I made sure my usual mobile pharmacy (ibuprofen, paracetamol, Rennie) was stocked in my rucksack before I boarded the plane, and was glad I'd done so about three hours into the flight when my fever started spiking. I alternated ibuprofen and paracetamol every two hours. The flight attendants kindly granted all of my requests for cold water/cans of ginger ale, which were frequent. It was one of the most miserable long-haul flights I've ever had.
I spent nearly all of Monday in bed apart from a brief foray out to get a hot Thai curry into my belly for lunch. This paid off on Tuesday, and I was able to spend half a day at Caltech to dial into the penultimate operations meeting. (There will be one more after the crash, but obviously we’ll no longer have an instrument status to report.) I was excited about this, because I had been saving up something for a very long time.
At every operations meeting, the uplink operations manager goes through the list of instrument teams and asks them to report their status. Ideally, the exchange goes something like this:
Operations Manager: “[Instrument name], [Operations engineer name].”
Operations Engineer: “[Instrument name] is fine/nominal. We have no ground issues.”
No one deviates from this script if they can help it. It’s as concise as it can get.
At the penultimate meeting, however, there were a lot of extra speeches thanking everyone for a great mission, emphasising how much they’ll miss the spacecraft and one another, etc.
I had something else planned.
Operations Manager: “[Instrument name], [Nanila].”
Me: “Hello. I’ve been dying to say this for years. [Instrument name] is tickety-boo. We have no ground issues.”
I’m not sure anyone heard the last sentence because laughter exploded through the speakers.
Operations Manager: “Thanks, [Nanila]. I’m, ah, not sure how to spell that.”
After the ops meeting concluded, the room began to fill up for the science meeting. I kept hearing people saying “tickety boo”, and I felt a warm glow of satisfaction over having introduced a criminally underused phrase into the JPL lexicon.

I collected our (mine and
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)

I was given an end-of-mission lanyard and pin, too.
For the first couple of hours of the meeting, there were camera crews present. I sat to one side near the front of the room, directly behind a cameraman, thinking this would keep me safe from view. It mostly worked.
Lots of people gave speeches: the project scientist, the mission manager, the head of JPL, the Italian space agency rep, the European Space Agency rep, and so on. Everyone said nice things and patted one another on the back.

Before the real science discussions got underway, the Cassini Virtual Singers (all current and former members of the flight team) performed four popular songs with lyrics rewritten to be about Cassini. It was sweeter than I’d expected.
After some

Here are some of the

Here are the others.

And here I am, ready to dive into my lunch.

The Athenaeum features ridiculously ornate ladies’ toilets. They have always made me want to sit down and spend an unnecessary amount of time powdering my nose and fiddling with my hair whilst chatting to a friend. Sadly, I was alone, so I made do with another selfie.
After a coffee - and what sweet pleasure to order a cappuccino and have it involve a big pile of foam with very little milk in the espresso; Britain, take note, you still have not got this right - I felt my energy levels suddenly drop below critical. The achiness left by the fever began to claw its way round the edges of the painkillers. It was time to head home and flop for the rest of the day.

Me, on the walk between my accommodation and the meeting. I have missed palm trees, my friends.

The reflecting pools below the towering edifice that is the Millikan Library in the middle of the Caltech campus.

I was delighted to find that the
to be continued
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
I'm better today. Still had to lie down for a couple of hours after a half-day of activity, but definitely on the mend. :)
From:
no subject
I may be sharing that conversation at work tomorrow.
*bows to the awesome*
Wheee for your pass and your badge!
From:
no subject
(Sorry the timing on the Skype isn't going to work out. :()
(no subject)
From:From:
no subject
[you're right, that's a phrase that needs to be used more often!]
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
NPR did a piece on the end of mission last evening and interviewed someone on what I presume to be your team. I was all, "talk to Nanila! talk to Nanila!" but alas. :)
Thanks for giving us these updates. My Twitter is full of Cassini (and it's surprisingly emotional). Nice to have the insider view, too. Hope your health continues to improve. {{{hugs}}}
From:
no subject
Heh, no media will be talking to me this week. The flu has given me laryngitis and I sound like a barrel full of nails being dragged across a concrete floor.
Thank you! I'm getting better. Still quite weak, though.
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
(no subject)
From:From:
no subject
Whatever your badge is on/above in the close-up photo is beautiful. I've been staring at the layers of trims for several minutes and admiring the color and texture combinations.
The badge itself is quite nice too. :)
From:
no subject
I bought it in a flea market in Amsterdam in 2005 for 17 euros. I have certainly gotten more than 17 euros' worth of use out of it. It fits way more stuff it in that it seems like it should, it's comfortable, it has an internal pocket that zips and even the main pocket zips although it looks like it's just a simple, pretty cloth bag. It is stealthily Really Useful. I love it.
(no subject)
From:From:
no subject
From:
no subject
It would be churlish not to greet the turtles, I feel!
From:
no subject
Also: your dress! And palms!
(Feel better soon <3)
From:
no subject
Thank you!
Today is better but after half a day of walking around JPL I have had to go and lie down for a couple of hours.
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
I'm hopeful that by tomorrow I should be close to 100%. A half-day of walking around almost continuously today still necessitated an afternoon of lying down, so we'll see. I'm certainly not going to push it when I have to be at Caltech at 3 AM on Friday morning.
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
The badges, pins, and that bathroom are all quite nicely ornate.
It's rather odd, but even though I know it's you in all of these pictures, the black and white one keeps trying to register as someone else.
The cog dress looks very SCIENCE!
From:
no subject
The cog dress is the Engineer Dress from Svaha clothing. One day I would like to own allllll their dresses.
(no subject)
From:From:
no subject
And yeah, I rarely hear tickety-boo. Good grief, sound it out! Easy to spell! lol
I LOVE YOUR DRESS! Duh.
It's so exciting to see this huge event through your eyes. I can't be more grateful to you for sharing so much here. *mwa*
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
Also, hooray for tickety-boo! :D
From:
no subject
Tickety-boo!
From:
no subject
Tickety-boo is a term I use hehe. Not often mind.
From:
no subject
Oh, I'm so pleased to hear you use tickety-boo. And yes, it shouldn't be overused, I agree.
From:
no subject
Hope you're feeling better for the big finale. Will be thinking of you!
From:
no subject
Definitely feeling better, and will be going to bed very early since we have to get up at 3 AM.
From:
no subject
There's a UK microbrewery called Tickety-Brew, by the way.
From:
no subject
That's a terribly clever name. Is the beer any good?
(no subject)
From:From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject