Thomas and a microscope

One day I received an e-mail from a man from Germany, Thomas, in which he offered me help and advice concerning cleaning my personally collected specimens. We went on exchanging e-mails on a regular basis and after a few weeks Thomas became my mentor :)
Thomas has been collecting for the last 50 years or so, and has amazingly wide knowledge in the field, especially when it comes to chemistry. He gives me homeworks to do and guides me, feeds me with tonnes of useful and digestive information, he tells me things that would be very hard or impossible to find in books. Sometimes when I work with him (via WhatsApp) I feel like a detective trying to find the correct answer or the right solution. It doesn`t only broaden my knowledge, but it is also super fun to do!!!

One day Thomas told me that he found a nice, used microscope for a reasonable price. I didn`t want to buy a scope at that time as I felt my knowledge was still too poor and I thought that instead of buying a scope I should just study more, but he convinced me that this is a great offer and I should definitely go for it! So I agreed. The microscope was sent to Thomas and he thought he could fill in empty spaces in the box with samples. He bought some stuff for me at a local mineral show, and added some of his stones. The package weighted almost 20 kgs!!! ;)

It arrived 2 days ago

It felt like Christmas! Unpacking dozens of stones, each of them a surprise!!!!

My sister`s bed was a mess! About 40 specimens wrapped in newspaper. Now I know the prices of meat and beer in Germany and I`m up to date with current affairs, too ;)

Here are a few of my new specimens, most of them from Germany, of course!!!

Unfortunately, 3 specimens arrived broken :(

And the last one... calcite that I had fallen in love with. Thomas was looking for it at the show but couldn`t find it and eventually... sent me his own specimen!!!!

Absolutely beautiful and very precious for me

My first photo taken through the scope. Oh yes!!! - I realize it`s far from being perfect!!!!! ;)

 

 Tomorrow, together with Klaudia, my boyfriend and Stephen from Dublin we are going to the Mourne Mountains in the Northern Ireland to collect aquamarine, topaz, smoky quartz and other granite/pegmatite minerals! Wish us luck and good weather! Hurraaaayyyyyyy!!!!