Holidays in Brisbane

We spent Xmas week in Brisbane with Michelle's cousin, Jenny, and her husband, Dave. We decided to drive, since flying is such a hassle and expensive. The total distance was nearly 1000 km, so that meant a total driving time of around 12-13 hours. At first, we had the idea that we would slog through and get it overwith in one day, but halfway through we changed our minds and spent a night in Coffs Harbor. While other people on the road are generally polite, and the scenery is beautiful, the roads in NSW are about 10 years behind what they should be. The state motto for NSW should be: "Oops! We forgot the infrastructure!" The previous state governments have just kept the chairs warm for 4 years so they could collect their lifetime pensions, but the state is the worst in the nation for road quality and appropriate quantity for the number of drivers. There are several 50+ km stretches of road that are single lane in either direction, all no passing. Larger vehicles, of course, must drive a little slower for safety reasons, but this means in these no passing segments that traffic backs up extensively. This creates a very unsafe situation. Another interesting note is the NSW government's defense of the highest business taxes in the nation, saying the taxes are justified to fund all the new infrastructure projects. Yet, Queensland and Victoria have lower business taxes, and vastly superior infrastructure. The argument is crap.

One thing NSW seems to have an abundance of are speed cameras. While speed enforcement is certainly important for everyone's safety, it highlights the state's perverted priorities. The money used to lay out a sophisticated camera system could have been used years ago to widen some of the more dangerous stretches of road to a proper two lanes. By setting up the roads so that people can pass slower traffic more often than once every 50 km, more drivers would likely be able to maintain patience for the duration of the drive. But when masses of people are forced to go 20 km under the speed limit for an insanely long stretch because grandpa with his caravan can't be bothered to keep up -- it creates a situation where everyone's nerves reach their limits and people try to make up for lost time when the road finally clears up. Does anyone in the NSW government or RTA realize this? Or are they all just a bunch of idiots? (My guess is the latter, especially given that other states have done better with lower taxes.)

Now that I've got the whinging out of the way, the holidays were great. Brisbane was hot and humid, much like Texas. Winter there is like early summer here in Wollongong. We had a great time with the family and friends up there. Dave owns a bar and had a party for friends and family to celebrate the closing of the year. We got to meet up with Chris and Iris (whom we met at the wedding last year, and stayed with when we were down in Melbourne last November). It was nice to see them again. They had recently married, and were in the area doing some visiting as well. Xmas Day was spent at Dave's mom's house. While dinner was undergoing final preparations, Dave's mom had all the ladies doing some fossicking. That's where you sift through a pile of dirt for gemstones, gold, etc. -- although this setting was much tamer than a mining camp. There were various sapphires for the ladies to find, some cut, some rough. Michelle found a blue sapphire and a yellow one, plus a rough one. Dinner was followed by the gift exchange. Then, as is typical of such gatherings, people began to make a break for it lest they get stuck for the rest of the day. We took our cue after helping with some cleanup.

The rest of the time there, we did our own thing. Boxing Day is the day after Xmas. We decided to go shopping, and discovered that in the big cities, Boxing Day is akin to Black Friday in America. The stores were nuts! Although, for the most part, people are more relaxed while shopping on Boxing Day, perhaps because Xmas is over by then so there's no panic to buy things for other people. I found some nice items at an outdoors store that I can use on my next camping trip. We also found a few small items for our kitchen.

The stopovers in Coffs Harbor were very enjoyable. On the way up, we visited the Big Banana. It's a banana plantation where everything's bananas. Seeing the bananas on the plants in different stages of growth was interesting. On the way back, we stayed two nights in Coffs Harbor. The first day, we did a little shopping and walked on the beach. The second day, we did some fossicking for sapphires, following the experience of Xmas Day. This time, however, there were no pre-cut stones planted, just rough ones. We found several nice sapphires, some garnets, and lots of small, well-formed quartz crystals. It took us nearly four hours to go through one bucket of dirt. Once you find a few of the good stones, you cease to get trapped by the ordinary rocks and the sifting goes much faster.

It was a good week, but we were glad to get back home. We will be spending NYE by ourselves, taking it easy.

Our New Internet Connection Is Up!

Yesterday while we were out and about, I got a text message from our new ISP telling me the connection was all set up and ready. So when we got home, I booted up the modem and put in the new settings. Once I verified it all worked, I went upstairs to get our wireless router off off our neighbor's ADSL connection. The VOIP setup should be done sometime this week.

In the first day of testing out the new connection, we have been impressed with the speed. We are paying less money, but getting 2-3 times the download speed we had before. We also have a higher download quota, and all for about $20 less per month. We were really getting ripped off by the previous provider.

Miscellaneous Updates

Life has been quite busy since we've arrived back in Australia. We finally dropped our old ISP due to poor reliability and tech support only being available during weekdays. However, because this is Australia we are talking about, it's taking nearly two weeks to activate our connection with our new ISP. Fortunately, our neighbors have broadband, and we are borrowing some of their bandwidth (I just plugged our wireless router into their modem).

I've done some cleaning up of our tiny backyard, and started a garden. While we were away, we got a clover infestation in the yard, so I had to pull all that. Then I laid down eucalyptus mulch. The seedlings I planted a couple of weeks ago are ready to transplant. The garden this year will consist of tomatoes (traditional, black, roma, and cherry), bell peppers (called capsicum here), jalapeno peppers, Thai peppers, basil (Thai, Genovese, and purple), rosemary, oregano, cilantro (called coriander here), and yellow beets. That selection may very well grow (*groan*) if we have room for more, since the warm season here is 6-7 months.



We've got beneficial creatures in our yard to help manage the pests, too. Our resident blue tongue lizard was on patrol for awhile recently. In addition, there are also a few skinks about.

At campus, my project this year has finally come to enough of a conclusion that results can be written up, so I've been busy writing my next paper. These results are good enough that we are hoping the paper gets published in a fairly decent journal. On top of that, the director of our group is excited enough about what I was able to accomplish in Massachusetts that he wants me to build a similar printer robot system here. In fact, I've been able to source two distinct systems for a reasonable cost and will be ordering both. Putting these machines together and getting them working will be my first project after the holidays.

And getting to the holidays... We will be driving to Brisbane to visit Michelle's cousin, Jenny, and her husband. It will be nice to spend more time with them, as they were obviously quite busy last year for their wedding. I got us a decent (but cheap) stereo for the car that has an auxiliary port for an mp3 player or iPod. That way we have an abundant source of music for the duration of the drive.

Review: MS Office 2007

I was recently fortunate enough to obtain a copy of CodeWeavers' Crossover Office Professional, which I've been using to play some two-year old Windows games on my Kubuntu laptop. I never really planned to buy a copy of MS Office, but an unacceptably slow response by the university's IT department to fix my network connection at the new building forced the issue.

I bought a copy of MS Office 2007, as Office XP wasn't available in stores. The software installed with no issues, and I was able to register and activate the product.

Admittedly, I was completely unprepared for the interface. Gone are the traditional Windows menu styles, where regularly accessed utilities are available as toolbar buttons, and everything else can be found in the main sub-menus or by appropriate right-clicking. Instead, the sub-menus are shown as tabs, similar to the Firefox browser. The user is stuck with the classification of the utilities under each tab, and there is no other way to access them. There is no way to revert back to the old interface.

This is one of the things that has always irritated me about Microsoft software. They always try to force the customer to use the software a certain way, and it's either impossible or a real pain in the ass to circumvent that. What if the customer doesn't think about the process of putting together a document the same way a developer does? Why should the customer always have to change the way he/she does things every time Microsoft comes out with a new release?

Here is an example. When I create an xy-plot in Excel, and I want to adjust the settings on the line (the default settings for the points on the line are too big, and the line too fat, so I need to reduce them) -- I can't just select the line and right-click. I have to select the line, then go to the Format Tab...then hidden among the clutter of in-your-face buttons, at the far left is an option for "Format Selection." Clicking that gets me the menu to adjust the settings on the line. I then have to repeat that for each line.

One really major annoyance is the fact that Excel 2007 won't let the user save a graph as a picture (jpeg, gif, etc.). Previous versions of Excel allowed this, but for some reason the MS Office developers felt users didn't need this anymore. What user won't want to place an image of a graph into a presentation, an email, or a pdf document? What retarded logic was used to decide this feature needed to be dropped? I searched Google and found a VB macro someone wrote to enable this, but it didn't work. Excel complained it was out of memory, then the same error message continued from there on in Chinese and symbols. I deleted the junk macro. The lack of the ability to save graphs as images was a really stupid oversight on behalf of Microsoft.

Another nasty surprise for future users of MS Office 2007 is that the document windows force themselves to consume your entire screen. Look at me! Look at me! Don't bother with any other programs you might have open. Doesn't matter if I have email open or something else live that I might be wanting to see notifications on. There is nothing in the configurations of Word 2007 or Excel 2007 that allow freedom from this compulsory full-screen window. There is no option to remedy this even in the "Windows" tab within the applications. Users are simply stuck, as always.

Finally, it won't come as a surprise to anyone that MS Office 2007 is a memory pig. The applications are constantly trying to keep the document you are working on up-to-date. Every single change invokes a full document refresh. It's no surprise this is heavy on resources. Word 2007 actually froze up and crashed on me at one point when I was just trying to scroll down to the next page. Thankfully, the document recovery tools have been improved somewhat, and I didn't lose anything. However, I've learned from using previous versions of MS Office to save often. I save after every significant change I make.

Thankfully, I don't have to actually have the Windows operating system installed to compound my problems. Killing the applications when they freeze up is trivial. I can either kill the task using Crossover, or do it the old-fashioned Unix way with the command line.

And open source software lets me work around some of the retarded limitations imposed by MS Office 2007. I can use Gnumeric to save my Excel graphs as images in a variety of formats. Open Office works well with Word documents if I get too frustrated on the Microsoft side. I had a report with images I wanted to save aside as jpegs. I couldn't do that in Word, but with Open Office, I select the image, right-click->Copy, then in GIMP I select Paste As -> New Image. Done. No nonsense. No crashing or locking up. And all the windows are resizable.

I will be using MS Office 2007 as little as possible, and am extremely grateful to the Linux community for providing such great flexible, robust, and stable applications. Once I am done with my PhD and settled in my new career, I intend to donate heavily to keep good Linux applications available.

Wrapping Up The Trip

The research trip to North America is coming to a close. We are currently in Canada and fly back to Australia in a few more days. Towards the end of my stay in North Dartmouth, I took the bus to Boston with Okan Ala, one of the students I was working with. Boston was an interesting city, obviously full of history. We arrived at about 8 a.m. and walked all over town all day. The walk along the harbor was pleasant, and we made our way to where the USS Constitution ("Old Ironsides") was docked. The guided tour of the ship was free of charge, and genuinely interesting.



After lunch at a family Italian restaurant on the north side, we wandered back to a large shopping area, browsed the shops, watched some street performers (one from Sydney, even), and enjoyed some good coffee. As evening approached, we began walking across the city to the REI store. We finally reached our destination after about an hour and a half of walking, and I found a couple more small items I wanted at the store. Afterwards, we went to a Turkish restaurant with one of the other researchers who has done inkjet printing of cells to discuss his work over dinner. The last bus back departed at about 9 p.m., and I was back at my motel around 10:30.

It's been nice to see Canada again, and to get a brief tour of the University of Waterloo from Michelle's uncle. When we first arrived, it was unseasonably warm, and one day I was wearing just shorts and a t-shirt. However, winter has begun, and we are seeing snow flurries. Most of the area here is farm country, which can be nice in some ways -- but the downside is all the towns are quite small. The land is mostly rolling hills -- no real mountains. Probably the worst aspect is this entire area is downwind from Detroit, so all the pollution there blows through here. Toronto has become so expensive that these small farm towns are becomming outer suburbs. Cookie-cutter houses are going up everywhere, and the construction quality appears marginal. For now, we don't really see ourselves coming to this area -- primarily, because the university doesn't really have any research groups that fit in with my work so far. If we come to Canada at all, it will likely be around Ottawa or out west.



We got lucky while the weather was still pleasant and went to Niagara Falls. The site is impressive, and it's plain to see that the energy of all the water is massive. The Canadian side definitely has the better view. The falls in total consist of Niagara Falls, which is a wide, straight waterfall, and Horseshoe Falls, which is shaped according to its name and seems more powerfull. We paid for the tunnel tour, which begins with an elevator descent of 100 or so feet. The tunnels themselves are painted white and large enough that most people should not feel any claustrophobia. The tunnels are dug so that there are two branches that lead to observation doorways behind the falls. The noise is fantastic, and indicative of the amount of energy dispersed. A third branch of the tunnel leads to an observation deck near the base of the falls. The entire site is worth a trip.



We are now looking forward to getting back to Australia and returning to a normal routine again, not to mention enjoying warmer temperatures.

Research Trip

My time in North Dartmouth, MA has been quite busy. Long before arriving, I found it difficult to find accomodation. Not knowing the area, I had no idea how close/far motels really were. I tried to just rent a room in a house somewhere near campus, but that was a tedious process, probably moreso given it is mid-semester here. One owner had her spam filter set to "I don't want any email at all." Dumb idea if you are trying to make money renting your house and don't want to list a phone number. Another owner tried to cram me into a 4-bedroom house (with 1 bathroom!) that was already occupied by four tenants. Fortunately, her tenants had more sense than she did and said 'no way'. Then she said she said she had a friend, blah blah, but then never followed through. I gave up and booked a cheap motel I knew to be within a mile or so of the university. Then a week later I get email responses from a few other people. Guess once the economy really started faltering they realized they should get serious if they want to make money. Or something like that. (Tip to owners renting out houses in North Dartmouth: this business is not easy money. If you want customers, make yourself available and check your email daily until you have tenants.)

I only stayed a week at the cheap motel. It was filthy. I got a bargain rate of $42 a night, but the normal rate is $57 a night. Either rate is too much to pay for a room that hasn't been dusted in years, where some of the lamps don't work, and some rooms reportedly have problems with bedbugs. I was lucky not to have a room with bedbugs, but the dirt, poor lighting, and overall disrepair just got to me after a few days. I switched to a better motel a short ways down the road. It was double the rate, but compared to the first place, my new room was like a palace and spotlessly clean.

Soon after I arrived, I cleared up confusion about the "Dartmouth" name of the university. Dartmouth College in NH is the Ivy League school. This university is the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. It's not terrible, but it's definitely not Ivy League. You can just tell by looking around the place. This university is fairly small. Don't get me wrong -- I still believe a university experience is mostly what a student makes of it. The people in the research group remind me somewhat of the group back at UoW. I'm glad the people are great, because the lab definitely isn't. All of the mixing equipment is plastic -- which is not good, because residues from previous uses can be left behind and contaminate the next guy's work. Glass is best, and I finally found someone in the chemistry department who gave me some. Same for filtered and deionized water (ions and dissolved matter in water can also mess up chemical mixtures).

The town itself is also quite small. The center of everything is the local mall, and the primary pasttimes appear to be shopping, eating, and driving around -- major components of the lifestyle I left behind. Sure, I've done quite a bit of shopping here, as has Michelle in Dallas -- but we've exercised great discretion and purchased things to go with our new, more balanced lifestyle. Overall, this place is pretty boring, particularly without a car to go to some of the more interesting spots, which are all 10 miles or more away. Thankfully, I've got a good internet connection, books, and cable television to keep me busy when I'm not doing research or writing reports.

In between the settling in and shopping, I've managed to get quite a bit of work done. The printer systems here will likely make great additions to our lab, should we acquire one or more. Either way, I've learned enough to make this trip worthwhile. I am looking forward to going back to Oz, though. I find myself really missing the place.

PhD Progress and Other Ramblings

My current project is still moving along, albeit much slower than I had hoped. Once it is finally done, though, I will have enough research to get one substantial paper out of it, and perhaps an additional one or two smaller papers. The slowness of all this has me riding on a bit of an emotional rollercoaster at times, because I hate being in limbo. I have to say the most frustrating aspect for me is the down time, either while waiting on others who are contributing to my work or for reactions to finish. While I have been wanting to pursue other lab projects during this down time, my supervisor advised against this, saying it would be a distraction. I argued that I have the down time anyways, and he recommended I use the time to begin writing my thesis. This wasn't something I was expecting, as I didn't think one began writing a thesis until all the work is complete -- but in hindsight, it does make sense not to wait until the end to commence writing. The suggestion has provided a nice filler for the downtimes.

I've also reconciled with the pressure to finish in three years. I don't think that will happen, simply because it's not work that I'm doing solo. I can't force other researchers and equipment bookings to work around my schedule. In discussing this with some of the veterans of our group, I've learned that out of the hundred or so graduates, only two were able to finish in three years or less. One worked eighteen hour days and weekends to do so. Everyone else took longer than three years, and funding continuation is reviewed on a case-by-case basis. The impression I got is that funding won't be a problem, but it's just not explicitly discussed. Worst case scenario, I can finish elsewhere.

After further delays, our research group is finally going to be moving in September to our new building. My particular area won't move until the end of the month. Next week will be the last week I can do work in the lab. The following week is when we pack. The good thing about the timing of this move is the break from work. When there is no choice about the break, it makes it easier to just let things go and relax.

My break will actually be longer than just a few weeks. I am traveling to Dartmouth in October to work under Professor Paul Calvert for a month. He seems like a brilliant guy, and I expect to learn a lot from him and his group. Michelle will be in Dallas on a business trip during this time, and we join up again in Canada in early November for the last week and a half of our trip. We'll be having a look around the University of Waterloo, and I'll be giving a short presentation to the researchers there. That university has likewise been experiencing tremendous growth and investment, lately, and it may be where I park my career for awhile (or at least establish regular collaboration). We'll be looking at the neighborhoods, as well, to assess real estate (even though it's a long ways off, yet).

Once I get back here, I'll pick up my project where I left off, and I'll probably have a paper to write from my results at Dartmouth. Additionally, I'll have my annual departmental seminar to prepare. Next year promises to be busier as I take on my final project(s) and move towards wrapping everything up.

City to Surf 2008

This past Sunday we ran the annual City to Surf charity run. There were over 70,000 people there, making it the largest chip-tracked race in the world. The race starts at Hyde Park in the Sydney CBD, and heads east for 14 km until the end at Bondi Beach. Michelle ran it last year, and since I've been doing more running, I decided to join in this year.

This winter has been longer and colder than last year, so the morning started out quite chilly. We caught the bus sponsored for the university group at about 6:45 a.m., and arrived at the start around 8:15. We were joined on the bus by one of Michelle's friends, Tajeen, and her boyfriend, Jerome, whom we met up with after arriving.

The sea of people was an impressive sight, and what made it even more fun were the costumes some people wore. (It's somewhat of a tradition for this race to dress in absurd costumes. There was a gorilla and a banana; a set of tools; Batman and Robin, and a number of other superheroes; cowboys and Indians; sumo wrestlers; women in formal gowns; men in bathrobes, and so on.)

There were four groups for the crowd. The first group contained all the most elite runners who either qualified or were invited; the second group semi-elite runners; the third group runners with no verifiable time records; the fourth walkers. Michelle was in the second group due to her time last year. I was in the third group. Michelle's friends were in the fourth group.

We all started towards the back of the third group rather than split up. I was a bit surprised how many in the third group kicked back and walked. They really should have been in the fourth group, or at least had the decency to move over to the side so those who wished to actually run could get by. Needless to say, the first third of the race was spent weaving through all these slow people who positioned themselves in the wrong group.

The course is a scenic route through the city, and decently challenging. I wouldn't say it was a difficult course, but at the halfway point was the so-called "heartbreak hill" -- which I think earned its moniker moreso because it's a long hill rather than for its steepness (it certainly isn't).

I ran quite well until about halfway up heartbreak hill, then I started inserting periodic walk breaks. Had it not been for the crowd, I likely would have been able to push myself better, as I've done on the local trails. Once I was over the hill, I picked up a full run again for a good stretch. However, for the final third of the race, I had to continue with the walk breaks to keep from over-exerting myself. The last couple of kilometers of the race were the longest. I got the impression I was nearing the finish line, so I kept pushing. But every block turned into another block, and time seemed to slow down.

Then I finally saw the beachfront, and you can imagine my disappointment when I realized it was farther away than I initially thought. Nevertheless, I continued to push myself as much as I could, and finished in under 100 minutes. I was exhausted. The only injuries I had were a couple of very minor blisters under one of my toes.

After replenishing my fluids with water and Gatorade, I caught up with Michelle and we found a nice cafe at the far north end of the beach where we got coffee and a couple of pastries. Overall, it was an enjoyable event -- though I probably wouldn't do that particular race again simply because it's overcrowded. A year ago there's no way I could have run that kind of distance. This year's trail race series starts up again next month, and I'm really looking forward to those.

Various Updates

I didn't realize so much time had passed since my last post! These past few months have been quite eventful. Research is in full swing, our group is moving to a new campus in a couple of weeks, and free time is spent on recreation and relaxation.

Michelle and I spent a weekend in Sydney in early July for our anniversary. We visited the Australian Museum next to Hyde Park, spent a lot of time shopping and walking around, and enjoyed a few favorite haunts in the city.

My research project is still the same one I've been working on since about March this year. I've also been collaborating with other researchers on their projects and becoming more of a go-to guy in the lab. Currently I'm at a bit of a roadblock in my work, because the materials I'm making for cell culture are killing the cells when we try to culture them -- and I need something that doesn't kill cells. I've been reviewing scientific literature and have lots more ideas to try -- but those will have to wait a few weeks now, as our group is set to start packing for the move next week.

The new campus we are moving to looks extremely impressive. All the buildings are of very modern architecture, virtually all glass. That means lots of natural lighting, which will be a nice improvement over current conditions. I've got a desk right by a window. The campus is just a 5 minute walk from the beach. I'm looking forward to having that as a stress outlet during the day. We will be spending two weeks packing and disposing of old chemicals, followed by a week or so to move everything, then a week to unpack. That means work won't really resume until about September 1st (and that assumes no major hang-ups from the move).

On top of that I've been planning a trip to Boston for the whole month of October. I'll at Dartmouth working with Professor Paul Calvert. He attended the inkjet printing workshop we had last year and gave a nice presentation about his printer robot he built. The purpose of the trip is to learn all I can about this system he built and assess what it would take to build one for our group. It will be non-stop work all month, but I'll be able to add another chapter to my thesis from this project.

Despite all the demands on my schedule, I've still been able to easily fit in leisure. I got some new Salomon trail running shoes recently (thanks to friends in the States!), and tried them out this past weekend (they were great!). Michelle and I have been going for trail runs more often, and I'm noticing vast improvements in my endurance and strength. We also go to the gym for either a workout on equipment or swimming several nights a week. I'm also finally getting back into my guitar again after taking nearly a year off it. So basically we have a nice routine going that has a healthy balance of everything at the moment. (And I'll make sure the next post isn't so far out!)

More Hiking in the Budawangs

Last weekend was a 3-day break, thanks to the Queen's Birthday holiday. Although there was a social event going on with university colleagues, I had had my fill of socializing and really just wanted to get away for the weekend. Keith and I had planned to go back to the Budawangs and explore Monolith Valley. I was later talking to Phil in passing, and he said he was thinking about camping that weekend as well, so I invited him to join us or we could join him wherever he wanted to go. As the weekend approached, it looked as though we would have a good sized group for the trip. At the last minute, Keith got sick, and Phil's friend backed out. So it was down to just Phil and I for three days in the Budawangs.

We left early Saturday morning, and Phil dropped his dogs off at a kennel along the way. Phil is a very tough outdoorsman, so I knew the weekend was going to be fun and somewhat rigorous. He told me he wasn't bringing a tent, and planning to sleep out in the open in just a sleeping bag on top of a tarp. In an effort to lighten my pack, I figured I'd give it a try, too. My sleeping bag is rated for as low as -5 C, so it should be alright, and my tarp is certainly lighter than my tent. We drove past the parking area where Keith and I went last time to one further up the road. A few minutes after parking, we were suited up and on our way. We crossed a stream in three places right away. It was a little slow going for that part because we took the time to take our shoes and socks off to keep our feet dry. After the third crossing, while putting my shoes back on, I saw a lyrebird walk by just a short distance in front of us.

The plan was to climb up Mt. Owen, another peak near The Castle, the first day. The first half of that climb was fairly easy, just walking uphill for a bit. About halfway up we took a lunch break on a flat area with a nice view of the valleys all around. Overlooking our lunch spot was the rest of Mt. Owen -- a very steep rock face -- that we would soon climb. I was a little surprised, uneasy, and excited when Phil pointed out where we would make our climb. The route looked reasonably tough, but the rest of the mountainside was just sheer rock, which added to the magnitude of feelings I had at that moment.

We began our climb in a tree-lined chimney (wedge). The first two-thirds of the climb really wasn't that bad, and the chimney was angled rather than straight vertical, which made the climb less intimidating. Due to the previous week's rains, though, the rock was wet and that slowed us down considerably. One slip still would have meant serious injury. At the final third of the climb, we essentially got stuck for a bit. The climbing grips needed to go further were quite a stretch, and the wet rock meant a very substantial risk of slipping here. We had already removed our packs and wedged them due to the trickiness here. The next 45 minutes were spent figuring out how to go further or whether we should backtrack and try a different route. In the winter months here, daylight is gone by about 5 o'clock, so we were concerned about taking too much time in this spot.

Fortunately, Phil had a small climbing rope, and there was a pumpkin-sized rock wedged in the chimney that he was able to tie it to. He fashioned a standard rope ladder to work himself past the hardest part. Then with Phil above and me below, we used the other end of the rope to pull the packs up. I had to retie the rope ladder for myself to climb up, after Phil secured the rope better at his end for my weight. This difficult section was about a 7-10 meter climb. After that, we were on top of Mt. Owen, and we got to enjoy the view for a couple of minutes before dashing on to find the next portion of trail before the sun set.

By the time we got across the top of Mt. Owen, it had begun to get dark, and it was more difficult to find the trail. I lent my bright LED headlamp to Phil so scout things out, while I stayed with the packs. The trail wasn't far from where we were, and Phil found it after about ten minutes. He walked around to where I was sitting, near a ledge with a three meter drop. I dropped the packs for him to catch, then I jumped down and we resumed the rest of the hike to the camping cave.

The cave itself was nice -- a large rock overhang, essentially -- with fresh running water right there and more nearby. We set up camp and gathered a bit of firewood for a campfire. Phil went about making some soup, and he was absolutely right when he told me it would be rejuvenating. After that, I prepared the first night's dinner of two Thai curries with Udon noodles.

The next day, we walked through an extensive bog area to explore some of the smaller mountains at the western end of the reserve. Overnight, dense clouds had set in, and all the moisture stuck to the bush. The clouds didn't lift until nearly midday, and by then we were getting a light rain. Although the bog area had a board walk, it was mostly submerged, leaving us walking in ankle-deep water all day. The scenery was nice, though, and it was enchanting to see the clouds roll right across the cliff faces in front of us.



We made it back to camp with about half an hour of daylight left. As the second night came, we gathered enough firewood to enjoy for the evening and dry off our clothes with. We had our soup starter, and then Phil made two Indian curries with rice. The evening wound down over a leisurely conversation by the fire. With both of us being quite tired, we left a few of our cooking tools out on rocks near the fire. The next morning, as we were preparing breakfast, Phil couldn't find a couple of his favorite items: a red cup and a red spork (spoon on one end and fork on the other). He looked around for several minutes before noticing the cup wedged in a burrow-type area at the base of the cave wall. Closer inspection revealed his spork was further in there, too. Some critter apparently had taken a liking to those items during the night and stashed them away. Nothing else of ours was missing, but there were some artifacts from previous campers tucked away in the burrow. When packing up camp, I was actually very glad not to have a tent to take down (which also meant no chore of setting up a wet tent at home to dry). Sleeping without a tent turned out to be just fine and I would certainly do it again (with a mosquito net in summer, of course).



On the final day, we descended into Monolith Valley, which has a number of interesting rock formations (like a natural arch) and rain forest within the deep valleys. Inexperienced hikers have gotten lost for days in there. Again, the theme of this hike was wetness, and all the extra moisture was compounded in the rain forest valleys. It would have been really nice to have lingered there longer, with a waterproof camera, as the area was quite picturesque. But we needed to be careful with our time so we didn't get back home too late and Phil would be able to pick up his dogs before the kennel closed.



We continued on out of the valley up to the saddle of The Castle. We had done well with our time, so Phil decided he was keen to climb The Castle since he hadn't done so in about ten years. Recalling the difficulty of my last experience and given how tired I was at that moment, I grudgingly agreed. The climb ended up not being too terrible -- likely because I wasn't injured this time. We walked around the top of The Castle looking for the logbook, but couldn't find it. I was actually quite impressed with the landscape there. The ground was pockmarked with pools of water, most of it quite fresh and clean.

After lingering awhile, we climbed back down and resumed our trek back to the car. We followed the standard trail away from The Castle, walking at a brisk pace. With a short distance left to go, Phil stopped and pulled out his map and compass, plotting the rest of the route off the trail. Soon, we were nearly running down a steep hill through ferns and vines until we reached the small stream at the bottom. We followed the water for a short distance before crossing. That area was leech country, and Phil had a few on him straight away. I had none on me, but once we crossed the stream for the third and final time, I noticed several on my shoes and socks. We spent a few minutes plucking off the leeches and washing up, then headed to the car and onwards home.

I really enjoyed the weekend out in the wild, and find it quite rewarding to become more familiar with the natural beauty of this country. Doing these kinds of trips is a great way to keep fit, hone real navigational skills, and get a real break from the daily grind of life.

Port Wine in Australia

For those who didn't already know, I like port wine. I didn't discover I liked fortified wines until about a year or so before I left for Australia. In general, wine here can be confusing. Most wine in the States comes from single varieties of grapes, or else is just called something like 'red table wine.' Here, wine commonly gets bottled as blends. Some examples are cabernet-merlot (called cab-merlot here), shiraz-merlot, and so on. While most of the blends aren't bad, wine purists may be disappointed.

The port wine here is something else. The stuff called vintage port tastes more like the nice ports I enjoyed in the States. There is some other stuff here called tawny port. Originally, I thought maybe it's just a name, like some of the odd blended wine. But there's something different about the process to make tawny port versus vintage port, and in my opinion, the tawny port tastes strange and leaves a weird aftertaste in your mouth.

Recently, I was intrigued by two bottles of vintage port from 1979 in a local bottle shop. There was no price tag on either bottle, and I wondered if I should even bother asking. But ask I did, and the cashier had no idea and called the supplier, who told her to sell them for $20 each. At that price, I bought both bottles. How often would I get a chance to enjoy such aged wine?

Having finished one bottle, I'll say it wasn't bad, fairly smooth, and went very well with chocolate. I am glad I didn't pay a huge sum for it, though, because I think it was simply o.k. Nevertheless, I look forward to enjoying the second bottle.

Been Awhile...

Wow, I didn't realize it's been a month since my last post. My university work has been keeping me quite busy, lately. UoW is hosting a Nanobionics Symposium the week of June 22nd, and I will be presenting a poster of my current project results. (Young researchers still building up a body of work have the option to make very brief presentations using a poster as a way to build up to full 1-hour presentations.) Obviously, I do at least have to have enough results to put on a poster to begin with, which is what I've been working like mad to achieve over the last month. I'll post more details about what I'm actually doing once this project is done and I've submitted a paper for publication (probably around August or so). After the symposium, we are moving to our new building -- so in total, there will be about 3 weeks of little or no actual lab work.

I've made sure to get in some relaxation here and there, to keep from getting too stressed out. I've been doing more running, and swimming twice a week. In a couple more weeks there is a holiday 3-day weekend (Queen's birthday), and Keith and I are planning to go back to the Budawangs to explore Monolith Valley and camp for 2 nights. And yesterday Michelle and I bought a body board on sale and gave it a test run today.

2008 NSW Rogaining Championships

I arrived back home from the commercialization workshop at 11 p.m. this last Friday night, only to be getting up early the next morning to drive out to do my first 24-hour rogaine. My research colleague, who was the 2007 national rogaine champion, was one of the people who set the course for the 2008 NSW state championship rogaine. Since he's one of the people who has inspired me to go see more of the bush country here, he easily convinced me to enter this competition. I partnered with Keith again, although it took a bit more effort to convince him to do the 24-hour event over the 6-hour one.

The course was huge compared to the last one I did, but much of it was in a national park and along a really nice stretch of beach. Our goal was to beat our score from the previous rogaine, and to improve our navigation skills.

The day started off adversely. First, when Keith arrived and we were about to load my stuff in his car, he realized he had locked his keys inside. We tried a coat hanger, but were unsuccessful; so Keith called his company's road service number. The dispatch would arrive in an hour, so we went to the local McDonald's for a quick breakfast and coffee. After the key was retrieved, we were off. Then, just an hour from the destination, the car's computer started acting up, reducing the engine performance to safe mode and giving a warning about some traction sensor being out. Keith pulled over and restarted the car a couple of times, and at least got the engine performance back.

By the time we made it to the campsite, checked in for the competition, pitched the tents, and planned our route, we were 30 minutes past the official start time. Since we were planning to take it easy and focus more on the navigation skills than trying to brute force our way through the course, we were not terribly bothered by this. Within the first couple of hours, we had found the first four targets we planned. That lifted our spirits quite a bit, as a great deal of that was navigated off the trail. The next target proved to be tougher. We were going fine most of the way, then we hit dense rain forest and blackberry bushes. After spending a half hour looking for the target, we gave up, thinking we were closer to the next one. As we made our way to a nearby trail, I noticed a small black worm stuck to the lower part of my shirt. We had picked up leeches. Keith found 4-5 fat ones on his ankles, and although I had none feeding on me, there were 4-5 crawling around on my backpack. We spent several minutes ridding ourselves of these pests before looking for our original target in that area. Another half hour later, we decided we were not going to be able to locate the target in a reasonable time and moved on.

Our original plan had us following a long north-bound course, but it was about 4:30 by this time, and would be getting dark soon. So we altered our course to shorten the north part more, which would allow us to hit the beach before the night was too late. We found the next target easily enough. By the time we arrived in the area for the subsequent one, it was dark. With a little careful navigation and attention to detail, we were able to find that target, proving to ourselves that we could navigate an night. The target after that doubled as an all-night cafe stop for weary competitors. When we reached that one, the cooking area was on fire. Someone apparently tripped over something that sparked one of the gas canisters, and the local bush fire department was en route. We took a short break, ate a snack, drank water, and watched the action. Shortly after the fire was put out, we headed on.

Our route took us about 6 kilometers from there to the beach, and was a long walk. Keith had only agreed to do six hours of rogaining the first day, and six the next. We were approaching the eighth hour by this time. The beach portion turned out to be a much longer route than we thought, but we managed to find all the targets along there except one. It was 11:30 p.m. when we finally made it back to the camp to enjoy a six-pack and a hot meal. We felt incredibly tired at this point, having done eleven straight hours of rigorous walking/hiking. It rained heavily that night for an hour or so, and I felt glad we were at least in our tents instead of pulling an all-nighter on the course.

The next morning, we woke up in our own time, had a nice breakfast and coffee, then headed out to get four more targets. We found them all in barely two hours, and felt happy with our overall results. Back at the hash house, we turned in our entries, had a light lunch, packed up camp, changed clothes, and left before the crowds. Our total score was 760, which we felt was respectable given the terrain and the length of the course.

This morning I got to talk more about the event with my research colleague, and he told me the winning team actually got every single target, which meant a total traveling distance of 130 km! That's the equivalent of about 3 marathons (through forest, trails, mountains, sand, and water)! And they had 30 minutes to spare at the end! What an amazing feat. Nevertheless, we feel we did great, too, and vastly improved our capabilities for the next rogaine we decide on.

Commercialization Workshop

For the latter half of last week I was on the Sunshine Coast, about 100 km outside of Brisbane, for a research commercialization workshop. The universities here in Australia, as well as a respectable number of venture capitalist entities, view research students as potential idea factories, and are eager to partner with the students to capitalize on those ideas. The partnership can provide everything the student needs to bring ideas to full fruition, although the effort still requires a great deal of work, patience, and time. Funding may start with a seed for further research to solidify results, and end up in a world-changing start-up company.

The focus of the workshop was to educate the students about the commercialization process. It doesn't always involve a patentable product or lead to the next big start-up company. An avenue that hadn't really occurred to me was the idea of being a consultant -- using research expertise to help guide a company assessing cutting edge ideas. The students represented were not all scientists, either. There were students from art, information technology, and psychology departments there, as well. In all, 170 students attended this year.

Essentially, the theme of the workshop was to expand the entrepreneurial mindset of the students, to show them how to make the most out of a PhD in the career world. While partnering with a venture capitol firm does mean the student doesn't get 100% of the money from the developed idea -- the idea might never make it out to the world otherwise. One thing I have to say about the investors here, is they seem to have a much fairer approach to sharing the wealth, so the students would still stand to make a great deal of money if the idea is big enough.

I came away from the workshop with a much better understanding of what is involved in taking an idea to a finished product; a wider network of contacts to help me in this process; and a great deal of confidence that getting the PhD won't limit my career in the least.

An Australian Hamburger

What's so special about a hamburger that deserves a post on a blog? The traditional hamburger in Australia is truly unique -- there is nothing quite like it.

To begin with, it has all the basic ingredients of the typical American hamburger. Then the extras are added: bacon (similar to Canadian bacon), a fried egg, and a slice or two of beet (it's almost an unwritten law for these to be on a hamburger here). The end result is a very filling meal, still not the healthiest item, but definitely nice to enjoy once in awhile.

If you only do one trip to Australia in your lifetime, I definitely recommend experiencing a hamburger like this one.

This was my hamburger (although the beets and egg are not visible, they are there) at a pub/hotel we stayed at the night before the rogaine mentioned in the previous post. The food selection was all bar food, and this was probably the healthiest item. (The hotel itself was nice and felt like home; the staff were all nice and the atmosphere of the pub was great.)

Rogaining

Yesterday Michelle and I did our first rogaine. We were each on different teams. It's not the sport of hair-growing, but rather, of orienteering. I partnered with Keith, and Michelle partnered with Belinda, the wife of one of my research colleagues (she's been a past national rogaining champion, and he's the current rogaining champion).

At the beginning of the competition, teams are given topographical maps with small circles indicating where the targets are. Targets are worth various points. The larger the number for a target, the more points it is worth, but that also generally means the route to get to it is tougher. Before the start, teams have about 30-45 minutes to plan a route and prepare themselves. The time given for this event was six hours. Courses are planned and targets laid out such that it's not possible for anyone to actually collect all targets.

The targets themselves are fairly visible orange and white striped flags hanging from a tree in the defined area. Along with the flag, there is an electronic sensor and a puncher. When a team arrives at a target, each member must touch the sensor to their wrist band counterpart, and use the puncher to mark the paper target matrix (record back-up to the electronic sensors).

The hardest part of rogaining is the navigation. Teams are only allowed to navigate using a compass and the map. GPS, pedomoters, and altimeters are not allowed. To make matters more difficult, the topography in the maps can be a little out of date, and some areas of the land can have very similar geographic features to others -- making the distinction for a target area harder. In this case, the satellite image and air survey of the land used to define the topography was last done in 2002. There were trails and many dried rivulets that were not indicated on the map.

So how did we do? Well, Michelle and Belinda got 1080 points, while Keith and I barely got 480 points (we still beat 11 other teams). The big mistake that cost Keith and I lots of time was getting lost in relation to the map. We were first going after big number targets, leaving easier ones for the latter half of the time. The very first target we went after was one that even Belinda told us later she couldn't find. But we had wasted about 40 minutes in that area right at the beginning. We got off the trail and started following the land for the next target, and that seemed to work better. We were on a roll for the next three targets, and we decided to cut across the land for a really difficult one. We lost about an hour on that target -- we were completely on the wrong ridge, almost out of bounds. Once we figured that out, we found the target and continued across the land to another one.

At that point, we realized we were getting short on time, so we thought we would cut across southwest to pick up another four targets before heading back to the hash house (starting point). We severely miscalculated the distance for that part, and picked up a trail, thinking it was the one we wanted. We wandered up and down the trail, losing another 40 or so minutes until we ran into another team near a target. That target was in the far northeast corner of the map, and we still can't entirely figure out how we messed up that badly. After the final target, we decided to head back to a trail we knew, and continue on to the hash house. (Teams are penalized if they arrive back late.) We walked briskly for most of the way, and we neared a point where the map indicated a target near the trail. I saw the flag from the trial, so we ran to collect those points, then ran back to the trail again. We had 20 minutes to cover the remaining distance to the hash house, half of that time we walked, the other half we ran. We made it back to the hash house with 2 minutes to spare.

Rogaining is definitely one of those sports that one gets better at with more practice. To get a really good score, teams have to be constantly moving the entire time -- no rest breaks -- and know how to decently navigate. Enough water has to be carried, ideally in a bag with a sipping hose, strapped on the back. Food should be such that one can eat while moving.

It was a very tiring event, but definitely something I'd like to try again. It's a neat way to see many different aspects of bush country. Obviously, we weren't taking pictures here, but the event website has some good pictures of the actual terrain we went through.

http://act.rogaine.asn.au/gallery/v/08PP6hr/

Hiking and Camping in Ku-Ring-Gai Chase National Park

We began our Easter weekend with a two-day hike through Ku-Ring-Gai Chase National Park. One of the local runners, Ray, organized the hike for about 13 people altogether. The day started out damp. It rained Thursday night, and light drizzle continued into the morning. We parked our car at Ray's house and rode with him, his wife, and Geoff to Berowra where we started the hike. The plan was to start the hike at 9 a.m., and it worked out that by 9:30 or so we were on the trail. The misty drizzle seemed like it would continue for awhile, but it let up shortly and just remained cloudy the rest of the day. The hike was to take place in two stages. The first stage was from Berowra to Cowan to Jerusalem Bay, and the second from Jerusalem Bay to Brooklyn. At Brooklyn, we would catch the train back two stations to Berowra where we started out.


The toughest part of the hike was from Berowra to Cowan, and consisted of a trek over several hills. The distance itself was not all that far, but the up and down hiking was very tiring when carrying full camping gear. It would have been far easier just carrying a day pack with water and a lunch. We were never far from civilization on this trail. We crossed a major dirt road and a highway by the time we reached Cowan station. (Geoff didn't camp with the rest of us. He only came for the first day's walk and took the train home from Cowan.) Numerous cottages also dotted the trail, so there was virtually no sense of remoteness.


We heard from other hikers on the trail that camping was forbidden at Jerusalem Bay and the penalty for doing so was a A$3300 fine. We hiked as far as we could from Cowan station before the sun started to set, and we made sure not to camp at the bay proper. The evening was pleasant, and we all had a nice dinner and some socializing before going to sleep around 8:30 p.m. We were all too tired to stay up further. Since it was somewhat warm, I opened an exterior air vent on our tent so it wouldn't get too hot inside.

Just as we were on the cusp of falling asleep, I stretched out a little and my feet accidentally rattled the pots at the end. Michelle suddenly sat up, started beating me on the chest, and screamed, "What was that?! What was that?!" (She had asked people in the group if we had to worry about any critters at night, and someone mentioned wombats -- which are docile, nocturnal foragers that look a bit like a large guinea pig.) Even after I explained the cause of the noise, I don't think Michelle really calmed down much for awhile. Later, around midnight, it started to pour rain. That's when I discovered that the vent flap on our tent could not be accessed from the inside (what a stupid design flaw!), so after spending nearly five minutes in vain trying to undo the clasp, I just cut a hole in the rain cover and cut the strap. (I'll fix it up later with a better design.) It continued to rain off and on the rest of the night and into the morning. There was enough of a gap for everyone to have breakfast and coffee, but then a light shower started when it came time to pack up.

We began the final portion of the hike around 8:30 a.m. Saturday, and the first half was more of the up and down stuff we had the day before. Fortunately, the final part of the hike was much less steep. We ended up in Brooklyn around 1:30 p.m. and had coffee at a local shop before catching the train.

The hike we did was only a small part of a much larger trail that goes from Sydney to Newcastle -- about 250 km -- and takes around 7-12 days. The full hike was first done in 1988. The total distance we covered was about 25 km. While the hike was tiring, it was not nearly as strenuous as the climb up The Castle. And I don't think it was nearly as beautiful as the area around The Castle, either. It was still decent, and made better by the fun group we were with. The hike was the perfect remedy for the final stages of my right calf muscle healing from the injury I sustained while at The Castle. The next day after we got back, I went for a 23 km bike ride. Keith and I have already begun talking about our next camping trip.

Camping and a Very Tough Hike

Keith and I hiked The Castle and camped in the wilds this weekend. The Castle is one of the mountains in the Budawangs area, in Morton National Park in NSW. It is located about 25 km down a washboard dirt road, and is about 50 km from civilization. At the north end of this same park is Fitzroy Falls, which Michelle and I will visit sometime.

The plan for this weekend was to drive to the base carpark/campground Friday evening, and head straight to The Castle to camp in one of the various caves dotting the side. That didn't work out, as we got lost on the myriad of dirt roads. There was patchy rain, making the roads a little muddy. This yielded to fog as the sun began to set, so we couldn't use any of the mountains to help us navigate. Finally, we figured out where we needed to go, but it was too dark to begin the hike, so we camped at the initial campgrounds. The next morning, we packed up and set out around 7:30 a.m. Keith found he had a couple of leeches on him from the campsite. Fortunately, we had great weather the rest of the weekend. After just a short distance through the bush, I got my pant leg caught on a log and strained the calf muscle in my other leg trying to keep from falling. I fell anyways. It didn't hurt too badly at that point, but would prove to slow me down a little later.

This hike is definitely something all nature lovers could appreciate, but only the most physically fit are able to take on. This warning is explicitly spelled out on the official park site as well as at the start of the trail. And they are not kidding! This hike starts out on a gently upward sloping trail that took us about 45 minutes. The next segment contains lots and lots of stairs, built into the dirt. That part took us about 30 minutes. After that, there is a short section where you use a chain to help pull yourself up a sloped rock face. That is the end of the first maintained section of the trail. From there on, the trail consists of paths worn by previous hikers, and it's easy in some spots to take a wrong turn and have to redo all the steps. This part goes through dense bush, a little mud, wet boulders that one must climb over, and crevices to squeeze through. You know you navigated correctly if you wind up at steps again. This continues, a mix of steps and no steps, until the trail splits. One way leads around the saddle of The Castle, and is "easy," and the other leads to a tunnel and is harder. We ditched our packs at this point, and I took only water, my camera, and my binoculars. The tunnel path saves a bit of time over the saddle path, and that's the one we took. On the other side, the trail to the top of The Castle was supposed to be nearby, but we missed it and lost about 45 minutes trying to find it. When we were at the point of giving up, we encountered some other hikers who were going that way, so we followed them. The trail seemed so obvious then, but nevertheless, we missed it on our own.

The climb from there was much steeper, and took about 45 minutes to get to the lower top of The Castle. We stopped at a flat area with a nice view and rested for a short while. After the break, we resumed our climb to the very top. The final section was the most tortuous, and certainly more dangerous. We had to climb over some very large boulders, and up through a narrow gap, with no climbing aids. After that, we were faced with an even larger rock which we could not have climbed without a rope. Fortunately, a very nice person left a decent caliber rope tied to a sturdy tree at the top. We pulled ourselves up that, climbed over more boulders, and reached another section that needed a rope. Again, someone left one ready to use, but the rope was more worn and lighter gauge, and the tree it was tied to looked more worn. We had little choice, though, and we were lucky the rope held. These ropes were not in sections where a fall would have meant certain death, but it would have meant certain injury, and the terrain would have made rescue very difficult. A few more boulders after the second rope, and we were on the top of The Castle.



Making it to the top was rewarding, but we were extremely exhausted by that point. We knew that we still had to climb down the very difficult path we had just taken. Grinning and bearing it, we made it back down and back to where we had our packs stashed. My sore calf muscle had pretty much reached its limit by this point, and ached with every step. We were originally planning to continue on to another site called Monolith Valley, but due to both of us being exhausted, we opted just to set up camp at a nearby cave. Had we gone to Monolith Valley, it would have meant an 8 hour hike back to the car on Sunday. The next morning, we packed up and headed back down to the car, a final 2 hour hike. Overall, it was a great experience, but one that requires good fitness, light packing, and determination.

First Try at Surfing

Who wouldn't want to try surfing with such great weather and beaches so close by? Every time we go to the beach, either for a walk or to stick our toes in the water, the locals are having a blast playing on the waves. Michelle and I each have wetsuits now, so it was only matter of time before we gave surfing and body boarding a try.

Yesterday morning we went with Keith and Laura to the North Wollongong beach. The surf was supposed to be good due to storms in Queensland. Keith had a blunt-nosed surfboard (what beginners use) and a couple of body boards. The waves were indeed good, but moreso for experienced surfers instead of us beach weenies. The locals called those types of waves "dumpers," because they will essentially dump your butt right into the sand. Dumpers have lots of foam, obvious churning at the shoreline, visible streaks of sand getting washed out to sea, and are not small. Dumpers can also cause injuries to the unwary, the most serious being back sprains.

Obviously, it's easy to guess we got about as far as struggling with the waves and that was it. To call it surfing or body boarding would be to mock those two sports. The waves were big enough and breaking close enough to shore that it was nearly hopeless to get past them enough to be able to ride them. Once the waves break, there's no riding them. I did have one somewhat decent run laying down on the surfboard, and did nothing but get thrown everywhere when I tried the actual body board. Michelle had one good run on the body board, but then got tossed about roughly on the surfboard. We both came away with bruises and achy muscles, but we still had lots of fun.

Next weekend we will go to Kmart and get a couple of cheap body boards for ourselves so we can do this again and more often. I would like to get a surfboard at some point, but good ones are expensive ($300-$500). Riding the waves is addicting, and it's a great way to have fun and get some exercise.

The Hunter Valley

We spent the past weekend in the Hunter Valley region of NSW. It's well-known wine country, full of rolling hills and many vineyards -- all very picturesque. There are also olive groves and cheese factories. We went with some friends of ours, Keith and Laura. None of us had ever visited a wine region before.

Through extended friends, we heard about a little cottage resort we could stay at. We left Wollongong late Friday afternoon and arrived at the destination about 4 hours later. The drive was very scenic. The cottage was nicely done, with two bedrooms and two bathrooms, a kitchen with all the basic items, a fridge stocked with a small assortment of food, a living area, and an outdoor grill.

For the first half of Saturday, we drove around to a couple of cheese and chocolate shops, in addition to visiting a couple of wineries near those stops. After having lunch, we drove to a bike rental shop and rented bikes so we could all enjoy the wine tastings and not have to keep one person sober for driving. Nearly all the wines were good, and vineyard staff quite helpful. We learned lots about the local wines. Prices varied greatly, from A$10 to A$70 per bottle. We also went to the Blue Tongue Brewery and sampled several different beers. Blue Tongue makes a good alcoholic ginger beer.

Sunday morning we rode the bikes into a retirement neighborhood with a golf course. Michelle and Laura reported seeing kangaroos the previous morning on their run. About twenty kangaroos were munching grass and playing when we arrived. Two young ones were boxing, which we thought was just an urban myth. I got several videos of the matches.

Overall, we had a great time and would definitely consider doing a trip like that again (though next time I might bring my own bike). We bought a couple of bottles of sparkling white wine, a white dessert wine, and a white and red fortified wine. As the local food shops are all very expensive, we saved lots by bringing our own food and cooking at the cabin.

First Draft of My First Paper Done

I just finished spending about 5 long days going through a bunch of research data, analyzing the results, and writing the initial draft of my first paper. This particular project started off as a side project about a month after I arrived, while I was waiting on other settling in items to get taken care of. Some of that work was sloppy, and took a bit of practice for me to get my lab skills up to standard, as well as my note taking. As I redid some measurements over the summer, some of the results looked a bit strange and interesting, so my supervisor and I outlined a few further tangents to try. Then I got all busy with my battery project on the printer and put this work aside. January was slated to be a slow month, which made it the ideal time to finish up this side project. I booked the lab equipment for two weeks straight, to the disdain of some of the other students (this goes with the territory of doing research).

I redid some of the previous work, just to be sure all was still consistent. Some of the measurements seemed stranger than before, and when I checked my solutions after leaving them overnight, they were black when they were supposed to still be green. It turns out the solvent had gone bad, and had been decomposing all along. So the results were not as strange as we thought, and were very consistent after I switched to my new bottle of the same solvent. I spent the rest of the time getting all the measurements and variations I could think of.

Writing this paper was hard work. Normally, I probably would have about two weeks or so to work on the writing, but the pressure is on for me to have this paper done this month. I had to put all the data into spreadsheets and graphs, study the results, and come up with ideas why I think things ended up the way they did. That process was the most laborious. Once I had thought everything through, the actual writing wasn't too bad. The result was 25 pages long (13 pages without the graphs).

Now the draft is in the hands of my supervisor, and I'll be discussing the details with him on Friday. Undoubtedly, there will be edits, but I think the hardest work is done. It will be real exciting once I start submitting this paper to peer-reviewed journals. Stay tuned!

Huge Figs

This morning I went to one of the local produce markets to stock up on fruits and veggies for the week, and bought a pack of figs. I've seen these figs there before, but they've usually been moldy so I passed on buying any. But today, the packs were in good condition, and I decided to try them. The most noteworthy thing about these figs is the size. The photo shows a coffee mug for perspective. Each fig is roughly the size of two golf balls. I'm eating them right now as part of a late breakfast, and they are quite good.

We often see produce that is a bit larger than life here. The average cabbage head is the size of a bowling ball; celery stalks are over two feet long. Occasionally, I've seen apples larger than softballs. Most produce is not terribly expensive, even by Australian price standards. I bought a whole cart full of produce for about A$40, with these figs being one of the more expensive items (A$5). Obviously, the best places to go are the local produce stores/stands, not the grocery store duopoly. I've noticed the grocery store produce tends to be chemically treated (with things like preservative gas on bananas, for example), or otherwise is just plain crap. I've bought avocados that despite looking ripe on the outside, were very unripe (or flat-out beyond ripe) on the inside. The added benefit of patronizing the produce stores is that in turn supports the local farmers (corporations have a tendency to push prices and quality down too far).

NYE Sydney 2007

Last night was the first New Year's Eve we spent in a major city, and what an event it was! The press was reporting that this year Sydney was going to outdo previous years with the fireworks show. Nobody was disappointed. The weather was perfect -- clear skies, warm, and only a slight breeze.

At the Christmas dinner we had with our landlord's family, we met Gerard and Margaret, who live in Sydney close to the harbor. When they found out we were going to the city for NYE, they invited us to join them at the park near their house. That turned out to be such a lucky break for us. The show is extremely popular, so all the prime viewpoints get taken early. People were actually camping in some spots from the day before. Gerard staked a spot around 9:30 a.m., right at the water's edge, with a perfect view of the Harbor Bridge. By the time we got there at about 6:30 p.m., the place was packed. The whole city gets out for this event, which combined with out-of-towners like us, means crowds everywhere. Everyone was doing a run on the bottleshops and the grocery stores -- so if we ever do this again, we will buy food and drinks ahead of time.



The show itself was magnificent, and a very worthwhile experience. The water added much to the effect of the light of the fireworks. Another cool thing was that there were two shows -- one at 9 (so families with kids could get home earlier) and the other at midnight. The midnight show was obviously better, and had a spectacular finale.